Asbury Park, August 1964
Today's photos were something of a mystery to me; they were hand-labeled "Rye Playland", which is located in Rye, New York (on the Long Island Sound). But then I noticed the familiar Hotel Albion (demolished in 2001), seen previously in THIS POST; that means that these pictures were actually taken at Asbury Park, New Jersey. Somebody must have labeled them long after the fact, I suppose. That person should spend the rest of their life in prison, if you ask me.
It looks like it was a beautiful day to spend by the shore, and with the kids out of school (being mid-August), why not go enjoy some fun rides at the boardwalk? Looming above all was one of many "tilty spinny" rides, I think this one was known as the "Paratrooper". Correct me, experts!
Uh-oh, sis is trying to take the wheel. Fight the patriarchy! This Antique Car ride might not have technically gone around in a circle - it looks like it was an oval. Which is a totally different experience... ovals are way more fun. There's a billboard for Hygrade's Stadium Franks; the name always makes me think that they taste of industrial cleaner.
I love this little elevated train ride, though I can find no information about it. I hope it didn't go around in an oval (even though ovals are fun), it would be neat if it wound its way along the entire boardwalk so that riders could get a good overview of the whole place. The kids are waving to us, it's just hard to tell when they are silhouetted.
Well, the ride is over, and our kids survived. I'd expect crowds to be much bigger on an August day, but it's possible that many guests were enjoying General Motors' "Futurama", the Uniroyal "giant tire" Ferris Wheel, or Walt Disney's "Magic Skyway" in Queens. I can't say I would blame them.
I hope you have enjoyed your visit to Asbury Park!
13 comments:
Major-
Oh, goody... long shorts with black socks. Sign me up-!
Thanks, Major.
Yep, Major. That's the Paratrooper. For a second I thought those two ladies in blue were nuns; but surely not. Too revealing. Too flashy. So, what's the deal with their nearly identical get-ups? They're not twins because the one on the right is taller. I can see I'm not gonna get any sleep tonight wondering what their story is.
#2: Is that Little Orphan Annie in the little car? This must be a summer job for the teenager that's helping the drivers with their cars. Shirt open, no undershirt... you wouldn't see that in Disneyland! Well, maybe for a half an hour, till his supervisor came along. Then he'd be whisked away and never seen again... swan food.
#3: Hygrade.. you nailed it, Major. I can hear their slogan now, "Try Hygrade's industrial strength franks today! Your stomach will take a beatin' but you'll keep on eatin'!"
Yes, Major, I did enjoy my visit to Asbury Park. Thanks!
I don't have time to leave a long comment now, but I'll definitely check back later. I'm not familiar with this concession, but the Paratrooper and Tilt-A-Whirl encircled by an early C.P. Huntington miniature train (first introduced in 1961) make me very happy. It looks like this was a bit further up the boardwalk from the legendary Palace Amusements, which was an expansive indoor amusement park with a Ferris wheel through the roof, multiple darkrides, a funhouse, and neon murals on its exterior. Thanks Major!
Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.! And now I’m gonna have “Blinded By the Light” stuck in my head all day. Not sure if I’m going to thank you for that yet or not.
Andrew is spot on with the ID on the Chance Rides C.P. Huntington. They are still being manufactured today. I think the early production runs all had gasoline engines, but you can now get them with diesel, propane, and electric motors as well (sadly, nuclear-powered steam generator models are no longer cataloged). The cars on this train set look identical to those of the original C.P. Huntington at the Toledo Zoo, so they make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I don’t believe the Native American head design is manufactured anymore. It’s August, so here are some literal “…Indians in the summer…” I can’t seem to find anyone carrying a boulder on their shoulder, though.
Anybody else suffering from allergies right now? I’ve got this very unpleasing wheezing and sneezing. Safety tip - avoid calliopes during allergy season.
See what I mean? Stuck in my head all day…
This is an interesting precursor to Disneyland. I can imagine Walt taking notes… “nope…uh,uh…. …not doing that… no sir…”.
Amazing ID on the ride equipment, Andrew & Chuck. Can we get the train outfitted with an Oscillation Overthruster? I have plenty of banana peels.
JB, definitely Bad Show on the “CM”. Mickey would send him to the Churro Mines, never to see the light of day again.
JG
I LOVE these Asbury Park photos! They are a ten in my book. I always liked that version of the Paratrooper and I believe Pacific Ocean Park had that style of Paratrooper as well.
Andrew, you are a wealth of information when it comes to the classic flat rides and old-school amusements. And you're accurate too!
Thanks for the extra special post today, Major.
Nanook, yeah, that’s a look that seems to have been popular, but I don’t think I would have rocked it, even back in 1964.
JB, I would have been happy to have two nuns in any of my photos, but sadly, those are just plain old ladies. Funny, I thought that curly-top looked like Little Orphan Annie too! Leapin’ Lizards. I wonder if the guy with the open shirt had many occasions to say “fugetaboutit”? I noticed that auto-correct changed my typing of “Hygrade” into “Hydrate”, kind of ruined the moment.
Andrew, interesting, I never considered that there could be more than one amusement concession along the boardwalk. Gosh, Palace Amusements sounds amazing, I wish I had photos of that!
Chuck, I grew up hearing Manfred Mann’s version of “Blinded By the Light”, so the Springsteen version sounds “off” to me! I love that you can still buy a C.P. Huntington train for your backyard or local amusement park or zoo… Walt’s miniature live steam locomotive was cool, but if you wanted something a little less labor-intensive, maybe a C.P. Huntington would do the trick. I’d still want a super-elaborate backyard setup like Walt had, though.
JG, the funny thing is that Walt always considered the boardwalks and seaside amusement parks to be seedy and run-down, but I often think that they look pretty good, at least in photos. Maybe you had to be there to see the real filth and questionable people.
K. Martinez, I love finding any old photos of amusement parks, and it was kind of fun to discover that they are not really from Rye Playland (thanks to the Hotel Albion). Although I’d love to have photos of Rye Playland too!
Just a note to everyone, I’ll be out for most of the day starting at about 11:00.
Chuck, to this day I still can't hear the lyrics, "Another runner in the night."
^ I should add that I’m referring to Manfred Mann’s version.
Sue, still trying to figure out why Springsteen was writing about damaged stockings. Not that it’s any weirder than any of the other lyrics, but still.
And while I know it’s a misunderstanding caused by an uncorrectable technical glitch while Manfred Mann was recording his version of the song, I don’t think anyone hears him singing “revved up like a deuce.”
Major, I do wonder if open-shirt guy did indeed have a Jersey accent; most likely did/does.
I actually like amusement park photos as much as Disney/theme park photos. Amusement parks have an element of wild excitement, even danger, to them. Unplanned and unexpected stuff happens there. Pretty much everything you see is "behind the scenes". Theme parks are relatively safe, reliable, predictable, and clean by comparison; which is also a good thing.
Major, this "auto correct" thing you and others talk about sounds like a real pain in the donkey. GET RID OF IT!!! ;-)
Chuck & Sue, this reminds me of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Bad Moon Rising" with the mangled lyrics: "Therrre's a bathroom on the right."
Yeah, I miss those good-old-days, when lyrics had meaning:
B.B. Bumble and the Stingers, Mott the Hoople, Ray Charles Singers, Lonnie Mack and twangin' Eddie, here's my ring, we're goin' steady, Take it easy, take me higher, liar liar, house on fire, Loco-motion, Poco, Passion, Deeper Purple, Satisfaction, Baby baby, gotta gotta, gimme gimme, gettin' hotter
Sammy's cookin', Lesley Gore, Ritchie Valens, end of story, Mahavishnu, Fujiyama, Kama Sutra, Rama Lama, Richard Perry, Spector, Barry, Righteous, Archies, Nilsson Harry, Shimmy Shimmy Ko-Ko Bop it, Fats is back and Finger Poppin'
Life is a rock
But the radio rolled me
Gotta turn it up louder
So my DJ told me
(Woo-woo)
Btw, when this song first came out, my girlfriend and I bought the 45 and played parts of it over and over and over, til we wrote down everything—all the lyrics. If we weren’t sure what was being sung, we jotted down something that sounded close to it. And then we memorized it and sang along whenever it was on the radio. Back when we were bored and had free time (what’s that?!).
Chuck, I read (somewhere?) that Manfred, not being from the good ol' USA, didn't know what a "deuce" was nor how it would "rev up" and garbled the lyric accidently because of it.
True? I don't know, but it makes a good story!
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