Theatre History Geeks Alert!

Tomorrow morning there's a special guest at the Church of Monika at Open Source Gallery.  Cezar Del Valle is coming at 11AM to talk about his new book, "Brooklyn Theatre Index, Volume III," about the history of theatre in Coney Island.  I am a total theatre history geek in general, but I'm particularly interested in Coney Island because of Eddie Cantor, Chico Marx and Louis Roth.  Roth was married to (and trained) Mabel Stark-  they're both in my play "The Tiger Play."  He learned to train big cats while working for a wild animal show in Coney Island, ca. 1900. 

Open Source Gallery is at 306 17th Street, near the corner of Sixth Avenue.

Dreamland

I recently finished reading Kevin Baker's Dreamland.  I was hoping it had some information on Jack Bostock's Coney Island circus.  One of the characters in my play, The Tiger Play, apprenticed as an animal trainer with Bostock.  It had a few pages on Bostock, with the attitude that he was crazy to tame lions and tigers at all, once a lion had lost him his hand.  

The novel was okay, though I had a hard time getting into it at first (the Yiddish seemed really forced to me-  I can't actually describe why).  I haven't read the other two novels in this trilogy-  Paradise Alley (about the Draft Riots) and Strivers Row (about a young Malcolm X). 

My favorite part of the book was his historical notes at the end-  where things I've read about actually were in Coney island.  The house in Annie Hall, built under the rollercoaster? That was actually the Kensington Hotel, and the Thunderbolt roller coaster was built over it in 1926.  The roller coaster and house were demolished in 1983, and they stood on the empty lot next to the Cyclones' stadium.

Those incubator babies on the boardwalk in Atlantic City on Boardwalk Empire?  That practice originated at Coney Island-  showing the babies in the incubators for a small fee.  That way the parents didn't have to pay for the babies' care.  Supposedly, Cary Grant (back when he was still Archie Leach) was one of the Infantorium's barkers.

The "first enclosed amusement park" in the US was Sea Lion Park, on 12th Street (now apartment buildings).  Next to that was the wooden hotel built in the shape of a 150 foot high elephant.   

Luna Park (which even impressed Maxim Gorky)was where Astroland and Deno's Wonder Wheel are now.  Dreamland itself was where the Aquarium is now.  The Aquarium used to be in Castle Clinton in lower Manhattan, until Robert Moses shut it down and moved it to Brooklyn after World War II.