1897 - Everyday Life

Everyday Life

Steeplechase Park opens at Coney Island, New York, under the management of real estate operator George C. (Cornelius) Tilyou, 35, who has invented many of the rides and fun houses himself for the large amusement area. Competing attractions will spring up in the next decade to cover 20 acres and make Coney Island the greatest amusement area in the world.

Vienna's 131-year-old Prater Park installs a 210-foot high Ferris wheel designed by an English engineer (see 1893). Riders get a panoramic view of the Danube and the city from the Riesenrad's spacious cabins (see St. Louis, 1904).

Lifebuoy soap is introduced by Sunlight soap producer W. H. Lever, whose strong soap will be promoted as a safeguard against body odor (see 1886; Lux Flakes, 1906).

London's Moss Bros. of Covent Garden goes into the dresswear hire business to accommodate a customer who has gone broke as a stockbroker and obtained a professional engagement as a monologuist. Started by Moses Moss in 1860 and managed by his eldest son, Alfred, the secondhand clothing shop will serve generations of Englishmen, including the nobility, who will hire from Moss Bros. not only morning dress and evening wear but also coronation robes, court dress, ball gowns, wedding dresses, ski clothes, and theatrical costumes.

Birkenstock sandals have their beginning as German cobbler Konrad Birkenstock designs the first shoe with a contoured insole for use by shoemakers in the production of custom footwear. Birkenstock's grandfather, Johann Adam, started the family business in a small village in 1774, but shoes have always been flat inside and Konrad has theorized that since the soles of people's feet are curved their shoes would be more comfortable if the shape of the shoes reflected the shape of the feet. He will develop the first flexible arch supports in 1902, and they will be inserted in factory-made shoes sold throughout Germany (see 1964).