2014;
418 pages. New Author? : Yes. Full Title : The
Lost Tribe of Coney Island: Headhunters, Luna Park, and the Man Who Pulled Off
the Spectacle of the Century. Genre
: Non-Fiction; Anthropology; Social
Sciences; American History. Laurels :
New York Post “Must Read” – October 2014; Amazon Best Book of the Month
(History) – October 2014; shortlisted for the 2015 Brooklyn Eagles Literary
Prize. Overall Rating : 8½*/10.
One of the most popular exhibits at the 1904
St. Louis Exposition was created by the Philippines. 1,300 Filipinos from a dozen tribes were
brought over to the heartland of America, so that visitors to the fair could
see firsthand what ‘savages’ populated the recently-acquired American territory. The exhibit covered 40 acres and was a real
crowd-pleaser. Alas, expositions are
short-lived, and pretty soon everyone returned to their home countries.
Dr. Truman Hunt has spent time in the Philippines, and part of it was
spent in the villages of one of the tribes there, the Igorrotes. And a year after the St. Louis display, he
can see an enormous opportunity to make big money showcasing these natives
around the rest of the United States.
There are plenty of Igorrote tribesmen willing to take part in the show,
even though it means being separated from their families for a full year. But the pay will be phenomenal - $15 per
month, plus tips, plus any money made by selling their handmade trinkets to
American tourists. The show itself has
“can’t miss” written all over it. And
Truman Hunt is a natural-born showman whose instincts for making money are a
proven asset.
What could possibly go wrong?
What’s To Like...
For me, The Lost
Tribe of Coney Island is a delightful trip back in time to the turn of
the 20th century. Amusement
parks were at the height of their popularity, and the best place to visit one
of them was New York City's Coney Island, which at the time had three separate amusement parks
trying to outdo each other with thrilling rides, bizarre freak shows, and
glimpses of foreign places that were both exotic and faux.
Truman
Hunt and his band of Igorrotes reached Vancouver on April 18, 1905, and arrived
in New York City a month later, where one of the Coney Island amusement parks,
Luna Park, immediately and enthusiastically snapped them up gave them top billing. The savages instantly become a smash hit.
But
don’t mistake this for a National Geographic article. Claire Prentice makes it a character study of
Truman, as he gradually morphs from a trusted father-figure for his showcased
Igorrotes to a person who lies to them, steals their money, and reneges on his
promise to send them back to their homeland after one year. The title is a bit misleading: although the
main part of the book deals with the summer on Coney Island, both Truman and the
Igorrotes then go on an extended run from the law, culminating in a long,
drawn-out trial.
There are 32 chapters, each of which starts with a photograph of
something or someplace from that era.
These are expandable, and stay sharp even when zoomed out. I found them to be absolutely fascinating. The footnotes are user-friendly, and there’s a
Cast of Characters at the beginning, which turned out to be extremely useful. Finally, the Afterword at the end of the book
gives a “Whatever
Happened To” for each character that Claire Prentice could
trace. Unsurprisingly, most of the
Igorrotes fade into obscurity as soon as they get back to the Philippines.
I
liked the “feel” the author gave to experiencing America in 1905-06. Some were warm and fuzzy, but it was also
neat to see the difference between then and now. For example, showing ‘savages’ in their native
habitat was mesmerizing back then; it would be condemned nowadays. Bigamy apparently was prevalent and despised
back then. Today it wouldn’t even be worthy of making it into a newspaper
article. And Southern justice back then was
anything but that; and it is hopefully better than that now.
Excerpts...
Coney Island was
made of tall tales. The birthplace of
the hot dog and the roller coaster, it was the poor man’s paradise, offering
sensation for a nickel. Coney bent the
rules of time and space. Its currency
was the huge and the tiny, the ten-ton woman and the ten-inch man. Freaks and curiosities lived alongside
detailed recreations of kingdoms from beyond the seas. Part Victorian cabinet of curiosities, part
compendium of global delights, at Coney the extraordinary was commonplace and
the humdrum of everyday life could be forgotten. (loc. 1181)
Much was said in
the corridors of power and written in the press about the manifold ways in
which America could “civilize” the Igorrotes, but the tribespeople had their
own ideas. Before he left Coney Island,
Chief Fomoaley shared his impressions with a journalist.
“I have seen many
wonders [in America], but we will not bring any of them home to Bontoc. We do not want them there. We have the great sun and moon to light us;
what do we want of your little suns [electric lighting]? The houses that fly like birds [trains and
cars] would be no good to us, because we do not want to leave Bontoc. When we go home there, we will stay, for it
is the best place in the world.”. (loc.
5673)
Kindle Details...
The Lost Tribe of Coney Island sells for $4.99
at Amazon. Claire Prentice has only one
other e-book to offer on Amazon, titled Miracle at
Coney Island. It sells for $2.99.
Dressed alone in my complexion, with a palm-leaf fan, perchance,
I would rather be a savage, Than a magnate wearing “pants”. (loc. 1851)
The
quibbles with The Lost Tribe of Coney Island are minuscule. The author can get repetitive at times, such
as when she again-and-again points out Truman’s greed or reminds the reader of the $15/month
lost wages. But it never got to where it
became annoying.
The ending is both sweet and sad, and a tad bit anticlimactic. However, this is non-fiction, which means the
writer is stuck with whatever the final outcome was.
I
was intrigued by the politics behind the whole “showcasing the savages”
bit. The US had just won the
Spanish-American war, and had inherited the Philippines, whose inhabitants were thankful we
had liberated them from Spain, and expected full independence forthwith. The United States wanted to delay this as long
as possible, and showing the American public what a bunch of uncivilized
savages they were (they eat dogs, for Pete’s
sake!), helped establish the self-serving (for the United States) tenet that “they just aren’t ready for
independence yet”.
Some
may not like these political tangents in the story, but I think they have relevance
for this country, particularly under our present regime.
8½ Stars.
The whole “eating dog meat” issue
resonated with me. Even in 1905, such a
concept was abhorrent, yet mesmerizing.
The same people who condemned it regularly paid to watch it. The odd thing was, dog meat was a delicacy
for the Igorrotes, usually only eaten during a special feast. Yet now, in order to satisfy the American
tourists, they were forced to partake of it on a daily basis. The irony just drips.
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