Coney Island video from late 1910s

[VintageTQ]

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[tonyb]

That was fun. Thanks.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The clips are from "Coney Island," a Fatty Arbuckle comedy short from 1917. There was quite a bit of location footage shot in and around Luna Park, which was in its heyday in the 1910s. This is not the same Luna Park operating today -- that one is across the street from the location of the original Luna, which closed after a series of fires in 1944.

"The Whip" is still a popular ride among some touring carnivals, and some of the "Whip" machines in operation today actually date back to the time this footage was shot. Which is either fascinating or terrifying depending on your point of view.

 

[green papaya]

thanks for the video, they sure had some fancy rides back in those days, some things never change, they had the same idea for fun but it's just more modern versions of the same thing they still do today.

looks like everybody is dressed up in their Sunday's best, not many poor people judging by the way they are dressed.

 

[Fading Fast]

thanks for the video, they sure had some fancy rides back in those days, some things never change, they had the same idea for fun but it's just more modern versions of the same thing they still do today.

looks like everybody is dressed up in their Sunday's best, not many poor people judging by the way they are dressed.

Lizzie's comment might explain the way they dressed. But also, even people of very modest means - in certain parts of the country and in certain cultural groups - tried to dress up as best they could when they went "out" in those days.

My grandparents on my mother's side were very poor, but they still had a few nice clothes (not expensive, but what we today think of dress clothes) as, for them (they lived in Jersey City near NYC and were the type of people who would have gone to Coney island), you "dressed up" when you went out in public. I'm not saying everyone thought that way then, but many did; hence, you can't look at how someone was dressed and assume they weren't poor.

I never saw my grandfather not in a tie and sport coat or tie and suit, but he literally, struggled to pay his very, very modest rent and keep food on his table (my not-at-all-wealthy parents tried to help, but he wouldn't take it, so they literally paid some bills indirectly for him - all crazy stuff that happens inside families). But the point: When you looked at him and saw his clothes, he looked reasonably comfortable, but in truth, he didn't have two nickels to rub together.

 

[HatAddict94]

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Jay walking was a thing then I see. Lol.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Here's a still from the short from which the footage was taken --

By the standards of today, Fatty and Buster might look dressed up, but viewers in 1918 would have instantly recognized them, from their dress, as portraying rubes -- small-town hicks all slicked up for a visit to the city. Note the misfit suits, and the eccentric headgear -- and, though you can't see it clearly in the photo, it's obvious in the film itself that both men are wearing slap shoes. Fatty's sloppy little bow tie is obscured by the mallet, but you can just see that Buster is wearing his traditional clip-on tie with the prongs visible outside his clownish oversized wing collar. All these features were coded to represent hicks, yokels, and rubes.

Alice Mann, however, as the city girl they fight over, is sharply dressed in the mode du jour.