This history was created pulling information from sources and hypotheses.  Because of the subject matter it was not possible to cite every change or alteration that happened to this ride over the course of time.  Every attempt has been made to verify its truth and any corrections should be sent to the author.

          Most amusement parks have one turning point that is seen as a watershed in their development, the time when they change from a small park or the “new kid on the block” into a serious contender.  For many it is the addition of a roller coaster.  While some of today's "mega parks" feel as if they have always been full of coasters, it is important to remember that this was not always the case.  One classic example of this growth phenomenon can be found at Six Flags Magic Mountain.  Its change in direction occurred with the installation of the Revolution roller coaster in 1976.  This work will examine the coaster's celebrated history and look at how the Revolution shaped a park and an industry.  Magic Mountain opened in 1971 and was the brainchild of the Newhall Land and Farm Company in conjunction with Sea World, Inc.[1] They hired Randall Duell Associates to design an amusement park that anchored their new planned community, Valencia.  The new park, called Magic Mountain, opened on Memorial Day, 1971.  However, several attractions were not ready to run, which caused some bad word-of-mouth stories to spread among the public.  Some interesting facts given by the park for its opening year were: the capacity was 34,000 per-hour, $500,000.00 was spent on the initial marketing blitz and advertising tie-ins were done with 7-Up, Dixi Cola, Standard Oil and Security Pacific Bank.[2]

           The park opened with a well-rounded collection of attractions.  Two of the marquee rides were built by Arrow Development of Mountain View, California.  They were the Log Jammer log flume and the Gold Rusher mine train.  Both of these rides utilized the mountainside terrain to their advantage and gave visitors exciting views of the park.[3]  Many of the contracts for the additional rides and attractions were awarded to Intamin AG of Switzerland.  Intamin, an international ride broker, sold the park the Crazy Barrels (Drunken Barrel), the Eagle's Flight (two sky rides built by Waagner Biro of Austria), the Funicular (an inclined railway built by the Korneuberg Shipbuilding Company of Austria), and the Sky Tower (a hexagonal observation tower).[4]  The park continued to grow and for the 1973 season it bought two more rides from Intamin, the Mountain Express (a Wildcat model coaster) and the Swiss Twist (a Bayernkurve flat ride).  Both were designed and manufactured by Anton Schwarzkopf of Munsterhausen, Bavaria, Germany.[5]  Schwarzkopf was known throughout the industry as an innovator with both flat rides and roller coasters.  His rides were some of the safest on the market and were known for their reliability, great capacity and high-thrill factor.   The owners of Magic Mountain were pleased with the way all of the Intamin and Schwarzkopf rides operated, so it is only natural that they talked to the companies when planning their 1976 addition.

           Magic Mountain officials wanted the new ride to utilize a vertical loop, but had to be a little nervous as the inversion had a short and unsuccessful history within the amusement industry.  The first looping coaster on record was built at Frascati Gardens in Paris.  The ride stood 43-feet high and the circular loop was 13 feet in diameter.[6]  The coaster was short-lived and the loop concept laid dormant until 1895.  That year Lina Beecher designed the Flip Flap roller coaster for Paul Boyton's Sea Lion Park at Coney Island (Brooklyn, New York).  The problem with the design was that it incorporated a perfectly circular loop.  It pulled 12 g's and injured many rider's necks and backs.  The coaster only operated a few years, but the concept of the loop was not lost.[7]  In 1901 Edwin Prescott built the Loop the Loop roller coaster near Dreamland Park at Coney.  He improved on the loop design by making the inversion an ellipse, which reduced the g's on riders as they entered and left the loop.  In addition, he built the ride using flat iron instead of wood.  The coaster's train only fit four people and more watched than rode.  The ride closed after the 1910 season and the loop died once again.[8]  In 1936 Herbert Schmeck and John Allen of the Philadelphia Toboggan Company explored the possibility of a looping steel ride, but it was never built because of oxidation fears.[9]  According to Dr. Robert Cartmell the National Amusement Device Company (N.A.D.) drew up extensive plans for a looping roller coaster during the 1940's, but it was never built.  A showman from Vienna, Hilmar Gropengießer, built a looping coaster, called the Doppel-Looping, at the Prater for the 1952 season.  Because of worries the local authorities closed the ride during the 1954 season.[10]

The mid-seventies were a time of rapid change and innovation within the amusement industry.  Three coasters opened in 1975 that turned amusement park visitors upside down and were all built by Arrow Development.  Their corkscrew model roller coaster was built at Opryland (Nashville, Tennessee), Old Chicago (Chicago, Illinois) and, most importantly for Magic Mountain's owners, Knott's Berry Farm (Buena Park, California).  It is likely that the Valencia park knew about the installation of Knott’s Berry Farm’s corkscrew two or three year's before the coaster opened.  Although a short ride, the unique upside-down motion of the corkscrew rides drew national media attention and created growth in the gate numbers.[11]  Magic Mountain knew they needed a new reason for guests to make the long drive north from Los Angeles. 

Anton Schwarzkopf began work on the vertical loop in 1973.  By that time his portable Wildcat coasters had grown into the Jet Star series and the Speedracer, the latter of which was built in parks only.  The next step was to insert a vertical loop into the layout and create the Looping Speedracer model.  During this time he worked with legendary designer Werner Stengel.  They calculated a loop that kept riders pressed against their seats without subjecting them to tremendous amounts of g's.  The pair took some lessons learned about turning riders upside down from their design of the Enterprise I (a flat ride), which debuted during 1973.  Stengel also spoke with Gropengießer about his design and construction of the Doppel Loop during the 1950's.  Together Stengel and Schwarzkopf came up with the clothoid loop.[12]  This author estimates that the Revolution was purchased from Intamin around 1973 or 1974 because it was manufactured during the spring/summer of 1975, the loop was perfected that fall in test runs and the coaster was shipped via the German freighter Westfalia during the winter of 1975/76.[13]  Schwarzkopf utilized the style of trains that debuted the year before on the Bob Bahn 1 at Phantasialand and used his standard tubular steel track.[14]  The test section at the factory consisted of a long straightaway that led into a loop and then brakes.[15]  During the testing of the coaster at the Schwarzkopf factory in Munsterhausen the trains were winched up the hill and released through a section of track containing the inversion.  Everything went as planned at the factory, but that did not guarantee that the concept would work out in the field. 

During the first half of 1976 the construction of the Great American Revolution began.[16]  The roller coaster used the terrain effectively and was essentially a larger version of Schwarzkopf's speedracer rides found at Six Flags over Texas and Worlds of Fun.  However, the one thing that made visitors stop and stare was the large loop.  The inversion, built in the Fachwerkbauweise (skeleton framing style) was open and looked more like a structure of latticework than steel roller coaster structure.[17]  The media attention surrounding the Corkscrew at Knott's Berry Farm in 1975 was large and profitable- the coaster had given over 2,000,000 rides by the end of its second season.  But the Revolution quickly became a darling of the media.  The ride's layout made it perfect for photos and Magic Mountain was sure to keep the newspapers and television stations "in the loop."  The park even sent out a photo of the ride under construction as the lead car was pulled through the inversion.[18]   

          The Revolution’s new trains were white and featured two sets of stripes.  At the factory the top stripe sat around eight inches below the top of the side of the car and the lower stripe ran along the bottom  (there were two stripes of red above and below a larger blue one).  In addition, MAGIC MOUNTAIN was written in white on the side of the lead car.[19]  After arriving at the park the Magic Mountain name was written at an angle across the lead car's hood. The park advertised the coaster with the tagline, "It'll knock your socks off" and proclaimed that it was "the world's longest, highest all-steel roller coaster."[20]   Large crowds were expected, but the lines would move quickly because of the effective blocking Schwarzkopf and Stengel had designed into the ride.  According to the Schwarzkopf brochures this style of coaster could be built to run "4 to 6 trains, 5 to 7 sections for 20 to 28 persons each train" (Author's Note: Several of my sources have said that the Revolution ran five trains, while others like Schwarzkopf.coaster.net say it ran 4.  For now there is no source I kind find outside Patenburg's site that lists the number of trains, but I am still examining sources.).[21]  This was a coaster that, as Eric Gieszl of Ultimate Rollercoaster.com noted, was almost Disney-like in its efficiency when run by a good crew.

            There seems to be some confusion as to when the Revolution opened to the public.  The August 14, 1976 issue of Amusement Business quoted park manager Terry Van Gorder as saying the ride opened May 8 (which was corroborated by the ACE plaque dedicated during June, 2002), but the book Roller Coaster: Der Achterbahn-Designer Werner Stengel by Klaus Shützmannsky said that the coaster opened on June 17.  For now, this author will have to side with AB.  Whatever the date one thing was for sure- the public fell in love with the coaster.  The excitement it had generated helped the ride pay for itself.  Guests were getting in lines several hours long to experience the new thrill of the vertical loop.  Van Gorder said, "We are having a fantastic year and the loop coaster is living up to all its advance billing."  Lines often drifted down in front of the pool with fountains and groups of people were seen slowly turning their heads in a circle as train after train navigated the loop.  Customers came in droves to the park; by August over one million riders had challenged the new coaster.[22]

           However, the ride was not a novelty coaster with an inversion.  The layout was much more intricate than the Arrow corkscrews that opened the year before and combined lateral g's, pops of airtime and tight turns.  While Schwarzkopf knew people wanted to go upside down, he was not content to have the layout dictated by the inversion.  In an interview with First Drop editor Justin Garvanovic Schwarzkopf said that he preferred his non-looping rides.[23]  In addition, he told Barry F.S. Norman that his favorite coaster was the Lisebergbahn at Liseberg in Sweden.[24]  That coaster featured sweeping turns that used the terrain extensively- much like the Revolution. Here is what a ride on the Revolution was like during 1976.  The path up to the coaster's station, which had a Spanish architectural influence, had water running along either side of it.  After entering the car and lowering the lapbars the train was released and pulled to the lift by a chain that extended into the station.  The track slightly jogged to the right before it climbed 81 feet above the ground.  The first drop curved down the right and fell away at 72 feet.  After speeding through a right-hand curve the coaster headed up a hill and then dove back down in a station "fly by."  The train rose up a hill, dove in a left-hand turn and rose to a flat section.  Here the train slowed and riders were given time to look at the 45-foot inversion at the bottom of the drop.  Schwarzkopf drew out the drop into the loop so that everyone could savor the anticipation.  To ensure that the ride had the appropriate speed going into the inversion tires were placed before the ramp down to the loop.  After pulling 4.94 g's in the loop the train entered a left-hand u-turn and then swept down & to the right through a tunnel.  Another straightaway allowed the trains to thread the loop.  The train then swept to the right and down to the left as it sped inches above the water before hitting the brake run.[25]