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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 May 2019
This essay directs attention to the original attraction of those amusements outside the city proper: natural landscapes at the edge of cities in which popular amusements were constructed. Here, the heart of subversive possibility was located where the immutable, uncontrollable natural elements interacted with constructed ones. In the case of Coney Island and similar coastal landscapes, this meant the seashore. The beach broke down manufactured limitations, exposing all beachgoers—particularly women—as the same under the sun. I examine the impact that Coney's seashore had on defining class-bound womanhood. I argue that within the island's liminal confines, the beach's natural elements exposed the fallacy that well-off women were naturally cleaner, both physically and morally, than not just men, but also working-class women. Nature trumped the manufactured to sully both the bodies and, metaphorically, the respectability of the women who flocked to Coney. The farther that women ventured toward the ocean, the more the seascape nullified their differences and democratized its allegedly hygienic visitors. This concept normalized in the early twentieth century as city borderlands, primarily the seashore and mountains, introduced possibilities for more porous gender and class identities in urban areas.
1 Dreiser, Theodore, The Color of a Great City (1923; repr., New York: Syracuse University Press, 1996), 119–22Google Scholar.
2 “West End's Busy Day,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Aug. 12, 1895 (hereafter referred to as BDE).
3 For a broader discussion of the impact of popular publications targeting women, see Garvey, Ellen Gruber, Adman in the Parlor: Magazines and the Gendering of Consumer Culture, 1880s to 1910s (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Peiss, Kathy, Hope in a Jar: The Making of America's Beauty Culture (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1998)Google Scholar; and Scanlon, Jennifer, Inarticulate Longings: The Ladies’ Home Journal, Gender, and the Promises of Consumer Culture (New York: Routledge, 1995)Google Scholar.
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5 Scholars of popular amusements in cities and their borderlands such as Kathy Peiss and Elizabeth Ewen work in tandem with labor historians such as Alice Kessler-Harris, Joanne Meyerowitz, and Lara Vapnek, who address urban labor patterns that determined the time, space, and resources that framed a new concept of leisure. (See Kessler-Harris, , Out to Work: A History of Wage-Earning Women in the United States (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982)Google Scholar); Meyerowitz, , Women Adrift: Independent Wage Earners in Chicago, 1880–1930 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988)Google Scholar; and Vapnek, , Breadwinners: Working Women and Economic Independence, 1865–1920 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2009)Google Scholar. Peiss's, Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn-of-the-Century New York (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1986)Google Scholar and Ewen's, Immigrant Women in the Land of Dollars: Life and Culture on the Lower East Side, 1890–1925 (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1985)Google Scholar focus on the meaning and practice of leisure as they explore the ways that New York's ethnically diverse working class participated in commercial entertainments; Peiss, in particular, looks beyond the city to its borderlands.
6 Kasson, John, Amusing the Million: Coney Island at the Turn of the Century (New York: Hill and Wang, 1978)Google Scholar. For more on this perspective, see Immerso, Michael, Coney Island: The People's Playground (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2002)Google Scholar; Parascandola, Louis J. and Parascandola, John, eds., A Coney Island Reader: Through Dizzy Gates of Illusion (New York: Columbia University Press, 2015), 1–49Google Scholar; and Koolhaas, Rem, Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan (New York: The Monacelli Press, 1994, orig. pub. 1978)Google Scholar.
7 Peiss, Cheap Amusements, 133. See also Peiss, “‘Charity Girls’ and City Pleasures: Historical Notes on Working-Class Sexuality, 1880–1920” in Powers of Desire: The Politics of Sexuality, eds. Snitow, Ann, Stansell, Christine, and Thompson, Sharon (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1983), 74–86Google Scholar.
8 For a greater understanding of city-based amusements, see such works as Toll, Robert, Blacking Up: The Minstrel Show in Nineteenth Century America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1974)Google Scholar; Davis, Janet M., The Circus Age: Culture and Society Under the American Big Top (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002)Google Scholar; and Green, Harvey, Fit for America: Health, Fitness, Sport, and American Society (New York: Pantheon, 1986)Google Scholar.
9 Lawrence Levine explores the connection of class and myriad entertainments in the seminal Highbrow/Lowbrow: The Emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America (Cambridge: MA: Harvard University Press, 1988)Google Scholar, while other critical works focus on seaside and other natural getaways. While Coney Island predominates, other works home in on the miles of seashore outside New York to examine the intersection of culture and commercialization. (See, for example, Stanonis, Anthony, Faith in Bikinis: Politics and Leisure in the Coastal South since the Civil War (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2014.)Google Scholar) For a broad look at recreational camping, see Young, Terence, Heading Out: A History of American Camping (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2017)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Other manufactured amusements took hold at natural wonders such as Niagara Falls, as seen in Dubinsky, Karen, Second Greatest Disappointment: Honeymooners, Heterosexuality, and the Tourist Industry at Niagara Falls (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1999)Google Scholar.
10 See Bhabha, Homi K., The Location of Culture (New York: Routledge, 1994), 1–27Google Scholar.
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13 Immerso, Michael, The People's Playground (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2002), 3–4, 16–18Google Scholar; Coney Island and the Jews: A History of the Development and Success of this Famous Seaside Resort, Together with a Full Account of the Recent Jewish Controversy (New York: G. W. Carleton & Co., 1879)Google Scholar in Grob, Gerald N., ed., Anti-Semitism in America, 1878–1939 (New York: Arno Press, 1977), n.pGoogle Scholar.
14 Immerso, The People's Playground, 3–4, 16–18.
15 Russell, Thomas L., Thompson's Coney Island, Guide (New York: J. P. Tracy & Co., 1885), 28–29Google Scholar; Iron Steamboat Company, Coney Island, n.p.
16 Immerso, The People's Playground, 17.
17 “English Eyes Contrast the Various Beaches of Coney Island,” BDE, July 21, 1887; “Things Talked Of,” Harper's Weekly 37 (Aug. 5, 1893): 735–37.
18 Cudahy, Brian J., How We Got to Coney Island: The Development of Mass Transportation in Brooklyn and Kings County (New York: Fordham University Press, 2002), 55–57Google Scholar; Immerso, The People's Playground, 21.
19 “Coney Island. Splendid Weather at the Beach,” BDE, July 9, 1880.
20 Taintor, C. N., American Seaside Resorts: A Hand-Book for Health and Pleasure Seekers, Describing the Atlantic Coast, from the St. Lawrence River to the Gulf of Mexico (New York, 1886), 96Google Scholar.
21 Immerso, The People's Playground, 23.
22 Coney Island: An Illustrated Guide to the Sea, n.p.; Iron Steamboat Company, Coney Island, n.p.
23 Immerso, The People's Playground, 27.
24 Brooklyn, Flatbush and Coney Island Railway Co., Coney Island: An Illustrated Guide to the Sea, n.p.
25 Taintor, American Seaside Resorts, 91; Brooklyn, Flatbush and Coney Island Railway Co., Coney Island: An Illustrated Guide to the Sea, n.p.; John B. Manbeck, “Where Ocean Breezes Blow,” 2001, n.p., Kingston Historical Society Collection (hereafter referred to as KHS).
26 Immerso, The People's Playground, 24–27.
27 “The Hebrews,” BDE, July 22, 1879.
28 Immerso, The People's Playground, 4; Manbeck, “Where Ocean Breezes Blow,” n.p.; BDE, May 17, 1878.
29 “English Eyes Contrast the Various Beaches of Coney Island,” BDE, July 21, 1887.
30 Immerso, The People's Playground, 24–26; Iron Steamboat Company, Coney Island, n.p.
31 Brooklyn, Flatbush and Coney Island Railway Co., Coney Island: An Illustrated Guide to the Sea, n.p.; Iron Steamboat Company, Coney Island, n.p.
32 Marina Moskowitz, “Back yards and Beyond: Landscapes and History” in Karen Harvey, ed., History and Material Culture (New York: Routledge), 74–75.
33 Cudahy, How We Got to Coney Island, 67.
34 Kasson, Amusing the Million, 29; Immerso, The People's Playground, 16; Cudahy, How We Got to Coney Island, 53–54.
35 Brooklyn, Flatbush and Coney Island Railway Co., Coney Island: An Illustrated Guide to the Sea, n.p.
36 Immerso, A People's Playground, 21–23; Cudahy, How We Got to Coney Island, 58–59.
37 “Coney Island,” Harper's Weekly 26 (July 29, 1882): 475.
38 “Coney Island,” Harper's Weekly 26 (July 29, 1882): 475.
39 “New York Harbor Traffic,” Harper's Weekly 38 (Sept. 1, 1894): 831–33.
40 “Coney Island – 1905,” postcard, KHS.
41 Cudahy, How We Got to Coney Island, 131–32.
42 “Fresh Air,” BDE, July 28, 1875.
43 “Brighton. First Business of the New Railroad to Coney Island,” BDE, July 5, 1878.
44 Brooklyn, Flatbush and Coney Island Railway Co., Coney Island: An Illustrated Guide to the Sea, n.p.
45 “Coney Island. A Day of Sunshine and Showers,” BDE, June 30, 1879.
46 “The Seaside. Rush of People to Coney Island and Rockaway,” BDE, June 26, 1882.
47 “On the Road to Coney Island,” trade card, ca. 1880s, New York Public Library.
48 Manbeck, Coney Island: Home of Pleasure Parks and Fantasy Palaces, 1983, n.p., KHS; Cudahy, How We Got to Coney Island, 67–69.
49 Robert Sloss, “How the Metropolis Has Made Its Ocean Front and Annex of the ‘Great White Way,’” Harper's Weekly 55 (Aug. 12, 1911): 19.
50 Cudahy, How We Got to Coney Island, 24–48.
51 Cudahy, How We Got to Coney Island, 51–53.
52 “Manhattan: Opening Day of the Season at the Beach,” BDE, June 30, 1879.
53 “Coney Island. A Day of Sunshine and Showers,” BDE, June 30, 1879.
54 “Midsummer. A Delightful Sunday at Coney Island Beach,” BDE, July 19, 1880.
55 Cudahy, How We Got to Coney Island, 100–03.
56 “English Eyes Contrast the Various Beaches of Coney Island,” BDE, July 21, 1887.
57 “Beat Marine Railway. As a Result, Sojourner at Manhattan Beach Was Indeed a Happy Man,” BDE, July 23, 1902.
58 “By the Sea: Coney Island, Rockaway and Manhattan Beach,” BDE, Aug. 2, 1877.
59 “Very Hot. The Weather Even at Coney Island Yesterday,” BDE, Aug. 4, 1879.
60 “English Eyes Contrast the Various Beaches of Coney Island,” BDE, July 21, 1887.
61 “Much Hot Weather Fun,” BDE, July 5, 1896.
62 “Manhattan Beach. Swept by Ocean Breezes,” advertisement, BDE, June 3, 1896.
63 “At the Theaters,” BDE, July 2, 1901.
64 “Beautiful Manhattan Beach,” advertisement, Pittsburgh Press (June 14 1910.
65 “Manhattan Beach,” photograph, ca. 1880, Brooklyn Historical Society Collection.
66 “Health and Pleasure by the Sea, Coney Island,” photograph, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (hereafter referred to as LOC P&P), 1885.
67 “Manhattan Beach,” photograph, 1902, LOC P&P.
68 Coney Island Beach and Boardwalk Scenes, lithograph, Cincinnati, New York: Strobridge Lith. Co., ca. 1898. LOC P&P.
69 Hollander, Anne, Seeing Through Clothes (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993; orig. pub. 1975), xiiGoogle Scholar.
70 Taintor, American Seaside Resorts, 8.
71 Coney Island and the Jews, n.p.
72 “At the Shore. Thousands Seeking to Escape the Torrid Wave,” BDE, Sept. 6, 1880; “The Heat. Thousands Seeking Relief at Coney Island,” BDE, July 28, 1882.
73 Ulyat, William C., Life at the Sea Shore. (Princeton, NJ: McGinness and Runyan, 1880), 35Google Scholar.
74 Warner, Patricia Campbell, When the Girls Came Out to Play: The Birth of American Sportswear (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2006), 63–67Google Scholar; Kidwell, Claudia Brush, Women's Bathing and Swimming Costume in the United States (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1968), 18–19Google Scholar.
75 Taintor, American Seaside Resorts, 8.
76 Fischer, Gayle V., Pantaloons and Power: A Nineteenth-Century Dress Reform in the United States (Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press, 2001), 171–73Google Scholar; Warner, When the Girls Came Out to Play, 3–11, 69–72.
77 “Ladies’ Bathing Costume,” The Ladies’ World 16 (Aug. 1895): 10; Williamson & Foster, Spalding's Spring and Summer Sports (Harrisburg, PA: Williamson & Foster, 1896), n.pGoogle Scholar.
78 “Fancies of Fashion,” The Ladies’ World 11 (Aug. 1890): 15.
79 “Seashore and Mountain Frocks,” The Ladies’ Home Journal 9 (Aug. 1892): 21; “Ah there! Coney Island,” photograph, 1897, LOC P&P.
80 Kidwell, Women's Bathing and Swimming Costume in the United States, 21–23.
81 “Outing Gowns for Summer,” Harper's Bazaar 38 (July 1904): 690.
82 “Manhattan Beach,” photograph, 1902 LOC P&P.
83 “Picnicking at the Beach,” photograph, 1900–1905, LOC P&P.
84 Warner, When the Girls Came Out to Play, 78.
85 “At the Shore. Thousands Seeking to Escape the Torrid Wave,” BDE, Sept. 6, 1880; “The Beaches. What Makes a Visit to Coney Island Interesting,” BDE, July 8, 1881.
86 Charles Dawson Shanly, “Coney Island,” in Parascandola, 62; orig. pub. in Atlantic Monthly (Sept. 1, 1874): 306–12.
87 “English Eyes Contrast the Various Beaches of Coney Island,” BDE, July 21, 1887.
88 Ibid.
89 “At the Shore. Thousands Seeking to Escape the Torrid Wave,” BDE, Sept. 6, 1880; “By the Sea. The Last Summer Sunday Enjoyed by Many Thousands,” BDE, Aug. 29, 1881.
90 “Corbin's Magic Touch. What It Has Accomplished for Coney Island,” BDE, July 13, 1890.
91 “More Heat and Humidity, Says the Weather Bureau,” BDE, Aug, 26, 1900; “Great Day for the Hotels,” BDE, July 22, 1901.
92 “Crowds at Coney Island,” photograph, July 5, early twentieth century, LOC P&P.
93 “The Trials of the Artist,” Harper's Weekly 38 (Jan. 27, 1894), 96.
94 “A Beach Abomination,” BDE, June 28, 1876; “Pestilence: Shall It Be Systematically Cultivated?” BDE, Aug, 15, 1876; “Defeated: The Attempt to Ruin Our Summer Resorts,” BDE, August 8, 1877; “Offal Again: New York Contractors Defiling the Sea Beach,” BDE, July 11, 1878.
95 “Grand Display of Fireworks at the Brighton,” BDE, July 2, 1880.
96 “Summer diversions at the seaside,” Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper 62 (July 24, 1886): 353.
97 Taintor, American Seaside Resorts, 93.
98 The garbage situation did not improve markedly even as Coney gained popularity as a seaside resort. “Notes from the Seashore,” BDE, Aug. 6, 1892.
99 “Surf Bathing,” photograph, 1900–1905, LOC P&P.
100 “At Rockaway Beach,” Harper's Weekly 33 (Aug. 17, 1889): 658.
101 “Bathing Scene, Coney Island,” photograph, 1896, LOC P&P.
102 “A Frolic with the Sea,” Harper's Weekly 33 (July 27, 1889): 610.
103 “Sea Bathing: What Will Be Worn by Bathers,” BDE, June 29, 1880.
104 Taintor, American Seaside Resorts, 6–7.
105 “On the Beach, Coney Island,” photograph, 1897, LOC P&P.
106 “At Gay Coney Island” by Levin C. Tees, Mathews & Bulger, lithograph, Cincinnati, New York: Strobridge Lith. Co., ca.1896; “A Jolly Crowd in the Surf, Coney Island, NY,” photograph, 1903, LOC P&P.
107 “A Throw Down,” photograph, early twentieth century, LOC P&P.