Palisades Park (58 page)

Irving bought her a birch beer—he never failed to pay, never cadged free food from anyone—and they moved on down the midway. “I’ve added a new stunt to my act. Ella Carver showed me how to do it. A fire dive.”

Rosenthal smiled. “Audiences always love a good fire dive. I think the last one we had here was Billy Outten. Do you dive into a flaming tank, too?”

“That’s the idea.”

“We could bill you as ‘Antoinette, the Blazing Beauty—Watch Her Dive Into the Flames of Hell!’”

“That’s about what it’s going to feel like in this heat.”

His imagination fired, Irving snapped his fingers. “Here’s a sweet wrinkle: What if I arrange for one of the fire engines from the Fort Lee Fire Department to park itself not far away from where you’re diving? Have them station a fire captain right next to it, and we announce, ‘This act is so dangerous, the fire department insists we have equipment on the premises to put out Antoinette’s flames should anything go wrong!’”

Toni laughed. “That is some high grade of bullshit you’re selling, Irving. I like it.”

“I’ll run it past Sol Abrams, he’ll love it. Jack would’ve loved it too.”

A shadow eclipsed Rosenthal’s bright mood at the mention of his brother, who had died from Parkinson’s disease last year.

“I was sorry to hear about your brother,” Toni said gently. “I was out of town, I didn’t hear of it until I got back.”

“You know, I didn’t think it would be this hard, running the park without him,” Rosenthal admitted. “He was in pretty bad shape the past few years, he wasn’t that actively involved. But I’d been working alongside him for almost sixty years—he was always there if I needed advice, or to just listen to me blow my top over something. I feel like my right arm’s been cut off.” He sighed. “And I’d hoped one of his kids might want to take over Palisades after we retired. But none have any ambitions to run an amusement park.”

“What about your niece Anna?”

“Her least of all. She’s been doing it as long as I have. And I can’t sell Palisades to just anybody. A place like this—it’s like a living thing, the way people interact with it, how they think of it. For kids like you who grew up around here, it’s always been a part of your lives—it’s personal. Sell it to someone like Walt Disney, and it’s no longer the same park. I want it to be the same, to go on living, after I’m gone. We’re at the top of our game now, Toni—Palisades has never been more popular, more famous. What’s wrong with wanting that to go on? Nobody wants summer to end.”

Touched by the longing in his voice, Toni said, “You’re going to be here to keep summer going for lots more years, Uncle Irving.”

He smiled, took out his wallet, and handed her a dollar bill. “I never get tired of being called that. Here you go. Don’t spend it all in one place.”

Toni laughed and took the dollar with good grace, a pleasant reminder of her childhood when these dollars seemed like ingots of gold.

Irving waved and moved off down the midway, continuing his daily health inspection, like a parent checking the temperature of a child.

*   *   *

Posters soon went up all over Palisades, as well as Cliffside Park and Fort Lee, proclaiming the imminent appearance of

AMAZING ANTOINETTE, THE BLAZING BEAUTY—SHE DIVES FROM A HEIGHT OF NINETY FEET INTO THE FLAMES OF HELL!

It was accompanied by an illustration of a woman wrapped in fire, diving headlong into an inferno of flames at least ten feet high.

Toni’s children now displayed an interest and excitement in her career for the first time in years. Jeff bragged to all his friends that his mother was going to turn herself into a Human Torch. “Yeah, sure—and your sister’s the Invisible Girl,” one of them scoffed. But when Jeff showed them the poster, their skepticism evaporated.

The Atlantic heat wave continued, making Toni’s and Arlan’s job of erecting her tower and tank all the more arduous. The rising temperature sapped their strength and caused a constant drip of perspiration into their eyes as they worked under a brutal sun. They took frequent breaks and drank as much water as they could to avoid getting dehydrated, and it took longer than usual to raise the tower—close to two days of exhausting work.

The temperature soared to a hundred degrees by July 2, the first day of the Fourth of July weekend and the day Irving wanted Toni to debut her fire dive. And he insisted on her doing it not at night, but at one in the afternoon—peak attendance, but also peak temperature as well. “It’ll get more press coverage, too,” he explained, “because the photographers will be able to get a better shot. After that you can go to night dives, all right?”

She agreed as long as the winds remained light: “Anything higher than eight knots and I’ll scrub the dive, I’m not taking that chance.”

The night before the dive, Toni slept fitfully, and not from the heat. She seemed to float through a series of disturbing dreams, none of which she could remember afterward; and when morning finally came she woke with a feeling of dread and anxiety. She never had feelings like this before a dive, and to allay them she checked again with the Weather Service and was told the local temperature would top out at a hundred degrees, with the wind speed between five or six knots. She felt a little better after that—wind was what worried her most, and six knots was nothing to worry about.

Even so, the atmosphere at the park was hot and muggy and she wasn’t thrilled to be pulling on a woolen leotard and shirt for her first show. She checked and rechecked the equipment; everything was in working order. She licked her finger and tested the wind, which remained light.

About forty-five minutes before showtime, an engine company from the Fort Lee Fire Department parked one of its trucks outside the northern border of the park, off Route 5—exactly where many of the fire engines had parked back in ’44—and unrolled several hundred feet of fire hose, which two firemen carried into the park, snaking it behind the bathhouses and all the way to the free-act stage. They struck a suitably dramatic pose as Bob Paulson’s voice issued from the loudspeakers:

“In just fifteen minutes on the free-act stage, for the first time at Palisades, the Amazing Antoinette will dive from the top of a ninety-foot tower, her body set on fire, into a tank filled with flames! And because this is the Blazing Beauty’s most daring and dangerous dive ever, a fire engine has been posted outside the park, and firemen from the Fort Lee Fire Department stand ready to assist should anything go terribly wrong!”

Arlan, helping Toni into her jacket with its backpack of gasoline, pointed out, “Lotta help they’ll be—fire hose isn’t even hooked up.”

Toni should have found that funny, but didn’t.

Arlan picked up a gasoline can, went to the tank, and carefully sprinkled the circumference with gasoline.

As the audience gathered, Toni adjusted her canvas jacket and the gasoline packs. From behind the stage she saw her cheering gallery being seated: Jimmy and the kids, Eddie, Lehua, Jack, Bunty, Minette, Irving … and, still wearing her black-and-white magician’s costume, Adele, taking a seat next to Jack. This shouldn’t have surprised Toni, but it only added to the anxiety she had been unable to shake all morning.

“Ladies and gentlemen, performing the most daring of all high dives, Palisades Park is proud to present … Antoinette, the Blazing Beauty!”

Toni’s music started and she began to ascend the ladder. In her woolen costume she was sweating like a pig before she had even cleared the halfway point. By the time she reached the top she licked her lips, sorry she hadn’t taken another swig of water from her thermos bottle.

Down below, Arlan struck a match and tossed it into the tank.

A spear of flame erupted from the tank, the crowd gasping as the flames circled all the way around in less than ten seconds.

Toni walked out to the edge of the platform. She gauged the wind speed—five knots, tops—and looked down.

The flames danced around the edges of the tank and Toni felt a surge of sudden fear, despite the calm wind and absence of anything threatening on the ground. She looked farther afield, just to be sure—taking in the audience, the saltwater pool and bathhouses in the distance, and behind them, a single fire engine parked on the curb outside the park.

She felt another jab of fear, for no apparent reason.
Stop it,
she told herself. Everything was fine, and the audience was waiting.

She reached behind her, lit the fuse on the gasoline packs, which burst into flame with a WHOOSH—the fireball generating a blast of heat so intense it staggered her, took her breath away.

As she gasped for air she looked down and saw—

Flames across the midway, consuming her parents’ French fry concession as if it were no more than an appetizer before a really good meal. WHOOSH, and then it was gone! Sparks flew like spittle across the midway and ignited the Funhouse, the exterior walls gobbled up like a snack, exposing bones of dry tinder, which were then devoured in turn …

A frightened voice inside Toni said, No, no, not again—

The heat was overpowering and the skies above her glowed red, the air around her choked with acrid smoke. The bathhouse was next for the fire to feast upon, and Toni on her high perch found herself nearly surrounded by the hungry flames. She told herself to jump, but fear paralyzed her—fear of falling, of hitting the water the wrong way, her body snapping like a twig …

Terrified, unable to move, Toni felt the ferocious heat on her back growing even hotter, saw livid flares at the periphery of her vision and knew they would soon consume her if she didn’t jump.

She was staring down into a sea of fire. Her body was covered in sweat, she shook with fear and wanted to call for help …

But still she couldn’t move. Gripped by panic, she barely heard the murmurs of alarm and apprehension floating up from the crowd.

No one was more alarmed than Adele, who saw her daughter standing there swathed in flame and
knew
something was wrong. In all the times she had seen Toni perform, she had never seen her hesitate more than a few seconds before diving. And yet here she was, nearly engulfed in flame, and still she didn’t move. What was wrong, what was she think—

Oh, God.
Suddenly, Adele knew exactly what Toni was thinking.

By now Toni’s body was drenched with perspiration, the sweat dripping down her forehead and into her eyes. She wiped it away with her sleeve, but it was the only movement she seemed capable of.

Where was the Human Torch? Where was Bee Kyle? She could command these flames to retreat, couldn’t she? But there was no one to come to her aid, and her nose twitched at the smell of burning canvas …

“Toni!” came a voice from below. “TONI!”

She looked down.

Her mother was standing by the tank, calling up to her: “Jump, Toni! You have to jump! Do it now, Toni!
Go!
”

The cars in the parking lot exploded like firecrackers and her mother said, “Let’s go!”

Toni finally shook off her nightmare and jumped.

She plummeted straight down, dragging a comet’s tail behind her, the bubble of heat surrounding her almost unbearable as, below, a tank of writhing flame beckoned … with just six feet of open water in the middle.

Threading the fiery needle, she plunged safely into the water, the flames on her back sizzling and sputtering, a steaming waterspout dousing the ring of fire. Toni relaxed her body, threw back her head and arms, slowing her descent into the now tropically warm waters.

She was alive—but no thanks to herself.

She flutter-kicked upward, and as her head broke the surface she was greeted by cheers and applause from the crowd.

She knew she didn’t deserve it. She had screwed up, almost fatally.

Arlan stood on the walkway, and beside him was Adele, conspicuous in her magician’s costume (
sans
high heels, which she had kicked off).

“Honey, are you
okay?
” her mother called out over the applause.

Toni swam over to the ladder.

“You—you saved me,” Toni said wonderingly. “
Again
.”

Arlan offered her a hand up the ladder, and on reaching the walkway Toni embraced her mother with tears in her eyes.

“Thank you,” she said softly. “I thought I saw—”

“I know,” Adele said. “Believe me, I know.” Even though her daughter was sopping wet, Adele never wanted to let go. But she smiled and said, “We’ve got to make the crowd think this was all part of the act.”

Toni nodded. “Follow my lead.”

She took her mother’s hand and led her to the front of the walkway surrounding the tank. Then she raised Adele’s hand in a victory salute.

“If you think
this
was miraculous,” Toni called out, “go straight to the Palace of Illusions to catch the next performance of—the Magical Adele!”

The crowd laughed—it was all a stunt, after all. They hooted and cheered, Toni took her bows, then she and her mother climbed down the ladder and hurried behind the stage.

Arlan had a bottle of water for Toni as soon as she got there, and she chugged it down almost in one gulp.

“My God,” she said softly, “I could’ve died.”

“But you didn’t,” Adele said. “Thank God.”

“Ella can have her damn fire dive—I am
never
trying that again.”

Adele looked her square in the eye and said, “Don’t you dare.”

Toni blinked in confusion. “What?”

“Don’t you dare give up,” Adele told her. “You can do anything you set your mind to, Toni. You can
be
anything you want to be. Don’t you
ever
think you can’t.”

Toni hugged her mother and held her tight, as she had on that fiery day twenty-two years ago, the years between vanishing in a puff of smoke.

The Last Days of Palisades

BY

J
ACK
S
TOPKA

T
HE PARK SLUMBERS
through the long winter, weighted down by ice and snow, dreaming of spring. It dreams of its infancy before the turn of the century, of the trolley cars that came clanging up the hill to The Park on the Palisades and the passengers who came to enjoy its gardens, picnic groves, and shaded paths overlooking the Hudson. It dreams of its childhood in the first years of the new century, and of the visitors who now sought out more worldly attractions like a Ferris wheel, games of chance, balloon flights, a dancing pavilion, and a high diver named Arthur Holden. The park grew along with the century, reaching adolescence in the ’teens with the Big Scenic Railway and saltwater pool, and adulthood in the twenties with the addition of a sideshow, two new coasters, even an opera company.