My 85 year old uncle who retired from the Post Office many years ago used to have an apartment just a few blocks away from Coney Island. There was always something very special about Coney island at night. On a warm summer night we'd be in the living room watching TV and I remember you could always see the Wonder Wheel all lit up at night. This was a wonderful and exciting place to be, with the smell of fresh popcorn and peanuts in the air! Hard to describe if you weren't there back in those days. The food of today may appear identical but ,IT IS NOT! The wooden Roller Coaster was the main draw back in the old days. But of course they had many other fabulous rides and games to keep everyone of all ages amused! The corn on the cob back then was very special but let's not forget about Nathan's Frankfurters! I can still remember the flavor and freshness.Unmatched by anything today since the government now controls much of the production of livestock agriculture in this country. Can't get a good sandwich anymore, or a real soda, so sad, too many chemicals , the end.
Thank you ! In Coney Island i ate the Nathan frankfurters ( since i read Patti Smith , i was dying for it ), from France i flew there i ate one , then a second one and ... felt i was going to vomit ! Seriously ! So now i know why , ingredients changed since the 70's !
The wooden roller was.called the thunderbolt v Bro- I used to put my double knits pro kids turtleneck and army jacket on and with my DA pushed back hit the "board" and.rides looking for girls- I was 15
This is beautiful. White girls with no tattoos, piercings or extensions. Black women who wore their hair natural. The presence of fathers, and best of all, no one was on their smartphone all the time. Life was so innocent back then. Even in a place like NYC.
For the record. The park with all the rides isn’t called Coney Island. Coney Island is the name of the area. The park has had many names like Astroland and then we have Luna Park which has been around for decades. I’m from Coney Island. People still call the park Coney Island even though the commercials clearly state Luna Park at Coney Island and when you arrive there is a huge sign.😂😂 I think only one family still owns part of a park. A lot of big real estate guys have bought up so much property. I think starting this year the park will be 24/7. To me that’s ridiculous. Who wants be riding rides in the freezing cold. If it’s 40 in other parts of the city it’s like 30 here. Add the wind it’s 20. They started a New Years ball drop a few years ago on the boardwalk. And no I’ve never went. When that wind hits you…..🥶🥶🥶🥶🥶🥶😂😂😂😂
Mesmerizing! What incredible quality. It's like looking back through time, incredible camera work. I was only 5 in 1976, but scenes like these are stored away in by memory, wish I could go back for a bit. Thank you for posting this!
The lo if quality of the film makes it look dreamy. But I’m pretty sure if it a high definition camera was used, it would look more ordinary. Still amazing though
I lived in Coney Island across from Nathans Hot Dogs. Hotel on Stillwell and Surf av. in 1979, hotel was $7.50 a night, I was only 15 at the time. I worked for Joe at the OLD Coney Island Kiddie Land, Then worked for Bob at Thunderbolt park, across from the old Thunderbolt Wooden Roller Coaster and the Polar Express.
roy rogers .. hi can u please tell me the name of a ride that had a huge scary monster with his arms crossed? I was so terrified of it! It was in in steeplechase park in the 1970s...Still till this day I still think about it!
@@ornamentalyouth SORRY FOR THE DELAY IN ANSWER! I'm 56 and live in Fort Worth Texas with my wife of 33 yrs. Father of 6 children 32 yrs. to 24yrs. and 7 grandbabies 12yrs. to 3yrs old.
@@elsiegon7118Maybe "Magic Carpet", which featured a Laughing Sal, "Shangrila-Ha-Ha", "Tunnel Of Laugh's", "Dragon's Cave", " The Dark Ride", "The Haunted House", "The Devil's Pit", "Thirteen Ghosts", "Crazy Ghosts", The World Famous "Spook-A-Rama", "Flight To Mars", or "Dante's Inferno", enjoy website of Bill Luca and Seth Kaufman pictures and memories, > copy and paste \/\/\/\/\/\/\/ www.laffinthedark.com/articles/coney001/coney2.htm
Wow!! I was alerted about this video!! That is ME @ 4:32! I remember when someone asked me to pose for this pic!! Wow! I had to send it to my Mother to let her see this! Thanks, those were the good old days!!
I remember when an Asian guy asking me, if He paid for the rides in that kid park would I let him record me to show the videos to family in Japan when he gets back? Free rides, of course I said yeah, I got yelled at by my Mother after I told her but I always wondered whatever happened to those pics and vids? Now I know! Thanks to the person who posted this video and my family that watched it and recognized me!!
I was 10 .That umbrella spinning ride rode it with my older sister .Terrified me nevery was so high dropped my Cotton Candy . Ride was over looked for it was gone . Then far away I seen the old white man that controlled the ride I was on eating my Cotton Candy I dropped . I was like WTF Coney Island is a rough town . Thanks for the traumatizing childhood memory Lol . Thumbs up
I grew up in the 80s and 90s and there is nothing like when the subway is pulling into Stillwell Ave and seeing all those rides and the beach. Still love the experience. Driving to Coney is not the same.
This is truly an historical document, documenting an ephemeral time and place in a special, haunting, wistful style. It is a perfect, artful time-capsule. Many rides are featured, of which, little other known footage exists eg: Chance Tumbler, etc. Thanks so much for posting.
Can never get enough of Coney Island? My book "Roller Coaster Kids; Tales of 1960s Coney island" is the most surreal coming of age memoir (450+pages) in the annuls of Brooklyn. All true stories. ebook cost about the same as a Coney hotdog.
Awesome video. Along with some of the best footage I've seen of the CI TORNADO, there are quite a few sections showing the Chance Tumbler which was previously at Rye Playland and originally at Six Flags over Georgia where it was called the "Wheel Burrow". It is the ride that looks like two Sky Diver rides coupled together across a rotating boom. Only one ever built. Not sure if this ride went by the "Tumbler" name at its final location at Coney Island. It was scrapped shortly after this video was shot.
Chance tumbler??!! I was wondering what the hell was it... I thought the same thing, looks like a double combination of the sky diver and enterprise .. thanks I was anxious to know what was the name of that.. I didn’t the had that at rye???
The year I was born, thank you so much for posting this! I love Coney Island, more for its nostalgia then anything else. I wish I could have experienced the place back in its heyday with Steeplechase park, the Tornado, Thunderbolt, parachute tower all functioning. Yea, Im an old soul. Thanks again guy!
I remember when Steeplechase Park , The Cyclone, The Tornado, and The Thunderbolt operated. My Father use to take me fishing on the pier early in the morning and I use to watch the rollercoasters and Steeplechase Park open up. I also remember when the parachute ride worked. I never went on it for the same reason why I didn't ride the rollercoasters, I had a fear of hights. There was also a coaster like Bobsled which one of my sisters tricked me into getting on.
The film captures the grit of 1970's NYC. I grew up on Long Island and didn't start exploring the city till well into the '80's was it began to get cleaned up a bit. It was pretty nasty in these years.
Check out a movie called "Carnival of Blood" - it was filmed entirely Here on Coney Island in 1971 - in color - at NIGHT and it's amazing ! There is even a scene INSIDE that Spookhouse !
A very sad video and statement about the decline of the economy and a once beautiful place where people dressed up to go there.. One only needs to look at the video of Coney island 40's and 50's to see the stark difference between a few decades. I dont even want to look further into what it looks like today.
I went there back in 2016. it's very clean and very controlled. Not exactly what it once was. But it wasn't filthy. nice restaurants and bars, and a handful of rides. I just got here after watching a documentary on Coney Island of the 1890's and 1900's. it's crazy how the majority of what used to be there a hundred years ago is either empty beach fields or burried beneath recent builds of coney Island today.
WOW WOW WOW….A NEEDLE IN A HAYSTACK …. THE LAUGHING LADY …. I finally got to see and even hear her again. Been searching and searching but to no avail. Only the Laughing Sals remain. Thanks to Elsie Gonzales from a post on the Coney Island History Project for directing people looking for the ever elusive Laughing Lady in Coney Island to this You Tube video. Thank you for posting this. There she is. On film with sound. A miracle to see her. ♥️
Lol ! I felt the same way! I was so anxious to see and her again to,o! I was so mesmerized as a child when I first saw and heard her laugh!! Aww I just saw your post, thank you so so much for liking my post.. and you’re very welcome ☺️. But the laugh here sounds different.. the original laugh is like slower and more scary. I think that laugh was added.. but if you look for the movie carnival of blood 1972.. they show both , the one from the dragons cave and this one too, but she looks different.. more scary.. and the laugh sounds more accurate like I remember when I was little. 😊
Because probably you are not that old enough to remember the Coney Island from the late 60s and throughout the 70s. They had great restaurants like Stellas on 15th between Mermaid and Neptune that burned down in the late 70. Me and my family went there every Sunday. Still remember the sawdust on floor and swinging doors to the kitchen. And the Carolina. No longer there. Numerous bars like the Terminal Inn on Stillwell and Mermaid. And another bar up the block on Mermaid and W12 st, an old dive owned by an old woman that closed in the late 80s after someone got stabbed and murdered. Nevermind the bar right at the entrance to the train staion. Can't even remember the name. The Dragons Cave, The Thunderbolt, The Tornado, The Hurricane. All gone. Very seedy, but classic reminders of oldtime Coney Island. Ohh, the bar that was on Stillwell and in the mini mall next to the Health Clinic and other stores. Another dive i cannot remember the name. All gone. Philips Candy Store, near the Train Station, before they moved to Staten Island. The Bathhouses, and all the places on the Boardwalk, all the way down to the end at 36st. What a shame and great memories.
Love this!! RU-vid is the most amazing source of lost history/memories, I swear. I am thankful very very often that someone was able to and did record all this every day stuff we just take for granted as it occurs AND saved it AND has had a way to share it with the world. Amazing. I would love a chance to interview or talk with folks who grew up in/lived in CI and were coming of age in the early 70s and hear first hand experiences about your lives living there at that time. I started a story 2002 and stopped working on it for a long time until the last few weeks and while the story is not about CI, one of the characters lives there. Footage like this is priceless for me to be able to actually see it and experience it as it would have at the time the story starts in 1973, vs all my experiences in CI from 2000 onwards. If you would be willing to share some stories or let me pick your brain a little please respond to this comment, I would be very grateful to hear your stories! :)
I was 28. Those shots of the beach I don’t remember the beaches ever being so messed up with trash on them. But thanks for the memories. Also notice how we all got along🤗
At 4:37 and 5:00 that BA BA BA BA sound is from the play cars that had a horn soubd....when I heard it ALL MY YOUTHFUL MEMORIES came rushing back....WOW what a video, I was born in 1971 and my childhood years were in CI on the weekends....I lived in the Bronx back then***Thank You for this video***
My grandma died in late 1976, one of the last things she predicted is that by the 80's people would be walking around naked because "the world was getting so bad" lol....On the contrary Grandma we would enter the Reagan years and conservatism....
Coney Island was so much fun in the 70s and 80s. I loved going there with friends. Times Square was another fun place for a young man in those days. You really had to be in good shape to be able to keep up.
This was even worse than I remember...A total SH...We lived in Coney Island Houses on 31st and Surf ave but at that time we didn't go to the amusement area all that often and watching this I remember why...
2:01 It's so odd to hear "Sweet Surrender" by John Denver playing in the background in a gameroom under the blare of gunshot noises. I had totally forgotten that song existed, and never would have expected to hear it in a clip like this one.
@@brandonbell5357 no one has ever called me a corn dog. And you don't even know me, because if you did, you would not call me a corn dog.you are spreading false accusations, and that makes you a big piece of shit. (I will smack the shit out your piece of shit ass)
I visited Coney Island ONCE in 1979, when I lived briefly in New York City. I was 19 years old, took the subway there with a friend. I have a memory of it being barely open, with just a few rides operating, and very few people. We got a hot dog, walked around a little, and left. It was like something out of The Twilight Zone. Depressing but an interesting experience. I think we were surprised that it even still EXISTED. We were not exactly disappointed.
My mother grew up in coneyisland and was 20-22 yrs old at this time....Any one remember a woman named Carol???? For obvious reasons I'm not Giving her Last Name
I was around the same age and dated a Carol in Coney at that time. She would remember me very very well, in a good way, a very good way, if you know what I mean, but Coney was full of Carols, so it's almost certain it wasn't your mom.
This film is like watching a ghost. The girl at 6:16 Imagine ....all these people had lives. Ups and downs. Trials and tribulation. Some still live. Many not.
I was 3! My Dad went to Coney Island hundreds of times as he grew up in Flatbush, Brooklyn. He came of age at Coney Island and left Brooklyn for California for good in 1972. I was born a year later. Life happens.
I always love these nostalgic "I LOVE Brooklyn!" comments. Yeah it's cool to love it now that it's cool and safe again but you sure abandoned it when times got tough didn't ya? Weren't as hard core a Brooklynite as ya thought... the true never left even if they could.
GOOD JOB . I FIRST IT WAS FREEDOM LAND . THEN CONEY ISLAND . THEN PALISADES AMUSEMENT PARK . WE WENT 2 ALL OF THEM . I'M FROM THE BRONX .GOOD JOB . DO U HAVE ANY FREEDOM LAND FOOTAGE ....
Amazing cinematographic insights from the crew in capturing the essence of the place, especially the studies of the faces of the visitors. If someone could add a new soundtrack this would be even more haunting and melancholic! Love the fact that Cosmas and crew came back to film at night, as the attractions take on a whole new dimension.
HI thanks for the comments. Actually, after I got the video of this movie, and published it online, the idea to recreate the soundtrack crossed my mind, and I was thinking about it. Hope one day it will happen.
Omg!! I looooooove this video!! Best one! I was 4 going on 5, and I remember it exactly how I thought I was.. especially the fat laughing lady!! I was looking online to see if I’d see it.. and you had it!! I was so terrified of her! Thank you for posting this.. great memories
My friend and I took the subway out to Coney Island in the summer of 76 spent the whole day smoking joints and riding the rides. It was a blast, especially the roller coaster and the bumper cars.
Ohfor crying out loud 😂😂this is only 1976 my house was built in 1949 and not a single renovation since hardly any renovations it’s as 4k as anything. Why is the quality so bad?
I remember the Coney Island of the late 50's and early 60's. Twas a real magical place back then. That's where I saw my first 'freak show'. My dad used to take me and my sisters there to enjoy the beach and the rides. Here's some free advice, tho.....do not ride the Cyclone by yourself. I got such whiplash, I thought my neck had broken. I remember the steeple chase. Highly polished wooden slides about three stories high and they had stone ponies on a track which ran all around the interior of the building. I was too little to ride on them but it sure looked like fun.
We where dumping the.garbage.in the ocean . Everything was dumped thier the canal caught on fire .along the highway abandoned cars no tires and some one set on fire Burned south Bronx down for at least.10 years . subway car never rusted it got a fresh coat of graffiti every week . what a time . apartment building 🏢 someone was taking flying lessons if wanted to or not wonderful times 😂😂😂😂
Wow! Look at all those old school flat rides and the Tornado coaster running fast. Love the guy sitting in the front seat with his arms up! There’s even a Chance Tumbler in all its glory! 😮 I read that “the ride spun so fast that turning the steering wheel was mostly a fruitless endeavor. “Once it started rotating towards the top, there was no chance you were holding on to the wheel - the G force was so strong it was ripped out of your hands.” It most likely was scrapped after its run at Coney.
