i grew up in southern california in the 50s, yet somehow was surprised blacks and whites shared the beach; coney island i guess.
----
DrHorrible's Singalong Blog ('08): "Don't worry. Captain Hammer will save us."
Interesting that you would notice that. I grew up in the deep south so I have no first hand knowledge. But after your post I searched for images for Coney Island in the 1950s and found a number of photos and seriously I couldn't spot any dark-skinned beach goers. So it may just have been the filmmakers reflecting current society more than trying to recreate what might have been typical in the 1950s.
..*.. TxMike ..*..
Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes not.
thanks mike. so this morning i'm wondering if there were beach sections mostly irish or italian, etc. less apparent of course but natural as apple pie. # melting pot
> So it may just have been the filmmakers reflecting current society more than trying to recreate what might have been typical in the 1950s.
may be. but they'd do their best to avoid the trap.
----
DrHorrible's Singalong Blog ('08): "Don't worry. Captain Hammer will save us."
It is probably because they are in 'Yank' territory instead of in the segregated south.
shareI thought that was odd too.
~Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable~
I don't remember Coney Island beaches but I do recall the Rockaway beach being integrated by the mid-Fifties. I doubt if there was ever any legal segregation, but people tend to gravitate toward other people who are like them, so there may have been de facto segregation.
shareWhen looking it up, I only found some pieces about the riots that often happened when blacks tried getting into a certain area of the park--amusement park I'm guessing--and were constantly turned away based on it being a 'private party' day. Also, out of all the photos I looked through, I only came across one photo with a black man with, what seemingly was with, his white friends. I really don't know, but it's definitely interesting.
~Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable~
I remember a tv report about an all African American resort and summer place in Florida. It was where middle class blacks went during segregation days went for vacations. It was closing down several years ago and being sold to developers.
An elderly woman could no longer keep the place up which had been in her family for generations.
She said business had fallen a lot during the past 20 years since blacks could now go to newer previously all white resorts.
I remember TV reports from a year or so ago about an affluent town in Connecticut. They had a beach and walled it off from the next town which was less affluent and had some minorities, They claimed they just didn't want to be around poorer people no matter what their color was. The beach was restricted to residents only. Connecticut has only 8 miles of sandy beaches open to the public out of 72 miles. Its known as the sand curtain as beaches are fenced off by town, Home Owner Associations, etc.
There is a book about beaches being even more segregated as time goes by. Its called "The Land was Ours" by Andrew Kahrl, Harvard 2012.
I don't know everything. Neither does anyone else
They have to put some black people in every movie these days, even if its not accurate.
sharePeople often make this mistake about the past; just because the South was segregated during this era doesn't mean the whole country was.
Here is a photo of Coney Island from 1953 with a few black people clearly visible:
http://www.brooklynvisualheritage.org/it-really-looks-coney
Here is a photo from 1962:
http://www.neh.gov/files/imagecache/neh_large/humanities/articles/2015_0506_webimages_28.29._coneyisland.jpg
From Leon Levinstein's photos of Coney Island in the 1950s and '60s:
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/291723
http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/291725
The Coney Island shot seemed almost reminiscent of the opening shot of the 1950s remake of Imitation of Life starring Lana Turner where she meets a black woman (played by Juanita Moore) at Coney Island. Although, I thought Imitation of Life probably more accurately portrayed how busy and loud it probably was whereas Brooklyn set it in a more hazy dream like atmosphere, which worked for the movie.
share