PM, July 22, 1940, pp.16-17

Yesterday at Coney Island… Temperature 89… They Came Early, Stayed Late

Cameraman Reports on Lost Kids, Parking Troubles

Weegee, whose real name is Arthur Fellig, took this picture at four in the afternoon. The temperature was 89 degree. The Coney Island Chamber of Commerce guessed there were 1,000,000 people. Nobody really knows.

Herewith is Weegee’s own story of his visit to Coney Island.

Saturday was very hot. So I figured Sunday ought to be a good day to make crowd shots at Coney Island. I arrived at the beach at Coney at 4 a.m., Sunday. The beach was crowded mostly with young couples lying on the beach covered with blankets. I took pictures of them. When I asked them their names they all said, “It’s just me and the wife,” as they pointed to the girl on the sand. I went back to the City.

I came back Sunday afternoon. I knew the rush was on when I looked for a parking lot to leave my car. All of them were full and were charging $1 to park the car. That was too much, considering that the usual price for parking on Sunday is 15 to 25 cents.

All the blocks with the “No parking in this block” signs were filled up. I then started to look for a fire hydrant to park. They were filled up, too. After riding round for a half hour I finally parked in a fire zone just off the Boardwalk. I guess no one else thought of that spot.

“This Is Too Much!”

After making the crowd shot I went into the “Cage,” a little shack underneath the Boardwalk with the door and windows covered with chicken wire cooping. That’s where all the lost kids are brought in after they’re found on the beach. The place is run like a cafeteria. Parents come in and look around to see their lost kids and then take them home. Sunday the place was in an uproar.

The policewoman was excited and said to me: “I may be a policewoman, and I have a heart. But this is too much. One hundred and fifty lost kids is too much. I haven’t eaten yet. I’m going to close up this place.”

No Play Wanted

On the way back to the city I was hailed by a female hitch hiker. “I’ve been waiting 15 minutes for a Surf Ave. street car,” she told me as she stepped into my car. I left her off at her destination. She wanted to go home and change into a play suit and ride with me. But I told her I had too much work to do and not enough time to play.

When I got back to the city I took a shower and finished my pictures. While I was at Coney I had two kosher frankfurters and two beers at a Jewish delicatessen on the Boardwalk. Later on for a chaser I had five more beers, a malted milk, two root beers, three Coca Colas and two glasses of buttermilk. And five cigars, costing 19 cents.

PM, July 22, 1940