It's time to go to Palisades Park in New Jersey, courtesy of Ken Martinez's vintage postcards!
More Fun at Palisades Park
In today's post are five more postcards from the legendary Palisades Amusement Park which was located across the Hudson River from New York City, atop the New Jersey Palisades in Cliffside, New Jersey. You can find the first part of this series I wrote about HERE.
Featured on this first card is "The Monster", an Everly Aircraft Company flat ride, the same ride manufacturer that created midway classics like the Octopus, the Spider, Rock-O-Plane and Loop-O-Loop.
I love this postcard for the many details and overlapping rides. Featured are the Gold Spike Railroad, Soakyland and Antique Auto Ride. I love all the detail and everything crammed into the small area.
The Jungle Land attraction seems to have made appearances in several of the old traditional parks in the 1950's and 60's. I wonder if it was the same company who manufactured other Jungle Land attractions. Also in view is the giant Ferris Wheel.
Great midway scene featuring the Round Up, the Monster and what appears to be part of a Kangaroo flat ride. Is that a funhouse in the background?
Here's a great nighttime scene showing off the park's dramatic lighting and fanciful architecture. I'm not sure wha the concession stand is selling as I can barely read the signs, but one sign looks like "clams" and another sign "franks".
I hope you have enjoyed this second postcard visit to Palisade Park. There is one more set of five postcards from this series which I will share with you in the near future.
Information source material:
Palisades Amusement Park History - www.palisadespark.com
Roller Coaster Database - www.rcdb.com
Wow, what a place that park was! Look at that last photo... it almost makes me think of the rare color pictures of the World's Fairs of the 1930's. I am grateful to Ken Martinez for providing the next best thing to a time machine. There's more from Ken coming soon!
Ken-
ReplyDeleteMore thanks for sharing these images. One can see why this park was considered among the greatest in the U.S. (But I do want to know more about Soakyland. Such an odd name).
I also see a Flight to Mars ride in the first image, that most-likely was similar to rides of the same name also found at Cedar Point and even the 1962, Seattle World's Fair - and remained there until about 1996-!
And I understand "clams & franks" are the latest trend in food. If not, they soon will be-!
Thanks, Ken! These postcards are great. Unfortunately I now have that old Freddy Cannon song stuck in my head! And a hankering for clams...
ReplyDeleteIt also looks like you could get either beer or soft drinks with your franks & clams. All the other signs are either too blurry or washed out for me to read.
ReplyDelete(Beer? At an amusement park? Still a strange concept for someone who grew up going to WDW and DL)
I was also noticing that Flight to Mars dark ride off in the distance of that first pic. I remember the L.A. County Fair having one of those. It always fascinated me because it looked like a typical "mobile" dark ride, with the exception that it had a couple hills/drops where the cars picked up some good speed. Nanook, I didn't know that there was one at the old Seattle Fair grounds until 1996! I guess I never walked over to where the rides were during my visits there. Now I wish I had. Thank you, Ken for sharing more images from your collection with us!
ReplyDeleteWe went there once when I was a kid. Our local music radio station, WABC-AM, used to advertise Palisades Park all the time, and I remember being super excited to go!
ReplyDeleteDennis,Levittown NY