Looking back 50 Years...

L.A. became one of the largest tourist destinations of the new airplane age.

I have recently been looking at the post-war period in an amusement park context and it really struck me how the time period the late forties and fifties was quite similar to today in the amusement park industry. As 2000 draws to a close, I have reflected a bit on how the industry looked in an ever-changing post-war era. So, here is a small trip down amusement park memory lane- feel free to join me if you wish.

Knott's Berry Farm is one of the earliest examples of theme park to be found in the United States. It opened as a roadside stand in the1920's and grew into a full-fledged park during the Forties and Fifties.

The first thing I noticed was the explosion of new thrill rides in the post-war era. Many new types of rides could be bought by park owners that were experiencing an economic freedom not felt since the twenties. According to a 1946 Science Digest article, rides like the Eyerly Loop-o-Plane, the Octopus, the Caterpillar and many other rides were being bought in record numbers by park operators. Add in the fact that many people, especially larger numbers of families, were visiting parks and one has great conditions for economic growth.

The Caterpillar (made by Harry Traver and later Allan Herschell) is one of the "thrill" rides that cropped up in large numbers during the post-war era. This version is in beautiful Canobie Lake Park in Salem, NH.

The interesting thing is that there were not a lot of parks or coasters built during this time. Some of the "new" German coasters called "Wild Mice" were popping up at parks. PTC built rides like the Rocket at Playland in San Antonio and NAD's later Million Dollar Coaster, but it seems like the time period was very slow in reaping the benefits of the turnstiles that were constantly revolving. The growth appears to have been spent in two newer types of parks, kiddielands and theme parks. Ironically, kiddielands, which quickly grew in massive numbers, did not have the lasting impact that the early theme parks did, although the Kiddielands did much to sate the urges of families looking for something different than the local amusement park (especially when that park was slow to build a kiddy section within their gates). Looking around us, it is obvious that the early theme parks like Santa Claus Land (now Holiday World), Knott's Berry Farm and later Storytown USA (Great Escape) came up with a unique, winning formula that was expanded upon by Walt Disney. The result is the park style that has become the rule, rather than the exception, in today's industry.

Santa Claus Land in Santa Claus, Indiana (now Holiday World) opened in1946 as the first theme park with rides, shops and restaurants all geared around a central theme.

I feel that if there was one downfall of the parks during this time, it was that many reflected the society as a whole and were often open to whites only. I believe Palisades finally desegregated quietly in the late forties because of pressure from the N.A.A.C.P. There were many parks that had no official segregation policy, but it was common knowledge among many non-whites that they just were not welcome. Some parks, like Riverview (Chicago, IL), had an attraction called the Dip where African-Americans in dunk tanks were paid to taunt white customers (Ironically, the men who worked the Dip were some of the park's best paid employees, earning a part of their booth's take). It is interesting that if some of the parks, such as Olympic park, had been more welcoming to the pluralistic urban culture that developed in the late fifties and sixties, some may have survived the white flight to the suburbs.