THE NEW CONEY ISLAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21432, 5 September 1931, Page 19

THE NEW CONEY ISLAND

“CRASHING INTO SOCIETY” TO “BALLYHOO” OR NOT? Coney Island, the blatant, riotous, earsplitting, side-splitting playground of New York, has gone “High-Hat.” It is crashing into society, says the New York correspondent of the Daily Mail. The cause is the American trade depression. Like the ill wind that blows somebody some good, the great Wall street debacle is enriching Coney Island. Here is the story in the words of Mr Rex Billings, who runs one of the largest playgrounds. He says: “Our visitors this summer know their London, their Paris, and their Palm Beach. It’s that way all around the place. What a difference the depression has made to the style of people we are getting. “Coney crowds are behaving better. They are immaculate in their manners. For the first time in our history we are serving Park avenue., We are : helping the millionaires and the families to forget their- troubles.” Poor business on Broadway is enabling the island’s showmen to provide better entertainment for their new and more fastidious customers. In the midst of its glittering setting of electric lights and glass roofs Coney Island holds aesthetic dancing classes. In the evening the ballrooms are invaded by the aristocracy of wealth. Those who in better days scorned anything less than champagne and the best cognac to-day may be seen sipping their “near-beer” and the “lemonade”— enough, as one purveyor remarked, “ to float a fleet of battleships,” So seriously are the great entrepreneurs of the world’s most famous playground taking the new conditions that the island is debating a most momentous question, “To ‘ballyhoo’ or not to “ballyhoo.”’ It has long been the practice of sideshow managers to employ “ barkers,” or “spellbinders,” to advertise the show before its opening. These raucousvoiced individuals are in danger of losing their engagements. A vigorous campaign against “ Ballyhoo ” is in progress. Already nine employers of “barkers” have appeared in court. Those who favour the old-time “ ballyhooing ” regard the suggested new restrictions as incredible, as though one tried to prevent the lions of the zoo from roaring. A strange crew are threatened with loss of their jobs. There is the man in prison uniform whose grim costume draws the fearful attention of all children; there is the “wild man with a ring in his nose ” —an excellent “ spellbinder,” according to the old traditions of Coney Island. There are two hula dancing girls, and a man dressed in imitation of New York’s immaculate Mayor Walker.