Art & Artifacts Record
Images
Metadata
Object Name |
Ticket |
Collection |
Artifact collection |
Object ID |
M1986.60.4c |
Year Range from |
1921 |
Year Range to |
1984 |
Dimension Details |
1" H x 7 1/2" W x 7 1/2" D |
Description |
Red ticket roll from the World in Wax Museé, admission 40 cents. |
Place Names |
Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) Coney Island (New York, N.Y.) |
Subject Headings |
Tickets Amusement parks Wax figures |
Personal and Corporate Names |
Santangelo, Lillie World in Wax Museé (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.) |
Curatorial Notes |
In the 1870s, developers began transforming Coney Island into the destination entertainment capital of America. Once a seaside haven for middle and upper class Brooklynites, by the end of the century Coney Island became known for amusement parks such as Steeplechase Park, Luna Park, and Dreamland. For decades, these attractions drew diverse crowds of New Yorkers eager for affordable and respectable diversions. Those looking for rowdier, risqué, and even macabre fun went to Coney Island's "Bowery," a strip of blocks between Surf Avenue and the beach populated by restaurants, dive bars, and baser amusements. In was in this area that Lillie and Ralph Santangelo opened their World in Wax Museé in 1926. They took over the Henderson's Music Hall building and filled it with a rotating mix of wax sculptures depicting historical figures, entertainers and athletes, as well as gory scenes. Open for almost sixty years, spectators could inspect wax figures of everyone from Clark Gable to John Kennedy, Muhammad Ali, and Marilyn Monroe. Up until the museum closed in 1985, Lillie served as barker and sold tickets. These surviving ticket rolls show admission prices varied from twenty cents to one dollar. |