Many of the regional parks’ original attractions were named, usually due to sponsorship, after local companies. Six Flags over Mid-America, as it was called at the time, featured a typical auto ride where enthusiastic drivers, young and old alike, could take the wheel and cruise through the countryside. Arrow Development was the primary manufacturer
In November 1973, one year after Kings Island opened, the Brady Bunch filmed an episode on-site in the park. The story was about the frantic search for architectural plans Mr. Brady had developed for the park, and so we got to see the place first-hand from our living rooms as Brady folk raced to and fro. Having re-aired recently, forty-six years later, it’s a rare time capsule
One major chapter of my regional park history book deals with how these parks lost their original design intent along the way. Decades of ownership turnover, corporate management, current trends for IP overlays, and so on rendered most of these parks nearly unrecognizable from when they first opened. Carowinds opened as a tribute to the North & South Carolina region. Most everything was historical based
Probably the most infamous theme park failure in modern times occurred in a relatively small seaside town in South Carolina. Hard Rock Park was first of its kind: first major theme park to be built from scratch in the U.S. in decades, first park themed entirely on music (with respects to Fiesta Texas, which came pretty close), first park with major artist collaboration
1971 was the final season for old Coney Island (Ohio). With plans to open the new park in 1972, Coney management put on a major marketing push for people to come enjoy the old place one last time. It worked—over 2.75 million guests pushed through the ticket gates that year. Certainly there had to be second thoughts and lots of butterflies…I mean really, with
Coney Island (Ohio…not the more famous place in New York) was in trouble. Not financial trouble—the park was tremendously successful. But sitting adjacent to the Ohio River has its drawbacks, the biggest being periodically submerged and covered in mud. Though the park had always recovered and was rebuilt each time, the writing was on the wall. Things were changing in the park business
Everybody knows pretty much everything about Disneyland—how it got started, how the Imagineers do their thing, and so on. But nobody ever talks about the parks that most of us across the country enjoy far more often. The regional theme parks, different from amusement parks, owe their existence to Disneyland. There were a few false starts, but in 1961 Angus Wynne opened Six Flags Over Texas, triggering a tidal wave of
The world suffers no shortage of theme parks, but few really live up to the name. Simply staging a few old tools in the queue and carving a clever name on the sign doesn’t cut it. A truly thematic experience is designed to immerse guests in a story or place so they believe they are actually there, such as Universal’s Diagon Alley or Disney’s Frontierland. But surely one of the most completely immersive parks with a coherent, all-encompassing theme has to be
We’ve all heard the story time after time. It’s a good one, though, and so our memories are imprinted with how Walt, Roy, and even that huckster C.V. barely got Disneyland built in 1955. There might be a few other names floating around the fringes, such as Buzz Price, Joe Fowler, or Van Arsdale France. Theme Park Press has added to this list, introducing us to even more who got their start that infamous summer and would
