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If it's the first summer Saturday in June that means it's time for the Mermaid Parade, Coney Island's annual "art parade" held in Brooklyn's premier entertainment mecca (well, until Williamsburg became the East East Village). 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
This year, your webmaster was a) recuperating from a heart operation and b) unwilling to expose my Canon PowerShot to the damage done the last time I was in a Mermaid Parade rainstorm, back in 2003. Fear not, photo duties were taken over by ForgottenFan Tim Skoldberg with results I think you'll find satisfactory. To give you an idea of how dreary and murky the weather was I left the photos unretouched in Photoshop (I'm also feeling a little lazy, understandably). It drizzled and rained throughout but as you'll see spirits were undaunted...
On the Boardwalk
The Mermaid Parade begins and ends on the Boardwalk, with the Surf Avenue procession sandwiched between, and the announcements for best float, classic car, etc. are done at parade's end. The Boardwalk stretch gives photographers a chance to get 'up close and personal' with the many marchers.
Surf Avenue
Giving you a pretty good idea what it was like. In June 2009 in NYC it rained virtually every day, some days just showers, some days all-day rains like this. This view shows the old Shore Theatre office building (for a while the theatre was called the Gayway, believe it or not. Beyond it stands the new (in 2006) Stillwell Avenue subway terminal, where lines from all over Brooklyn come together.
Yes the parade did eventually get started!
The parade began as always with floats filled with partiers and "krewes," some of which tossed beaded necklaces to the crowd in a hommage to the Mardi Gras, and then a parade of classic automobiles. OK, ForgottenFans, name those cars!
ForgottenFan Joseph Hedio: Both of the cars that were pictured in the parade were Chevys. The red one is from the late 40s, possible a '48, while the black one is definitely a '67 Impala.
It's not the summer, not in Coney Island at least, until ConeyIsland USA chairman Dick Zigun says it is, and he does so by banging his drum as he has for over a quarter century.
The Brooklyn Bombshells girls' roller derby team, led by Hella Skelter, Auntie Christ and Carmen Monoxide. RIGHT: See, the year I miss the parade, and "Free Hugs" are given out.
A blue woman, and a group.
It's not the Mermaid Parade unless Hellvis shows up. RIGHT: this thing looks like one of Frank Gehry's rejected Atlantic Yards designs.
Grand Marshal King Neptune
This year's King Nepune was Brooklyn-born actor Harvey Keitel, who has made an indelible impression in American and European cinema, headlining with Robert DeNiro in Martin Scorsese's first major production, Mean Streets, and as a major player as pimp "Sport" Matthew in Taxi Driver, robbery ringleader "Mr. White" in Reservoir Dogs, preacher tuned vampire Jake Fuller in From Dusk Till Dawn, Judas in The Last Temptation of Christ, and Academy Awards Best Supporting Actor nomination (and Golden Globe victor) as Mickey Cohen in Bugsy. His most recent role (2009) was as Lieutenant Gene Hunt in the ABC sci-fi/cop drama Life on Mars. In the parade, Harvey was accompanied by his wife Daphna as Queen Mermaid.
Beginning of the busy season for Coney's many gourmet establishments: Nathan's Famous, where NYC's annual hotdog eating contest is held each July 4th, and its satellites, Williams Candy, Gregory and Paul's, and many more. Williams has been a Coney fixture for 75 years.
Your webmaster's favorite parade musicians, Philadelphia's Uptown String Band, one of that city's premier mummers bands.
Inspired by the 1979 movie The Warriors, in which a Brooklyn street gang is wrongly accused of killing a gangleader and is compelled to battle every other gang in the city in one night from the Bronx to Coney Island. A remake is scheduled for 2010.
The now-decrepit, yet landmarked Boardwalk Child's Restaurant at West 21st has been reborn as Lola Staar's Dreamland Roller Rink. Though there are many remaining Child's around town, this Coney version is literally dripping with terra cotta sea mementos, including King Neptune.
Beautiful Sea Maidens of the Deep
Would you like to cast off your daily existence and dwell forever with the fish tailed lovelies of the Mermaid Parade? Be careful what you wish for. Coney's mermaids mainly reside in Coney Island Creek, amid rusting submarines and shopping carts, oil spills, used surgical gloves and "Coney Island whitefish." They're much tougher than their Disney counterparts. They only come on land for the parade and to lay their eggs.
