ABSTRACT
In 1996, the New York Times published a story about two competing impresarios, Bobby Reynolds, owner of the International Circus Museum, and Dick D. Zigun, the proprietor of Coney Island USA, and their attempts to breathe new life into the legendary corner of West 12th Avenue and Surf Avenue at Coney Island. Among other things, the two sideshow operators disagreed on whether or not to provide seating for customers: Reynolds preferred a standing-room only policy while Zigun insisted that “post-modern people prefer to sit” ( Martin 1996). Whether Zigun is correct in his assessment of contemporary Coney Island patrons is debatable, but it serves to remind us of the wider question of how the emergence of Fantasy City relates to a late twentieth-century consumer culture which has been frequently described as “postmodern”.
