MovieChat Forums > The Man Who Laughs (1928) Discussion > Steeplechase Park, Coney Island

Steeplechase Park, Coney Island

posted 17 years ago by aahronheim
6 replies | jump to latest

For an image that's strikingly similar to Conrad Veidt's in this film (and seemingly earlier), go to:

http://www.westland.net/coneyisland/articles/steeplechase1.htm

and scroll down to the picture captioned, "Steeplechase Park's trademark logo".

Although I only had 2 or 3 opportunities to go to Steeplechase Park when I was a kid (only on vacations to NYC), I was always spooked and enthralled by that "fun" but creepy face.

According to http://www.coneyisland.com/museum.shtml, the image dates to the 1890's. (Not that a grinning face itself is so original, but, at least to me, the similarity here is pretty stunning.)

Veidt's eyes and entire face are SO moving in this film! Please, no remake!

[–] rachael0007 17 years ago

Hey,

thanks for the info, when i read the book and watched the film, it always made me think of Coney Island too for some reason... and I've never even been to Coney Island, just read about it and seen some movies about it.

[–] aahronheim 17 years ago

You missed a great place. Steeplechase Park was wonderful, but it was torn down years ago, although it lasted much longer than Luna Park and Dreamland, which were both gone long before I was born. Some of Coney Island's still there, at least for a while, but that wonderfully creepy grinning face is no longer.

By the way, through April 6th, 2008 at the Brooklyn Museum: http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/goodbye_coney_island/

[–] yarrrbles 16 years ago

I have a t-shirt from Coney Island with that face. It makes me happy how similar it looks to Gwynny. :)

[–] operaghost333 15 years ago

There's still a Luna Park in Sydney, Australia, with about half of the grinning face still up to scare people ;-)

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Luna_Park-Sydney-Australia.JPG

[–] twelvepointnine 15 years ago

Now this thing pops up on the interwebs: http://thisman.org/. Looks freakingly familiar…

Chaos reigns

[–] stevenfallonnyc 10 years ago

Good call with the Coney Island face. That face is still directly identified with Coney and is still in wide use today. I wouldn't doubt if the line in order was the Coney face - Man Who Laughs - Joker. Interesting stuff definitely.