1909: The Age of Melancholy and Morphia

Here we read about a generation so ghostly-gone that their departed souls were being summoned in seances of the 1940's. In N.Y.City, suicides among prominent people seem epidemic. There is a wide spread belief that Mars has canals and an advanced civilization: a dizzying, new, accepted 'fact of life' that immured people from any more "future shock". There are cars, suddenly, but few traffic laws. There is 'wireless' and "musical sparks' may fly through the air someday...

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Saturday, June 20, 2009

Coney Island dresses up in a hurry

In the Spring of 1909, Coney Island's amusement proprietors were compelled to present themselves as "Educational", due to a new 'Sunday Law'. The weekend of May 24th was no rehearsal. Luna Park became "The Luna Park Institute of Sciences".

Coney Island

This Fatty Short opens with a scene of Luna Park.