Coney Island

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Coney Island

The want to relax and to be entertained has always been a part of human nature. It seems that business has always been able to find ways to fulfill this want. But throughout the history of the United States the job of achieving this task has not been easy. More attractive ideas and inventions were constantly knocking out the old ways to enjoy life.

In the second half of the nineteenth century genteel reformers seemed to have found a new way to entertain the crowds; pleasure parks. The two that really stood out were New York’s Central Park and Chicago’s Columbian Exposition. Of course, the idea of these two attractions was to give the public a place to get away. Central Park provided visitors with a natural setting and gave them a sense of the past. Contradictory to Central, the Columbian Exposition used the imagination and ideas of what the future could be like, to entertain its audience. Also, in the case of these parks, there was a large underlying theme; to keep society’s Victorian virtues and teach the “slums” of civilization how to become more refined. As the parks grew older their attractiveness lessened, and upcoming generations grew impatient with the uniform rules of order. Consequently, the search for a new type of leisure-time activity began.

The form of park that came about to end this search was the amusement park, and the most well known of these amusement parks was Coney Island. The major reason this type of park was so successful was because of all it did for society. One thing it did was raise post office restrictions on the mailing of picture postcards since so many people wanted to mail family and friends to show them how much fun they were having. Coney Island was also like a safe-haven for immigrants. Here everyone was kind and there were lots of things to be done so it was a good way for the new residences of the country to experience America. This boost in immigration also gave the country a greater ethnic diversity. The fact the park had such a liberating social setting also brought about changes in fashion, and sexual expression. The rides provided the right scenes for couples to express their love for each other in public more often, and as a result this public display of affection became more accepted. The beaches also gave society a more accepting ideology to the thought of more revealing clothing.

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