Surf Avenue, Coney Island, N.Y. 1918 Rocky Road & Ben Hur Race Entrances NY

Description

Surf Avenue, Coney Island, N.Y.
Postally used viewcard although stamp is missing postmarked in Brooklyn, N.Y. Jul. 8, 1918. Card in good condition with two tiny upper corner surface creases.
This card shows the entrance to the Rocky Road and Ben Hur Race, two of the most famous rides on the Island.  They were located at the beginning of Surf Avenue near the Terminal Station and are easily accessible to all visitors.
The Rocky Road to Dublin was a large roller coaster located on Surf Avenue, directly across from Dreamland. It replaced the Old Mill in 1906, which itself had replaced Doyle's Annex Hotel in 1902. Doyle's was the original Cable's Hotel dating to 1875, one of the first major structures in Culver Plaza North in
West Brighton
. The Rocky Road to Dublin lasted until the early 1920s.
The name of this scenic railway was a pretty direct appeal to the Irish immigrants living in New York.  It's a reference to an Irish folksong written in the mid-1800s about an Irish lad who decides to make his way from the countryside first to the city of Dublin and then onto Liverpool.  The journey isn't a particularly pleasant experience, as when he's actually sober he's both beaten and robbed on separate occasions, all for having an Irish accent.  Then again, that's pretty much what it felt like living in the Irish slums of New York every day.  The Rocky Road to Dublin is where Ferrari's lion, Black Prince, ran to in 1911 when Dreamland caught fire.
This remarkable ticket is for the Ben-Hur Racers, a small roller coaster located on Surf Avenue directly across the street from Dreamland. It was built during the 1908 season and began operating around September of 1908. It replaced the Albemarle Hotel and went in next to the much larger Rocky Road to Dublin.  It was a dual-track "racer" coaster (see the
Star Double Toboggan Racer
for explanation).
Ben-Hur was a really clever name for this racer-style roller coaster for several interesting reasons that may not be immediately evident to someone today.
To see why, start with the premise is that anyone around in 1910 immediately would have recognized "Ben-Hur" as the best selling American novel of all time.  Written in 1880, it's about a Jewish prince called Ben-Hur who is forced into slavery through no fault of this own.  He competes in dangerous chariot races and overcomes a series of other personal misfortunes by finding redemption through converting to Christianity.
Calling the ride "Ben-Hur" back then therefore is similar to Disney or Universal Studios building a new ride in Orlando today and naming it after Harry Potter or Batman.  It's good marketing.  There's also the very appropriate chariot racing theme for a "racer" roller coaster.