Luna Park, Coney Island
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Luna Park was an amusement park at Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City from 1903 to 1944.
The park's creators, Frederick Thompson and Elmer Dundy, created a wildly successful ride called "A Trip To The Moon", a part of the Pan-American Exposition in 1901 at Buffalo, New York. The name of the winged spacecraft (which was not a rocket, but flapped its wings) was Luna, the Latin word for the moon. At the invitation of Steeplechase owner George Tilyoou, Thompson and Dundy moved their show to Steeplechase Park, a Coney Island amusement park, for the 1902 season. At the end of that season, the partners obtained a long-term lease for the site of an older amusement park, Sea Lion Park, and rebuilt it as Luna Park, the second major amusement park in Coney Island. Although they claimed the park was named after one of their female relatives, it was probably named for the ship. The architecture was quite fanciful, with thousands of electric lamps on the outside of the buildings at a time when electrification was still a novelty.
Among the amusements there were domesticated elephants. The rogue Topsy the Elephant was killed when she was electrocuted with alternating current by Thomas Edison. The execution film was used by Edison in his campaign against alternating current.
A pair of fires in 1944 damaged Luna Park, destroying much of it.[1] It was not rebuilt and did not open for the 1945 season. After a legal battle and a third fire in 1946, the land was used for other purposes.
Several other Luna Parks were developed around the world, including two still operating in Melbourne (1912) and Sydney (1935). These parks copied some of the features as well as the name of the original. The amusement park at the Esposizione Universale Roma neighborhood in Rome is named LunEur.
[edit] References
- ^ Ed Boland, jr., "FYI: An elephant's demise," New York Times, July 8, 2001, pg. CY2
