Local fairs and carnivals have been around since the Middle Ages,
but modern amusement parks can trace their roots to the 19th century, when
so-called “pleasure gardens” and “trolley parks” first flourished in the United
States and Europe. These early resorts featured primitive—and often wildly
unsafe—roller coasters and rides, but they also included a variety of offbeat
attractions ranging from strongmen and wild animals to freak shows, staged
disaster spectacles and even battle reenactments. Take a trip through six of
history’s most enchanting and influential amusement parks.
Steeplechase
Park
Opened in 1897 by entrepreneur George C. Tilyou, Steeplechase Park
was the first of three major amusement parks that put New York’s Coney Island
on the map. The park took its name from its signature attraction, a 1,100-foot
steel track where patrons could race one another on mechanical horses, but it
also included a Ferris Wheel, a space-inspired ride called “Trip to the Moon”
and a miniature railroad. While Tilyou intended Steeplechase to be the
family-friendly antidote to Coney Island’s seamier side, some rides still
ventured into territory that was risqué by Victorian standards. Attractions
like the “Whichaway” and the “Human Pool Table” tossed strangers against one
another and gave couples an excuse to canoodle, and the wildly popular Blowhole
Theater allowed spectators to watch as air vents blew up unsuspecting female
guests’ skirts. As the ladies struggled to cover themselves, a clown would
shock their male counterparts with a cattle prod. Fire destroyed much of
Tilyou’s park in 1907, but he responded by building a more elaborate
Steeplechase that remained in operation until the 1960s. Ever the showman, he
even charged ten cents for visitors to view the charred ruins of the original
park.
Vauxhall
Gardens
Opened in 1897 by entrepreneur George C. Tilyou, Steeplechase Park
was the first of three major amusement parks that put New York’s Coney Island
on the map. The park took its name from its signature attraction, a 1,100-foot
steel track where patrons could race one another on mechanical horses, but it
also included a Ferris Wheel, a space-inspired ride called “Trip to the Moon”
and a miniature railroad. While Tilyou intended Steeplechase to be the
family-friendly antidote to Coney Island’s seamier side, some rides still ventured
into territory that was risqué by Victorian standards. Attractions like the
“Whichaway” and the “Human Pool Table” tossed strangers against one another and
gave couples an excuse to canoodle, and the wildly popular Blowhole Theater
allowed spectators to watch as air vents blew up unsuspecting female guests’
skirts. As the ladies struggled to cover themselves, a clown would shock their
male counterparts with a cattle prod. Fire destroyed much of Tilyou's park in
1907, but he responded by building a more elaborate Steeplechase that remained
in operation until the 1960s. Ever the showman, he even charged ten cents for
visitors to view the charred ruins of the original park.
Dreamland
Coney Island’s Dreamland only operated for seven years between 1904
and 1911, but during that time it established itself as one of the most
ambitious amusement parks ever constructed. The brainchild of a former senator
named William H. Reynolds, the site included a labyrinth of unusual rides and
attractions lit by an astounding one million electric light bulbs. Visitors to
Dreamland could charter a gondola through a recreation of the canals of Venice,
brave gusts of refrigerated air during a train ride through the mountains of
Switzerland or relax at a Japanese teahouse. They could also watch a
twice-daily disaster spectacle where scores of actors fought a fire at a mock
six-story tenement building, or pay a visit to Lilliputia, a pint-sized
European village where some 300 little people lived full time. Dreamland
featured everything from freak shows and wild animals to imported Somali
warriors and Eskimos, but perhaps its most unusual offering was an exhibit
where visitors could observe premature babies being kept alive using
incubators, which were then still a new and untested technology. The infants
proved a huge hit, but they and many other attractions had to be evacuated in
May 1911, when a fire—ironically triggered at a ride called the Hell
Gate—leveled the property and shut Dreamland down for good.
Saltair
First opened in 1893, Saltair was a desert oasis situated on the
south shore of Utah’s Great Salt Lake. The Mormon Church originally
commissioned the site in the hope of creating a wholesome “Coney Island of the
West” without the perceived sleaziness of the New York original. Their
family-friendly park proved an instant hit, as scores of visitors arrived by
train from nearby Salt Lake City to enjoy music, dancing and bathing in the
lake’s saline-rich waters. Saltair’s most striking attraction was its
gargantuan pavilion, a four-story wonder adorned with domes and minarets that
sat above the lake on more than 2,000 wood pilings. Along with touring this
“Pleasure Palace on Stilts,” visitors could also show off their moves on a
sprawling dance floor, ride roller coasters and carousels, and watch fireworks
displays and hot air balloon shows. The park boasted nearly half a million
visitors a year until 1925, when the iconic centerpiece burned in a fire. A
rebuilt Saltair opened soon after, but it failed to capture the magic—or the revenues—of
the original. The park closed its doors for good in 1958, and its abandoned
pavilion was later destroyed in a second fire in 1970.
Tivoli
Gardens
Denmark’s Tivoli Gardens first opened in 1843, when showman Georg
Carstensen persuaded King Christian VIII to let him build a pleasure garden
outside the walls of Copenhagen. Originally constructed on around 20 acres of
land, Carstensen’s creation featured a series of oriental-inspired buildings, a
lake fashioned from part of the old city moat, flower gardens and bandstands
lit by colored gas lamps. The park quickly became a Copenhagen institution, and
won fame for its “Tivoli Boys Guard,” a collection of uniformed adolescents who
paraded around the premises playing music for visitors. Tivoli later added an
iconic pantomime theater in 1878, and by the early 1900s it featured more
traditional amusement park fare including a wooden roller coaster called the
Bjergbanen, or “Mountain Coaster,” as well as bumper cars and carousels. Tivoli
Gardens was nearly burned to the ground by Nazi sympathizers during World War
II, but the park reopened after only a few weeks and remains in operation to
this day.
Luna Park
Founded in 1903 by theme park impresarios Fred Thompson and Skip
Dundy, Coney Island’s Luna Park consisted of a gaudy cluster of domed buildings
and towers illuminated by an eye-popping 250,000 light bulbs. The park
specialized in high concept rides that transported visitors to everywhere from
20,000 leagues under the sea to the North Pole and even the surface of the
moon. A trip to Luna could also serve as a stand in for world travel. After a
ride on an elephant, patrons could stroll a simulated “Streets of Delhi”
populated by dancing girls and costumed performers—many of them actually
shipped in from India—or take a tour through mock versions of Italy, Japan and
Ireland. If they grew tired of walking, visitors could relax in grandstands and
watch the “War of the Worlds,” a miniature, pyrotechnic-heavy sea battle in
which the American Navy decimated an invading European armada. The park’s
owners also cashed in on the popularity of disaster rides by staging
recreations of the destruction of Pompeii and the Galveston flood of 1900. The
carnage reenacted in these attractions became all too real in 1944, when Luna
fell victim to a three-alarm fire that began in one of its bathrooms. The
original site closed for good a few years after the blaze, but the iconic name
“Luna Park” is still used by dozens of amusement parks around the globe.
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