Amusement Parks Of New Jersey

This comprehensive guide profiles 17 major amusement parks in the Garden State. Complete information on rides and attractions is accompanied by dozens of vintage photographs and postcard scenes. Featured parks: Steel Pier, Atlantic City; Keansburg Amusement Park, Keansburg; Clementon Amusement Park, Clementon; Jenkinson's Boardwalk, Point Pleasant Beach; Casino Pier, Seaside Heights; Playland, Ocean City; Bowcraft Amusement Park, Scotch Plains; Land of Make Believe, Hope; Storybookland, Cardiff; Funtown Pier, Seaside Park; Wild West City, Netcong; Gillian's Wonderland Pier, Ocean City; Morey's Piers, Wildwood; Six Flags Great Adventure, Jackson; Fantasy Island, Beach Haven; Blackbeards Cave, Bayville.

This comprehensive guide profiles 17 major amusement parks in the Garden State. Complete information on rides and attractions is accompanied by dozens of vintage photographs and postcard scenes. Featured parks: Steel Pier, Atlantic City; Keansburg Amusement Park, Keansburg; Clementon Amusement Park, Clementon; Jenkinson's Boardwalk, Point Pleasant Beach; Casino Pier, Seaside Heights; Playland, Ocean City; Bowcraft Amusement Park, Scotch Plains; Land of Make Believe, Hope; Storybookland, Cardiff; Funtown Pier, Seaside Park; Wild West City, Netcong; Gillian's Wonderland Pier, Ocean City; Morey's Piers, Wildwood; Six Flags Great Adventure, Jackson; Fantasy Island, Beach Haven; Blackbeards Cave, Bayville.

This comprehensive guide profiles 16 major amusement parks in the Empire State and offers information on smaller parks as well. Offers complete information on rides and attractions, a history of each park, and best times to go. Features vintage photographs and postcards scenes.

"Citizen Kane does Adventureland." —The Washington Post The outlandish, hilarious, terrifying, and almost impossible-to-believe story of the legendary, dangerous amusement park where millions were entertained and almost as many bruises were sustained, told through the eyes of the founder's son. Often called "Accident Park," "Class Action Park," or "Traction Park," Action Park was an American icon. Entertaining more than a million people a year in the 1980s, the New Jersey-based amusement playland placed no limits on danger or fun, a monument to the anything-goes spirit of the era that left guests in control of their own adventures--sometimes with tragic results. Though it closed its doors in 1996 after nearly twenty years, it has remained a subject of constant fascination ever since, an establishment completely anathema to our modern culture of rules and safety. Action Park is the first-ever unvarnished look at the history of this DIY Disneyland, as seen through the eyes of Andy Mulvihill, the son of the park's idiosyncratic founder, Gene Mulvihill. From his early days testing precarious rides to working his way up to chief lifeguard of the infamous Wave Pool to later helping run the whole park, Andy's story is equal parts hilarious and moving, chronicling the life and death of a uniquely American attraction, a wet and wild 1980s adolescence, and a son's struggle to understand his father's quixotic quest to become the Walt Disney of New Jersey. Packing in all of the excitement of a day at Action Park, this is destined to be one of the most unforgettable memoirs of the year.

By the end of the 19th century, New Jersey coastline was dotted with thriving amusement parks but are just fond and fading memories today. The Jersey Shore has always attracted people seeking relief from summer heat and humidity. Long before Europeans came here, the native Lenape clammed, fished, and played games on the beach and in the surf. These original people could scarcely have imagined that, by the end of the 19th century, the 120-mile-long coastline would be filled with amusement parks featuring gentle kiddie car rides, terrifying roller coasters, merry-go-rounds, and fast-food emporiums. James Bradley in Asbury Park and William Sandlass Jr. in Highland Beach created mass entertainment for hundreds of thousands of people. Their seaside recreation centers, along with those in Long Branch, Bradley Beach, Pleasure Bay, and others, endured for years. Sadly, they are now just distant and vanishing memories that are resurrected in this piece.

During the first two decades of the twentieth century, thousands of people flocked to an enormously popular amusement park on the outskirts of Trenton, New Jersey, seeking thrilling rides and the amenities of Spring Lake. In Let's Go to the White City, James Colello Jr. shares the fascinating history of the park dubbed as "The Coney Island of New Jersey." In 1907, an experienced amusement director arrived in Trenton to encourage the creation of a large-scale amusement park. As his vision eventually came to fruition, one of the foremost summer parks of its day entertained patrons with many attractions, including fireworks displays, popular dances, band music, and dinners at the casino restaurant. With a focus on good, clean fun, White City Park also provided a place of enjoyment where revelers rode the carousel, circle swing, shoot-the-chute, and watched vaudeville acts. Included are photographs that help rekindle memories of a time when many in New Jersey proclaimed, "Let's go to the White City!" Let's Go to the White City offers a never-before-seen glimpse into the twenty-year history of an amusement park that provided both the young and old alike with wonderful memories.

The Jersey Shore has always attracted people seeking relief from summer heat and humidity. Long before Europeans came here, the native Lenape clammed, fished, and played games on the beach and in the surf. These original people could scarcely have imagined that, by the end of the 19th century, the 120-mile-long coastline of New Jersey would be dotted with amusement parks featuring gentle kiddie car rides, terrifying roller coasters, merry-go-rounds, and fast-food emporiums. James Bradley in Asbury Park and William Sandlass Jr. in Highland Beach created mass entertainment for hundreds of thousands of people. Their seaside recreation centers, along with those in Long Branch, Bradley Beach, Pleasure Bay, and others, endured for years but are just fond and fading memories today.

High atop the Palisades cliffs in the boroughs of Cliffside Park and Fort Lee once stood the home of the famous Cyclone roller coaster, the Tunnel of Love, and the world's largest outdoor saltwater pool. The place was called Palisades Amusement Park, and even today, several decades after it closed, the park is warmly remembered. For those who ever visited the park, this book is sure to bring back cherished memories and re-create the thrills, laughter, and joy that was Palisades.