Daily News from New York, New York • 53

DAILY NEWS, FRIDAY, APRIL 0, 1976 53 i Jl Coney DsflamicO: bantered but uri bowed, ifl still amuses a- -5 cO' kth tarn til a i-, News Photos by Charles Frattint Workmen prepare ride for new season: Diamond Jim Brady, where have you gone? By KEN McKENNA Conpy Island survives. In this Lioentenn'al year, it survives whites and blues, colors that are be in? splashed lileiallv over many of its ajrinjr amusement rides in preparation for its official cpernnir on Palm Sunday. Coney Island survive, despite its ramshackle imatre as the poor man's paradise; despite the encroachment of towering apartment complexes that make the venerable seaside reort seem tacky and almost out of place in an urbanized setting. It survives with a rough charm and tawdry glamor that makes the resort unique alone the Eastern Seaboard. Disney World officials hae little to worry about, and the Coney Island exterior surely affronts the Bleakness of the new nianulaciured amusement centers urn as New Jersey's Great Adventure.

Still, on warm weekends, more than persons crowd into Coney's With the walk along the eight-block midway called the Bowery, past food stands and shooting galleries, games of chance being touted by flat-voiced pitchmen, past penny arcades, a visitor quickly realizes that the more Coney Ldand changes, the more it remains the same. From the a'most verticle drop of the Cyclone roller coaster to the terrifying swing out toward the Atlantic Ocean in a Wonder Wheel far, customers howl at a' familiar, delighted pitch. Newer rides like the Jumbo Jet, which loasts a bone-cracking HO-degree turn, are like fresh decorations on an ancient facade. "I'm sick and tired of hearing- about the old days," said Michael Curran, owner of two rides and currently president of the Coney Island Chamber of Commerce. "I.ast year, we got some middle income people for the first time in years.

We've always drawn from low-income people. Once we had people like Diamond Jim Brady but that was a long time ago. There's no amusement park in the world where you ran get many rides so cheap." An oufsize impact In recent years, the rising cot of almost everything wreaked near-devastation on Coney Island. Catering as the area does to people with a minimum amount of money, every additional cost increase had an outsize impact. The 50-cent subway fare meant that a day's transportation bill for a sizable family no longer was negligible.

With the Sa-cent hot tlog and higher prices of other Coney Island staples, no meal-there is inexpensive. As a city resort. Coney Island is absolutely dependent on municipal services, which current budget difficulties threaten to reduce across a broad front. The recession undeniably the Coney Island economy. At 60 to 75 cents for an average ride, families were not laying out enough money to keep the turnstiles spinning at a profitable pace.

Last year, in desperation, operators of many of the rides banded together and initiated a "pay one price" tPOP) For Coney Island business men. ever jealous of their independence, the cooperative venture represented a remarkable turnabout. Under the plan, customers could buy on three weekdays a $5.50 ticket ($3.95 this year) that would admit them to any of 32 major rides from 11 a.m. opening to 11 closing. In addition, some of the concessionaires offered extra merchandise or two-for-one food portions for ticket holders.

The program included a advertising budget. real estate firm leveled the renowned "Steeplechase Park that for decades housed some of Coney's most popular rides. The City Parks Department even threatened to tear down the Cyclone for expansion of the New York Aquarium, a scheme local pressure aborted, at least temporarily. This on-going phenomenon of vanishing rides, sometimes by fire, sometimes by zealous real estate developers, left many New Yorkers with the Impression that the amusement area was fading away. Certainly, the northern side of Surf Avenue, across the street" from the midway, is doited with shuttered buildings.

Some store fronts have lieen prer empted by flea markets, hardly the sign of a thriving' amusement mecca. A bustling center But between Surf and the boardwalk, the eight-block Bowery remains a bustling center for rides and revelry. At the western end, one of Coney Island's long-time enterpreneurs has rebuilt Steeplechase Fark on five acres, striving to regain some of Coney's old glory. This year, in fact, the region has attracted more investment money than it has for decades. Owners of Astroland, one of Coney's three kiddie parks, are pouring in $2 million for five new-adult rides, one of which is a 75-foot wheel that stands up on end, whirling- gondolas in all directions.

The operator of Steeplechase, Norman Kaufman, observed; "I was born la Coney Island and lived here all ruy.life. As bad as things have been out here, they were not as bad as people, said. I made a living here, my parents made a living here. That's something, isn't Kaufman briefly nurtured a dream of restoring the desolate parachute jump that looms as the region's most distinctive feature, next to the Wonder Wheel, although both are dwarfed by interviewing of customers and found that a hell of a lot of people came here for the first time," Mike Curran said. of them thought Coney wasn't here any more, that the amusement area closed." Coney Island has been dogged over the years by a reputation for attracting troublesome elements.

Traditionally, it has been popular with the poor and low-income individuals. The plain fact is that these days most of such individuals come from minorities and the young. "The Police Department allocates 100 to 150 men to patrol the streets beginning in mid-May. With the advent of the warm weather until after Ibor Day, Coney Island changes from a quiet family area, amenable to the old and retired persons from near-by apartment houses, to a pleasure mecca that lures busloads of funlovers from as far away as North Carolina and Washington, D. C.

"Any large concentration of people and you're going to have problems," said Detectiye Barry Brisacone, community relations officer for the fiOth Precinct. "The "past few years nothing major has' happened. It's been relatively quiet here." He hesitated. "Quiet for Coney Island. You do have cases of people using up all their money on the rides and concessions-and then ripping someone off just to get carfare." Merchants complajn that cutbacks on' police patrols during winter months encouraged vandals who roam the deserted amusement area.

Theft is not. the main concern; fire is. Burnt-out rides are an old bugaboo among carnival men. At Coney Island, fires have had the salubrious side effect of fostering replacement of dilapidated buildings. Public confusion overthe viability of Coney Island is understandable.

Many of the buildings show their age and are flecked with peeling paint. And the island's vogue as an amusement center rested for years on several famous parks In many ways, Kaufman typifies the Coney Island business man with his Reeling for traditions and faith in the area's future. When he started rebuilding Steeplechase, he searched Florida for the metal horses from the original park's most notable ride and has them stored against the day he wilt-find a use fur them. Like Kaufman, many ride operators were born in the area and knew the sounds of carnival music and-the crack of shooting gallery rifles from childhood. They revel in the excitement, rather like old vaudeville performers who can still hear the clapping.

Silvio Pinto's father built amusement rides and. since he was 1, Silvio operated Coney Lland roller coasters, including the Cyclone. Now, he is overseeing construction of an all steel coaster on Surf Avenue, an investment of $500,000. "It's a lot of money," he admitted. "But I think Coney Island is the place to spend if.

Coney Island has always had its upa and downs. It goes in cycles. People had us buried for the last 50 years but we're still here. Everyone wants to see Coney Island afc least once." Fred Garms has been working on the imposing Wonder Wheel for 41 of his iil years. His office; next to the wheel that turns tirelessly nine months of the year, once was his parents apartment He still clambers daily over the iron work which appears as sturdy as it was when it was riveted 56 years ago.

"I never thought about going into any other business. I've been working on the wheel since I was 20." Jerry Ad'er, who runs Astroland with his father, talked the other day about Coney's future and the strange lure of the amusement park business. "Ha majored in business administration in college and tried his hand at real estate before returning to the family operation. "It's a business that once you. get int it, it's very hard to leave.

Like tUat eld. yjti tuAnya tue Leach." apartment developments. "Now they want that have disappeared. Long gone, for As a result, -some weekday crowds lit gtfs and Coney Islanders hope to repeat the which once exemplified the best Coney teiriule joKing laiiauiat Li achievement this year. "We did same Island had offer.

Tec years ago, a it back to what it was," he said..