off the leash

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.

Posted in History, History of Amusement Parks | Tagged amusement parks, Bartholomew Fair, beer gardens, Columbian Exposition, fairs, ferris wheel, history, London, midway, pleasure gardens, Vauxhall Gardens, World's Fair | 23 Comments

Is it the Duomo? Or is it Lego?

Posted on June 2, 2016 by Ken Dowell

The Lego Duomo at Milan’s Malpensa Airport

And the real thing

Posted in Travel | Tagged Duomo, Italy, Milan, travlel | 2 Comments

Firenze 2016

Posted on May 30, 2016 by Ken Dowell

Posted in Travel | Tagged Duomo, Florence, Italy, travel | 15 Comments

Art Florentine

Posted on May 23, 2016 by Ken Dowell

Galleria dell’Accademia

Rape of the Sabines, Jean de Boulonge, 1582

The Serpent

Monumento de Adam Albrecht Adalbert Conte di Neipperg, Lorenzo Bartolini, 1832

Galleria degli Uffrizi

The Tribuna. In the forground is the Sythian Slave, produced in the 2nd Century AD. Behind is the Medici Venus which dates back to 1st Century BC.

Portraits of Duke Federico de Montefeltro and His Duchess, Piero della Francesca, 1465

Portrait of a Young Man with Medal, Sandro Botticelli, c. 1475

Duomo Florence

Giardino della Gherardesca

Chimera, Dario Tironi

Posted in Art, Travel | Tagged art, Botticelli, Florence, Italy, michelangelo, the David, travel, Uffrizi | 17 Comments

Rome’s Religious Footprint

Posted on May 18, 2016 by Ken Dowell

The Pantheon — the current structure is believed to have been built between 118 and 125. Originally it was a temple dedicated to the gods of pagan Rome. After the 7th century it was used as a church and was known as Santa Maria Rotonda.

Chiesa de San Luigi dei Francesi. The Church of St. Louis of the French was completed in 1589 and dedicated to, among others, the Virgin Mary and Louis IX.

Santi Vicenzo e Anastasio a Trevi. Build in 1650. Overlooks the Trevi Fountain.

Sant’Agnese en Agone, built in 1652, lines one side of the Piazza Navano. In front is the Fountain of the Four Rivers.

Fountain of the four rivers

Posted in Travel | Tagged church, history, Italy, Pantheon, religion, Rome, travel | 4 Comments

Why Are We Flying at Mid-20th Century Speeds?

Posted on May 12, 2016 by Ken Dowell

In January of 1959 American Airlines flew the first commercial trans-continental flight. A 707 made its way from New York to Los Angeles in 5-1/2 hours. I just checked the United Airlines Web site to see how long it would take me today. UA flight 751 is set to leave Newark at 4:05 p.m. and arrive at LAX at 6:57 p.m. Adjusting for the three-hour time difference, that’s five hours and 52 minutes.

Concorde (froehlich-gera)

We live in a world in which we think technology has changed everything, what we do, how we do it and how long it takes. That apparently does not apply to flying or at least not to flight speed. And this despite the fact that there was a live commercial demonstration of the availability of the technology to speed up our flights as far back as 1976 when the Concorde went into service.

Future Tense* put together an event yesterday in Washington D.C. in which scientists, aviators, government officials and entrepreneurs tried to answer the question “Why Does It Still Take 5 Hours to Fly Cross-Country?’

There are still some technical challenges, one of which is noise. Because of the noise associated with supersonic flight there are regulations in the U.S. prohibiting supersonic jets over land. So a commercially viable transcontinental flight would have to involve a low boom option. One of the participants raised the possibility that because of this it may at some point in the future take less time to fly from LA to Japan than from LA to New York.

But perhaps a bigger obstacle is economics. Richard Aboulafia, vice president, analysis of Teal Group, noted that airlines operate on “razor-thin” margins. (This apparently despite charging us for things like checking baggage and an inch or two of extra leg room). Because of that he said that their focus has been on fuel efficiency, not faster flights.

So there is no real demand from the airlines to go faster. And it is equally questionable whether it is a priority for the traveling consumer. The availability of multiple services on the Internet that enable price comparison has turned many fliers into bargain shoppers. Issues like convenience, even such things like onboard Wifi, are more likely to be on the average consumer’s radar screen than flight time.

It is also questionable how important actual flight time is when so much of travel time ends up being about getting to the airport, waiting to check in, waiting to go through security, waiting to board, and alas, waiting for the bags that you probably paid to check to arrive. Surely on less than cross-country flights, the actual time in the air may be insignificant compared to the time eaten up by airport over-capacity and inefficiency.

The Future Tense event did surface some interesting things that might be on the horizon. Boom Technology is a Denver-based startup with plans to build 40 passenger supersonic jets. David Lackner, North American Head of Research and Technology for Airbus, talked about creating an Uber-type of service using helicopters. Even further afield is Lightcraft Technology which envisions the possibility of using beamed energy propulsion to propel transports.

Where there is a demand for speed is in the high end of the market. There are, as there was with the Concorde, some folks who are going to be willing to pay a premium for speed. The question is whether there are enough of them to support a commercially-viable operation. It seems clear that there are going to be faster options for flying. What isn’t clear is whether they will ever scale to the point of being available to most travelers. I didn’t hear anything that made me think that was imminent.

The Future Tense event “Why Does It Still Take 5 Hours to Fly Cross-Country” can be viewed here.

*Future Tense is a partnership between New America, Arizona State University and Slate magazine to explore emerging technologies and their transformative effects on society and public policy.