[Civil defense blackout in a sideshow, Coney Island, New York]

“Blackout … Came the zero hour, 9 P.M. ‘Lights Out’ and they did go out. … In Coney Island the freaks inside the museums got a well-earned rest … what with doing a show every fifteen minutes inside, and the bally outside.” (Naked City)
When Dreamland Park was gutted by fire in 1911, manager Samuel Gumpertz built a new showcase for his Congress of Curious People and Living Wonders of the World, on Surf Avenue (next to another of his Coney establishments, the Eden Musée [7213.1993]). The new venue, Dreamland Circus Sideshow, attracted up to 30,000 visitors a day in the 1920s and its success spawned other freak shows at Coney Island, featuring performers like Zip the “What-Is-It” and partner Pip.