The Coney Island Mermaid Parade

The most notable thing about July 4th, besides that whole ‘independence of a nation’ thing, and the subsequent ‘let’s blow things up in the sky‘ thing, is the Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Contest, legendary home of the hot dog itself. Surely, there is no better way to celebrate the power of America than to make a spectacle of our unabashed gluttony and chronic obesity! We, after all, have the Constitutional Right to heart disease.

Still, year after year, Japanese competitor Takeru Kobayashi takes home the Golden Hot Dog, or whatever they give the winner. Kobayashi’s record was only recently beaten by American eating machine Joey Chestnut at a qualifier event in Arizona, eating 59.5 dogs in just 12 minutes – 6 more hot dogs that Kobayashi’s previous record. Kobayashi had almost backed out of the competition, citing a painful jaw disorder, but only recently decided to compete after all, fighting through the pain and limited jaw mobility for the questionable title of World’s Greatest Wiener Eater. God bless America.

That isn’t all that Coney Island is known for, though. Annually, on the first Saturday of summer, the Mermaid Parade marches around Astroland Park and has been doing so since 1983. Never mind that this is the last summer that Astroland will be operational, to be replaced by ‘Coney Island Park’ in a few years time – the Mermaid Parade endures, and there’s no finer place to see scantily-clad (and sometimes plain ol’ un-clad) mermaids of all varieties! This year’s parade even saw a Mighty Thor, symbolic of Thor Industries, the company that’s tearing down the park to make way for a new one. Of course, the charm of the amusement park lies solely in the uncleaned funnel cake grease traps and the busted lights on the ferris wheels, but Thor Industries doesn’t seem to see that.

Each year since its inception, the Mermaid Parade has created an event poster. While some of these are available on the Coney Island website for purchase, earlier posters can fetch large prices at auction. Coney Island still has copies of their very first Mermaid poster for sale at $100, and more recent posters for $20 each, but those posters that have gone out of print can become pricey, when they can be found at all. Additionally, Parade programs have also proven to be collectible by those looking to scoop up a piece of amusement history. This year also saw the release of a Parade pin by the Hard Rock Cafe, already reaching prices around $15.

Amusement parks have always generated a great number of highly collectible items, though not so much the flammable plush dolls that you might win at the ping pong ball toss. The collectability of amusement parks comes in the form of sideshow posters, postcards, tokens, keychains, plates, paper cups, parts of the rides, and any other souvenir item branded with said amusement park’s name. There are perhaps no more historically notable amusement parks than Coney Island and Astroland, so pay a visit this summer before everything changes dramatically! If nothing else, that funnel cake will stick with you for a while.