Coney Island USA: New York’s Home Grown Freak Show Written by Eve Hyman Photography by Melinda Maclean

(This article was first published in July 2006.)

It was the first hot weekend and NYC rolled out of bed to celebrate summer; over one million New Yorkers and tourists descended upon Coney Island on June 19, 2006. And New York Cool photographer Melinda Maclean and I were two among the million. Now I live in a windowless East Village basement apartment and traveling from my bedroom to Coney Island was like being blasted by a color bomb. The sun was shining, the sea was blue and the boardwalks were filled with people as bright and intense as the summer sun.

Melinda and I met under the umbrellas at Famous Nathan's hot dog stand. We sat next to the wall that boasts that Nathan’s is the site of the world's most famous hot dog eating contest. 

We munched on Nathan's thick French fries and slurped icy lemonade while we compared our ideas about just what best exemplifies the excesses of Coney Island?  Is it the Wonder Wheel, the Cyclone or Astroland itself?  Is it the boardwalk karaoke that packs a sonic sting but still makes you stop to look (the same way you look when you see a wreck on the highway)?  Or is it the live salsa band and dancers?

We voted for the salsa band.  Coney Island as the total opposite of Miami's South Beach with its beautiful thronged bodies.  Nowhere is that more obvious than when looking at the crowds encircling the bandstand on the boardwalk. The variety of couples and body types is mesmerizing. Older people from the islands, Nuyorican teens in jerseys and corn-rows, an Ecuadorian queen in a cowboy hat and long bleached coif dancing with a matron in bicycle shorts. The fact that teeth are missing and midsections expose years of neglect only emphasizes the beauty of a summer place that accepts New York as it is, with all its funky glory. 

We make our way to the Coney Island Museum for a does of nostalgia and also to see evidence that the Caribbean has not always held the title of King of the Beaches. For 99 cents we view a montage of old signs, beach chairs, and cabanas of the turn-of-the-century Luna Park and Dreamland resorts. The most striking thing about the museum is a peep show film about Thomas Edison and Topsy the Elephant.  I did not know the story of Topsy, so I put a penny in the arcade and watched in horror and disgust as Edison electrocuted her right on the boardwalk.  Coney Island’s violent past is apparently not limited to the famed Warrior street gang.

Freaks have always held court on America's most famous boardwalk and the tradition of freaks is formally alive at The Coney Island Circus Side Show.  Here the displays are arranged to showcase a community of freak skills; it is not limited to fire-eating, sword-swallowing, and electric chair lounging. It is freakdom as fun for the entire family.  Around the corner from the side show is another vestige of Coney Island's golden age - the B&B Carousel, Coney Island's last traditional carousel; it runs on a roll-operated band organ.  The B& B was put up for auction last year after the death of the man who'd operated it for decades. When it looked like the ride would leave Coney Island, the City of New York stepped in and bought it. I look forward to a ride once the renovation is complete.

Much of the Coney Island boardwalk is in fact undergoing a facelift. With $1 billion invested in development projects and with the aquarium and Cyclones stadium, Coney Island is positioned for a second golden age.  New York was recently voted the most polite city in the US. But it is my fervent hope that the unique joy and bargain basement fun of Coney Island can survive economic development and that gentrification doesn't encroach on Coney Island's greatest asset - the freaks and the just-plain-ole-people who walk its board walk.