1.17 - Macy’s, Coney Island and More
The Astaires Explore New York in 1905
As their classes at Alviene’s school progressed in the spring and summer of 1905, the Astaires soon settled into a routine. Ann, who had been a teacher in Omaha, tutored them in the mornings, followed by dancing and acting classes at the Grand Opera House. After dinner, they would retire early with Ann reading to them from the Bible or Thackeray’s Vanity Fair. As the weather warmed, they might go on excursions throughout New York, taking the trolley or the Sixth Avenue El to Central Park, where they might ride boats in the lake. Beyond shopping in the numerous stores on 23rd Street, they would go to Macy’s in Herald Square, across from the hotel where they had stayed after first arriving in Manhattan, to enjoy cakes and cookies in the world’s largest department store (Riley 22). The dining room on the 8th floor covered nearly one and one-half acres. In the summer, Macy’s opened The Loggia, an outdoor section above Broadway that touted a “splendid oceanward view” (Macy's advertisement).
Like so many other New Yorkers, as the streets began to swelter with summer heat, the Astaires would head toward Coney Island. They would have taken a trolley to the Brooklyn Bridge and then transfer to a suburban trolley for an hour-long trip that cost 10¢ (Doyle 34). For a 25¢ fare, which included admission, they could have taken the Iron Steamboat Company’s all water route to Coney Island, which left from the West 22nd Street pier on the North (Hudson) River and dropped passengers off at the Iron Pier (Daily Excursions - Steamers).
Once there, the Astaires could have visited one of three amusement areas: Luna Park, Dreamland and Steeplechase Park. Steeplechase Park, which had opened in 1897, was the oldest of the three, developed by the showman George Tilyou, whose grand idea was to enclose and compress dozens of previously separate amusements into one enclosed park. Luna Park had opened in 1903, created by Frederic Thompson and Elmer “Skip” Dundy the developers of the Hippodrome, and drew more than 4 million visitors in its second year (Adams-Volpe 155). Thompson, who had begun his career as an architectural draftsman, entered the amusement profession by managing a concession at the World’s Colombian Exposition in Chicago (1893) and continued to create attractions at subsequent world’s fairs, including the Omaha Trans-Mississippi Exhibition in Omaha in 1898, two years after Adele was born, and the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo in 1901 (where President William McKinley was assassinated on Sept. 6). At the Buffalo fair, Thompson and Dundy had first unveiled their ride “A Trip to the Moon,” which two years later became the centerpiece of Luna Park (Immerso 60). Repurposing spectacles became a common practice for Thompson and Dundy. In 1905 their latest addition to Luna Park was “The Fall of Port Arthur,” presenting in an eight-acre artificial lake a representation of the battle between the Russian and Japanese fleets which had culminated in a surrender that the filled the front pages when the Astaires first came to New York earlier in the year. The 30-minute show cost 25¢ (Souvenir Guide to Coney Island 14). Three years later the spectacle would be reproduced at the Hippodrome (McNamara 49). Dreamland opened in 1904 on 15 acres of land fronting the ocean with its central feature being the Beacon Tower, rising 375 feet above the park, which imitated and expanded many attractions from Luna Park, such as Shoot the Chutes, fire-fighting spectacles and wild animal shows (Immerso 68).
Among greater Gotham’s other novelties in 1905 was the opening of Belmont Race Track on Thursday, May 4, by the Westchester Racing Association and its “social annex, the Turf and Field Club” (Belmont Park the World's Finest Race Course). In 1931, it would be at the Belmont Race Track that Fred would meet his future wife, Phyllis Potter, whose uncle Henry Bull would be president of the Turf and Field Club (Satchell 95). Special trains of the Long Island Railroad Company ran from the East 34th Street Ferry to the park, whose opening day attendance reached 40,000 for a six-race card headlined by the Metropolitan Handicap, which ended as a dead heat between the morning line favorite, Sysonby, and a 30-to-1 long shot, Race King (Belmont Park Open).
With the Ninth Avenue IRT just steps from their boarding house on 23rd Street, the Astaires would probably also have frequently taken the El around town. In winter it had the advantage over the trolley of being heated and not being stalled by snow and ice filling the tracks, and in summer as the cars sped above the sweltering streets cooler breezes would make the ride more comfortable. Trips on the elevated trains would have shown the children sweeping views of their new city and thrilling sights, such as the giant curve at 110th Street and crossing the East River on the Brooklyn Bridge. Later in the year they would have heard about a terrifying accident during rush-hour on September 11, when 12 passengers were killed after a speeding train derailed on the 53rd Street curve (Trager 295).
SOURCES
Adams-Volpe, Judith A. "Coney Island." American Icons: An Encyclopedia of the People, Places, and Things That Have Shaped Our Culture. Ed. Dennis R. Hall. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2006. 151-158.
"Belmont Park Open." New York Times 5 May 1905: 1.
"Belmont Park the World's Finest Race Course." New York Times 30 April 1905: SM5.
"Daily Excursions - Steamers." This Week in New York 2 July 1905: 13.
Doyle, H.J. The Tourist's Handbook of New York. New York: The Historical Press, 1905. <https://hdl.handle.net/2027/loc.ark:/13960/t3ws8xm2v>.
Immerso, Michael. Coney Island: The People's Playground. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2002.
Macy's advertisement. This Week in New York 2 July 1905: 24.
Riley, Kathleen. "The Astaires: Fred & Adele." New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Satchell, Tim. Astaire: The Biography. London: Hutchinson, 1987.
Trager, James. The New York Chronology. New York: HarperCollins, 2003.