Palisades
Amusement Park
A Century of Fond Memories
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Palisades Park is one of those places that will seemingly live in the hearts and minds of those who visited forever. So, it was important that his larger-than-life park had a video that captured the grandiose scope and was able to convey it through the film medium. At first glance it is obvious that this video has a production value that is higher than many of the coaster videos out there. The graphics are great and the period music fits the park well. Like most park videos this one takes a linear approach to the story telling and weaves small details and fun antidotes together as the film progresses. The choice of Ken Burns as a narrator was an interesting one and it seemed to be done more for marketing/pr purposes as I found his monotone delivery to be average. I love the man behind the camera or at the editing machine, but I do not think the end result was made better by his presence. There is a lot of old video footage in this documentary that made it very enjoyable. The sweeping shots taken down the midway or from the sky ride in the home film was great and helped continue the personalization to the people that never got to visit Palisades. From an enthusiast perspective there was a lot of coaster footage and mentions of Joe McKee and Morgan “Mickey” Hughes. It impressed me that they mentioned Hughes’ contribution to the industry in being one of the first major European ride importers in the country (I believe the bulk of the things he sold to the Rosenthals were early Anton Schwarzkopf pieces). I had no qualms with the film until one woman said the following while it was wrapping up: “The park went out like a gracious lady. It’s just like when you have a contest and the winner just parades out with a crown because today it could never, ever be again. That era is gone, it died when the park closed.” First, I do not see Palisades being knocked down for condominiums that serve a few hundred, as opposed to a park that served hundreds of thousands, as a dignified ending. Secondly, I firmly believe that anyone who visits Knoebels, Canobie, Holiday World or countless other parks on a summer Saturday and believes that a traditional amusement park is not relevant to today’s world is really missing something, but I digress. Overall I found the Palisades video to be a great companion to the book of the same name and a fitting tribute to this once-proud park on the bluffs overlooking New York City.
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Amusement Park History, Copyright 2004.