Good Old Coney Island [Hardcover]

Edo McCullough (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0823219968 | ISBN-13: 978-0823219964 | Publication Date: January 1, 2000 | Edition: 2nd

Coney Island is more than a national institution: it was probably the most celebrated amusement resort in the world. This book, by a man whose family helped to build the Island's fantastic reputation, presents its lively and nostalgic history. Touched with sentiment, occasionally with acid, it is frank, outspoken, sometimes biting, but always imbued with humor. This new edition of McCullough's book includes an introduction by Brian J. Cudahy, who has written extensively about New York's waterways and subways, and an epilogue by Michael P. Onorato, a retired history professor whose father managed Coney Island's famed Steeplechase Park from 1928 until its closing in 1964. Thus, McCullough's story, which ended in 1957, is brought up to date for a new generation of readers.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Edo McCullough was raised on Coney Island.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 358 pages
• Publisher: Fordham University Press; 2nd edition (January 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823219968
• ISBN-13: 978-0823219964
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,586,101 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required Reading for us Coney Island Fanatics, May 18, 2004

By 

Danielle Bennignus - See all my reviews

This review is from: Good Old Coney Island (Paperback)

This book is truly a delight - it opens the eyes to the magic that Coney Island possesses, and forces you to see it in a completely new light. Told from the viewpoint of a man with strong Coney ancestry, this is really the "inside story" - from the Island's tawdry beginnings, through its turn-of-the-century glory days, the zany "nickel empire" of the 1920's, all the way into the 1950's. I wish it could go on further, but no need for complaint - that's practically where Charles Denson picks up with his marvelous book on Coney - but that's another review altogether.

Here, Edo McCullough talks honestly about Coney's glories, as well as its seamy underbelly - nothing is left out, and it isn't necessarily a "sentimental journey", after all. But all the better - the seamy side is half the fun, after all. From shifty politics, prostitution, crime and carnies, to the glories of Luna Park, Dreamland, and Steeplechase - the reader is in for a truly fascinating experience.

But be warned - once you pick the book up, you'll have a hard time putting it down. Despite it's being packed with solid history, it's a very quick read - which, I think, is a very good sign. Enjoyable education - who could ask for more?

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fact is more amazing than fiction!, January 6, 2001

By 

"pioproductions" (Gravesend, Brooklyn USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Good Old Coney Island (Paperback)

This book was given to me as a gift by a dear friend who knew I had a deep interest in the communities of Gravesend and Coney Island being that I was born in Gravesend. The book is a paperback time machine. It starts at the humble beginnigs of the farming village of Gravesend in the 1600's and its founder Lady Moody and goes on to tell of the history of Coney Island, its land owners and people. This is not boring history lesson but an amazing recount of the highs and lows of the era. What's described within its pages can't fully be expressed within the small confines of this space. Its is a part of Americana as much as the Battle of Bunker Hill is. I whole-heartedly recommend this book to anyone who is curious how evil and how spirit lifting one place could be.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Five miles of history, April 25, 2004

By 

Rocco Dormarunno (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Good Old Coney Island (Paperback)

For too many people--Brooklynites included--Coney Island is nothing but the ruins of an amusement park that only exists in choppy silent movie clips. Edo McCullough's "Good Old Coney Island: A Sentimental Journey into the Past: The Most Rambunctious, Scandalous, Rapscallion, Splendiferous, Pugnacious, Spectacular, Illustrious, Prodigious" debunks that view in an educating and enjoyable style.

What McCullough makes more than clear is that this five-mile strip of beachfront is as rich in its history as Cape Cod, perhaps moreso. From the early Indian villages to the Dutch settlers to the developers who saw in it a gold mine (once mass transit made the place accessible), Coney Island is a place of a million and one stories and histories. It was a place, as McCullough describes, wherein everything went: recreation, vice, entertainment (high and low), graft and sports. It was The Five Points and Fifth Avenue on a beach. In this sense, it could have only grown in New York because it was so much like it. However, it did offer one thing; fresh seaside air. Funny as it may seem, when the place first became popular, most New Yorkers didn't know how to swim--where could they swim, after all? In the polluted East or Hudson Rivers? By the time the rides and attractions, Dreamland and Luna Park arrived, Coney Island already earned its superelative, surreal reputation for escapism.

What I find interesting is McCullough's choice of the phrase "A Sentimental Journey" in the book's subtitle. Considering the book describes Coney Island warts and all, the sentimentality is often underplayed. And, finally, there is a nice sprinkling of illustrations throughout that helps to bring the now-faded playground of the masses back to life. Everyone will enjoy this book.

Rocco Dormarunno
author of The Five Points