STAR STRUCK: A Bradford woman got some ink in a recent article
in the Washington Post about the newest exhibit at National Air and
Space Museum – an 8-foot star from Astroland, Coney Island’s
space-age theme park.
Margaret A. Weitekamp, as a museum curator, was a key player in
the acquisition of this piece of Americana.
The Astroland star will be kept in storage for two years and
then displayed at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Northern
Virginia when Phase 2 of that museum is completed in 2011.
We turn to the Post story:
“Margaret A. Weitekamp, a curator at the National Air and Space
Museum, wasn’t among the millions of youngsters who would press
their noses against the subway window when the huge stars signaling
that they were almost at Coney Island came into view. But, with a
sense of what is unusual and culturally important, Weitekamp perked
up when a letter proposing a donation from the famed Astroland Park
came across her desk last fall.
” ‘I was immediately intrigued,’ said Weitekamp, who grew up in
Bradford, Pa., and now works as a cultural historian in the
museum’s space history division. The star’s design reflects what
the curator calls ‘the enthusiasm of the early space age.’ “
“Working with the family that owns the now-shuttered Astroland,
Weitekamp went to Coney Island for the first time in January. She
evaluated the rides, the ticket booth, the entrance booth and the
towering stars that marked the entrance. She decided on one
star.”
The five-point star is 8-feet tall, 7 1/2 feet wide, weighs 200
pounds and has 160 light bulbs.
The attraction was founded in 1962 by Dewey Albert who was
enamored of the space race.
“He was very caught up in the space craze of the early 1960s –
the decision to go to the moon, John Glenn’s (flight). He was
confident people would respond to that theme,” Weitekamp told the
Post. “Astroland was a response to what really happened. Dewey
Albert took what was new and real and exciting and made it even
more real.”
In 2008, after 46 years of continuous operation, the park closed
and the land was sold to a developer. In recent years, several
proposals to revitalize all of Coney Island have stalled, according
to the Post article.
