The Kid of Coney Island Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

The Kid of Coney Island Book

Fred Thompson (1873-1919) was a pioneering entrepreneur who encouraged Americans, especially American men, to have fun and stop feeling guilty about it. He designed and built Luna Park, which in 1903 transformed Coney Island from an area so tawdry it was known as "Sodom by the Sea" into a respectable venue for middle-class recreation. He created the Hippodrome, the world's largest theater when it opened in 1905, and filled it with lavish spectacles at affordable ticket prices. He moved on to become "the boy-wonder of Broadway producers," responsible for such popular hits as Brewster's Millions and Little Nemo. His financial acumen never equaled his showmanship (he lost control of both Luna Park and the Hippodrome to better businessmen), but he seems to have thoroughly enjoyed spending vast sums of money to make fantasy and luxury accessible to the masses. Woody Register, professor of American Studies at Sewanee, explores Thompson's life and career as a paradigm for the sea change in commercial culture that took place in the early years of the 20th century, when the Victorian emphasis on educational, elevating entertainment was challenged by a more hedonistic attitude that valued pleasure for its own sake. Gender theory and other currently trendy academic disciplines inform the author's point of view without detracting unduly from his well-written and well-paced narrative. Register could have eased up on the Peter Pan metaphors, but he convincingly links Thompson to present-day innovators who've made a bundle by refusing to grow up, such as director Steven Spielberg and the whiz kids who created the personal computer and Internet revolutions. This is a nice example of a scholarly work that reaches beyond its core audience to appeal to the general public. --Wendy Smith Read More

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  • Product Description

    A generation before Walt Disney, Fred Thompson was the "boy-wonder" of American popular amusements. At the turn of the 20th century, Thompson's entrepreneurial drive made him into an entertainment mogul who helped to define the popular culture of his day. In this lively biography, cultural historian Woody Register tells the remarkable story of Thompson and examines the transformation of commerce and entertainment as American society moved into an era of mass marketing and large-scale corporate enterprise.
    Register shows how Thompson got his start as a creator and promoter of carnival shows and world's fairs, including the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, and he traces Thompson's career as one of the principal developers and promoters of Coney Island (where he built Luna Park) and other amusement parks. Thompson built the mammoth Hippodrome Theater in Manhattan and mounted many productions there and on Broadway, noted for their spectacular (and spectacularly costly) staging effects. Thompson aggressively marketed to adult consumers a world of make-believe and childlike play, crafting his own public image as "the boy who never grew up." Register shows how strongly Thompson's fantasies appealed to the growing legions of men and women who found themselves in a world that seemed increasingly "businesslike," profit-oriented, and regimented.
    Colorful, well written, and insightful, The Kid of Coney Island brings to life a kaleidoscopic era in New York history as well as one of its most striking characters.

  • 0195144937
  • 9780195144932
  • Woody Register
  • 30 September 2001
  • Oxford University Press Inc
  • Hardcover (Book)
  • 416
  • illustrated edition
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