Coney Island Elephant

Enchanted? Check out this beautiful YouTube video by Debibulated, comprised of archival footage of Coney Island (set to Tom Waits, natch). This isn't even in its heyday.

In the early 1900s, the parks were huge and immensely popular, lit up at night with both electric and kerosene lamps of every colour.

Maxim Gorky:

With the advent of night a fantastic city of fire suddenly rises from the ocean into the sky. Thousands of ruddy sparks glimmer in the darkness, limning in fine, sensitive outline on the black background of the sky, shapely towers of miraculous castles, palaces and temples. Golden gossamer threads tremble in the air. They intertwine in transparent, flaming patterns, which flutter and melt away in love with their own beauty mirrored in the waters. Fabulous beyond conceiving, ineffably beautiful, is this fiery scintillation.

The rides were demented and strange, often dangerous. It was a playground for the rich and the poor alike.

What I wouldn't give to go back there for a night or two.