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Great Old Amusement Parks
''Great Old Amusement Parks'' is a 1999 PBS television documentary VHS DVD produced by Rick Sebak of WQED Pittsburgh. It aired on PBS on July 21, 1999. Vintage surviving "Traditional" amusement parks are presented here with historic references to their origins. Unique old rides for each park are profiled such as the oldest surviving roller coaster, the only surviving Noah's Ark walk-through attraction. Most parks are family owned and their families are interviewed along with each park's attendees. Subjects include Connecticut's Lake Compounce, California's Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, Whalom Park in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania's Idlewild Park and StoryBook Forest, Kennywood's Thunderbolt, Deno's Wonder Wheel at Coney Island, and San Diego's Giant Dipper where a local radio station held a Roller Coaster Riding Contest. Not covered here are vintage "traditional" amusement parks no longer with us. Being produced in 1999, this has not been updated to indicate if these are s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rick Sebak
Richard "Rick" Sebak (born June 5, 1953) is an American public broadcasting television producer, writer and narrator who lives and works in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the United States. Early life and education Richard Sebak was born on June 5, 1953, in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. He attended Bethel Park High School and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate. Career Sebak's first foray in the nostalgia documentary is the 1984 documentary ''Shag'' for South Carolina ETV, about a dance popular in the region. Four years later at WQED, Sebak produced ''The Mon, The Al & The O'', about the Monongahela, Allegheny, and Ohio rivers, which meet to form at Pittsburgh's Golden Triangle; and ''Kennywood Memories'', about Kennywood, a historic local amusement park. As of March 2006, 313,227 copies of Sebak's films had been sold or given away as pledge gifts by public television stations nationwide, which WQED credits with largely help ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bristol, Connecticut
Bristol is a suburban city located in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, southwest-west of Hartford. The city is also 120 miles southwest from Boston, and approximately 100 miles northeast of New York City. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 60,833. Bristol is the location of the general studios of ESPN, and the location of Lake Compounce, the United States's oldest continuously operating theme park. Bristol was known as a clock-making city in the 19th century, and is the location of American Clock & Watch Museum. Bristol is the site of the former American Silver Company and its predecessor companies. Bristol's nickname is the "Mum City", because it was once a leader in chrysanthemum production and still holds an annual Bristol Mum Festival. History The area that includes present-day Bristol was originally inhabited by the Tunxis Native American tribe, one of the Eastern Algonquian-speaking peoples that shared the lower Connecticut River Va ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Holiday World & Splashin' Safari
Holiday World & Splashin' Safari (known as Santa Claus Land prior to 1984) is a combination amusement park, theme park and water park located near Interstate 64 and U.S. 231 in Santa Claus, Indiana, Santa Claus, Indiana, United States. The theme park is divided into four sections that celebrate Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving (United States), Thanksgiving and the Independence Day (United States), Fourth of July with rides, live entertainment, games, and attractions. Holiday World contains three wooden roller coasters: The Raven (roller coaster), The Raven, The Legend (roller coaster), The Legend, and The Voyage (roller coaster), The Voyage, as well as Thunderbird (Holiday World), Thunderbird (a Bolliger & Mabillard launched Wing Coaster) and The Howler. The safari-themed water park includes the world's two longest Water slide#Water coaster, water coasters, Wildebeest (ride), Wildebeest and Guinness World Record Holder Mammoth (ride), Mammoth; additionally, it contains a launch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lunenburg, Massachusetts
Lunenburg is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 11,946 at the 2020 census. History Lunenburg was first settled by Europeans in 1718 and was officially incorporated in 1728. The name stems from one of the titles of King George II of Great Britain, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. During King George's War (1744–1748), French-allied First Nations, such as warriors of the M'iq Maq or Abenaki Confederacy, raided the village and took settlers captive to Quebec. Areas of neighboring Fitchburg were once part of Lunenburg, but broke away around 1764. The settlers found the walking distance to church and town meetings too great and needed their own town center. Whalom Park on Whalom Lake had long been a noted amusement park in Lunenburg during the 20th century. It was home of the famous Flyer Comet, now demolished. The park closed in 2000, unable to survive the competition with the newer and increasingly popular Six Flags New England in A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whalom Park
Whalom Park was an amusement park located on Lake Whalom in Lunenburg, Massachusetts, that operated from 1893 to 2000. The site was redeveloped into a 240-unit condominium complex. Whalom Park was established in 1893 by the Fitchburg & Leominster Street Railway as a traditional, English-style park of gardens and walking paths."Coasting to a stop at Whalom Park," ''The Boston Globe'', October 19, 2006, Jenna Russell At the time of its last day of operations in 2000, Whalom was known as the 13th oldest amusement park in the United States,"Once a Carny", The Metropolis Observed, June, 2002, Michele Herman as well as the second-oldest trolley park in the world. The park had been in continuous seasonal operation for 107 years."Fire destroys Whalom ballroom", Fitchburg Sentinel & Enterprise (Fitchburg, MA), March 21, 2002, Benjamin Cole The "Flyer Comet" wooden roller coaster was one of the park's best-known rides. Most remaining structures at the park, including the Flyer Comet, we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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