Closing Bell: Award for Luna Park Founders
Yesterday at the opening ceremony of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions Expo in Las Vegas, the founders of Coney Island’s Luna Park, Fred Thompson and Skip Dundy, were inducted into the trade group’s hall of fame. Luna Park operated from 1903 to 1946 and its memory is preserved to this day by…
Yesterday at the opening ceremony of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions Expo in Las Vegas, the founders of Coney Island’s Luna Park, Fred Thompson and Skip Dundy, were inducted into the trade group’s hall of fame. Luna Park operated from 1903 to 1946 and its memory is preserved to this day by the Coney Island History Project.
Photo from the Library of Congress
This picture just renews my Walter Mitty fantasy for Coney Island: An absolutely authentic repro of Dreamland/Luna Park (only up to the fire code and access standards of today), a “Colonial Williamsburg” of playlands, even down to the food (oysters, anyone?) This would rock so unbelievably; it could be a self-contained sector of a bigger, contemporary amusement park, a trip back into history. Sigh. (In an alternative universe, it exists, and Montrose Morris and I go there with our parasols up…)