Defunctland: The History of Coney Island
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 มิ.ย. 2020
- In this fiery episode of Defunctland, Kevin tells five stories from New York's infamous playground of pleasure, Coney Island.
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ASPCA: You can’t hang the elephant, that’s too cruel!
Also ASPCA: *agrees to a plan that’s at least 10x worse*
I was thinking this. Wouldn't hanging an elephant kill it even faster than hanging a human because of how heavy they are?
It's got major PETA energy not gonna lie
@@jukes4499 the neck may be stronger though. A human neck breaks easily.
Ugh
You see the 10x, in their minds, It was only 10x
"Admissions to the burning ruins 10¢"
That's goals, right there
Dude is brilliant!
Most would see a disaster
he, however, saw an opportunity
The hustle never stops
CEO grindset
I want to sell sand to beachgoers
i love kevin defunctland because sometimes he'll just say shit like how a dude "died by a polar bear" and then move on with the video like it's totally normal
The polar bear speaks for itself
Or "while they were measuring their docks" lol
dude casually mentioning an attraction where you can view premature babies in incubators and moving on like it's nothing
The fact that to this day Czech language calls all amusement parks "lunapark" just shows how much of an impact it had on culture worldwide.
Neat.
we do the same in Italy lol, when we don't call it 'parco divertimenti' (it means funs park basically)
Learn something new every day. 😄
same here in Hebrew land
We have this term in russia aswell,me and my dad used to call them that
“Personal contact was something expected to remain at the home... or the elephant brothel down the road”
I never thought I’d hear that phrase
One of the best lines from the video Tbh
Or eventually Japanese love hotels, something Nintendo briefly ran during the mid 1900s while transitioning from cards to toys.
@@DoswarePictures which later became motels. Man, it's a weird world we live in...
How you gonna tell me that the first amusement park was created down the street from an elephant brothel? Good Times? Check. A Theme? Check. Nah, I think the Boynton's park was the second park built down the street from the first.
Red Ram Suddenly Moulin Rouge makes much more sense,
“Any touching was reserved for the home...”
Well that makes sense for the ti -
“...and the giant elephant brothel a few feet away.”
I’M SORRY WHAT
LOL
I had to pause the video from laughing too much
He said "the giant elephant brothel a few feet away"
Please make a Defunctland video of the elephant brothel.
PRÖÖÖÖÖh
Poor Topsy. I read about her. She was actually innocent and a perpetual victim of human cruelty. The human she "killed" was an abusive "Trailer" who fed her lit cigarettes mixed with her peanuts just because he liked her terrified and pained reaction.
my heart is broken, it’s so soulless
Nah she killed a spectator. She attacked biut didn't kill a trainer before that.
@@theonevertigo9334 ok? Why kill her though
@@akiraeatsguitarpicks491 Literally just because the owners couldn't be asked to continue finding trainers or looking after her, and saw the concept of an public elephant execution as a final way to make profit from her.
I knew about this from the Bob’s Burgers episode.
"Bragg wanted him in the Brig, but Boynton began to brag on the suit. Bragg bought the brag and kept Boynton out of the Brig allowing him to attempt his stunt." God those are some great sentences
You can't just skip over a guy getting killed by a polar bear.
He can't keep getting away with this
What would you do for a Klondike bar?
Contrary to popular depictions, that is what happens when you try to hug a polar bear.
The guy was ahead of his time. :)
Dude was a lion tamer who already lost an arm to a lion.
Doesn't take much to imagine what happened, really.
He lived like a madlad and he died like a madlad.
Love how it wasn’t okay for people to hold hands, but there was an entire elephant brothel lol
As long as it was inside. Touching a shoulder would warrant you to 3rd base.
What happens in the elephant, stays in the elephant.
Brothels were specifically a place where social norms didn't apply back then. You paid to indulge in your lust with women who had no social standing and where no one knew you. If your visits were to be made public knowledge it would of course be terribly embarrassing, but usually it was just not talked about, even if others knew where you were going on the weekends.
@@troodon1096 the elephant never forgets tho...
@@Stingraysquad backwards mentality that's delusional western society have a wife at home but seek out lustful paid for services. Why even act like monogamy is the ideal if can't even follow the "standard"
Why am I even surprised that the villain is once again Robert Moses.
The Michael Eisner of New York City
It all comes back to Robert fucking Moses.
He was such a demonic genuis
Guy basically destroy NY and it's effect the city a century later
@@theoneandonlymichaelmccormick
brooo literally when he brought up robert moses i was like it ALL CAME FULL CIRCLE TO ROBERT FUCKING MOSES literally what i said to myself this dude is a menace
The premature incubator thing is my favourite historical moment. They were free for the patients and there names weren't shown anywhere for privacy reasons. Not only did they have wet nurses but the wet nurses had special chef's so the babies had the best possible nutrition! They were there for decades and grown up patients would come back as adults and meet the parents of current patients.
I did not expect any of this. That's almost wholesome. Still creepy, but I would have expected _much_ worse from the Gilded Age.
Still sounds absolutely freaking insane for people to pay to see babies in incubators but we least it was mostly good.
It helped develop many techniques for premature which up till then was just good luck.
@@krunk28 Before they would literally just wait for the babies to die because they thought there was nothing that could be done. I watched another video on this topic and was blown away by how much these bizarre-sounding exhibitions actually helped advance the care for preemies.
ok that's good, I was a premature baby so when it got to that part I was really concerned but at least they cared for the babies they treated as exhibits! give credit where it's due I suppose, which isn't many places in this case
"They got to touch... WOMAN SHOULDER. Or as it was known in 1897: third base." Absolute perfection. I wish I was that clever.
Fortunately, by the 1950's the base rules had loosened, by the '60's "freeball" was in general play... ;))
Ain’t nothing lewder than a female shoulder
16:32, btw
That's one of the most cliche jokes possible. If you're finding this 'clever' then I only feel pity
When I showed that to my dad, he burst out laughing. XD
“Moses had a complicated relationship with the lower class, in that he did not seem to like them very much, but definitely could not say that out loud”
Kevin, I love you
This is the most underrated quote of the episode
A true red-blooded American Lich that Moses...
Robert Moses would have loved the movie "Cars" because there were no people - just cars. Cars that built themselves, taught themselves to speak, laid down their own roads and drove themselves on the roads. He could have made that speech Judge Doom delivers in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", about his vision of endless highways where cars get on and cars get off, all day, all night.
@@planescaped And here I thought Brennan had made him up. Turns out he was a real life monster.
Damned [double-checks timeline] 1930s cancel culture, just out here ruining America.
The dichotomy between this being one of the funniest defunctland episodes and all the animal deaths is insane
Oh!!! The baby incubators! I heard about those on the sawbones podcast. Those were really cool actually. The funds from the attraction were used for to pay for nurses, upkeep of the incubators, and the needs of the infants! This revolutionized care of premature babies. Parents willingly had their babies in that show because, no joke, the infants wouldn’t have survived otherwise! There wasn’t anyone else doing premature baby care as successfully as that show!
Ayyyyy fellow sawbones listener
Between "measuring their docks" and "as it was known in 1897, third base" I think they had too much fun writing this episode.
Also that line about finding a crossover between religious conservatives & local perverts.
"Bragg wanted him in the brig, but Boyton began to brag on the suit. Bragg bought the brag and kept Boyton out of the brig."
@@dimethylhexane Sounds like one of those tongue-twister rhymes.
"He had a complicated relationship with the lower class, in that he did not seem to like them very much but definitely could not say that out loud."
There are so many amazing lines in this one; you have outdone yourself, for the record.
he is such a monster
cute pic
I grew up in Brooklyn, and my Mother and Grandparents lived on Coney Island for most of their lives. My grandfather even worked at Steeplechase Pier and Luna Park as a kid. So I've been told SO many stories.
My Great Grandfather was an orthodox Jewish man who would commonly use a local bathhouse on the boardwalk (it was the Great Depression, and public bathouses were generally cheaper, especially when raising 8 children).
One day, while he was out, they learned that there was a fire and the bathhouse burned down, and were relieved when he came home safe. But he refused to talk about it. In reality, he was there when the fire broke out. He desperately helped people get out of the building, but needed to quickly cover himself before exiting. The only thing on-hand, was a woman's dress he found.
So you can imagine the family's face when a local paper arrived the next day to show my Orthodox Jewish Great Grandfather running out of a bathhouse in a woman's dress on the front page.
(Been looking for a copy of it for years, but it seems to be lost to time, unfortunately)
HELP SDDSFCFVHDTG
Check out library archives they typically have old newspapers preserved. I know for a fact if you live in NYC the NYC public library has archived decades of public newspapers going back to the 1800s I believe so you might be able to find a copy there if you ask a librarian
What a great story. Thanks for sharing!
Grew up in Coney, Its heartbreaking to see how much renovating it has gone through now. Moses' plan of making Coney less of an area for low income families has finally gone through fruition, I had to move out because of gentrification. I would have loved to see Coney Island back in its hayday
brooo sameeeeee
coney island? more like baloney island 👎
rich people ruin everything. They're a cancer in every society.
I've lived in South Brooklyn all my life, originally in Manhattan Beach and now in the neighborhood of Sheepshead Bay. I have vague memories of the last few years of Astroland before the new Luna Part was built (I even worked their it's inaugural season). Unfortunately, all of the adjacent neighborhoods (sans Brighton Beach), Sheepshead especially, have been getting gentrified for the last 15 years at least, but at the very least, Coney is hell bent on staying an amusement park, thanks in large part to the preservation efforts of Coney Island USA, of which my mom is a regular ally. Right now, they're trying to stave off the development of a casino.
Stop being poor.
I think we can agree the only humane way to kill an elephant is to build a brothel inside of it. Like, gentlemen.
It resounds with the elephants in the room.
And then set said brothel on fire.
Tip of the hat. Sir
kill one life, make many lives
Brothels disgust me
"Boobs are ok, if for bible reasons." I'm going to quote that forever.
Makes sense
Hey man, the Bible has hentai, it's called "The Song of Solomon", if you think im joking, read it yourself, I'm surprised it hasn't been adapted into an anime yet.
The Bible is a book of contradictions. If it’s the New Testament then breasts are for delivering nourishment to baby Jesus. if it’s the Old Testament then titties are there solely to appeal to man’s depravity and act as an essential aid in achieving tumult in preparation for coitus vaginitus ...or even coitus rectumus. Thankyou
@@drinkwater319 Vaginitis is an inflammation of the vagina that can result in discharge, itching and pain. I bet it stinks too.
"busy measuring their docks" caught my ear! (while talking about the 2 developers vying to build the longest pier).
A few years ago, a 3D printer guy on Coney Island recreated Luna Park in miniature and populated it with 3D scanned figures of people who came to his booth.
The Dreamland fire sounds like the most amazing and intense film that hasn't been made.
That's For The Dumbo Movie
The sheer straight faced humor of this episode lmao
That’s just how Kevin is
King of deadpan
So good. I’m eating it all up.
"While Culver and Seabeach were busy measuring their docks" Laughed way too hard at that.....
Legotruck82 came to the comments to say it but I figured someone already caught it 😂
"Or as it was known in 1897: third base." God Kevin's deadpan delivery is just absolutely perfect on jokes like that. I love this channel so much.
This channel is a treasure
When I showed this to my parents, my dad burst out laughing at that. XD If it makes my dad laugh, it's funny IMO.
assuming home base is the same, that's a big leap.
Yeah, you had to get your eroticism where you could back then. Guys would admire a "well turned ankle". Unless it's apocryphal, the custom of putting those paper ruffle things on roasted turkey legs, was because it made it more polite.
@@BoggarthVT Whrn you’re married, You can touch her ankles!
I spent my first four years on Coney Island. My grandparents and their friends were deeply involved in its history but little was explained to me. So thank you so much for giving those shadows forms clearly and comprehensively
I have such fond memories of Coney Island from the late 50's early 60's, when I would visit as a kid. The crowds, sounds, smells, rides, the bright lights at night and who could forget 10¢ Nathans hot dogs. It was a great time to be a kid. Sadly, todays kids will never know the likes of it. Time marches on I guess.
As a teenager, I agree. Our technological and social advances have been great- I love the internet and video games- but I would love to go outside, ride some rides, have a good time that I actually have to move to get to. Things aren't as fun if you do them all the time.
@@sk1ttlz904 you can still do those things..
@@VineFynn I can't. In order for me to do anything, I need parental permission and even then I would be very limited. Also covid is still a thing where I live.
It's worth saying that Nathan's Hot Dogs is still very much a thing!
There’s literally six flags or great adventure. Oh please
“All our cast of. Characters died. Most sickness and disease, one by polar bear.” Wait what?!?
Yeah I'm gonna need some explanation
-“This guy died from pneumonia, the next guy from a disease, the one after from pneumonia, the following one from a disease and the last guy...”
-Let me guess: pneumonia?
-“No, polar bear attack.”
-Huh?
Yeah, I need to know more about that.
I had the same reaction and had to go look it up. According to an archived newspaper article I found, he was training the polar bear when it attacked him. Which makes sense, given his profession, but leaves me vaguely disappointed. I'd half-envisioned him wrestling them in the wild or something.
The one-armed lion tamer was out of arms for the bear, and the bear was not pleased.
Slaps roof of Coney island
This bad boy can fit so many fires in it
and interesting attractions
>California has entered the chat
"This thing can fit so much racism and animal corpses inside!"
@@TheSmart-CasualGamer sounds like something i'd hear a vegan say about the average republican
What an origin story! I've heard of Coney Island before but I never would have guessed its background to consist of things like "pleasure island" and constant, park destroying fires.
Come to Coney Island, take a ride on the cyclone. I miss you
One of the most underrated aspects of Defunctland is seeing all the classic concept art and blue prints. Theres such a classic and interesting style in there thats great to see.
Yeah really. Kudos to Kevin for that shadow-picture animation. What program did you use for that?
andyjay729 Adobe After Effects for compositing, but I actually created and puppeteered the figures and filmed them.
@@Defunctland Just watched the episode, I have to say what really sets your channel aside from all the other amusement parks one is in how professional every episode really looks, and the individual theme you give each one in relationship to it's parks that you go over. Thanks for making excellent content.
@@Defunctland What!?!?! ..feels light headed.. Can I truly fall deeper in love with this channel any more than I have right now?? .......I want to thank YOU and all your patrons. All of you have my heart in your hands.
I love the concept art tremendously. Evoking imagination all around
"he even brought an axe, in case of shark attack"
as one does
Axes are famously very easy to use in the water.
They didn’t have shark repellent back in those days.
Lol yeah, I would love to see how the "guy in rubber suit w axe vs shark" battle would play out. Sorry dude, I respect your chutzpah but my money's on the shark.
@@JLittleBass maybe it would work if he jus had the axe head? The handle would slow the swings down a LOT underwater so best bet mite b 2 try n punch tha shark in the face as one does but with an axe in ur fist.
@@JLittleBass best case, Shark A gets hacked to death, but between, you know, a swinging axe and a shark mouth full of shark teeth render his rubber inflatable less and less inflated, he slowly sinks into the water where all of Shark A's blood is attracting every other shark within the region.
Sharks always win. Don't mess around with apex predators that evolution has not really changed in a very long time. As a Florida man who fishes the Everglades and the Atlantic, I wouldn't be around without a healthy fear of sharks and alligators.
probably just me but it's really cool to see the fantastical imagination people had about the moon many decades before anyone would actually go there. not that they thought there'd actually be aliens eating green cheese there, but the caves and everything... amusement rides about the moon nowadays just involve you pretending to fly a star wars-eque spaceship. i like getting to see the things people thought of back when they didn't feel confined by the reality of space travel and the moon.
their airship space travel reminds me a lot of Fantasy Life for the 3DS, btw. probably nobody here's ever even heard of that game, but...
*Spiderman pointing other fantasy life fan*
My great great grandfather Charles Feltman. The baker who put a frankfurter in a piece of bread and it got called a hot dog. Nathan, who worked for Charles, stole his recipe and business model.
Nathan as in the one from the Nathans Hot Dog brand that’s popular in New England I’m assuming,right? I live in MA, right above NY, and Nathans is hailed in the Boston area as the king of hot dogs because of their history with Fenway Park and how fast they managed to spread. The train station in my city had a nathans attached to it up until it lost business due to covid and had to close permanently,and my city is like the heart of the heroin/opioid epidemic if that gives any context on how much they pushed their businesses
@@mrselfdestruct7605 Yep, that's the Nathan. Charles ended up selling his cart and started Feltman Famous Beer Garden on Coney Island.
That's the game it's not about who did it first it's who did it best. Your grandfather's hotdogs could of been the best tasting but it's about who has the best marketing and endorsement. A reason the world knows what an oreo is compared to hydrox
@@frag9575 It worked out, Feltman ended up owning Feltman's Famous Beer garden instead. Made him a millionaire.
@@feltphoto1 that was in his destiny. I'm pretty sure he's happy and maybe got to live a better life than Nathan. Maybe less stressed , happy and can do what he pleased with his free time
“Admission to the burning ashes: 10c”
Never miss an opportunity.
A man after Andrew Ryan's heart.
The balls on this man.
I respect that level of sarcasm and self deprecation in such harrowing circumstances
This was back when a smoldering hunk of ash was considered a safe, fun attraction.
"While Culver and Sea Beach were busy measuring their docks"
Honestly, the script for this video is an art piece in and of itself.
100%
"He could sell sand to beach-goes. Which he did when he was 14." Love it.
"Admission to the ashes... 10c"
Dude was a hustler
"piece of Bullshcript Artwork," to be Precise.
lol I came here to make some comment about a "dock measuring contest", and found it done for me. Cheers.
"...and taken to the ship's skipper, Captain Bragg. Bragg wanted him in the brig, but Boynton began to brag on the suit. Bragg bought the brag and kept Boynton out of the brig."
From someone who couldn't really care less about theme parks. You make an incredible documentary. I have been stuck watching for days
Love how these string of New York park episodes have used Robert Moses as a repeated punching bag for sarcastic, H2G2-style narration.
Was Robert Moses the Donald Trump of that era???
@@eunicestone838 More like Fred Trump. Just as contemptible, but also competent.
the fact that there isn't an highway running right across lower Manhattan is due to Jane Jacob's book and protest movement against Moses' plans....there is a sizable part on that history in Ric Burns' magnificent documentary series on NYC
"Admission to the burning ruins, ten cents."
I heard that mic-drop. On paper.
Honestly if I saw that sign I would feel almost obligated to pay ten cents and visit the burning ruins.
I feel like this man was the truest embodiment of America there will ever been. A truly poetic, reflection on life, the loss of legacy, and the hope of creating something anew..... now gimme money.
i scrolled into the comments section to say this.
and you beat me to it.
good show sir i take my hat off to you.
in the hopes you'll drop a coin into it.
Dude had his park burn down TWICE and still outlasted all his competitors. What a legend.
I doubt he even did it to be cool, it was just the way he was. Which makes it even better.
"Admission to the burning ruins 10 cents."
Dang these people were smart businessmen!
Business Level: Ferengi
He needed money to pay for the rebuild somehow. Fire proof steel wasnt cheap back then
Undrave lol it would be enough to probably convince Picard
Oh, Victorian-era capitalism
I guess that's how we'll pay off the national debt: charge admission to see the burning ruins. :-(
Captain Paul Boyton was my great great great grandfather on my grandmothers side. Man was a visionary
"Hello sir, could you point me to the, ah, brothel?"
"Sure, son. Ya see that seven-story elephant?"
"Ah, I should have known that was it. Thanks, mister!"
"Bragg wanted him in the brig, but Boyton began to brag on the suit. Bragg bought the brag and kept Boyton out of the brig."
I love this.
The real iteachvader! hope you're doing well with soundfonts, music, TH-campoops and more!
@@stanley8006 I actually just released a new tune tonight! You can listen to it on my SoundCloud.
@@iteachvader wow that was a fast reply! definitely checking it out, thanks
It was slightly confusing, I must say
Tongue twister indeed could make a song out of that
Coney Island’s history could almost have its own miniseries, this was interesting.
yes, and this video had far to much information cramped into it. You need to let it breathe more, this was material for at least 2 hours of documentary, not 40 minutes. (but hey, that at least showed the effort on display here so there is that ^^)
I had no idea all the parks closed in the first place
I agree. I need more. Much, much more. I have always been fascinated by the park even as a little boy.
Ralph Bakshi wanted to make a film about Coney Island, but has struggled ever since Cool World bombed.
Yeah, I was actually thinking the same thing while watching this.
another amazing episode, Kevin Perjurer! :)....and I love the anecdote about Robert Moses where after snapping at a reporter, one of his assistants quipped sardonically, "you'll have to excuse his behavior; he adores the public, he just hates people"....
I remember going to Coney Island as a kid, it always felt dirty and had this weird eerie vibe about it. I didn’t know the hells gate attraction burned down way before I was born. I don’t know if they remade it or something but I CLEARLY remember this big red winged devil on top on a building with a ride. I was always so scared to even look at it. Also I didn’t know that big tower was for a parachute ride, I always thought it was for bungee jumping.
"Breasts are okay, if they're for bible reasons."
Quote of the year
Only this channel
Holy Hooters!
@@panzerabwerkanone -batman!!
Between this and "touching each other is reserved for the home or the giant elephant brothel a few yards away", I am once again wondering for just how long the straights have not been alright.
@@MuddBstrd *tale as old as time*
My grandfather always used to complain when people left the lights on by saying "this place is lit up like luna park" and now I finally understand it?!?
And having all of the lights on increases the electricity bill
My grandfather's line (now my dad's) was "I don't own stock in ConEdison!"
Damn how old is your grandfather LMFAO😭😭
They called Coney Island, "the playground of the world." There was no place like it, in the whole world, like Coney Island when I was a youngster. No place in the world like it, and it was so fabulous. Now it's shrunk down to almost nothing, you see. And, I still remember in my mind how things used to be, and, you know, I feel very bad. But people from all over the world came here. From all over the world, it was the playground -- they called it the playground of the world, over here. Anyways, I...you know...I even got -- when I was, uh, when I was very small, I even got lost at Coney Island, but they found me. On the, on, on the beach. And we used to sleep on the beach here, sleep overnight. They don't do that anymore. Things changed, you see. They don't sleep anymore on the beach...
im farily sure some people sleep on the beach in coney island these days but not for fun
It’s been a year but what is this referencing? Someone else commented the same thing.
@@ammitthedevourer7316 Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Sleep
I really recommend reading up on this band if you enjoy it. The album is Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven, and it is post-rock!
@@conjure4585 Woah, weird timing, I recently watched a lost media video that mentioned GY!BE. I’ll have to check them out!
@@ammitthedevourer7316 Can't recommend them enough, they are in a league of their own when it comes to post-rock. I know how cheesy this sounds, but they have genuinely made some of the greatest music out there. One in a million band.
Great history lesson for a guy whose family was born and raised in Brooklyn. Thanks for the history lesson!
EXTRA EXTRA!!! Little known fact not known to any... I was a teenager at the Coney Island Aquarium in the 80s and my mom took us (my sister and I) to see the sights. We went through a self guiled tour and back then... not much safety was involved. I reached over the retaining wall and pet a walrus or some creature that had hard flesh covered whiskers. It was DEAD. No one noticed but my mom pulled me away and as she did someone bombarded us with "Stay away. You shouldn't be touching the animals". But clearly the animal was bloated and unresponsive." I was crushed for a long time that I thought I had killed this animal because I touched it's nose and petted it's whiskers. SHHAME on it's operators for not taking better care and blaming it on a child close enough to touch it to make that much of a life/death issue. It has taken me years to get over (Sorry as it sounds) thinking I did or did not cause the death of an animal that was already bloated and dead in an exhibit. How did a great moment in my life with my mom become such a bad memory. I was a kid thinking I killed a walrus. I know I didn't now but for years I thought I was guilty.
I am first time viewer as a child:: But HOLY COW... What you could you do with a focus on Robert Moses concerning land development in NY area. (IT WILL BLOW YOUR MIND ON RACISM)
“Measuring their docks” hilarious
still a lot of dock measuring going on.
The dock has to be at least 20 feet for me to park my boat on it
Damn i literally went to the comments to make this joke hahahah
Was he trying to say dick or cock
@@carlrygwelski586 dock
“Topsy was poisoned, electrocuted and choked to death”
A bit overkill eh?
Best part was the ASPCA's declaration that it was deemed humane. Yeah, good going, guys.
I've seen that fotage of that poor animal being put down. It's so hartbreaking and infuriating at the same time. 😭🤬
I don't see how they can see that is humane they could have given it a huge dose of sleeping aid and either let it die that way or while I was asleep just put a large bullet in his head instantly killing it I don't see how that's humane even for the time
@manuel hernandez just like the video said it probably was the most humane method of putting down an animal that size they had seen even if it was horrendous. An injectable method of putting an animal of an elephants size to sleep hadn't even been invented yet and hanging was still acceptable method of killing people so they saw no problem with that. I'm not even sure if firearms capable of piercing an elephants skull were available yet.
Thank you Thomas Edison for filming that piece of animal abuse.
Amazing to see there was a "20,000 Leagues" ride decades before the one in Disneyland. Dorney Park in Allentown PA had a low-rent version called "Journey to the Center of the Earth", which I always loved.
I had no idea how vast the history of coney Island is. Fantastic video.
dude sameeeeeeee
"Another dream land attraction was the baby incubators"
Why of course
But thats how the doctor got people's attention to that medical issue. I think the money may have helped to pay for care, though I'll have to do my research on that. Plus lives were saved.
Briana Runo IIRC the babies in the public incubators were taken care of free of charge, and since many doctors didn’t think that incubators were a viable option, the public incubators showed them that they were.
R B tbh, babies are kind of adorable, so if I could pay like $2 to see really cute babies and essentially donate to their medical costs, I’d do it
Incubators were a new invention not in most hospitals..if any. So parents would be turned away from hospitals and told to just wait for their kids to die (it didn't help that the prevailing theory on preemies was "if they're too weak to live, than they should just die. Better for the population" (eugenics was very much a prevailing theory in the US in the early 20th century)). In desperation, they gave them to this guy, who used the money from admission to pay the nurses that worked there and for other expenses.
Guy wasn't a doctor, just an inventor, but the survival rates in his exhibit were VERY high, and he saved an insane amount of lives doing this. There's some very good articles written on this, well worth the google. He's basically the one responsible for convincing hospitals to use incubators.
@@JP2GiannaT There is also a very good 99% Percent Invisible episode about this.
"another popular attraction was the baby incubators, with real premature infants people could pay to see" excuse me, what?
if you're into that you should check out the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry .they are the collection of preserved fetuses ranging from a cluster of cells too a full-term stillborn 25 or 30 of them at all
Plus there are a few really good videos on those babies on TH-cam if you look them up
You should read about side shows. They would fabricate fake monsters for display, real egyptian mummies, looted from tombs, and show off live people with deformities. People around the turn of the century were both kinda sick and also really starved for entertainment.
It was a real thing, but it actually helped popularize incubators. The inventor couldn't get the public and medical community to take it seriously, so he made it an attraction. It worked and it saved a lot of babies.
Having been a preemie who was incubated myself, that part pissed me off so much. Like, at least the infamous side shows with grown-up performers had people in them who, in most cases, could understand and consent to being a part of the show (even if that line of work wasn't obviously their first livelihood choice). Infants can't give consent. And what the fuck were the parents thinking? Having your child be born early, with their fate so uncertain, is one of the most terrifying things any parent, especially the mother, can go through. Even now, 32 years later, after everything turned out okay (I was predicted to not live at all or, if I did, to have a laundry list of disabilities, and I just ended up with a visual impairment), my mom says she still can remember the exact feelings of fear and sorrow she went through during my birth and subsequent four-month hospital stay. Why any mother would magnify that by tenfold via putting her infant on display is beyond me.
EDIT: Since people won't stop replying with smart aleck "You know you're alive because of that previous technology/displays, right?", let me make myself clear. I wrote my above post initially as a knee-jerk reaction because the story brought up, for me, painful memories of my own medical trauma. I've since been better educated on the time period in question and the specific attraction itself. I jumped to conclusions based on side show stereotypes and my own anger about, "See? Preemies/people with disabilities have always been seen as freaks," and I shouldn't have done that. Thanks to the people in replies down below who actually took the time to talk to me as a person and teach me new things.
21:14 should not be so fucking funny to me. I rarely laugh out loud. This fucking killed me. It sounds like something from The Onion.
They called Coney Island, "the playground of the world." There was no place like it, in the whole world, like Coney Island when I was a youngster. No place in the world like it, and it was so fabulous. Now it's shrunk down to almost nothing, you see. And, uh, I still remember in my mind how things used to be, and uh, you know, I feel very bad. But people from all over the world came here. From all over the world, it was the playground -- they called it the playground of the world, over here. Anyways, uh, I... uh... you know... I even got -- when I was, uh, when I was very small, I even got lost at Coney Island, but they found me. On the, on, on the beach. And we used to sleep on the beach here, sleep overnight. They don't do that anymore. Things changed, you see. They don't sleep anymore on the beach...
This was a really cute read
@@jimbeam7636 If you're curious, it's a transcription of an interview with a man named Murray Ostril, who was most likely describing the opening of Coney Island to the public in the 1920's during his youth. Very little is known about the interview or Ostril other than that the audio was used at the start of the song "Sleep," the third track on "Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven" by Canadian experimental rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
It's really beautiful in the context of the song, with some extremely melancholic guitars and strings swelling up as the interview recording ends into the next section.
"Topsy must die. She is a bad elephant and is getting worse," are not sentences I expected to read.
They really all had a vendetta against this one elephant.
@Nob the Knave And film it
Topsy was the real mastermind behind the cascade that was to cause the world wars.
You thought Bob’s Burgers was lying? Nah dude
Remember Dumbo when Dumbo’s mother was locked up and kept from her baby? That traumatized me as a child.
Though I already knew about Topsy, I couldn’t bear watching that section of this episode and skipped it. I’ve seen pictures of her hung. I sure won’t watch her being killed. It wasn’t just cruel, it was a showcase. We’ve come a long way in criminalizing animal abuse, but we have so far to go. Please help fund your local animal rescue organizations. And please spay and neuter your pets! Among other benefits, it will help prevent shelters from becoming overcrowded and having to put down innocent animals. Even no-kill shelters will wind up making room by shuffling animals to shelters that do kill. And that’s just referring to household pets.
Tiger King sickened me. Abuse of exotic animals is rampant in the US - there’s even a black market for parrots who are smuggled in cruel conditions. And then these animals are often not cared for properly. I’m personally involved in dog rescue, but there’s other ways to help all animals. I’m sure the ASPCA has come a long way since the tragic (and uneccesaey and cruel) execution of Topsy, but there are also smaller groups for protecting performing or exotic animals like elephants and tigers, etc. Just look into them first to see their track record and standing before you get involved or donate. Please help any wise way you can!
JESUS they done poor Topsy dirty. Poisoned, strangled, AND electrocuted?! For the entertainment of the masses?
"Now available on home video!"
Topsy was killed because she was dangerous. The death was recorded for the masses.
@@Xer0sama Or they could've, you know, put her back into the wild? I shouldn't expect good things from these times though.
@@jordyngalvan8558 Yeah, then she can go around killing people who happen to stumble across her without realizing! Great idea, Jordyn! :DDDDDD
Dangerous animals are put down for a reason, and it's not because humans are Captain Planet villains who just want to kill or abuse animals.
I assure you the death was very humane
For the time
Merci beaucoup pour l'histoire de Coney Island in New York❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤😊❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Millions of blessings,
Esther St Juste
This truly feels like an actual show. Great job
What is it then?
'They got to touch woman shoulders'
What a cursed sentence.
How **scandalous**
THIRD BASE.
wait till you hear about the time you could see a lady's ankles!
My my, count me perturbed, how dare one be so lewd in the eyes of *GOD!*
Not to brag or anything, but back in my day I was known as the "Third-base Terror of Coney Island"
Kevin: There were still things inside that needed to be saved, namely the caged animals...
Me: Oh no, the lions
kevin: And the babies
Me: OH GOD, THE BABIES!
I had the same reaction, I had already forgotten about the babies 😶
I find it strange the babies seemed to have permanent residence there. I thought for sure it was a "special event" type attraction that only lasted a few days or weeks so they could take them back to, you know, an _actual medical facility._
I was prematurely born by a month, and even with almost a 100 years of medical advancement I still had to be treated for breathing problems and kept in an incubator tank for a few weeks. How the hell did an amusement park manage to keep any of those premature new borns alive and stable?
@@rockinrootbeer1795 HEY, so it's actually a really cool story I highly recommend looking into; the man who brought the incubators to dreamland was a doctor himself and incubators were brand new tech. He brought incubators over from Europe and tried to get them into hospitals but none of the hospitals wanted them, convinced that he was full of it. So the man instead brought the incubators to convey island, staffed the attraction with doctors and nurses, and made it completely sanitary and hygienic, more so than a lot of hospitals at the time, saving the lives of HUNDREDS of premature babies.
@@9206156175 wonder if any of them were called conney babies.
@@9206156175
Fascinating stuff, that is.
Thanks for the info!
I work at Coney Island so it’s cool to see a video about a place I see frequently
That "Trip to the moon" ride actually sounds really cool I'd totally go today
Topsy: Poisoned, strangled, and electrocuted
ASPCA: It's the most humane death we've ever seen
Geeze poor Topsy :(
Sadly it probably was at the time.
Janabug Yeah! Talk about overkill!
R.I.P. Topsy... 🐘
Lets be thankful nobody suggested firing her out of a cannon :(
you can find the video online still too!
I felt so sick hearing all of that :(
"a fire started in the Dragon's Gorge attraction, because of course it did."
Thanks for making me spit coffee all over my monitor
Did they ever eliminate the dragon as the cause of the blaze? Did he escape the burning attraction? Enquiring minds want to know. I want to know. ;)
@@ssbohio, you must be the same age as me, because no one else on here was around in the 80s to get that commercial reference.
“Measuring their docks….” I see what you did there, I salute you sir.
"Boyton would also add caged wolves and a ballroom to the park." I know it's got Topsy and two fires to compete with, but something about this info nugget speaks to me.
“Breasts are ok, if they’re for bible reasons.”
“Biblical”
I await the Porn version 9f the King James Bible. And the Hentai version.
@@JeffreyPiatt Well, there is the R. Crumb version of Genesis, but it's very straightforward.
For the unaware, R. Crumb is an old and notorious pervert responsible for many works in the Underground Comix scene of the 70's.
Best thing I've heard all day.
Have you seen the Sistine Chapel? Nude figures of biblical characters is actually very common.
Never forget Topsy. Mistreated, ill-used, then cruelly slaughtered. I've seen Edison's film and it'll haunt me forever.
But didn’t you hear?
She’s a BAD ELEPHANT!
just consider, if they wanted to cruelly hang her, how did they treat her when she was alive? she probably killed trainers out of distress, the poor thing
@@sambradley9091 Burned on the trunk by some drunk with a cigar, who wouldn't go a little nuts?
Sadly, because building an area for her to just be a regular elephant, like a zoo, for the visitor to glare at her while she is eating leaves and peanuts had been considered very boring for an amusement park.
Good ole Ed. Huge p.o.s that was filled with jealousy towards anyone who also was creative and intelligent. He also has no qualms stealing other people's ideas
Great story telling and so well produced. Thank you for sharing this story!! I’d heard of Coney Island but had no idea of its history.
What an incredible amount of work you put in to this. I enjoyed it very much. Ty
“Our final story involves a man named Robert Moses”
New Yorkers: awww shit here it goes
I’ve always been of the opinion that alongside the Trump family, Robert Moses was NYC’s own personal anti-Christ.
@@patrickcross1571 lmao
@@patrickcross1571 I feel like if you dig deep enough, every single state has their own anti-christ. I'm still digging to find Georgia's.
@@potahtwah9591 Would probably depend on the politics. I know for the woodchucks around there it'd probably be Sherman for that little... 'incident' during the Civil War. Dunno who it'd be for the other crowds though.
Awww hell - Marie Tillhue (daughter of George) finally closed Steeplechase Park in 1964 while Robert Moses was still visible and had had by then built the 1964 Worlds Fair (as well as Adventure Park, both in nearby Queens). So who did Marie Tillhue sell Steeplechase Park to in 1964?
Why FRED TRUMP Sr., of course!!
Dang, I was waiting for the “and that man was Michael Eisner” twist
BUT IT WAS DIO!!!
It would’ve been fuckin hilarious if it just shot a photo of just Michael Eisner and there would be no audio, but just text saying
“You know who this guy is.”
Still, at least you could play "6 Degrees Of Eisner"
I was too...
Though the “And that man was Donald Trump’s dad” twist was pretty wild.
That was Brilliantly done. Chapeau. The fact that they were claiming to be "morally, and physically clean" while The "Elephant" was still "In the room"...
Absolutely fantastic documentary and mindblowing window to history about how humans were over 100 years ago. Contrast is huge, there has been so much progression from these times on many different levels (prevention of animal cruelty, safety precautions, long term planning, etc, etc), but at the same time, certain things haven't changed at all (corporate/individual greed and ego, shady things with business politics, etc, etc).
You sir belong to the elite of TH-cam documentary makers, this really was well put together travel to history.
They'll say "Aw, Topsy!"
At my autopsy
And no one could be
More shocked than me
But I never noticed, the curve of her trunk...
And I never noticed his electric junk
They say Thomas Edison, hes the
Man to get us in to this
Century
And that man is me
Magical.
this is perfect.
Green cheese, weird elephant stuff, AND woman shoulders? Sign me up.
Hell yeah
And Choking, poisoning and electrocuting an elephant? With Tom Edison's company filming it? And with everyone being alright with this??
*Bring me to This time period!*
This channel is so good. Writing, research, delivery. Maybe one of the best on YT
I love this episode so much, it has so many powerful lines like "lady shoulders, or as it was called: second base" and "boobs are ok if for bible reasons" and everything about poor Topsy
Come on, they weren't THAT prudish, it was third base! 16:32
Lmao topsy was gold, rip
“…busy measuring their decks…”
@@remy.martian docks
This is one of the best Defunctland scripts yet. The jokes were just flying by.
*The several fires that occurred on Coney Island:*
“How many times do we have to teach you this lesson old man?”
You can certainly imagine the tough guys in suits. "It's a nice amusement park you got here - it would be a shame if anything bad happened to it!"
It's pretty cathartic how many times it happened and how they were the final blow essentially.
I sure do love these young people.
Fire: "these parks are a testament to Man's arrogance"
RIP Topsy. You deserved better🙏🏽
Wow. Obviously it’d be amazing to go back & experience these parks. I had fun imagining it, so these docs really are something else,
I find Luna park the saddest. It seemed that the two men had a real passion for creating fun for their visitors. When one of them died, the other was clearly distressed and couldn't do it on his own.
I think of it a bit like Disneyland if Roy had died before Walt. I don't believe Disney parks would have survived that. Walt was the creator and dreamer, Roy was the money guy.
Can we just stop and appreciate the truly artistic visuals of this entire episode? I cannot believe this production quality, wow.
God, How Kevin evolved from a simple teller of history to making Defunctland an incredibly unique storyteller of ride history is amazing. I’m glad it’s still growing.
Yeah I did it all.
I have one hand with three fingers. It took me 2hrs and 57 minutes. I got paid in coneys which is the money that was made for the video
Fascinating documentary.
Incredible archival film footage as well
It made me turn my adblock off, I was like I shouldnt be watching this for free
I'm glad that the trainers attempted to move the animals. I was tearing up when you said 60 died. And then got whiplash when the guy died by polar bear.
The "Pavilion of Fun" concept is sorely needed today at Coney Island, especially as a year round attraction.
I really wasn’t expecting Steeple Chase to last the longest out of the 3. What an underdog.
I'm old enough that I can remember when Steeplechase closed. End of an era.
@@jamesseaman2950 The steeplechase that was built for Coney Island ended it's life at Pirate's World in Dania, FL in 1972, along with several NY World's Fair rides. I got to ride it once during a Grateful Dead concert in '70.
It was the only time I ever saw the ride working. Today, only one horse remains, it's in a Coney Is Museum. I'll always wonder if it's the one I rode...
Probably because the Pavillion of fun was built to be fireproof
@@crankychris2 Go find out then
@@TheOnlyHollywood1 I don't remember much about the 'horse' I rode. I sure remember a lot of good times at Pirate's World, though!
Time to finally find out what Mario meant by "King Koopa's Coney Island Disco Palace".
Glad I am not the only one who keeps saying that.
Like they say in Brooklyn, early to bed, early to catch the worm. Or is it the bagel?
😂
YOSHEEE HUNGWEE
th-cam.com/video/BI831FaAJtI/w-d-xo.html
This was absolutely riveting, thank you!
This video randomly popped up for me and I did the ye old TH-cam behaviour of saying or thinking: "Ah f*ck it, I'll give it a shot."
2 minutes in, I was already hooked. The way you construct your mini docs, adding clever comedy here and there and how you pace the videos are awesome.
Glad to have found this channel. I'm gonna now binge watch this awesome content. Thanks for putting in the work to bring us interesting history!
P.S. how is strangling Topsie with a mechanical winch any different from hanging her from the neck? That bit of the story just depressed me, and also thinking about how the other animals were "trained".
The listing of how everyone died killed me.
"Pneumonia, brights disease, pneumonia, heart disease, polar bear."
Just from 0 to 100 right there.
Time stamp?
@@torezcoasters6043 33:13
The Virgin Pneumonia vs The Chad Polar Bear
It *killed* you, you say? ....*adds to list* "pneumonia, brights disease, pneumonia, heart disease, polar bear, *this very list* "
I died right along with these folks....🤣🤣🤣
I love how the parks deliberately made it so men and women 'accidentally' touch each other.
@Super Succubi
I support the return of "accidental touches" parks around the world.
@@blastermaster5039 I don't
@@blastermaster5039 try forming real connections with other human beings! then you can do it 1. for free 2. with consent
@@blastermaster5039 ok weirdo
@@blastermaster5039I sure hope you don't take subways or buses anywhere
Measuring their docks. Amazing pun. Well played
Thank you. This was wonderful to see !
Okay, that whole part about Topsy had me laughing out loud. The subtle comedic timing of the pause before "...by hanging her from the neck in front of a paying audience." Then the newspaper text "...must die. She is a bad elephant." Then the ASPCA being happy about electrocution, and there being demand to film it...
The past really is a different country.
Different time, not country. Just wait until we are skeletons in the ground and future generations judge us with hindsight. We all can see the failings of our parents, and in your end shall not be different.
The ASPCA hasn't gotten much better. Look at that their involvement with the removal of wild horses from the West. They helped craft terrible legislation about 3 years ago.
@@hiitscourt the ASPCA is zealous bureaucracy and little pro-animal activism. PETA is zealous pro-animal activism and nothing else.
If those two merge, maybe we'd get one decent organisation
@@boooster101 Peta kills what, 95% of animals?
@@skeletonbuyingpealts7134 you're the guy who skips the whole movie and then complains that the ending didn't make sense.
That's what you did here. Otherwise your comment would be superfluous