Upcoming Exhibits: Luna Park and Ebbets Field

We've received a few press releases on some upcoming exhibits here in the borough that may be of interest:

To coincide with Zamperla’s new Luna Park, set to open this Memorial Day weekend in Coney Island, the Coney Island History Project will open its featured exhibit “Luna Park Revisited.”

According to History Project Director Charles Denson, “The original Luna Park was a visual delight, a ‘grotesquely delightful’ storybook fantasyland filled with hundreds of towers, domes, spires, and minarets, all decorated with thousands of electric lights. It was known as the ‘Electric Eden,’ a city ‘sketched in flame.’ Our exhibit details the park’s history, from opening day in 1903 to the dramatic fire that destroyed it forty years later.”

Rare archival photos, family snapshots, souvenir postcards and fun ephemera from Luna Park will be on display in “Luna Park Revisited.” A touch screen monitor will provide access to dozens of more images.

The History Project’s public exhibition center under the Cyclone Roller Coaster (824 Surf Avenue just east of West 10th Street) will be open from 1-6 p.m. on Saturday, May 29 through Monday, May 31, and subsequent weekends through Labor Day. Admission is free of charge.

More than a century after the original Luna Park opened, Coney Island’s iconic park has inspired the creation of Zamperla’s new Luna Park. Denson is creating a photo exhibit of the site’s 140-year transformation from sand dunes to Sea Beach Railroad land grant, to Feltman’s Restaurant, to Astroland, and finally to the resurrected Luna Park across the street from its namesake.

“The arrival of ride manufacturer Zamperla continues the tradition of Coney Island as a laboratory and testing ground for new amusements,” Denson said. “Less than a block away, on West 8th Street, were the amusement factories and workshops of William Mangels, Marcus Illions, the Pinto Brothers, L.A. Thompson, and numerous other foundries, blacksmiths, electricians, and machinists.”

The Brooklyn Historical Society will be opening a new exhibit on June 3, “Home Base: Memories of the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field.” Through archives, photos and oral histories, the exhibit explores the connection between Ebbets Field, the Dodgers and the Brooklyn community. The exhibit will feature the history of the team and its fans by digging into BHS’ rich Dodger collection, which includes baseball cards, photographs of the field, ticket stubs, uniforms, seats from Ebbets Field, autographed baseballs, scorebooks from the 19th century, team photos and the famous Dodger Banner from their 1955 World Series win. The exhibit is curated by students from BHS’ after-school museum studies program, Exhibition Laboratory.