http://www.westland.net/coneyisland/articles/lunapark.htm wrote:
Coney Island - Luna Park
The material is copyrighted © 1998 by Jeffrey Stanton.
<<Frederick Thompson and his partner Skip Dundy made a name for themselves at the Pan-American Exposition held at Buffalo, New York in 1901. They created and operated a cyclorama show called
"A Trip to the Moon" where the public was transported on an imaginary flight to the moon in an
enormous ship with huge flapping wings. The voyagers entered the building's sumptuous lobby and to the craft's dock which was fitted like a railroad station's waiting room. From there they could glimpse "Luna," a brilliantly lit green and white cigar-shaped craft, lying quietly in the moonlight. It was the size of a small lake steamer
with colossal red canvas bat-like wings outstretched above a large cabin set in the middle. Thirty passengers came aboard the companionway onto its deck where they were seated in steamer chairs or could stand and lean on the rail.
A gong sounded. "Luna's" huge wings began to beat the air with slow strokes, and the ship's deck, balanced on gimbaled bearings began to undulate. Then there was a rush of wind as the ship, straining on its heavy cables, appeared to rise into the air. The painted views of the Exposition grounds began to drop and was replaced by thousands of blinking lights of the city below. As it soared higher into space, they could see the Earth as a globe that rapidly diminished in size. Although the scenery was painted on movable canvas, it was an effective illusion of soaring off into space.
Suddenly everything darkened almost to complete darkness. Lightning flashed across the sky, thunder rolled and there was a fierce rain on the awning overhead. "We are passing through a storm," shouted the captain, "we are quite safe." After the rain slackened and the stars came out, it was morning.
When the ship finally reached the moon and dropped through a sea of sunlit clouds, it flew past canyons and craters stained red, yellow and green. It then slowed, and veering right, landed in the crater of an extinct volcano. The passengers were met by midget moon men, Selenites, whose backs had rows of long spikes. They sang refrains of
"My Sweetheart the Man in the Moon," then escorted them through stalactite caverns, across chasms spanned by spidery bridges to the underground city of the Moon. There at the entrance of a broad avenue lined with the illuminated foliage of fantastic trees and toad stool growths, were the walls of a castle beyond a moat. They were led to the throne room where there were seats for the Earth visitors. Bronze griffins flanked the sides where the "Man in the Moon," a giant, sat on his splendid throne. On the stage in front was the Geisler electric fountain that displayed all the colors of the spectrum through its cascading water pulsing in a rhythmic dance.
As the visitors departed moon maidens in the green cheese room offered them tasty pieces of their cheese. Of course back then, everyone was certain the moon was made of green cheese. The moon tourists walked out through the mouth of a mighty "moon-calf" into the park's daylight.
There had never been an attraction even remotely like the Trip to the Moon. It was revolutionary in amusement entertainment and engineered to amaze the unsophisticated public of the day. It didn't matter that its scientific principles were outlandish for it attracted attention far and wide. Many notables of the day, who visited the attraction, included Senator Chauncey M. Depew, Thomas Edison, Secretary of War Elijah Root and President William McKinley on the evening before he was assassinated at the fair. Its popularity was so great that they offered thirty, 20 minute trips daily and doubled the seating capacity by October. The ride, which charged fifty cents, twice the price of other attractions, was experienced by over 400,000 people before it closed on November 2nd.>>