In Woody Allen’s film ANNIE HALL, Alvy Singer (Allen) describes his childhood home situated directly under a roller coaster. Flashbacks reveal his family “happily” gathered together for Alvy’s birthday. Everyone is neatly arranged around a neatly trimmed birthday cake that, in an instant of thunderous-sounding motion, is left broken and scattered all over the room…alas, it’s a fun-filled roller coaster in the wake of yet another routine passage over the domestic scene.
Of course, you’d assume that this is merely Woody Allen’s wild sense of humor and no one would or could ever actually live under a roller coaster. This would be worse than living under a bowling alley…or almost as bad as living under a day care center. However, you’d be wrong in your assumptions because a family did indeed live under a roller coaster; none other than the selfsame thunderous demon that so unexpectedly and hilariously makes its cameo appearance in ANNIE HALL: the Thunderbolt Roller Coaster of Coney Island. The Moran family, owners of the Thunderbolt, had lived beneath their fabulous concession for over sixty years.
Prior to his roller coaster lifestyle, George Moran owned and lived in the Kensington Hotel. In 1926 he hired John Miller, world-renowned roller coaster designer, to build the Thunderbolt near his hotel. To save the hotel, Miller and Moran not only built the coaster nearby but also on and around the building, using it as the coaster’s structural support. “You don’t tear down buildings in Coney Island if you can help it,” Moran said at the time.
The Thunderbolt became one of three roller coasters at Coney Island of legendary importance. Together with the twisting-winding Tornado and the hair-raising (world famous) Cyclone, the Thunderbolt formed a triad of chilling dips and spine-tingling curves which more than satisfied everyone’s roller coaster expectations. The Thunderbolt was basically wooden-tracked but supported by an unprecedented steel structure; the first of its kind. Its superb double-up pushed the borders on a rider’s free fall sensation and illusion of speed.
George and his son Fred managed the ride and enjoyed their unique lifestyle for many years. Mae Timpano, a waitress at Coney Island, became the third member of this singular and spirited family when she married Fred. In the American Experience episode, CONEY ISLAND: A DOCUMENTARY FILM, Mae recalls that they “used to find teeth in the yard [along with] wigs, glasses, guns. Everything we found in the yard…nobody came back for them though.”
Curiously, in spite of the Thunderbolt’s thunderous rumblings which tore at the house, Mae only recalls a few pieces of broken glass including one or two perfume bottles. She remembers her home as being very spacious and comfortable, almost like “living in the country.” Like Coney Island itself, it must have been a strange but exciting, thrilling yet loving, world within a world. Whereas George and Fred Moran are long gone, Mae is still alive and lived to witness the closing of the Thunderbolt in 1983 and, on November 17, 2000, the roller coaster’s demise at the swing of a wrecking ball. New York City’s former mayor, and self-proclaimed “hero” of 9/11 Rudolph Giuliani, had “progress” in mind and not nostalgia; even Woody Allen’s talent couldn’t come up with something so ludicrous.
Sources: “The House Under the Roller Coaster” by Steven Zeitlin
nyfolklore.org/pubs/voicjl27/dns…
The Coney Island Thunderbolt
history.amusement-parks.com/cith…
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July 27th, 2008 - 11:22 am
I really am going to have to find that documentary – I hope the library has it (I’m in Canada so am not holding my breath!)
Another wonderful post, I really enjoy reading your blog…And Annie Hall is one of my favorite movies. “Brooklyn is not expanding!”
July 27th, 2008 - 11:48 am
Thanks for your feedback. Yes, you really have to see that documentary: it’s one of the best in the American Experience series.
When I was a kid, my attention was always drawn to this somewhat squalid but intriguing house beneath the Thunderbolt. I used to ask my father if anyone lived there. Naturally, “no” was his reply; this was the response from everyone I asked. However, I was always convinced that someone did indeed live there…after all, this was an amusement park and my childhood imagination was always open to all manner of possibilities. I loved it!!!