ECRAN TOTAL

The financial failures of New York’s Freedomland and the World’s Fair appear to indicate that this kind of outdoor amusement is no longer being supported by the public in number that justify the expense of their maintenance. Actually, the grand spectacle of the middle-class society in general attendance at amusement parks and similar public recreation - the image of the Crystal Palace, the Columbian Exposition, the scenes painted by Manet, Seurat and Renoir – began to fade at the end of the century. And this rapt public seems to have markedly diminished around the time when automobiles began to allow many people the privilege of seeking private amusements.

Yet it would be worth learning whether the automobile, as well as the television set and other vehicles of individual fancy, were really the cause of the decline of public amusements. Even after driving out into the natural landscape, most of the people today still seek for the society of others. Picnic areas and comfortably tamed camping places are by far the most popular parts of national parks.

The reason for the decline of organized public amusements may have something to do with the modern status of children, and the place they have at the center of family life. If zoos, amusement parks and fairs – even museums- are seen as principally for entertainment of children, then what these have to offer adults must necessarily be limited. Old photographs of Luna Park and Dreamland have scarcely any children in them at all. The amusement parks were designed to be at their most magnificent at night. They were romantic environoments where courtships could be forthrightly conducted. The Tunnel of Love were built for serious couples, not for bored children. Fun was a dignified adult proposition, and the presentdecline of public amusements may be principally the result of self-limitations – a diminished view of our capacities.

The Coney Island Elephant was a well-known New York curiosity. Other houses shaped like elephants had been built in Europe. The beast’s impressive architectural dimensions were noted on the reverse side of this advertising card. The Elephant, now long gone, also appears in a photo of Coney Island in King’s 1893 Handbook of New York City.

Lost New York, Nathan Silver, 1967, 2000, Mariner Books