The Steeplechase Face was the

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fic ...

of the historic

Steeplechase Park Steeplechase Park was a amusement park in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City. Steeplechase Park was created by entrepreneur George C. Tilyou in 1897 and operated until 1964. It was the first of the three large amusement parks built on Con ...

, the first of three amusement parks in

Coney Island Coney Island is a peninsular neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach to its east, Lower New York Bay to th ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...

, New York. It remains a nostalgic symbol of

and of amusement areas influenced by it. It features a man with a

grotesque Since at least the 18th century (in French and German as well as English), grotesque has come to be used as a general adjective for the strange, mysterious, magnificent, fantastic, hideous, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant, or disgusting, and thus ...

wide exaggerated

smile A smile is a facial expression formed primarily by flexing the muscles at the sides of the mouth. Some smiles include a contraction of the muscles at the corner of the eyes, an action known as a Duchenne smile. Among humans, a smile expresses d ...

, sometimes bearing as many as 44 visible teeth. The image conveys simple fun, but was also observed by cultural critics to have an undercurrent of Victorian-era repressed sexuality. It was also known as the Funny Face after the park's slogan "Steeplechase - Funny Place" or as Tillie, after the park's founder George C. Tilyou. It has also sometimes been named Steeplechase Jack. The mascot represented the area's wholesomeness and

neoclassical architecture Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing sty ...

combined with its veneer of hidden sexuality. Though the park was a "family-friendly" area, it was nearby the "freer sexual expression of the dance halls, beaches, and boardwalk." The "Funny Face" logo has become an iconic symbol of Coney Island.

History

Introduced in 1897 with the park's opening, it existed in a variety of forms for most of its history, and was only standardized as a design in the late 1940s. Steeplechase Park at night, Coney Island, N

Steeplechase Park at night, Coney Island, N

The face's most prominent appearance in Coney Island was in glass on the exterior of Steeplechase's Pavilion of Fun, created when the park was rebuilt in 1909. The pavilion was destroyed by

Fred Trump Frederick Christ Trump Sr. (October 11, 1905 – June 25, 1999) was an American real estate developer and businessman. A member of the Trump family, he was the father of Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States. In partnership wi ...

in 1966 in an unsuccessful attempt to create condos on the site.

Impact

The smile of the Joker, a Batman villain, may have been partially inspired by the face. The face is sometimes seen as an evil clown today, but this was not the original understanding. The face also appeared at other Tilyou amusement properties, such as Steeplechase Pier in Atlantic City, and was also copied regionally, as with the Tillie of Asbury Park. Coney Island Scream Zone gate

The face remains a popular symbol of Coney Island, embraced by many neighborhood institutions and businesses. A version is used in the logo of Coney Island USA, and for a time another, more clown-like, version was used by Coney Island Brewing Co. It is used in parts of the modern

Luna Park Luna Park is a name shared by dozens of currently operating and defunct amusement parks. They are named after, and partly based on, the first Luna Park, which opened in 1903 during the heyday of large Coney Island parks. Luna parks are small-s ...

, particularly in its "Scream Zone". As of 2019, the Steeplechase Face continues to appear as

sticker art Sticker art (also known as sticker bombing, sticker slapping, slap tagging, and sticker tagging) is a form of street art in which an image or message is publicly displayed using stickers. These stickers may promote a political agenda, comment o ...

in Coney Island. An exhibit on the history of the face was shown by the Coney Island History Project in 2014. An exhibit on Coney Island's history, which included artifacts of the face, was displayed at the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown ...

in 2015.

References

External links

"The Face Of Steeplechase" at the Coney Island History Project
{{Coney Island American mascots Coney Island Mascots introduced in 1897

History

Impact

See also

References

External links