On the first Saturday of summer, revelers of every variety floated down Surf Avenue in Coney Island, N.Y.’s annual Mermaid Parade. Among this year’s favorites were a group of Carmen Mirandas dancing a samba to a beat punctuated by the screams of riders on Astroland’s Cyclone roller coaster. When the extravaganza was over, the dancers headed back to the suite of administrative offices above Gregory & Paul’s snack bar. “It’s one of our biggest days of the season,” said the group’s leader, who, despite the harlequin sunglasses, was readily recognizable as Carol Hill-Albert, vice president of Astroland, the largest amusement park on Coney Island’s fabled shore.

Sea Lion Park, the world’s first gated amusement park, was just a few blocks away on Neptune Avenue and 12th.

Historian Charles Denson, author of the award-winning book Coney Island Lost and Found, is currently at work on a history of Astroland, which is built on the site of Feltman’s, the successful restaurant owned by the inventor of the hot dog. “The interesting thing about the property is that it’s only had two owners since the 1870s. The Alberts followed the Coney Island tradition of changing things gradually and buildings were used for multiple purposes,” says Denson, who is fascinated by “the gradual transition from Coney Island’s oldest site to Coney Island’s newest space-age theme amusement park, born at the dawn of the space age.”

The park started with little more than a miniature golf course, a Double Diving Bell, a Sky Ride, and six kiddie rides. The Von Roll AstroTower, the first ride of its kind in the United States when it was installed in 1963, spins observers in a glass cabin up a 253-foot tube and offers a panoramic view of New York Harbor. Every year, one or two new rides such as a Zamperla Power Surge and HUSS Break Dance and Pirate Ship have been added to the three-acre park. While many of the original space-themed rides have been retired, the Rocket Ship now functions as a fabulous piece of folk art atop the roof of Gregory & Paul’s boardwalk location.

The 77-year-old National Register-listed Cyclone, which Charles Lindbergh called “more of a thrill than flying,” still lands on top-10 lists compiled by coaster enthusiasts. Known as the most copied roller coaster ever built, the city-owned ride has been operated and maintained by Astroland since 1975. And for just as long, Gerry Menditto has been supervising the daily inspection. “It feels like a family. We get so many of the same people back every year. I’m lucky to have well-trained and loyal employees and terrific managers,” Hill- Albert says.

Longtime key personnel also include Mark Blumenthal, the park’s boyishlooking operations manager, who started out as assistant game manager 23 years ago. “We stole him as a baby,” jokes administrative manager Carole O’Donnell, who arrived at the same time. On the midway, Blumenthal points out the spot where the main ticket box stood, before it had to be moved 24 feet back to accommodate the crowd drawn by the Top Spin. Neptune’s Water Flume is another one of the park’s most popular rides. “It was one of the early flumes made by Arrow Development in the early 1960s, right after the New York World’s Fair, and it was built specifically for this park,” Blumenthal explains.

Key to the park’s success is its ability to cater to different markets with its range of events and activities. “We’re very lucky to be situated as an urban amusement park right by the beach, so although Six Flags Great Adventure is a competitor in one sense, it’s not in another. We’re close. We’re much more economical. It’s a completely different experience than going to a really large park,” Hill-Albert says.

Since contemporary Coney Island is a free gate (except for Sideshows by the Seashore and the New York Aquarium), visitors meander down the midways, city streets, and five-mile-long boardwalk, passing from one park and attraction to another. To boost revenue, Astroland features an array of special events, including Circus Days, Twins and Multiples Day, and Friday Night Cabaret. Appearances by SpongeBob Squarepants and the Rugrats attract families to the park’s Kiddieland, which has more than a dozen rides, including an S & S Froghopper and Zamperla teacups, purchased this season.

Astroland is also a longtime supporter of the 22-year-old Mermaid Parade—a free event produced by the nonprofit arts organization Coney Island USA—that draws an estimated half a million people. “It appeals to that cutting-edge crowd who see Coney Island as a little bit funky, a place to rediscover,” Hill-Albert explains.

The other big event of the season is the Village Voice’s Siren Music Festival, an independent rock concert produced by the newspaper with the help of Astroland and corporate sponsorships. Held this summer for the fourth time, the daylong event’s main stage is on 10th Street next to the Cyclone and draws music lovers in their 20s and 30s.

In addition, Astroland has launched cooperative ventures with its neighbors, cosponsoring the Friday night fireworks with Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park, and instituting a discount ticket swap with the New York Aquarium. A new program called New York Pass entitles visitors to $5 off. Plus, Astroland’s pay-one-price wristband or Kiddie Park 10-pack has attracted a steady stream of tourists from Manhattan. “When we first went into it, we didn’t know what to expect and were nicely surprised,” says Carole O’Donnell. In August, Gray Line, the tour bus operator, began offering day trips from Manhattan to Coney Island, including rides in Astroland and admission to the New York Aquarium for $39-$52.

Menditto quips, “People come here from all over the world. Some of them can’t speak English, but they can say the word ‘cyclone.’” Sure enough, at the picnic table in front of Gregory & Paul’s snack bar, a Russian woman enjoys a plate of the hand-cut fries while her fearless daughter rides the Cyclone for the sixth time.

The park also takes care of group visitors. Astroland offers a variety of packages, including a special two-hour rate designed for groups with young children. “We do a huge group business principally catering to nonprofits and community groups,” explains Lois Colin, group sales manager, citing such groups as foster care, shelters, and group homes. “It’s a philosophy of the park to keep it very economically priced so that we can accommodate children and young adults who might not otherwise be able to come.”

Astroland’s annual promotion budget of $250,000 goes toward producing and marketing these packages and special events. However, the park also benefits from the local media’s longtime love affair with Coney Island. Everything from Cyclone weddings to the rescue of Rocky the Raccoon, who took up residency one winter in the AstroTower, has been featured on the news. The walls of Astroland’s office are crammed with the Albert family’s 40-year collection of photographs and memorabilia. Among the standouts is a recent magazine cover: The New Yorker celebrated the Cyclone’s seventy-fifth birthday with a cover cartoon of riders careening down the first drop as a Cyclones catcher in the second train nonchalantly reaches up to catch a flyball. “You can’t pay for that kind of publicity,” Hill-Albert says.

In 1987, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of Astroland, the New York Post hailed the Alberts as “the family that keeps Coney Island rolling,” adding that while so much of Coney Island had burned down or was in decay, the Alberts kept the Cyclone running and kept expanding the park. By way of explanation, Jerome Albert told the reporter, “We have sand in our shoes.” Spoken by those who have an intimate working connection with Coney Island, the phrase conveys an unwavering commitment to this place where the amusement industry was born.

Hill-Albert is continuing the legacy by providing seed money to fund the nonprofit Coney Island History Project, an organization whose purpose is to preserve the past and promote tourism through a program of oral history. Next summer, Brooklyn College journalism students will conduct interviews in airconditioned kiosks, and selected stories will be compiled into a book. “We’re also going to do history panels on Surf Avenue that show a point of view through the years,” says Denson. “They’ll be able to stand on that corner and see what Luna Park looked like.”

Photos © Charles Denson