Coney Island: A Postcard Journey to the City of Fire [Paperback]

Richard Snow (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Brightwaters Pr (June 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0918305012
• ISBN-13: 978-0918305015
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 9.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,446,190 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars City of Fire Breathes Life Into Coney Island's Past, December 7, 1997

By 

[e-mail] (Tennessee, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Coney Island: A Postcard Journey to the City of Fire (Paperback)

Steeplechase Park's founder George C. Tilyou once said "If Paris is France, then Coney Island, between June and September, is the World". Richard Snow's charming history of the fabled "Sodom by the Sea" is a imaginative look at the formation of the most popular seaside resort of all time. Snow's own collection of period postcards are used to illustrate the rise of Coney from a mere seaside cluster of chowder stands and bathhouses to the pre-eminent American amusement park of it's time. The book focuses not only on the development of island's three great parks, Steeplechase Park, Luna Park and Dreamland, but on the creation of the rollercoaster, carousel, and the plethora of wonders and weirdness that established Coney Island as the most fabulous and free-wheeling destination in a straitlaced world. The author discusses the effects of this atmosphere of freedom on the society of the period and how it provided an outlet for the masses who flocked there during the summer months. The history of each