off the leash

American Pioneers of Amusement, Part 1

Posted on June 26, 2016 by Ken Dowell

George C. Tilyou

Born in New York City in 1862, George Tilyou moved to Coney Island at age 3. His father set up a restaurant and beach rental business. Tilyou’s entrepreneurial spirit became evident at an early age when visitors from the Midwest came to Coney Island after a trip to the Philadelphia Exposition. 13-year old George met them with offers of a cigar box full of beach sand or a medicine bottle filled with ocean water, 25 cents each. Upon reaching adulthood Tilyou partnered with his father in buying the Surf Theater and staging vaudeville acts. He later started a stagecoach company and tried his hand at real estate.

But it was on a honeymoon trip to the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago that Tilyou discovered his true calling. He at first tried to buy George Ferris’ Great Wheel to bring it home with him. When that didn’t work he had his own built at Coney Island. Tilyou gradually added other attractions and amusements around the Ferris wheel and in 1897 he closed it in and opened Steeplechase Park.

There was also the signature Steeplechase ride and the Parachute Drop. He brought the Trip to the Moon ride to Coney Island, although within a year he got into a dispute with the proprietor who bolted for neighboring Sea Lion Park. He built replicas of the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben, a ballroom and a large saltwater pool (conveniently located behind his dad’s joint). It all went up in smoke in 1907, reportedly because a patron threw a lit cigarette into a garbage can. So what does a guy who hit up Midwestern tourists for boxes of sand do when his amusement park is burned to the ground? He charged admission (10 cents) for folks to come and look at the smoldering remains.

Tilyou rebuilt Steeplechase in 1908. In the same year he expanded to Atlantic City, building Steeplechase Pier which featured a ride called “Flying Chairs” that would swing riders out over the ocean. He passed away in 1914. The Coney Island park remained under family ownership and lasted until 1964.

The skeleton of the Parachute Drop ride is all that remains of Steeplechase Park

George W. Ferris

George Ferris was an engineer. He was born in 1859 in Galesburg, Ill. Five years later his family left the town they had helped found and headed for California. They didn’t quite make it, instead opting to buy a ranch in Carson City, Nev. George went to California Military Academy where he graduated at age 17 then went on to earn an engineering degree at RPI.

The Ferris House in Pittsburgh

Ferris was involved is several railroad and bridge projects. In 1886 he moved to Pittsburgh and created G.W.G. Ferris & Company, an engineering inspection firm.

When the organizers of the Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1893 laid down the challenge to a meeting of engineers to build a structure for the fair that would rival the Paris Exposition’s signature Eiffel Tower, Ferris answered the call. It is believed that his original idea for the Great Wheel was sketched out on the back of a napkin in a restaurant. He originally conceived of the project as an observation wheel and in fact the finished product offered not only spectacular views of Chicago but you could see three states from the top of the wheel.

The exposition organizers were initially skeptical of the feasibility of Ferris’ project. But it was more imaginative that the ones submitted by guys who simply posed the answer as building a tower that was a little taller than Eiffel’s. Eiffel himself offered a proposal but the Chicago guys did not want a Frenchman building their signature attraction. So after some hemming and hawing they approved Ferris’s plan but with the stipulation that he had to raise his own financing.

Ferris more than exceeded expectations. It was seven weeks after the fair opened that he climbed aboard for the first ride, along with his wife, the mayor of Chicago and a marching band. George Ferris’ Great Wheel operated flawlessly for the entire duration of the fair. It shrugged off gale force winds, thunder and lighting, even the remnants of a hurricane. It was the highlight of the exposition, accommodating 1.4 million passengers.

Things didn’t go well for Ferris once the fair closed. He turned down George Tilyou’s offer to buy the wheel and move it Coney Island. Instead he moved it to a small site near Lincoln Park in Chicago where it was only lightly attended. Ferris pitched some other exposition organizers to build other Great Wheels, but to no avail. He also was embroiled in costly legal disputes. He sued the Chicago Exposition organizers for a bigger share of the profits, but lost. He also faced patent infringement suits, including one from William Somers, builder of Atlantic City’s Roundabout, a similar attraction that Ferris’ had actually ridden before he created the Ferris Wheel. Ferris was successful in having these claims dismissed, but at considerable expense.

In the year following the Columbian Exposition, Ferris sold his share of G.W.G. Ferris & Company to his partners. He died of typhoid fever in 1896 at age 37. By that time his wife had left him, he had moved into a cheap hotel in Pittsburgh and he was facing bankruptcy. His name, of course, lives on and has been a part of virtually every amusement park built since.

The Great Wheel itself was auctioned off to the highest bidder after Ferris died. The high bid on The Great Wheel that had cost some $600,000 to build was $1800. The new owners brought it to St. Louis for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904 after which it was demolished.

The Great Wheel at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis

Part 2 will include the man who brought the sideshow to Coney Island, a roller coaster engineer and the “Fearless Frogman.”

Posted in History of Amusement Parks, Uncategorized | Tagged amusement parks, Columbian Exposition, Coney Island, ferris wheel, George Ferris, George Tilyou, history, Steeplechase Park | 18 Comments

The Early Rides: Lots of Thrills and Surely Some Spills

Posted on June 19, 2016 by Ken Dowell

One of the things that differentiated the burgeoning amusement park business of the late 19^th century from predecessors like fairs and pleasure gardens were mechanical rides. Mechanics, engineers, bridge builders and architects began to think about the science of amusement. Some of the designs they created would become iconic, the basis for decades and decades of amusement park attractions. Others were things we will never see the likes of again.

When the renowned architect Daniel H. Burnham put together the group of engineers who would be responsible for building out the grounds and attractions for the great World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, he told the group “make no little plans.” In fact he went further and urged them to trump the Eiffel Tower, the centerpiece of the Paris World Exposition in 1889.

The Ferris Wheel at the Columbian Exposition

George Ferris, a bridge builder from Pittsburgh, thought he had the answer. And his structure would soon bear his name, the Ferris Wheel. There were 36 cars which each held 60 passengers. For 50 cents you could hop on board and go for a ride that included two complete revolutions and lasted about 20 minutes.

While the Chicago Ferris Wheel is widely acclaimed as the first of its kind, it wasn’t actually the first of this type of attraction. Back in 1867, Isaac Newton Forrester received the first patent for a ferris wheel type of ride. He produced the Epicycloidal Diversion which he built near the beach at Mississippi Avenue in Atlantic City. Forrester’s wheel was actually four wheels, 30 feet high, and mounted on a revolving platform that stood 10 feet off the ground. From the descriptions it was like riding a small ferris wheel mounted onto a merry-go-round. Each of the wheels had two cars that held eight passengers each.

Another patent for a similar type contraption was issued in 1893 to William “Pop” Somers based on the Roundabout that he had installed in Atlantic City two years earlier. One of his early customers was George Ferris. Did the Roundabout inspire the Ferris Wheel? Somers thought so and he in fact sued Ferris for patent infringement. The suit was eventually tossed out because Ferris used different material (metal instead of wood) and the Ferris Wheel was significantly larger. But that didn’t stop Somers from building a Roundabout right next door to the Chicago fairgrounds. He later added another one in Asbury Park.

Coney Island has always been known for roller coasters so it is not surprising that Brooklyn claims the first. The Switchback Railway was built in 1894 by LeMarcus Adna Thompson. Its design was based on the Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway, a working coal train in eastern Pennsylvania. The operators of the Mauch Chunk converted the old coal train into a passenger tourist attraction in 1870. In the Coney Island version, passengers paying five cents would get on a bench like seat and hurtle from one tower to another. At the second tower they would switch to a parallel track (hence the name ‘Switchback’) for the return ride.

Shoot the Chutes

Another of the standards of the modern day amusement park, the Log Flume, had its origins in the 19^th century as well. J.P. Newburg built the first Shoot the Chutes ride in 1884 in Watchtower Park in Rock Island, Ill. Newburg’s ride featured flat bottomed boats that slid down a 500-foot-long greased wooden track and into a lake. A decade later a Shoot the Chutes ride was the centerpiece of Paul Boynton’s Water Chutes which opened in Chicago. Boynton’s park was noteworthy as the first amusement park that was based solely on mechanical attractions. Boynton built another Shoot the Chutes ride two years later at Sea Lion Park in Coney Island. There is a Shoot the Chutes ride that was built in 1927 and is still in operation at Lake Winnepesaukah Amusement Park near Chattanooga, Tenn.

By the turn of the century, Coney Island had clearly established itself as the center of amusement park innovation. It was also the place to push the boundaries of 19^th century behavioral standards. Nowhere was this more evident than in Steeplechase Park which lasted from 1897 to 1964. The signature ride was of course the Steeplechase. It consisted a set of four rows of horses that would race around the park on steel tracks. Propulsion was by gravity so the bigger riders generated the most speed. Often the riders were couples with the woman in front. Upon exiting the Steeplechase, riders were routed through a stage area called the Blowhole Theater? Why blowhole you might ask? Because it was through those holes that gusts of air shot up to lift the female riders dresses and skirts. Not far from the Blowhole Theater was another attraction called the Human Pool Table, the main purpose of which was apparently to generate a little physical contact between riders. Steeplechase Park was obviously the place to bring a date.

At neighboring Sea Lion Park, the marquee attraction was the Trip to the Moon. Sixty passengers could fit on the cylinder-shaped space vehicle. As it got cranked up it would start to vibrate and its wings would flap. Looking out the windows the painted scenery would get smaller and smaller until there was only lights and a globe. But the real action started upon the moon landing. Passengers got to see midgets singing “My Sweetheart the Man in the Moon,” passed through stalactite caverns and into the throne room where sat the man in the moon himself.

Modern amusement park goers are accustomed to being dropped off into the gift shop. If you took the Trip to the Moon you were exited into the green cheese room where moon maidens were offering samples. Among those who enjoyed this attraction were Thomas Edison and President William McKinley.

Posted in History, History of Amusement Parks, Uncategorized | Tagged amusement parks, Columbian Exposition, Coney Island, ferris wheel, history, rides, roller coaster, Sea Lion Park, Shoot the Chutes, Steeplechase Park, SwitchbackRailway, Trip to the Moon | 21 Comments

Amusement Parks: The First, the Oldest and the Long Gone

Posted on June 13, 2016 by Ken Dowell

There are many claims of first in the amusement park business. But the oldest belongs to Bakken near Klampenborg, Denmark. Its roots go back to 1583. Originally it was the site of a natural spring and attracted Danes as a source of natural spring water. The amusements, originally in the form of entertainers and hawkers, built up around it. Bakken continues to operate today and features six roller coasters as well as attractions like the Crazy Theater (indoor laser shoot-out), Extreme (a giant swing) and Samba Tower (air carousel).

There are many other claims of first, but most came a few centuries later. Paul Boynton’s Water Chutes, opened in Chicago in 1894, is said to be the first modern amusement park in that it relied solely on mechanical attractions rather than a natural setting. One year later, Sea Lion Park opened in Coney Island. It was one of the first to enclose the area and charge admission Kiddie Park in San Antonio is believed to be the first amusement park for children. It was opened in 1925 and is also still in business today.

The creation of amusement parks began in earnest in the late 19^th century. Changes in society in the U.S. were creating a new customer base. Earlier in the century the elite had their retreats and the workers had their picnic grounds and beer halls. But in the late 19^th century a middle class was emerging, a group with some money to spend and some time to spend it. At the same time modern transportation systems, trains and trolleys and streetcars, were making excursions and day trips more accessible. Some of the transportations companies themselves engaged in building recreational and amusement centers along their routes as a way to attract more customers.

Many of the early amusement parks were built within existing resorts. Seaside communities that already attracted visitors to their beaches and oceans began to add mechanical rides and other amusements to increase their appeal. They were also becoming more accessible due to new transportation options. Two early examples are Coney Island and Atlantic City.

Steeplechase Park, Coney Island

After the opening of Sea Lion Park in 1895 the amusement business boomed in Coney Island. Steeplechase Park opened its gates in 1897. Luna Park came along in 1903 and Dreamland followed a year later. By 1910 as many as a million people would visit Coney Island on peak days. The Brooklyn entertainment center lays claim to the country’s first roller coaster and the first amusement railroad.

Steel Pier, Atlantic City

On the Jersey shore, Atlantic City was already becoming a popular destination as the terminus of train lines from New York and Philadelphia. It was here that the amusement park built on a pier out over the ocean became popular. The first was Ocean Pier in 1891 followed by the Steel Pier, known for attractions like the horses that dove into swimming pools, in 1898. Others were soon to follow: Heinz Pier, also in 1898, the Million Dollar Pier in 1902 and the Steeplechase Pier (by the owners of Steeplechase Park in Coney Island) in 1908. It was from the Million Dollar Pier that Houdini dived shackled into the ocean.

Cedar Point roller coaster. (image by Alex Grichenko)

According to Arthur Levine, writing in USA Today, the ten oldest amusement parks still operating are: Lake Compounce, Bristol, Conn., 1846; Cedar Point, Sandusky, Ohio, 1870; Six Flags New England, Agawam, Mass., began as Gallup’s Grove in 1870; Idlewild, Ligonier, Pa., 1878; Seabreeze, Rochester, N.Y., 1879; Coney Island, Brooklyn, N.Y., 1884; Dorney Park, Allentwon, Pa., 1884; Coney Island, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1886; Lagoon, Farmington, Utah, 1886; Arnold’s Park, Arnold’s Park, Iowa, 1889.

Lake Compounce started as a picnic ground and was not much more than some picnic tables on the shores of the lake. It later became an example of what were to become known as trolley parks. A train station was built at Lake Compounce in 1895. The same year the Casino, the park’s first permanent building, was erected and a restaurant opened. With many more visitors now accessing the old picnic grounds, a carousel and an electronic powered roller coaster were soon to follow.

The late 19^th century and the first quarter of the 20^th century were the heyday of early American amusement parks. While some of these older parks are still alive and well, many others didn’t make it. The early amusement parks and most of their attractions were built out of wood. And in an era when you could probably ride a roller coaster with a cigarette hanging off your upper lip, many went up in flames. Steeplechase Park was largely destroyed by fire in 1907 and had to be rebuilt. Dreamland, also in Coney Island, burnt to the ground in 1911. Luna Park followed in 1944. The Steel Pier suffered significant damage due to fire in 1924. It was rebuilt shortly thereafter only to burn down in 1982. It was replaced by a concrete structure in 1993.

Dreamland, Coney Island

Some others were felled by a decade of Depression sandwiched between two world wars. The next wave of amusement parks, including the advent of the theme park, didn’t take place until the 1950’s, fueled by the return of prosperity, the growth of automobile travel and the need to find something to do with all those baby boomer children.

Posted in History, Uncategorized | Tagged amusement parks, Atlantic City, Bakken, Cedar Point, Coney Island, Dreamland, history, Lake Compounce, Sea Lion Park, Steel Pier, Steeplechase Park | 18 Comments

Is Your Digital Assistant Credible Or Just a Little Creepy?

Posted on June 11, 2016 by Ken Dowell

Do you use Siri? Alexa? Cortana? Are they helpful? What do they replace? Do you trust them?

Those were some of the questions addressed in the Future Tense panel discussion “It’s So Hard to Get Good Digital Help These Days” held earlier this week in Washington. Moderated by Washington Post opinion writer Alexandra Petri, the panel included Will Oremus, senior technology writer at Slate, and Brigid Schulte, a program director at New America.

The promise of the digital assistant is that it (or is it she) will make you more efficient, free up more time. Schulte commented: “Is it that our lives have become so busy, so complicated that we need additional help? We don’t have wives at home. We don’t have secretaries or assistants.”

Oremus added, “Women and men are finally both in the workplace so now we have to come up with fake women to handle things at home.”

All of the digital assistants have female names and female voices, though this can be changed by the user. All of the creators of these programs are likely white or Asian men. So it is not hard to see some gender bias at play here, as in, who else would look up the weather or the address of a restaurant.

How well do these assistants perform their tasks. Oremus suggested that anything a good clock radio can do, Echo (Alexa) can do better. But beyond that “Echo is still pretty dumb.”

He described digital assistants’ “hype cycle.” At the start of the hype cycle, a technology gets hyped but turns out to suck. So people forget about it for a little while then a better version comes out and gets hyped and it doesn’t suck quite as much. Each version gets a little better. “We’re one or two hype cycles away from people finding bots really useful,” Oremus concluded.

Aside from the question of just how good these digital assistants are, the panelists offered some other reasons to be wary. One is that a digital assistant in your home, like Echo, is listening all the time. “The fact that everything I say in my home is going to some server really creeps me out,” Schulte said.

There’s also a reason to be concerned about the credibility. “It’s not Wikipedia. It’s not open source. These are profit-making industries,” Schulte added, questioning whether the information that’s delivered is the information that is in their best interest.

Oremus echoed that concern: “It is disconcerting that our primary portals of information are run by dueling Silicon Valley companies that are trying to pad their bottom line.”

Alexa was sitting on a table next to the moderator taking this all in. At the end of the discussion Petri asked, “Alexa, have you been enjoying the panel.” Alexa’s response: “I can’t find the answer to that question.”

Future Tense, the organizer of the panel, is a partnership of the New America Foundation, Slate Magazine and Arizona State University. Its focus is on emerging technologies and their impact on society.

In addition to being insightful this was a fun and interesting discussion to watch. It can be viewed at the New America web site.

Posted in Technology | Tagged Alexa, digital assistants, Future Tense, technology | 2 Comments

A Night at the Drive-In

Posted on June 9, 2016 by Ken Dowell

The drive-in movie theater, a place where I saw so many movies (and did a few other things) while sitting in my car, has for the most part given way to townhouse developments, strip malls and industrial parks. But there are still some left and they’re not that different than they were in the 60’s. Except that you now get the sound over an FM signal on your car radio so you don’t have to hang a speaker from your window and run the risk of forgetting to detach it before you pull out.

Welcome to the Warwick Drive-In

These photos are from the 65-year-old Warwick (N.Y.) Drive-In. It has three screens, the largest of which is 50 feet high and 70 feet wide, and sits in an open field behind a supermarket and a car dealer. You can still pay one price and watch a double feature. And you’re welcome to bring your dog. If you want to enjoy a nice weekend night here, come early. There will be nary a parking spot to be had by showtime.

Waiting for showtime.

In the 50’s and 60’s live bands used to perform on the roof of this snack bar.

Now this is the kind of car you’d expect to see at a drive-in.

The first drive-in was built in Camden, N.J., in 1933. There was at one time more than 4,000 of these theaters in the U.S. There are 368 left according to the United Drive-In Theater Owners Association. But that number is two more than last year, so maybe they’re on their way back.

Sure beats sitting home and watching on movie on your iPad.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged drive-in, entertainment, movies, theaters, Warwick | 4 Comments

Before There Were Amusement Parks

Posted on June 5, 2016 by Ken Dowell

Amusement parks as we know them did not come into being until the latter part of the 19^th century. But there were a host of predecessors, some dating back to the middle ages, ranging from beer gardens to world expositions. Each played a role in influencing what we would come to know as an amusement park.

Bartholomew Fair

Fairs were one of the earliest forms of public recreation and entertainment and one of the most famous was London’s Bartholomew Fair. Chartered by Henry I in 1143 it had an amazing run that lasted for more than seven centuries. Over the years there were musicians, prize fighters and wrestlers, tight-rope walkers and acrobats and of course an ample supply of beer, tobacco and food. Roast pork was a staple.

A visitor in 1815 reported seeing a “learned pig” which, despite being blindfolded, could tell the time. And a report from the 1825 fair describes an elephant that could uncork bottles. The fair also developed an underbelly of pickpockets and prostitutes active on the Bartholomew grounds. The latter were gently named “soiled doves.” And if you couldn’t find a soiled dove to your liking in the tents on the fairgrounds, there was apparently an ample supply on the nearby and aptly named Cock St.

The Bartholomew Fair’s run ended in 1855, closed down by the city because it was perceived as encouraging debauchery.

It is also in England where another of the predecessors of the amusement park took shape. Pleasure gardens flourished there in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. True to their name, they were most often gardens that you could walk through and find various entertainments such as music and exhibitions and of course food.

One of the most famous of the pleasure gardens was Vauxhall Gardens. It opened in Kensington on 12 acres in 1661. By the end of the 18^th century, Vauxhall Gardens began charging admission, something that would be a standard feature of the amusement parks that succeeded it.

Vauxhall Gardens

One of Vauxhall Gardens’ more illustrious visitors was none other than Charles Dickens. Writing in Sketches by Boz, here’s how Dickens described the scene:

We paid our shilling at the gate, and then we saw for the first time, that the entrance, if there had been any magic about it at all, was now decidedly disenchanted, being, in fact, nothing more nor less than a combination of very roughly-painted boards and sawdust. We bent our steps to the firework-ground; there, at least, we should not be disappointed. We reached it, and stood rooted to the spot with mortification and astonishment. That the Moorish tower—that wooden shed with a door in the centre, and daubs of crimson and yellow all round, like a gigantic watch-case! That the place where night after night we had beheld the undaunted Mr. Blackmore make his terrific ascent, surrounded by flames of fire, and peals of artillery, and where the white garments of Madame Somebody (we forget even her name now), who nobly devoted her life to the manufacture of fireworks, had so often been seen fluttering in the wind, as she called up a red, blue, or party-coloured light to illumine her temple.

In America, the wave of German immigration in the last half of the 19^th century introduced us to a Germanic variation of the pleasure garden, the beer garden. It is perhaps here that many Americans were introduced to German style lagers, and maybe some schnitzel and wurst as well. Some of these beer gardens became quite elaborate with entertainments like shooting ranges and bowling alleys and perhaps a classical music performance. Others were little more than a row of tables where you could keep your focus on the brew.

German beer garden in New York City

Perhaps the events that most directly shaped the earliest amusement parks were world’s fairs. The first world’s fair was held in London in 1851 with its famed Crystal Palace, a 990,000 cast iron and plate glass structure that housed more than 14,000 exhibitors. But when it comes to influencing the latter day amusement park, no event had a greater impact than the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.

One of the Chicago fair’s contributions that became a standard for amusement parks to this day was the midway. The midway was conceived as a rather high minded cultural educational endeavor. It included such attractions as an African village and a “Streets of Cairo” exhibit. But it also brought some entertainments that were rather edgy back in 1893, like belly-dancers. And one suspects that there was a fine line between cultural enlightenment and voyeurism on the world’s first midway.

The ferris wheel at Chicago’s Columbian Esposition

One of the grandest of attactions on Chicago’s midway was the first ferris wheel, something that no amusement park ever since could be without. George Ferris’ invention was conceived by fair organizers as Chicago’s answer to the Eiffel Tower, unveiled during the 1889 Paris world’s fair. Ferris’ wheel was 264 feet tall, its cars could hold 60 passengers and it took 20 minutes to make one complete revolution.

In next week’s post I’ll take a look at the first amusement parks and some of the oldest parks that are still in operation today.