The Kid of Coney Island: Fred Thompson and the Rise of American Amusements [Hardcover]

Woody Register (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 18, 2001

A generation before Walt Disney, Fred Thompson was the "boy-wonder" of American popular amusements. At the turn of the 20th century, Thompson's entrepreneurial drive made him into an entertainment mogul who helped to define the popular culture of his day. In this lively biography, cultural historian Woody Register tells the remarkable story of Thompson and examines the transformation of commerce and entertainment as American society moved into an era of mass marketing and large-scale corporate enterprise.
Register shows how Thompson got his start as a creator and promoter of carnival shows and world's fairs, including the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, and he traces Thompson's career as one of the principal developers and promoters of Coney Island (where he built Luna Park) and other amusement parks. Thompson built the mammoth Hippodrome Theater in Manhattan and mounted many productions there and on Broadway, noted for their spectacular (and spectacularly costly) staging effects. Thompson aggressively marketed to adult consumers a world of make-believe and childlike play, crafting his own public image as "the boy who never grew up." Register shows how strongly Thompson's fantasies appealed to the growing legions of men and women who found themselves in a world that seemed increasingly "businesslike," profit-oriented, and regimented.
Colorful, well written, and insightful, The Kid of Coney Island brings to life a kaleidoscopic era in New York history as well as one of its most striking characters.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Fred Thompson (1873-1919) was a pioneering entrepreneur who encouraged Americans, especially American men, to have fun and stop feeling guilty about it. He designed and built Luna Park, which in 1903 transformed Coney Island from an area so tawdry it was known as "Sodom by the Sea" into a respectable venue for middle-class recreation. He created the Hippodrome, the world's largest theater when it opened in 1905, and filled it with lavish spectacles at affordable ticket prices. He moved on to become "the boy-wonder of Broadway producers," responsible for such popular hits as Brewster's Millions and Little Nemo. His financial acumen never equaled his showmanship (he lost control of both Luna Park and the Hippodrome to better businessmen), but he seems to have thoroughly enjoyed spending vast sums of money to make fantasy and luxury accessible to the masses. Woody Register, professor of American Studies at Sewanee, explores Thompson's life and career as a paradigm for the sea change in commercial culture that took place in the early years of the 20th century, when the Victorian emphasis on educational, elevating entertainment was challenged by a more hedonistic attitude that valued pleasure for its own sake. Gender theory and other currently trendy academic disciplines inform the author's point of view without detracting unduly from his well-written and well-paced narrative. Register could have eased up on the Peter Pan metaphors, but he convincingly links Thompson to present-day innovators who've made a bundle by refusing to grow up, such as director Steven Spielberg and the whiz kids who created the personal computer and Internet revolutions. This is a nice example of a scholarly work that reaches beyond its core audience to appeal to the general public. --Wendy Smith

From Publishers Weekly

In the late 19th century, when men were supposed to be men at home, at work and in war, visionary entrepreneur Fred Thompson struck gold with the proposition, let 'em be kids. Amid shifting conceptions of gender, race, class and work, Thompson labeled a Peter Pan for his business efforts and his demeanor created elaborate playgrounds for adults, most spectacularly (and lucratively) Luna Park, an electrified extravaganza built in 1903 at Coney Island. This wonderfully written, entertaining and unusually perceptive look at a forefather of 20th-century American leisure culture makes delightful reading out of serious scholarship. Born into a middle-class family in Ohio in 1873, Thompson aspired to become an architect but soon, enticed by the possibilities of large-scale fairs and theatricals, became an "exposition fiend." He designed a striking "Moorish" building to highlight the achievements of African-Americans, a giant mechanical seesaw in answer to Mr. Ferris's wheel and a "trip to the moon" cyclorama for various turn-of-the-century expositions. From his famed Hippodrome Theater in Times Square, such extravagant productions as Brewster's Millions and Polly of the Circus went on the road. Register, professor of American studies at Sewanee, draws upon the groundbreaking pop culture studies of Kathy Peiss, William Leach and Jackson Lears as well as on his own research. Ranging from the theoretical (the construction of white masculinity in popular literature and entertainments) to wonderful specifics (e.g., the alleged threat of teddy bears "to all instincts of motherhood" in young girls), Register makes an important contribution to the literature of popular culture, consumerism and gender.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (October 18, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195144937
• ISBN-13: 978-0195144932
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,442,176 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Rise of the New Leisure Class, September 10, 2001

By 

Panopticonman "panopticonman" (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Kid of Coney Island: Fred Thompson and the Rise of American Amusements (Hardcover)

Fred Thompson was the "kid" (he was in his early twenties when he built Luna Park in Coney Island) who first recognized that the American middle class in the early 20th century was ripe for amusement and fun, ready to embrace consumption, fun and leisure as a moral system. Here he is given his due as a great innovator (inventor of the theme park), and a great showman (Broadway producer of mega-extravaganzas). Woody Register's highly readable and extremely insightful book is not just about Fred Thompson (of which there is very little historical information other than press releases, scattered interviews and new stories about Thompson's endeavors and stunts), but is all about the break between the early industrial age (all about saving and putting aside wages for a rainy day, Victorian respectability, the patriarchal society and responsibility) and the dawning of the modern age of consumption (spending for the fun of it, disrepectable activities, the newly feminized office-based white collar man and irresponsiblity). Thompson was the first entreprenuer to sell the idea of childhood as a lifelong event sustained through the agency of the carnival, the theme park, the toy. His genius lay in combining the new conception of childhood as a time of "innocent joy" with the new era of comsumption for consumption's sake. A wild spender, he died penniless, still enthusiastic, still working on his next big project, a perfect exemplar of the new boy/man Peter Pan personality he was instrumental in creating. According to Mr. Register's Introduction, this work took him much longer to write than he expected it would. We are the beneficiaries of his extended and meticulous labors -- this book is sure to beome a classic cultural studies text.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fred Thompson habitue of Coney Island Restaurants, October 19, 2001

By 

"fjp48" (usa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Kid of Coney Island: Fred Thompson and the Rise of American Amusements (Hardcover)

As a lifelong resident of Coney Island,and the author of a recently published memoir entitled Remembrance of a Restaurant,or a Decameron of Dining,I share the deserved enthusiasm of all reviews for this life of remarkable showman,Fred Thompson. Unlike other reviews, mine is more intimate. Fred Thompson was an habitue of the finest restaurants of the period like Ravenhall's,Villepique's,Beau Rivage,and my parents notable landmark restaurant called Villa Joe's.A Little Bit of Naples in Coney Island.It was razed by urban renewal(1915-1975)As a boy, I recall his frequent patronage ,especially when he gave me season passes to Luna Park ,and a pat on the head.He was as modest as his imagination was flamboyant. He often had dinner talking to my father about my father's Boston Terrier championsI remember him as being always abstracted,away in thought. Mr. Register has reminded us in this biography of the great originals of that period of singular will and imagination. If I still had the restaurant I would invite Mr. Register to a drink on the house to celebrate this triumphant book suitable for a great showman.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars From Side Show to Broadway, September 6, 2001

By 

Hardy Haberman (Dallas, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Kid of Coney Island: Fred Thompson and the Rise of American Amusements (Hardcover)

The mysterious Fredrick Thompson left little biographical information in his wake, but Woody Register has taken the scant evidence and woven it into a revealing narritive of the man who made Coney Island famous. This book cchronicles an even more important story as well, the concepts of leisure and amusements in the 20th century. The theme park, theatrical spectacular, Vegas showroom and Broadway all own a debt to Fred Thompson's inner child. This book is a must for anyone serious about the business of fun.