By Jaime Roberts
Coney Island was instrumental in creating a mass American
culture of leisure. It was a place for all classes and genders although the
upper class didn’t have need for it and often fought for the closure of its
parks, “the place was shunned by ultra-respectable New Yorkers.”[1] Coney
Island represented all that was vulgar, hedonistic, adventurous and daring. This however, is exactly what drew massive
crowds of poor, working and middle-class Americans, often immigrants, who
couldn’t afford to go to the Riviera, but instead would save their pennies to
experience the many wonders that were Coney Island. As one observer noted, “Nowhere
else in the United States will you see so many races mingle in a common purpose
for a common good.”[2]
Arguably the most important consequence of Coney Island
was that it “took America from the Victorian age into the modern world.”[3] It
convinced working class Americans that the pursuit of play was a democratic
right, not just for the rich, but for everyone, “an absolute necessity for the
working world.”[4]
Men and women of different ethnicity and lifestyles all mingled together on the
beach, in restaurants and enjoying the many other attractions it had to offer.
What attracted all these people and set Coney Island
apart from other amusement parks was the amount of mechanical devices,
inventions (It was the birthplace of the hotdog) and the new spectacles all in
an urban setting. In its three major parks the average American could enjoy
amusement rides, dance halls, gambling, race tracks, carnival games, side
shows, music, movies and so much electricity that Coney Island could be seen
“thirty miles out to sea.” [5] Of
course there was also the beach and bathing houses. Dreamland Park had people
brought in from all over the world and their cultures recreated, in a sort of
people zoo. Recreations of disasters such as massive fires were played out every
day, while huge crowds watched as firemen put them out. Infant incubators, a
new technology, were a display that was a huge hit. Coney Island was not just
for fun, rather it reflected and perhaps even created changes, in American
deportment.
A series
of misfortunes led to the decline of Coney Island. There were fires, bankruptcy
and World War I. America was different, and now as an industrialized and
internationally powerful entity, Americans moved on.[6] Today
Coney Island still attracts visitors and its influence is represented in many
modern leisure activities, such as Disneyland. Much of that dangerous thrill
experienced on gravity defying rides and from witnessing disasters can be seen
as still being pursued in activities such as bungee jumping or skydiving.
Changing economic and social conditions [7]
brought about by the industrial revolution created changes in American culture.
Pursuit of commercial entertainment that appealed to all classes linked
Americans together, leaving the Victorian era behind with its emphasis on
morality into a more modern era with a focus on pure esthetic pleasure.
