You may not know Derek Costello, but if you’ve been to Niagara Falls you probably know his work. His prehistoric beasts are at Dinosaur Park Mini Golf. His wax celebrities are at Movieland. His historical figures are at the Niagara Wax Museum of History.
What do Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan have in common? All were either shot or nearly shot with a gun (Ford was nearly shot twice with two different guns).
The Upstate New York village of East Aurora is well on its way to becoming an epicenter of eccentric signage. The small burg of 6,700 residents already hosts a number of over-sized sculptures that do double duty as smile-inducing landmarks and advertisements for local businesses.
As the pace of Coney Island’s much touted “revitalization” has accelerated in recent months, many beloved landmarks, historic buildings and mom-and-pop businesses have become casualties of plans to modernize the “amusement core” and transform it into a year-round (and far more mainstream) tourist destination.
