292CHAPTER8Terms & NamesTerms & NamesMAIN IDEAMAIN IDEAThe Dawn of Mass CultureWHY IT MATTERS NOWWHY IT MATTERS NOWAlong the Brooklyn seashore, on a narrow sandbar just ninemiles from busy Manhattan, rose the most famous urbanamusement center, Coney Island. In 1886, its main developer,George Tilyou, bragged, “If Paris is France, then Coney Island. . . is the world.” Indeed, tens of thousands of visitors mobbedConey Island after work each evening and on Sundays andholidays. When Luna Park, a spectacular amusement park onConey Island, opened in May 1903, a reporter described the scene.
Coney Island offered Americans a few hours of escapefrom the hard work week. A schoolteacher who walked fullydressed into the ocean explained her unusual behavior by saying, “It has been ahard year at school, and when I saw the big crowd here, everyone with the brakesoff, the spirit of the place got the better of me.” The end of the 19th century sawthe rise of a “mass culture” in the United States.
Middle-class Americans from all over the country shared experiences as newleisure activities, nationwide advertising campaigns, and the rise of a consumerculture began to level regional differences. As the 19th century drew to a close,many Americans fought off city congestion and dull industrial work by enjoyingamusement parks, bicycling, new forms of theater, and spectator sports.
