mermaid


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If it's the third Saturday in June it must be time for the Coney Island Mermaid Parade and, after a 2-year absence, your webmaster was once again wedged into the Surf Avenue throng on June 21st to record the annual bacchanal. Many friends recommend the spontaneous boardwalk scene over the Surf Avenue route, but I feel the entire parade, including the classic cars and floats, can best be gotten from my annual spot at Surf and West 12th Street, though next year I may edge closer to Nathan's or the judges' booth...

Founded in 1983 by Coney Island USA, the not-for-profit arts organization that also produces the Coney island Circus Sideshow, the Mermaid Parade pays homage to Coney Island's forgotten Mardi Gras which lasted from 1903 to 1954, and draws from a host of other sources resulting in a wonderful and wacky event that is unique to Coney Island. Coney Island USA

Participants are "judged" on best floats, costumes, etc. and, for the last few years, the day has been capped by a Mermaid Parade Ball held at Peggy O'Neill's or the newly renovated Child's Restaurant on the boardwalk at West 21st Street, punctuated by rock bands, hip hop and burlesque act performances (is there really any other kind of entertainment?). The parade itself presents the best of Coney Island's family-friendly, yet slightly risqué atmosphere, which its millions of devotees are trying hard to preserve.

At about 2:15 the crowd was primed and ready for the parade, one of the lengthiest on NYC's annual calendar, and the distant flashing lights and motorcycle revvings indicated the parade was soon to reach Surf Avenue.

Sandy the Seagull, the Brooklyn Cyclones' mascot, had already made his appearance. Disappointingly, though the Mets were in Colorado, Mr. Met was nowhere in evidence (the Cyclones are an "A"league Mets affiliate) evidencing, perhaps, a slight conservative or puritanical proclivity on the part of the big-headed guy?

Kicking things off was the Astroland float. The venerable seaside amusement park, opened in 1962 by Dewey Albert at perhaps the beginnings of America's fascination with space flight (John Glenn orbited the earth three times that year) has been in threat of closing in both 2007 and 2008. The park has been sold to developer Joseph Sitt, whose company, Thor Equities, plans to demolish it and build a multimillion dollar residential-retail-and entertainment center, while retaining the landmarked Wonder Wheel (a Coney fixture since 1920).

Needless to say, Sitt's plans haven't sat well with Coney devotees, who fear that Coney Island will be homogenized, with its offbeat and occasionally risqué charms safely folded into a bland residential era with Six Flags garnishing. Coney Island USA's director, Dick Zigun, Coney Island's unofficial mayor, originally surprisingly signed on with Sitt's plan, but after learning that the redevelopment plans had been changed from an entertainment-based model into a more residential-retail-big box model, resigned from NYC's Coney Island Development Corporation as Director. The parade's overall theme this year was an opposition to the Sitt/CIDC plan.

As of June 2008, Astroland is scheduled to close forever at the end of the summer, but it's been saved before.

The Coney Island Hall of Fame is part of the Coney Island History Project, an organization headed by Coney Island Lost and Found author Charles Denson, that

aims to increase awareness of Coney Island's legendary and colorful past and to encourage appreciation of the Coney Island neighborhood of today. Our mission is to record, archive and share oral history interviews; provide access to historical artifacts and documentary material through educational exhibits, events and a website; and honor community leaders and amusement pioneers through our Coney Island Hall of Fame.

The elephant depicted on the banner isn't Topsy, the pachyderm electrocuted at Coney Island by Thomas Edison in 1903, but rather a rendering of the Elephant Hotel, a small hotel built in the shape of an elephant by hotelier James Lafferty in 1885. It burned down in 1896.

That foghorn voice in heavily-accented Brooklyn English...it can only be...Borough President Marty Markowitz, who is mulling a mayoral run.

We continue our corporate section with the Brooklyn Beermaids of Williamsburg's Brooklyn Brewery, a neighborhood fixture from 1987, long before the area's transformation to a hipster enclave and then condo heaven.

Name That Mermaid Parade Car

I pretty much identify cars by color (supposedly two of my first words were "blue car") so I'll just let you identify these classics from the Mermaid Parade's classic car sequence...I know the first one's a Mustang...

Can you ID all the cartoon characters...I dug the whitewalls....

Try embalming the body and make sure the casket is secured next time

ForgottenFan Joe Hedio has the answers...

ROW 1: 1967 Ford Mustang & VW Kit Car from the early 70s. ROW 2: There's a late 70s-early to mid 80s Ford Crown Vic hiding under that paint job & a 1928-1931 Ford Model A. ROW 3: 1958 Cadillac (although it could be a 1957) & a 1940s Chevrolet pickup truck ROW 4: 1928-1931 Ford Model A Pickup (hot-rodded) & a late 1930s Packard ("ask the man who owns one") ROW 5: 1968 Pontiac GTO & a Citroën 2CV (the French version of the VW Bug; made from 1948 till at least the 90s) ROW 6: 1980's Cadillac hearse ROW 7: 1950's-early to mid 60s' VW pickup version of the hippie VW van & a 1957 Ford convertible (could be a Skyliner, the model that had a retractable metal roof) ROW 8: 1962 Ford Thunderbird & to end this on an appropriate note, a 1956 Chrysler NEW YORKER

To see two old friends reunited like this brought a tear to the eye and a lump to the throat.

Float On

The parade this year adhered to a more-or-less classic order, with cars followed by floats, and then by marching bands and finally, a rush of costumed (and little-costumed) hordes.

Bottom: Mystical Children and Tattooed Mermaids, though I saw neither on the float.

Mermaid head and Obama, a combination that might work this fall for the Illinois Senator.

The hula girl in the door of the school bus is on her shell phone.

Neither the Mermaid Parade or summer begin until Dick Zigun, and his Steeplechase "Funny Face" drum, say they do.

LEFT: I think he's pointing the camera the wrong way. RIGHT: I dig the concept, but a) The A train has never traveled to Coney Island unless there was a drastic reroute at some time and b) buffs, correct me if I'm wrong but the slant-front R-40 cars have never been used on the A, or haven't for a long time...

Even the Mermaid Parade can include Old Glory.

RIGHT: a pack of mermaids and their chief dietary item, coelenterates.

ForgottenFan and tourguide Larry Steller: "This is wrong on so many levels."

Miss Heather's opinion

A recently hatched mermaid.

Suzanne Muldowney, who usually portrays Underdog (yes, Underdog) has perfected a similar swirly outfit at previous parades, and while Muldowney (left) was here this year, this woman's swirly was better. Can the rank imitators outperform the grand mistress?

She ain't heavy, she's my mermaid.

One of the more unfortunate mutations of the mermaid world is the rare occurrence (about 1 : 10,000,000) of a mermaid with a fishlike, ichthyic, or piscine torso and head, and human legs. But like the tragic scientist, Andre DeLambre, in the classic "The Fly" these creatures retain a human brain in the head of an animal. We see here that her normally proportioned sister has come to the Mermaid Parade to plead for help, of any kind, to assist her stricken sibling.

Speaking of legs there were some excellent ones to be seen this year, which is unusual for a Mermaid parade.

There were some fine Neptunes on hand this year (my favorite is on the following photo page, link at bottom). Reverend Billy, the pastor of the Church of Stop Shopping, was the parade's official King Neptune, in keeping with the parade's anti-national retail and big-box store theme. Rev. was surrounded by a pack of press photographers on West 12th, and us punters had no chance at a photo.

This year's Mermaid Queen, community organizer /artist Savitri D (Billy's wife), is on a three-day hunger strike to punctuate her dislike of the Sitt/CIDC plan. Billy and Savitri recently did similar honors at the Pasadena, CA Doo-Dah Parade in January 2008.

Mum's the word. And you thought mumming was a Philly thing. These guys were terrific -- the song was all too short. Who were they?

I heard from Ron Iannacone of Philly's Aqua String Band, who confirms that they, indeed, are mumming here.

What has piqued these lovely mermaids' attention?

This?

This, maybe?

Watch those paws, Buster.

Time for a water break.

A spontaneous Ring Around The Rosie dance broke out on West 12th and Surf.

In the digital era, and in the Green era, what to do with outmoded products is a quandary. Fill our wastebaskets and dumps with unbiodegradable products that will just sit there for eons? The time has come for new thinking.

The answer is clear and apparent. Our no-longer needed plastics must be redeveloped as clothing, as our lovely CD girl demonstrates. Metro Card Man was here with his entire family, providing an example to us all by covering themselves with spent cards. And, Cellophane Man demonstrates a new use for his product of choice -- perhaps not a good one for an 80-degree afternoon, but his spirit and determination are nonetheless a shining beacon for all of us.

Think of what Reverend Billy would say.

See what rubber gloves, Easter egg color, and a paper shredder can do?

RIGHT: Is it Mil Mascaras? Ah, I'm betraying my age. Rey Mysterio perhaps?

You know what Marine Antionette got.

The gill-o-tine.

Go tell the Trojans that their Trojan Sea Horse was a good idea.

That was the end of the parade, but I'm not done yet. I've placed some of my favorite pictures in large format on the following page.

erpietri@earthlink.net

Photographed June 21, 2008, page completed June 22