WEBVTT - Shadow Land 0:00:02.560 --> 0:00:05.760 You're listening to American Shadows, a production of I Heart 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:20.239 Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Makey. Some thought 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:24.600 he was restless, others said he was lazy. Whatever the case, 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:29.120 Lyman Balm saw life differently, and though he dreamed of 0:00:29.120 --> 0:00:33.440 becoming an author, he needed to earn a living. He 0:00:33.560 --> 0:00:35.680 and his wife moved from New York to the wild 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:39.040 prairies in Dakota Territory to be closer to her family. 0:00:39.880 --> 0:00:42.519 He popped from one idea to another in an attempt 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:46.519 to chase down his fortune. He bred chickens, tried acting, 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:50.879 and eventually opened another business. He called it Bomb's Bizarre, 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:55.360 selling novelties made by Native Americans and glassware imported from Japan. 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:59.680 He trusted his customers, and his generous store credits soon 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:04.560 banged corrupted him. He tried again, buying The Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer. 0:01:05.280 --> 0:01:08.520 Unable to afford help, he acted as the editor and writer. 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:12.800 He often wrote articles on why Native Americans should be exterminated. 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:16.240 He took up photography and captured images of the stark 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:21.559 and isolated landscape, though his favorite subjects were tornadoes and 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:24.639 in his spare time, he finally took to writing a novel, 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:29.600 setting it in Kansas. The twisters and bleak Dakota landscape 0:01:29.680 --> 0:01:34.000 featured prominently in his novel. First published in Dred, The 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:38.200 Wonderful Wizard of Oz sold ten thousand copies. People loved 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:41.400 Dorothy's story and her struggle to find a better place. 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:46.399 Times were hard, and people related to her. In nine, 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:49.400 Hollywood bought film rights and shortened the title to the 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:52.400 Wizard of Oz. The movie went on to earn six 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:57.080 Academy Award nominations. Bombsed piction of the tornado translated well 0:01:57.160 --> 0:02:00.720 into a motion picture. Viewers exclaimed aimed that they felt 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:02.919 like they were on a roller coaster as the storm 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:06.840 swept Dorothy, her dog Toto, and her house into the sky. 0:02:07.200 --> 0:02:10.400 Long before the days of computer graphics and special effects 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:14.600 didn't come easy to depict the menacing cyclone moving towards 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:18.760 the house, of filmmakers constructed a sort of large, flexible 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:22.280 muslin windsock wrapped around chicken wire and attached it to 0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:24.880 a straddling gantry crane on a cart and track that 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:28.600 could wind and waver around the sound stage. The prop 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:31.880 cost twelve thousand dollars, a considerable amount of money in 0:02:32.000 --> 0:02:36.639 ninety eight, the effects paid off, viewers flocked to the theaters. 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:41.240 Years later, brothers Harry Spencer and Grover Robbins sought to 0:02:41.320 --> 0:02:43.919 capitalize on the public's love of The Wizard of Oz. 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:48.160 They operated Beach Mountain, a ski resort in North Carolina. 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:51.600 In the off season of nineteen sixty five, the brothers 0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:54.320 set out to turn Beach Mountain into an amusement park. 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:59.160 They hired designer Jack Pentis. Two years and forty four 0:02:59.240 --> 0:03:02.680 thousand yellow bricks later, the park was complete. It would 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:06.480 take another three years before opening day, though unfortunately Grover 0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:10.880 passed away just months beforehand. Reporters and thousands of visitors 0:03:10.880 --> 0:03:13.600 were on hand when the park opened on June fifteenth 0:03:13.600 --> 0:03:17.680 of nine seventy. Actress Debbie Reynolds brought her daughter, Carrie Fisher. 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:20.560 Reynolds had always been a big fan of the movie 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:23.320 and owned a pair of the famous ruby slippers. She 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:25.800 happily posed for the camera as she cut the ribbon. 0:03:26.320 --> 0:03:29.240 Visitors streamed into the park, eager to ride the hot 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:32.160 air Balloon, which was a ski lift. Others flocked to 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:35.000 the gift shops, the museum, or the Magic Moment Show. 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:38.320 The brothers had paid attention to the details when designing 0:03:38.360 --> 0:03:43.160 the park, incorporating natural features in vistas with brightly painted mushrooms, 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:46.920 a replica of Dorothy's house in Barn and Emerald City itself, 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:50.720 a grand amphitheater with gift shops and a restaurant. Someone 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:53.880 set a fire in the Amphitheater in ninety five as 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:57.840 a distraction to rob the museum. The thieves took many props, 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:01.400 including Judy Garland's dress from the fell, and though the 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:05.160 park was rebuilt, vandalism men failing tourism forced it to 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:08.920 shut its doors. In what's left of the park, it 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:12.400 seems out of place among the mountains and forest. A 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:15.720 yellow brick path appears from nowhere in the North Carolina woods. 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:19.640 And though a few trees still hold eerie masks from 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:22.240 the parks, heyday, and it's open a few days a 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:26.919 year every fall, it's not America's strangest nor most enduring 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:30.240 amusement park. For that, we must travel back nearly a 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:34.640 hundred years to a place far stranger than Oz. I'm 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:52.039 Lauren Vogelbaum. Welcome to American Shadows. It was an actual 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:56.919 island once. It's beaches excellent for collecting clams and periwinkle snails. 0:04:56.920 --> 0:05:00.200 It's marsh is good for grazing. The Lenapee pe bulls 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:03.200 who lived in the area left no written history, so 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:06.360 what we know starts when the Dutch began colonizing what 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:11.120 they called New Netherland. Land grants enticed more colonists, and 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:14.880 not just the Dutch. This island, to the south and 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:18.480 east of the capital, New Amsterdam, remained a quiet community 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:21.080 of farms for the most part for two hundred years, 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:24.960 until after the Civil War. New Amsterdam had become New 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:29.200 York and this island had become Coney Island. By then, 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:32.760 sea bathing had become all the rage, bringing wealthy families 0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:36.599 to its beaches. Hotels and restaurants followed, making the area 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:40.800 popular with tourists. In eighteen sixty eight, seeing an opportunity 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:44.480 to make a windfall, politician John McCaine sold the land 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:47.720 to developers. The fact that he didn't own the land 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:51.480 never dissuaded him, and he was never prosecuted. By eighteen 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:55.320 seventy three, Coney Island attracted nearly thirty thousand visitors on 0:05:55.360 --> 0:05:59.279 the weekends. Developers added railroad lines and two piers to 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:03.359 attract even more tourists, while the beach remained popular. The 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:06.719 west end played host to a less family friendly group. 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:10.880 Gamblers took to the racetrack and ringside bars cropped up 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:14.640 and sex workers set up shop. The area became equally 0:06:14.680 --> 0:06:18.520 as popular, though due to the criminal activity and looser morals, 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:22.320 no one in polite society seemed to mention it. Families 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:25.719 focused on the roller coaster that opened in four along 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:30.840 with other mechanical rides, sideshows, dime museums, and concerts. Coney 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:34.880 Island offered dance halls, games of chance, marching bands, and circus. 0:06:35.800 --> 0:06:39.240 Patrons could even ride elephants and camels, or sit back 0:06:39.279 --> 0:06:42.680 and watch buffalo bills Wild West Show. There was a 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:45.840 wide array of dining options. At night, the skies lit 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:49.640 up with fireworks. There was something for everyone. At a 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:54.440 time when society stressed boundaries between sexes and classes. Coney 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:57.600 Island played host to the mall, and the park's atmosphere 0:06:57.760 --> 0:07:02.160 encouraged visitors to loosen their inhibition. Sans dancers performed the 0:07:02.279 --> 0:07:05.440 popular belly dance style shows is sometimes known as the 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:09.920 Coochie Coochie and considered quite risque in the streets. And 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:12.840 then there was the elephant hotel and a hundred and 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:16.200 twenty foot tall blue building in the shape of an elephant. 0:07:16.200 --> 0:07:18.960 The front of the structure had large glass eyes that 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:22.840 appeared to scan the ocean. Spiral staircases leading to the 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:25.760 hotel's thirty one rooms were constructed in the rear legs. 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:29.320 The cigar shop occupied one front leg, and the other 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:33.040 housed a diorama. The odd building had been the brainchild 0:07:33.080 --> 0:07:35.840 of John McCain, who had developed the eedier side of 0:07:35.840 --> 0:07:40.320 Coney Island that people called the Gut. Mostly the hotel 0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:43.600 served as a brothel. People winked at one another when 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:46.280 they said they were going to see the elephant. When 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:48.960 a fire burned the hotel to the ground in eighteen six, 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:53.400 it did little to improve the area's reputation. Other attractions, 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:57.560 like Sea Lion Park, built in eight became temporarily popular, 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:01.720 though not very lucrative. Sitters enjoyed a water ride where 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:04.800 they traveled down a short incline into a lake. Sea 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:08.480 lions performed tricks, and bands played music throughout the day. 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:11.200 The park fell from favor in nineteen o two and 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:15.360 was sold to partners Frederick Thompson and Elmer Dundee. Between 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:18.800 nineteen o three and nineteen forty four, the area became 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:21.960 Luna Park and included a host of new attractions and 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:24.920 rides like Tripped to the Moon and exhibits in the 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:29.040 form of small villages designed to resemble other countries and 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:32.360 to compete with Luna Park, a rifle developer, William Reynolds 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:35.440 had to come up with more attractions and rides. He 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:39.160 created a village of People with Dwarfism, where tourists interacted 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:42.760 with the residents like a human zoo. The park even 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:45.720 had a show with a one armed line tamer. One 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:48.679 of the biggest attractions was a water ride called The 0:08:48.720 --> 0:08:52.480 Gates of Hell. Riders boats were swept through a whirlpool 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:54.320 as though they had been taken below the lake and 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:57.160 into the depths of Hell. An explosion at the end 0:08:57.240 --> 0:09:00.400 gave patrons the sense of being catapulted back to their fists. 0:09:01.000 --> 0:09:04.120 Parents who visited Coney Island thought nothing of letting their 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:08.080 children explore much of the park alone, and one of 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:11.480 those children would go on to change Coney Island forever. 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:25.839 George Tillie was a Coney Island native. His parents ran 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:28.720 The Surf House, a family friendly restaurant on the water 0:09:29.640 --> 0:09:33.320 throughout his youth, George watched the town change. The chick 0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:37.360 Seaside Haven had become a raunchy playground for all social classes. 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:40.559 He observed the tourists parted ways with their cash for 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:43.240 just about anything with a price tag. While any other 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:45.880 kid might have had a lemonade stand, George sold bottles 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:49.400 of sea water and sand tourists. He paid attention to 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:53.559 what people wanted and saw another opportunity transportation to and 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:56.360 front the parks. He earned enough to buy a horse 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:59.720 and made a ramshackle coach from Driftwood. When tourists arrived 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:02.400 at nor His Point on the west End, George greeted 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:05.840 them and happily took them wherever they wanted. Of course, 0:10:06.000 --> 0:10:10.000 every trip happened to pass by the family restaurant. Before long, 0:10:10.080 --> 0:10:12.520 George had earned enough to buy six horses and two 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:17.600 stage coaches. For a young entrepreneur, life was good. At seventeen, 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:21.320 he saw another opportunity and put his energy into real estate. 0:10:22.040 --> 0:10:25.480 Corruption was plentiful on Coney Island, and real estate was 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:29.280 no exception. A government officials leased land for forty one 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:32.480 dollars a year and subleased it for a thousand. The 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:35.439 person who subleased up charged the next renter down the line. 0:10:36.160 --> 0:10:40.360 Using this tactic, George made serious money. But for all 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:44.440 his success, he grew bored, so with his father's help, 0:10:44.679 --> 0:10:48.760 he built till he Use Surf Theater. Still unsatisfied, he 0:10:48.800 --> 0:10:52.600 returned to real estate. But George had a problem. John 0:10:52.640 --> 0:10:55.559 McCain presided over a group of thugs who stole from 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:59.280 locals and tourists alike. He had plenty of government influence, 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:01.760 so every one kept quiet when the New York State 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:06.480 Assembly launched an investigation, except for the Tilayu family. Their 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:11.600 cooperation with prosecutors cost them everything. McCain's gang forced George 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:14.080 to shut down his real estate business, and m Kingpin 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:17.520 managed to use political allies to steal the family's restaurant 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:21.400 out from under them. The harassment stopped only after McCain 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:24.880 went to sing sing In four for voter fraud and 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:30.080 fixing elections. Afterward, George married his sweetheart Nery O'Donnell. The 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:33.040 couples spent their honeymoon in Chicago, host to the world's 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:37.520 Columbian Exposition. The newlyweds enjoyed time at the Midway among 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:41.400 the rides, snacks, and entertainment. The most impressive ride was 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:44.640 the Ferris wheel. George offered to buy it, but St. 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:48.960 Louis had already purchased the ride for the next World's Fair. Undaunted, 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:51.959 George set to work on building his own park. When 0:11:52.000 --> 0:11:55.640 he returned to Coney Island. The Steeplechase ride was his first, 0:11:56.080 --> 0:11:59.120 a tourists rode mechanical horses that moved along a track. 0:11:59.800 --> 0:12:02.960 He second purchase was a smaller wheel similar to Ferris's 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:06.720 design in Chicago. His sister, dressed in an evening gown 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:09.439 and sporting a diamond necklace, stood at the entrance to 0:12:09.480 --> 0:12:28.000 attract customers. George finally opened steeple Chase Park. The park 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:32.319 remained successful for over a decade. Estimates put over nine 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:36.520 thousand visitors through steeple Chase Parks gates where other amusement 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:39.040 parks had failed. George had figured out a trick to 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:42.680 keep guests at the park longer, and the longer they stayed, 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:45.880 the more they spent. George came up with the idea 0:12:46.040 --> 0:12:50.120 of a combination ticket. Visitors paid twenty five cents, allowing 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:52.600 them to ride any of his parks twenty five rides. 0:12:53.040 --> 0:12:56.959 Other parks charged ten cents per ride. In addition, George 0:12:56.960 --> 0:12:59.880 had a particular kind of customer in mind, but he 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:02.880 prohibited alcohol in the park and hired a security team 0:13:02.880 --> 0:13:07.120 to remove troublemakers. While it might appear he wanted a good, 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:12.720 wholesome family park, George also understood one more thing, sex sells. 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:18.080 He worked on a balance between respectable and risque. In 0:13:18.200 --> 0:13:21.959 Victorian times, it was considered inappropriate for on web couples 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:25.200 to be alone together or without a chaperone. The simple 0:13:25.320 --> 0:13:27.880 touch of a hand on an arm might be misunderstood 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:31.840 and was certainly frowned upon. George called his park the 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:36.320 Funny Place. He designed some rides that allowed polite society 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:39.720 to get a little taste of the taboo. A sign 0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:43.600 with a grinning jester's face greeted park visitors, and that 0:13:43.800 --> 0:13:47.679 face alluded to the provocative entertainment they could expect inside. 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:52.000 Upon entry, people climbed into the Barrel of fun revolving 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:56.000 cylinder ride below the jester's face. The ride tossed people around, 0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:59.280 frequently on top of one another, and riders often grabbed 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:01.800 the person next to them to keep their footing. The 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:05.760 human roulette, a whirlpool, and human pool table were all 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:09.360 designed to allow visitors to interact in these taboo ways, 0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:14.000 the which Way ride spun in random directions. Women riders 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:16.920 might be thrown from their seats and into men's laps, 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:21.880 but the biggest ride remained the steeple chase. Attendants dressed 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:25.120 as jockeys helped guests onto their mechanical horses, and the 0:14:25.160 --> 0:14:28.760 trumpeters stood at the starting line. The horses undulated and 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:32.160 bobbed around the track before crossing the finish line. Once 0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:34.720 the riders dismounted, they had to travel through a dimly 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:38.920 lit maze that exited onto a brightly lit stage. The 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:42.280 blasts of air blue women's dresses upward, and people with 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:46.600 dwarfism bearing cattle prods randomly selected men to shock, often 0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:49.960 just below the belt. Crowds in the stands laughed and 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:52.880 cheered as the gas ran through a gauntlet of clowns 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:56.880 wielding slapsticks, more blasts of air, and other devices that 0:14:57.080 --> 0:15:00.400 left them with little dignity. Then these newcomer as took 0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:03.000 their place in the crowd to watch the next batch 0:15:03.040 --> 0:15:06.960 of guests. The park rented out clown suits, allowing patrons 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:09.480 to interact with other guests and employees in ways they 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:13.320 might not otherwise. Even the park employees got in on act, 0:15:13.440 --> 0:15:17.640 dressing in animal costumes. With their identities hidden behind masks 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:21.320 and costumes, people were free to participate in more risk 0:15:21.360 --> 0:15:25.760 gay manners in lavish gardens. Uniformed waiters tended to the guests. 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:30.240 As patrons dined, Small hidden jets of air might expose 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:33.800 a petticoat or a part of a woman's ankles. For diners, 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:38.240 the experience walked the line between chaste and kinky. Over 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:42.000 the years, the park grew more successful and popular. George 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:44.920 Tillieu had perfected the park with even more rides and 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:49.280 tweaks for the summer season. In nine seven, Coney Island 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:53.360 was packed, and that's when it all came crashing down. 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:58.360 In the early morning hours of Sunday, July, someone discarded 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.080 a lit cigarette near the cave of the Winds Attraction. 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:05.800 Watchman summoned help, and though the engine company one four arrived, 0:16:05.840 --> 0:16:09.200 moments later, the fire had spread, and George had been 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:11.680 working in his office and raced outside to help douse 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:15.320 the flames. The fire ran along fifteen miles of ground 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:18.680 through the bowery and the concert hall. Hotels and other 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:23.480 businesses were destroyed Before firefighters had the blaze under control. 0:16:23.480 --> 0:16:25.960 Though the park had been closed when the fire broke out, 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:30.920 and there were injuries throughout it all, George remained calm. 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:33.480 He fought the blaze and helped with the injured until 0:16:33.520 --> 0:16:37.560 seven that morning. Then, with the fire out, he went home, 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:42.000 changed clothes, and took his family to church. Over thirty 0:16:42.000 --> 0:16:45.600 five acres had been burned. George later estimated that the 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:49.320 park cost two hundred thousand dollars to rebuild, an astounding 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:52.760 amount for the time. He started by charging admission to 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:56.480 the ruins for ten cents. The next day, when he 0:16:56.520 --> 0:16:59.960 rebuilt Steeple Chase Park, he added a five acre glass 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:03.800 building he called the Pavilion of fun Funny Face. The 0:17:04.000 --> 0:17:08.480 deviantly smiling jester stood amid the stained glass designs, and 0:17:08.960 --> 0:17:13.160 long after George died in nineteen fourteen, Funny Face remained. 0:17:13.920 --> 0:17:16.639 Had not only been the park's mascot, but had become 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:20.760 symbol of Coney Island, welcoming visitors for years to come. 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:37.000 Robert Moses did not care for Funny Face, not at all. 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:41.399 He didn't like what the grinning jester represented a Coney 0:17:41.440 --> 0:17:45.600 Island and amusement parks. In his opinion, anyone who visited 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:49.560 them was low brow and low class. In the nineteen thirties, 0:17:49.760 --> 0:17:52.280 Robert set out to rid Coney Island of the parks. 0:17:52.880 --> 0:17:55.800 In the nineteen forties, he managed to take over Dreamland 0:17:55.880 --> 0:17:58.359 and relocated the New York Aquarium in its place to 0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:02.399 prevent other amusement parks from take over, and soon he 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:06.080 built low income high rise apartments nearby, which made him 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:10.320 a tidy profit. The downturn came during the nineteen sixties. 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:14.199 Coney Island's crime rate sword and new theme parks like 0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:20.480 Disney opened elsewhere, loring vacationers away to safer environments. Consumers 0:18:20.560 --> 0:18:23.679 began to share Robert's opinion that Coney Island had become 0:18:23.920 --> 0:18:28.040 dated and trashy. Over the years, George's children had done 0:18:28.080 --> 0:18:32.040 everything possible to keep Steeple Chase Park going, but now 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:34.480 they had grown older and the time had come to 0:18:34.560 --> 0:18:38.600 sell it. Astra Land, a neighboring park, offered to buy, 0:18:38.640 --> 0:18:41.520 but Mary till You turned them down and began looking 0:18:41.520 --> 0:18:45.359 for a higher bidder. Without consulting her siblings, she sold 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:47.640 the park to a New York businessman and real estate 0:18:47.640 --> 0:18:50.919 developer by the name of Frederick in July of nineteen sixty. 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:54.600 Fred was more than happy to shell out two point 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:58.000 five million dollars for it. He had big plans for 0:18:58.040 --> 0:19:00.199 the area, and none of them had to do with 0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:03.960 amusement parks. In the nineteen fifties, he had owned both 0:19:04.040 --> 0:19:07.320 Luna Park and another park nearby, but lost them in 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:10.640 nineteen fifty five after the federal government blacklisted him during 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:15.240 a profiteering investigation. Finally, it seemed that Fred's plans for 0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:18.159 more low income housing on Coney Island were about to 0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:22.280 come to fruition. The land wasn't zoned for residential construction, 0:19:22.600 --> 0:19:26.040 but that hadn't stopped Fred from purchasing it or from 0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:29.760 moving forward with the project. Other parks had since been 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:34.359 demolished and rebuilt into housing districts, and with his political connections, 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:38.320 he felt confident that rezoning would not be a problem. 0:19:38.480 --> 0:19:42.040 His close friend A Beam was almost certainly going to 0:19:42.040 --> 0:19:45.679 be elected mayor in the upcoming election. The surrounding beaches 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:49.600 had become public domain, and Fred worried that Steeplechase Park 0:19:49.720 --> 0:19:53.880 might become a designated landmark, so he planned a farewell 0:19:53.960 --> 0:19:57.399 party for September twenty one of nineteen sixty six, in 0:19:57.440 --> 0:20:01.679 which he would destroy everything historical about the park. He 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:06.000 posed with bikini cloud models wearing hard hats and sporting sledgehammers. 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:09.679 He handed guests bricks and instructed them to smash the 0:20:09.720 --> 0:20:15.040 stained glass, especially the iconic funny face. After the guests left, 0:20:15.080 --> 0:20:18.320 an earth mover destroyed everything else except for the pier 0:20:18.480 --> 0:20:22.120 and the parachute jump. The election rolled around and John 0:20:22.200 --> 0:20:25.920 Lindsay was elected mayor. In a surprise upset, he agreed 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:28.199 with the Coney Island Chamber of Commerce to keep the 0:20:28.240 --> 0:20:31.640 area's zoning laws intact and to turn Steeple Chase into 0:20:31.640 --> 0:20:36.159 a public park. Without the new mayor's political support, Fred 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:39.560 sold the property to the city. While it would never 0:20:39.600 --> 0:20:43.040 earn him the profits a housing project would have. Fred 0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:46.440 c Trump walked away with a one point two million 0:20:46.520 --> 0:20:54.520 dollar profit. There's more to this story. Stick around after 0:20:54.560 --> 0:21:10.159 this brief sponsor break to hear all about it. She 0:21:10.320 --> 0:21:14.119 was born sometime around eighteen seventy five in Southeast Asia, 0:21:14.280 --> 0:21:17.320 where she enjoyed a care free life with her loving family. 0:21:17.920 --> 0:21:20.800 In eighteen seventy seven, that life ended when she was 0:21:20.880 --> 0:21:23.280 taken from her family and put on a boat to 0:21:23.359 --> 0:21:27.920 New York. There, circus owner Adam Forepaw named the baby 0:21:27.960 --> 0:21:32.800 elephant Topsy, and promptly put her on display. Fearing backlash, 0:21:32.880 --> 0:21:37.160 potential criticism, or to be one up on competitor P. T. Barnum. 0:21:37.160 --> 0:21:40.080 He claimed that she had been born in captivity. Although 0:21:40.119 --> 0:21:43.840 she wasn't his first elephant, Topsy became his only elephant, 0:21:44.520 --> 0:21:47.520 and without a herd. She did her best to please 0:21:47.520 --> 0:21:51.400 her human handlers, but in that time and place, it 0:21:51.480 --> 0:21:53.960 was believed that the only way to maintain control of 0:21:54.000 --> 0:21:58.040 an animal was to use pain and fear. At first, 0:21:58.320 --> 0:22:02.000 handlers and trainers thought Top's compliance meant she had accepted 0:22:02.000 --> 0:22:06.359 their power over her, but the opposite came true. The 0:22:06.400 --> 0:22:09.520 continued abuse made her more difficult to deal with, and 0:22:09.600 --> 0:22:12.760 her handlers began jabbing her with pitchforks or burning her 0:22:12.760 --> 0:22:18.320 with a lit cigar for her disobedience. On two circus 0:22:18.320 --> 0:22:22.680 attendee j Fielding Blout wandered her tent. As the story goes, 0:22:22.760 --> 0:22:26.000 he had been drinking heavily. Blount lit a cigarette and 0:22:26.080 --> 0:22:29.240 tried to force feed it to Topsy. It was one 0:22:29.280 --> 0:22:32.760 torment too many. Topsy grabbed Blount and threw him to 0:22:32.760 --> 0:22:36.600 the ground, killing him. Her handlers and the papers labeled 0:22:36.600 --> 0:22:41.640 her a bad elephant. Never once considering her treatment. Instead, 0:22:41.680 --> 0:22:45.200 reporters wrote stories about her man killing past, though there 0:22:45.200 --> 0:22:49.440 were no records, reports, or truth to the tales. For 0:22:49.680 --> 0:22:53.920 Pa didn't mind the sensationalist headlines, though atopsy, the man 0:22:54.000 --> 0:22:59.840 killing elephant drew large crowds. Meanwhile, Topsy's abuse continued, and 0:23:00.240 --> 0:23:03.200 in June of nineteen o two, the abuse became too 0:23:03.320 --> 0:23:06.720 much once more. While loading her onto a train car 0:23:06.760 --> 0:23:09.399 in Kingston, New York, a man jabbed her behind the 0:23:09.480 --> 0:23:12.760 ear with a stick. She turned and grabbed him, tossing 0:23:12.840 --> 0:23:16.600 him to the ground. He survived, but for Paul quickly 0:23:16.640 --> 0:23:20.320 sold Topsy to Luna Park on Coney Island. Her new 0:23:20.359 --> 0:23:22.800 trainer jabbed her so many times in the face with 0:23:22.840 --> 0:23:27.280 a pitchfork that he drew blood. Though terrified, Topsy never attacked. 0:23:27.960 --> 0:23:31.040 The assault on Topsy finally drew the attention of authorities, 0:23:31.200 --> 0:23:34.879 who arrested her handler for extreme cruelty. Then they arrested 0:23:34.960 --> 0:23:37.240 him a second time for the same charge, and a 0:23:37.320 --> 0:23:40.520 third time. Even though her trainer had been charged with 0:23:40.560 --> 0:23:45.080 cruelty and abuse, the newspapers still blamed Topsy. Luna Park's 0:23:45.119 --> 0:23:47.640 owners decided the best course of action was to hang 0:23:47.880 --> 0:23:51.680 Topsy upon hearing the news, the Society for the Prevention 0:23:51.680 --> 0:23:54.080 of Cruelty to Animals Today the a s p c 0:23:54.240 --> 0:23:57.840 A stepped in, forcing the park owners to abandon their plan. 0:23:58.760 --> 0:24:03.480 The hanging Topsy was necessarily cruel, the society said. After 0:24:03.520 --> 0:24:07.120 a visit to Thomas Edison's labs, they devised a new plan. 0:24:08.160 --> 0:24:11.000 Edison and the SPCA had worked together back in the 0:24:11.000 --> 0:24:14.600 eighteen eighties. The SPCA wanted to find a humane way 0:24:14.600 --> 0:24:18.800 to euthanize animals, and Edison, a proponent of d C current, 0:24:19.240 --> 0:24:22.200 wanted to prove that his rival, Tesla's A C current 0:24:22.359 --> 0:24:27.880 was deadly inspired. Luna Park decided on electrocution for Topsy's fate, 0:24:29.000 --> 0:24:33.040 but electrocuting something as large as an elephant posed a problem. 0:24:33.080 --> 0:24:37.200 They decided to execute Topsy with a combination of electrocution, poisoning, 0:24:37.440 --> 0:24:42.639 and strangulation, and while Edison probably wasn't involved, it wasn't 0:24:42.680 --> 0:24:46.160 there the day of the execution. His company did provide 0:24:46.280 --> 0:24:49.200 the six thousand, six hundred volts from a nearby A 0:24:49.359 --> 0:24:54.600 C generator station. The overcast and gloomy sky marked Topsy's 0:24:54.680 --> 0:24:59.240 last day January four, of nineteen o three. Hendler's led 0:24:59.240 --> 0:25:02.280 her from her stall. A final time. She stopped at 0:25:02.320 --> 0:25:05.800 the bridge leading to her execution site, and, even with prodding, 0:25:05.880 --> 0:25:08.880 would move no further. Officials had to bring the equipment 0:25:08.920 --> 0:25:12.840 to her. Other than refusing to cross the bridge, Topsy 0:25:13.000 --> 0:25:16.880 did everything the handlers asked. She gently raised each leg, 0:25:17.160 --> 0:25:20.800 allowing copper plates to be secured to her feet. Everyone 0:25:20.840 --> 0:25:25.560 grew quiet except for one reporter. Not so vicious, he said. 0:25:26.560 --> 0:25:29.879 She gently took the poisoned carrots from her handlers and 0:25:30.080 --> 0:25:32.560 stood quietly as they slipped a noose over her neck. 0:25:33.160 --> 0:25:36.680 Then one of the men flipped the switch. Topsy shook 0:25:36.760 --> 0:25:41.119 violently for ten seconds, then collapsed to the ground. The 0:25:41.160 --> 0:25:44.119 men tightened the noose for another ten minutes to ensure 0:25:44.240 --> 0:25:47.800 she was dead. Newspapers like The New York Times reported 0:25:47.800 --> 0:25:51.080 on it that week, and the film crew documented the execution. 0:25:52.520 --> 0:25:57.119 Though handling practices did change over the years, elephants remained 0:25:57.160 --> 0:25:59.800 in large circuses like the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and 0:25:59.840 --> 0:26:04.919 bay LEAs until when public outcry over living conditions and 0:26:05.160 --> 0:26:07.760 the use of bullhooks and other devices to chorus the 0:26:07.800 --> 0:26:11.600 animals to perform forced the company to stop using elephants 0:26:11.680 --> 0:26:24.679