Six decades before his son Donald tore down the East Wing of the White House, Fred Trump sent out engraved invitations to take part in a big demolition of his own.

The invites were for a “V.I.P. Farewell Ceremony” at noon on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 1966, at Steeplechase Park in Coney Island.

The guests arrived to see Fred outside the park’s Pavilion of Fun, with the vast, smiling face painted on its glass facade. He was holding an ax as he posed for news photos in front of an earth mover. Four beaming fashion models stood in the loader, two in bikinis, all in white hard hats.

Champagne was served. Waiters in black tie distributed bricks on silver trays. The big moment approached.

Fred had purchased the shuttered amusement park the year before with the intention of building seaside apartment towers. The area was not zoned for residential construction, but Fred had previously overcome such obstacles simply by reaching out to his friends in the Brooklyn Democratic machine.

But, later in 1965, New York City elected John Lindsay as its new mayor. Lindsay was a reform-minded Republican WASP who believed that zoning should mean something. Fred found himself faced with actually adhering to the law. And his plight was further complicated when people in the community began saying that the Pavilion of Fun should be landmarked. That would be something even a Brooklyn fixer could not easily fix.

Fred had a way to render any landmarking moot. He signaled his guests to start throwing the bricks. Their prime target was the painting on glass of the smiling face that had become the symbol of Coney Island.

That done, the earthmover proceeded to level Steeplechase Park, leaving the famous parachute jump, which was by the boardwalk and did not interfere with Fred Trump’s plans.

But, reformers being reformers, Fred Trump was still unable to secure a variance for the now razed site. He abandoned his plan to build the towers and sold the tract to the city for $3.7 million in 1969. He walked away with a $1.2 million profit, but the vacant sky over the site remained a testament to what the Trump name could not achieve without political connections.

In 1974, Lindsay was succeeded by a flunky of the Brooklyn Democratic machine, Abe Beame. Fred and Donald then demonstrated what the Trump name could achieve through political connections. His son Donald was the front man as they secured a 40-year, $160 million tax break for the renovation of the 28-story Commodore Hotel adjacent to Grand Central Station.