Lunatics Radio Hour
Episode 131 - The History of Amusement Park Horror
Join Abby and Alan as they explore the intersection of horror and amusement parks, a match made in heaven sadly. Strap in for a historical rollercoaster that whisks you from the vintage charm of pleasure gardens to the ghostly whispers of long-forgotten theme parks. We unearth the transformative journey of rides, from ice slides to modern-day scream machines, and share a carousel of tales that might just make you think twice about your next fairground visit.
lunaticsproject.com
Get Lunatics Merch here. Join the discussion on Discord. Listen to the paranormal playlist I curate for Vurbl, updated weekly! Check out Abby's book Horror Stories. Available in eBook and paperback. Music by Michaela Papa, Alan Kudan & Jordan Moser. Poster Art by Pilar Keprta @pilar.kep.
Sources
- An article on Vox by Arthur Levine, The Story of Amusement Parks is The Story of America
- Smithsonian Magazine article by Kat Eschner - The Dizzy History of Carousels Began with Knights
- Ask.com article by Allyson Chen - Abandoned Amusement Parks with Even Creepier Backstories
- The Travel article by Laurence Watt - Haunted Theme Parks That Were Abandoned
- Mental Floss Article by Michele Hermann - 11 Fun Facts About Coney Island
- Worldabandoned.com article on Nara Dreamland
- Atlas Obscura, Wikipedia + IMDB
What's it like to be a Cattle Rancher? FBI Special Agent? Professional Santa? Find out!
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
Join Abby and Alan as they explore the intersection of horror and amusement parks, a match made in heaven sadly. Strap in for a historical rollercoaster that whisks you from the vintage charm of pleasure gardens to the ghostly whispers of long-forgotten theme parks. We unearth the transformative journey of rides, from ice slides to modern-day scream machines, and share a carousel of tales that might just make you think twice about your next fairground visit.
lunaticsproject.com
Get Lunatics Merch here. Join the discussion on Discord. Listen to the paranormal playlist I curate for Vurbl, updated weekly! Check out Abby's book Horror Stories. Available in eBook and paperback. Music by Michaela Papa, Alan Kudan & Jordan Moser. Poster Art by Pilar Keprta @pilar.kep.
Sources
- An article on Vox by Arthur Levine, The Story of Amusement Parks is The Story of America
- Smithsonian Magazine article by Kat Eschner - The Dizzy History of Carousels Began with Knights
- Ask.com article by Allyson Chen - Abandoned Amusement Parks with Even Creepier Backstories
- The Travel article by Laurence Watt - Haunted Theme Parks That Were Abandoned
- Mental Floss Article by Michele Hermann - 11 Fun Facts About Coney Island
- Worldabandoned.com article on Nara Dreamland
- Atlas Obscura, Wikipedia + IMDB
What's it like to be a Cattle Rancher? FBI Special Agent? Professional Santa? Find out!
Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
Hello everyone, happy 2024. Welcome to another episode of the Lunatics Radio Hour podcast. I'm Abby Branker sitting here with Alan Kudan.
Speaker 2:Hello.
Speaker 1:And today we are talking about the intersection between amusement parks and horror. Oh, the Venn diagram, if you will.
Speaker 2:Okay, I just thought that we were talking about spooky amusement park things.
Speaker 1:Yes, well, that's one way to define it, for sure.
Speaker 2:So I'm curious, because I haven't looked at your outline for this one. As usual, I mean no, normally I do hundreds of hours of prep for episode, but this one I did not, so so I'm just carrying the show on my back. But on this one I'm curious where we're drawing the line. Is it just amusement parks? Is it going to be amusement parks and circuses? Is it going to be amusement parks, circuses and haunted houses?
Speaker 1:No, it will be mainly amusement parks, because I certainly got into this right when I was researching it. This could be a six month series in reality, if you're going to talk about carnivals and circuses and fun houses and haunted houses. So we're going to keep it a little more contained and talk mostly about amusement parks. There's a few park type things that someone might fight me on the definition of it, but generally that's what we're talking about.
Speaker 2:So first question yeah, what is the difference really between a fun house and a haunted house?
Speaker 1:They're both rides. It really depends right, but if we're talking about that as attractions, I am then they're both rides right. A haunted house is scarier. A fun house could just be one of those things where you walk down that tunnel right and that spinning. It's like that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but those are so scary too.
Speaker 1:Well, it depends on the person. I found that to be fun.
Speaker 2:They're terrifying.
Speaker 1:You know the scene at the end of Greece.
Speaker 2:Do you think I know the end of Greece?
Speaker 1:It's really talking to the listeners. The scene at the end of Greece, where Sandy and Danny are singing to each other you're the one that I want. That's a fun house. There you go. Yeah, they're at a fun house in that moment. Why?
Speaker 2:Because they're at a carnival, which is encapsulated in this episode. No, not really, I'm so confused Well okay, A carnival is like an in.
Speaker 1:This is all through our lens today, because carnivals have been different things. But through our lens today, carnivals are like traveling amusement parks.
Speaker 2:Right, it's a less permanent amusement park.
Speaker 1:But I'm just not harping on them much today, that's all.
Speaker 2:I know that we watched a movie that had carnival right in the name.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we could say I'm not going to be a stickler for definitions today.
Speaker 2:I'm just trying to iron this one out so that people aren't misled.
Speaker 1:It's okay. I think I'll make it clear as we go how about that? Sure, okay, so today we're going to talk about the intersection of horror, history and amusement parks. As usual, I suppose this episode has gone in a direction that was a little bit surprising for me, a little bit different than when I was initially initially had a vision for this. So I found that I personally have a bit of a fascination with this idea of like old timey amusement parks, like amusement parks in the 1800s, you know, people in suits and petticoats, like going on roller coasters. It's just such a funny juxtaposition in my brain.
Speaker 2:When did roller coasters start being a thing?
Speaker 1:We're going to talk about that, Alan, but they date back much farther than you expect.
Speaker 2:I know that's the fun part of this episode. You just said 1800s.
Speaker 1:Even farther than that roller coaster state back.
Speaker 2:Really so. George Washington went on roller coasters.
Speaker 1:No, I'm not going to make a claim about that. I do know Catherine the Great of Russia did.
Speaker 2:And what year was she?
Speaker 1:A long time ago, a long time ago, a long time. Nobody knows. So, for example, I want to talk about Sea Lion Park, which we're going to come back to. But Sea Lion Park was part of Coney Island in New York City and it opened in the late 1800s. It closed in the early 1900s.
Speaker 2:You're talking about the aquarium.
Speaker 1:No Sea Lion Park.
Speaker 2:Is this like SeaWorld?
Speaker 1:Yes, kind of, but it included a roller coaster that people again in their suits they would go on the roller coaster and there was also a water ride called Water Shoot or Shoot the Shoot, which was very similar, I guess, to kind of like a splash mountain type of a thing, but people in these, in their clothes from the 1800s were. There's photos of it online. It's fascinating to me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you just dated yourself why Splash Mountain got canceled.
Speaker 1:I know, but that's, I think, the most ubiquitous example for this.
Speaker 2:Interesting, because that's very off brand for you.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about the history of theme parks, the history of rides, the urban legends and dark events that have taken place at parks and the best horror movies centered around amusement parks. Our sources for today a Vox article by Arthur Levine the story of amusement parks is the story of America. Smithsonian Magazine article by Kat Eschner, the dizzy history of carousels began with nights. An Askcom article by Allison Chen Abandoned amusement parks with even creepier backstories. The Travel article by Lawrence Watt Haunted theme parks that were abandoned. A Mental Floss article by Michelle Herman, 11 fun facts about Coney Island. A World Abandonedcom article on Nara Dreamland and, of course, atlas Obscura, wikipedia and IMDB. In order to talk about the horror of amusement parks, let us first talk about the history of these parks themselves. They are a clear evolution from traveling fairs, festivals and pleasure gardens, which I will define for you out in a moment. I know your question is coming.
Speaker 2:No, I know what a pleasure garden is.
Speaker 1:Let's talk specifically about periodic fairs first, which date back to the Middle Ages. One of the earliest was the Bartholomew Fair dating back to 1133 in England. This was a charter fair, meaning the fair was granted by King Henry I to fund the Priory of Bartholomew. It lasted until the mid-1800s.
Speaker 2:Happy. What's a priory For priests? A priory is for priests.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like a monastery for dudes. It lasted until the mid-1800s when it was forced to close due to quote unquote public disturbances. It took place every August 24th and the fair evolved over the years but generally consisted of attractions, freak shows, juggling, magic shows, acrobats and menageries. Pleasure gardens date back to ancient times. There are actually some really wild illustrations you can find online to show you maps of these. They sort of evolved from gardens with temples and pavilions and sculptures that you know rich people had on their properties to gardens with active entertainment and rides, concerts, zoos, etc. That sort of thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what is a ride in the 12th century?
Speaker 1:You're really trying to jump the progress it's coming.
Speaker 2:I will explain it. It's the natural progression of thought.
Speaker 1:Well, don't worry, it's coming soon, it's very soon, sentences away and, of course, traveling fairs predate amusement parks, again very similar to a carnival right. There's also a tradition that predated theme parks exhibitions like the World's Fair. The first World's Fair was held in Prague in 1791. Historically, world's Fairs are exhibitions meant to display the accomplishments of nations globally. Chicago hosted two World's Fairs in the US, the first in 1893 and the second in 1933. But what really helps to find an amusement park, at least in modern terms, are the rides.
Speaker 2:You with me. I'm patiently waiting to find out what a ride in the 12th century is like.
Speaker 1:The earliest roller coaster is credited as being a frozen Russian hill that people would slide down. That's called sledding. But man made hills oh. In 1784, Catherine the Great of Russia developed a summer version of the ride at her estate and added tracks and wheeled carts.
Speaker 2:Did you say 784? 1784. Oh, I was like. Well, okay, first off, we now have a date for Catherine the Great. Thank God this was not unknown, Orly, I don't know, Maybe we just discovered it.
Speaker 1:Someone give us a prize.
Speaker 2:Write the Smithsonian.
Speaker 1:The word carousel can be traced back to Arabian and Turkish descent, meaning little war. Historically, it was a training exercise in which a clay ball would be tossed between riders. The ball was filled with perfume and if the rider dropped the ball he would smell of perfume, like his punishment.
Speaker 2:Wait what how?
Speaker 1:does that work? They're just throwing a clay ball filled with perfume and I think if it cracks or breaks, oh it seals, it's like an egg.
Speaker 2:Okay, if it breaks, they get splashed. Yeah, it's like a solid water balloon, right.
Speaker 1:The practice made its way to France, which gave us the term carousel. Quoting from the Smithsonian magazine article by Kat Eschner, quote in order to prepare for these competitions, a practice device was created which featured legless wooden horses suspended from arms on a central rotating pole. The pole is either rotated by human horse or mule, while the horseman mounted on the wooden horses. Practice games such as spearing a hanging ring with their jousting lances end quote. So that's kind of the natural progression where there was a lot of games, especially training games for knights and soldiers, where they would kind of circle each other on horses and either joust, try to get their jousting things in a ring or throw these balls around. And so they then created this wooden structure to be able to do it without horses, and that then over the years became like an amusement.
Speaker 2:This is a reminder that we're all just animals. Take a look at lions how they play. They're all like rough housing and everything, but it's all just like practicing stalking, practicing hunting, which is like building skills to the form of amusement.
Speaker 1:I don't know if I have any hunting or stalking skills.
Speaker 2:I guess that should have been my resolution. You're good at being both hunted and stalked, that's something.
Speaker 1:There you go.
Speaker 2:Can't play the game without someone like you.
Speaker 1:And of course carousels soon became a fairground attraction. Some were powered by hand crank, others by animals, and there was a brief stint of bicycle powered carousels until the invention of steam powered rides in the mid 1800s. And there's some big French coronations of kings and things and they would bring in carousels. It was kind of like a special event thing. Sure, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I've always been curious how the hell those break down, because they're huge and they seem so solid, but like it all goes on to well, previously it all got loaded onto trains, but now it can probably get broken down to a truck.
Speaker 1:You know what I just realized? We have a piece of a carousel in our apartment. We do. My family gave it to me for my 30th birthday. I think my dad rescued it from an estate sale and it's kind of like the light pillar Is that how you would describe it Of a carousel. It's like a head, like a mast head, with four light, five lights going down the front. We use it as a lamp.
Speaker 2:It looks like a figurehead on a boat. Yeah, it's very cool, yeah, but I mean now it just haunts here instead of haunting wherever it previously was. I love it. It's so creepy.
Speaker 1:It's like a feature of our apartment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I had to cover the face because it was too soulless. You put your like yuletide mask on it. It's the best I got. That's actually the mask of when I played the Green man in my fifth grade musical production of. I think it was just called the Green man.
Speaker 1:Wow, I would love to see that musical. I didn't know. Pan had his own musical. Yep, wow, very cool. So Ferris wheels are another iconic amusement park ride, which started as pleasure wheels or hand cranked wheels dating back to Bulgaria in the mid 1500s, actually have a social media video with photos and illustrations that I'm going to post. So if you don't follow me, follow me and you'll see some actual visual examples of this. The Ferris wheel as we know it today was invented by George Washington Gale Ferris Jr for the world's Colombian exposition in Chicago in 1893. So the first world's Ferris in Chicago. But there's evidence that similar, if not smaller, versions existed long before Mr Ferris.
Speaker 2:Of course, Did you know? Before it was called a Ferris wheel, it was called a pleasure wheel.
Speaker 1:Mr Ferris was actually inspired by a man named William Somers who installed giant wheels, called roundabouts, across Asbury Park, coney Island and Atlantic City in 1892. And again, if you go to like the New York public library's digital archives you can search for pictures of roundabouts and it's very cold to see. So they were called roundabouts before Mr Ferris came in and kind of stole the team project and took credit for it.
Speaker 2:But before that it was called a pleasure wheel.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:And I learned about that from one of your little videos.
Speaker 1:From my video that you have a sneak peek of.
Speaker 2:I got a sneak peek. Yeah, it's not yet live. Actually, I didn't watch it, it just you just kept yelling, did you know I?
Speaker 1:think it's so fascinating. You told, like everybody.
Speaker 2:You told that little factoid like three times that week. The thing is, every time we were with a new group of people.
Speaker 1:It's interesting, why not share it?
Speaker 2:I loved your enthusiasm. That's my mission.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Mechanical rides started to come onto the scene in the mid to late 1800s with the invention of new steam power technology, which sort of takes us to present day. Wikipedia has a list by state of abandoned amusement parks in the United States with hundreds of entries. Because they are so prominent. Let's talk about why. There's a box article written by Arthur Levine that I'm going to rely on quite a bit for the next few minutes here, because it really dives into the politics of amusement parks in the United States.
Speaker 1:Levine talks about how parks are largely a reflection of society, a utopian manifestation of the American dream, and they provide an outlet for letting loose, screaming your lungs out and dressing up as your favorite character. Quote. What the Disney company and other park operators took away from the Colombian exposition and early iterations of amusement areas is that people enjoy marveling at and experiencing innovation, joining together with others whom they might not otherwise encounter, letting loose and disregarding the social conventions of the day and engaging in something bigger than themselves in their everyday lives. They also learned that people love the physical sensations of mechanical rides. Visitors couldn't get enough of the Chicago fair's Ice Railway, but they especially went bonkers for George Washington Gale Ferris' wheel End quote.
Speaker 2:You said it was an ice railway.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I assume it was like tobogganing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 2:It just reminded me. So I grew up in a town that has an amusement park, like George, new York has what was, I guess it's still known as the Great Escape, but it used to be an independently run theme park, yeah, but then when the owner passed away, it got sold to Six Flags. You know, obviously that had a bigger influx and made the park a bigger scale.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But with that also come the corporate shittiness. Where previously there was just every year was one new attraction every single year. Sometimes it was big, sometimes it was small, but they always were, just like you know, pushing forward Something.
Speaker 1:Charming.
Speaker 2:Yeah and like yeah, opening day was always such a big deal about what rides you would go all the time to opening day. I don't think we did, because you know it's too crazy when your locals like just fuck it, you're just going to wait until like mid-season.
Speaker 1:Right, and then just go on a.
Speaker 2:Thursday One year they added something called the Alpine Bobsled. Okay, so this I don't remember what year the Alpine bobsled was introduced theme park. Mm-hmm but it's definitely post the Lake Placid winter Olympics. So and even Possibly post the cool runnings movie Sure.
Speaker 1:So it's a hot ticket item.
Speaker 2:Yes, I mean, I didn't grow up that far from Lake Placid, so you know it's. It's in people's minds of the bobsled, sure, and so this ride was Emulating a bobsled, but without any ice or snow or anything. So it's like this giant Half-tube and you would get in this thing that still lose sort of, but like it seated like 12 people.
Speaker 2:Oh shit, not in a row, but like, like a roller coaster you know, like four people abreast multiple rows, yeah so, even more than 12 actually, and I think about it. But and then it, and then it would just like go down this thing and it had wheels, so just still, but just you know, gravity would keep it in the track until it didn't yeah. Because what they didn't factor in was rain makes things slippery.
Speaker 1:Oh god. So nobody got hurt, but you know, surprising, yeah, it flew off the tracks.
Speaker 2:It. I think it because they always do test runs. Sure, one time I'm I Think, I think this is how it happened because many years ago, one time, just like during like the warm-up run, it had rained the night before and the thing derailed and it's like, wow, that's weird. But then it happened again, like on another date, and they're like, okay, so this is every time. The track is the littlest bit wet, people could die. So obviously this was not the world's safest attraction, especially when you know it's outdoors. So you know rain happens.
Speaker 1:It happens.
Speaker 2:Especially in theme parks. You know you're out there having a great day and it rains, because that's life, and then you die.
Speaker 1:And then you go, they go right off the tracks and then you go right off the tracks, yeah, that's, I'm glad they caught it. Not, they don't always catch it before, so that's good. I will say, alan, and I will speak for myself, surprisingly perhaps to some, and not in a fanatical way, but I am a theme park person in that I enjoy Rides a lot. I used to be really scared of them, but I've sort of had a come to Jesus moment with them. Come to Jesus, yeah, I really sort of changed my tune. If you will, what does?
Speaker 2:that mean.
Speaker 1:I love them now.
Speaker 2:I think they're what does the term come to Jesus mean?
Speaker 1:It means face face up, like here we go.
Speaker 2:It's like you sat down with Jesus and he showed you the way he said listen lady listen here, bitch.
Speaker 1:You're making a mistake. You're not living life to the fullest. But obviously there are some risks associated with theme parks, but we've been to Disney a few times. The most fun I've ever had in my entire life Maybe is when we went to the Great Escape in Alan's hometown and it was closed. It was like an evening gala event and we got to just ride every ride without lines.
Speaker 2:That was Incredibly fun eventually they just closed the Alpine, bobsled completely and then it just became this Very abandoned looking thing and this not abandoned theme park tis how it goes, a recurring theme for today. It's a bummer because it was right next to my favorite, the only water slide that I really liked. I never liked water slides at all.
Speaker 1:That tracks.
Speaker 2:I always got stuck in them yeah.
Speaker 1:Gangly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, I mean, yeah, it's, it's physics, right, I'm shaped like a clog.
Speaker 1:You're shaped like a clog.
Speaker 2:I'm shaped like a hair clog.
Speaker 1:You're not. You're shaped like a plunger handle.
Speaker 2:Okay, anyways, I mean, yeah, it's physics right, but anyways, this was a completely black enclosed water slide, so there was no light when you went in, which is kind of cool. You're basically going through like sewer pipes. They call it the black cobra because, you know, look like a black Snake cobra, cool, and it was a lot of fun. And you didn't go on. You got a, you got a little raft.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm to go down it, yeah, but it's still like by yourself. It's a very small rap, but that eventually closed as well for safety concerns.
Speaker 1:Wow To for over to at the Great Escape.
Speaker 2:Yep, but the pirate ship's still there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we went on it, I loved it.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry I've digressed far too much talking about the Great Escape. I assume it is not on your list of haunted amusement parks correct, but I do want to say that.
Speaker 1:So what we were talking about before, right, was that parks kind of came to be because it was very obvious that Americans in them. You know, parks are global, it's not specific to America, but especially in America folks needed, like this Escape, right, this distraction from life, this need to scream at the top of your lungs and have fun and blah, blah, blah. And we see a lot of that with like a Disney of today. Right, disney's got a handle on all that.
Speaker 2:No, it's actually really interesting because that was a big talking point in the 1987 funland.
Speaker 1:That was what was called fun land right on land.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that was one of the movies that we watched for preparation of this, but it's Like there's so much discussion about like why theme parks, like why are they going to all this trouble to make the park into what it is? Yeah, it's not a very good horror film, but it is very good about just discussing park management.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's, it's. I described it as the shin Godzilla of amusement park horror films because let me dare me finish. Because it is all about the bureaucracy of running a park, in the same way that shin Godzilla shows bureaucracy and how laughable it can be sometimes and everyone gets in their own way. Anyway, I digress.
Speaker 2:I will agree to disagree.
Speaker 1:That's fine. So, in addition to Disney, coney Island in Brooklyn, new York was actually an incredibly influential amusement park when examining the history of these Attractions, mainly because of its importance to the immigrant population in New York City. Quoting again from Levine quote located nine miles from Manhattan but seemingly a world away and about 10 degrees cooler, city dwellers were already drawn to the natural beauty of the remote barrier Island. They really began coming in droves once horse-drawn trolleys, steam railroads, steamboats and the subway established service in the later part of the 1800s. In the early 1900s, the millions of immigrants who poured into New York at the turn of the century visited Coney Island, ran many of its businesses and Invented and manufactured the rides that lined its boardwalk. And quote.
Speaker 2:So, like most things in America, it was made by immigrants there you go from 1880 until World War II.
Speaker 1:Coney Island was the largest amusement park in the country. Really, not only that, it was actually the one of the parks in Coney Island was the first To accept tickets like for entry, making it the first like enclosed amusement park ever.
Speaker 2:Wow, it's so small now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there was. It's still here. Let's talk about that, because that's a great point. Coney Island itself is a peninsula based neighborhood in Brooklyn for anyone not familiar. At its peak, the millions of annual visitors had the choice of three different parks that were located here, including Luna Park, dreamland and steeplechase Park for about a 10-year period. Sea lion park, which I talked about earlier, was also located in the area, which was the first park to charge admittance fees. This was replaced by Luna Park in 1903. We can also thank Coney Island for the first roller coaster as we know them today. In June of 1884, the switchback railway was built. The ride was invented by Lamarcus a Thompson. It was a 600 foot track with a car powered by gravity that ran about six miles an hour.
Speaker 1:Wow yeah very slow by today's standards. They would simply remove the car and place it back at the beginning for the next group of riders. Wait what there was no like mechanical system to it, so they would just take the car off the track and roll it to the beginning of it didn't loop right. Wow, it's an oversight or maybe it looped, I don't know, but they would have to sort of reset it manually because there was no gears or like any kind of mechanics to it. It was just a gravity Coaster.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but that still means you need to lift it high enough to get it back on track. Yeah, well, I am fuzzy on the logistics of it, but Manual reset it'd be insane for it to just go straight and then then to carry it all the way back.
Speaker 1:But see if I can find a picture but also I don't know.
Speaker 2:We're looking through the lens of history. We're also looking through the lens of better ideas throughout history.
Speaker 1:So I just found a bunch of pictures and a diagram. I definitely encourage you to check it out. But what's happening is that there's two railways on each side and they crisscross, and so when the car sort of returns on one end, there's like a way to lift it up, like with pulleys, to the top of the course.
Speaker 2:So looking at the schematics here yeah the so picture two towers and these hobbits, no, um, these two towers that are about two football fields distance from each other. Yeah, both of them have a track that leads from the top of one tower to the bottom of the other. Guests, would, you know, climb some stairs into the top of a tower, getting a car and then ride it all the way down to the bottom of the other, and then there'd be some kind of hoist that would bring the car up the tower to then ride down the other track and reset. Uh, so yeah, I think it's the the dual track system that makes this pretty smart.
Speaker 1:It's again. I'm just so enamored with looking at pictures of old-timey people on roller coasters with their big hats and topcoats.
Speaker 2:I love it.
Speaker 1:It's so sorry there's no such thing as a topcoat Sure.
Speaker 2:Petty. I know there's a petticoat and a top hat. I think I just combined the two.
Speaker 1:I've ridden on both the steeple chase at Coney Island, which requires you to hang on for dear life, and even now it feels very unsafe. But back in the day you Literally had to hold on with no harness at all. And so when, like a guy and his girlfriend and this is like the example that they always say, we're on it like he would have Physically hold her onto the ride, right, because she's too frail to hold herself exactly I've also.
Speaker 1:The Cyclone, which is in Coney Island, is one of my favorite roller coasters of all time.
Speaker 2:It's it's a rickety mess. Joyful, it's just so joyful. It is a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:Also not really a ride related, but there was an elephant shaped hotel in Coney Island called the Elephantine Colossus, which check out Lunatics Project on Instagram, because I have some pictures coming for you, don't worry.
Speaker 2:You photograph this yourself.
Speaker 1:Exactly, coney Island is also famous for its side shows, but famously, these side shows were also the home of the invention of incubators for premature babies.
Speaker 2:Wait what.
Speaker 1:Quoting from the Mental Floss article, quote in 1903, a man named Dr Martin Coney, which spelled differently than Coney Island, developed a public exhibit in Coney Island that drew crowds with a sign saying live babies and incubators. The setup involved rows of premature or weak babies in see-through glass cases, tended by a team of doctors and nurses. Viewers were charged admission that's crazy, but the parents didn't have to pay for their kids to receive care in the infantorium. Coney also put on a similar showing at the 1933-34 Chicago World's Fair. After that, the windy city became the first city in the country to adopt a comprehensive health policy for premature babies. End quote.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So what year was this Approximately?
Speaker 1:The incubator 1903.
Speaker 2:Okay, so before 1903, if your baby was premature, you just kind of fucked.
Speaker 1:I don't know exactly the health history of it, but there was no incubators. This man invented them and sort of introduced it to the world as a sideshow act at Coney Island.
Speaker 2:Wow, can you imagine? Obviously this guy is pretty gifted in medical science and his gut reaction is not to be like this should be at hospitals. You know what babies are? Fucking weird.
Speaker 1:No, I think here. I think that there's a difference in the way we think about this, in the way they thought about it at the time. So let me jump in. It wasn't a freak show, it was a sideshow, but also it was think about the world's fair.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry. What is the difference between a freak show and a sideshow?
Speaker 1:A freak show is, more historically, people with anatomical differences, I would say, or like a woman covered in tattoos, something like that. Sideshows could be anything. Sideshows were marvels, you know, pay five cents and look at this. That kind of a thing.
Speaker 2:Right, the boy who looks like a bat.
Speaker 1:No, but that's a freak show.
Speaker 2:The bearded lady.
Speaker 1:Here. Let me say this the thing that I think is missing from your brain is like when amusement parks actually came to be, think about the world's fair right. It was more a reflection of the greatness of society. They were like an incubator for invention and entrepreneurship, like Epcot is kind of like maybe encapsulates that Come see the world of tomorrow.
Speaker 1:Right. So when you're thinking about this kind of gray area, especially around the turn of the century between amusement parks and things like the world's fair, it was thought of as the homeland for innovation. Roller coasters were brand new. It was an innovation. So this new medical science wasn't like it was at a freak show. It was at this place where people thought this great stuff came and the newest technology came, which is still kind of how we think of amusement parks to some degree, but not, of course, for medical advancement.
Speaker 2:I guess we're still only a matter of decades out from the traveling medicine man peddling his wares. I can't remember what the movie was, but there was the guy that travels around from town to town sharing the wonders of refrigeration, because it blows people's mind not having to use ice in order to make something cold and so. But yeah, they would just travel from town to town showing this thing off.
Speaker 1:That's exactly, yes, exactly. So something like refrigeration could have been featured at a Conan Allen booth for sure, but it's like now. If somebody was like I have this new medical advancement technology for babies. They're not going to display it at Six Flags. It's a totally different thing, but at the time it was like exactly what people did Rounding out this sort of historic deep dive here, quoting again from Levine quote screaming was not the only inhibition, that amusement rides shattered by choice or, more often, by design. New York City immigrants largely kept themselves in their own tenement neighborhoods and conformed to the morals of the old country, but not at Coney Island. End quote.
Speaker 2:I do think that at some point we should do a deep dive into just the haunted history of Coney Island. I hope that's not everything we have already on this episode.
Speaker 1:I could spend a week on Coney Island. There's so much to say, that'd be fun. I do want to round us out with this note, though. Round us out of this sort of history portion here, again quoting from Levine quote. Of course parks have not always been shared by all Americans. The reality of racism and the denial of civil rights long clashed with parks carefully crafted fantasy that owners of parks such as Belle Island, detroit, adora Park in Ohio, glen Echo Park in Maryland and others prohibited black patrons as late as the 1960s. Some of them were sites of protests, riots and clashes. Federal courts intervened and, under order, parks eventually complied and opened to people of color. End quote. So that, I'm hoping, is a somewhat comprehensive overview of the history of theme parks in the United States.
Speaker 2:I'd say well, abby, when do they get haunted?
Speaker 1:So when they go untouched, as we all do. So there's two different pathways that we could take here, right, when we talk about modern theme parks and how they intersect with horror, and I'm going to very clearly take one route and not the other. Sadly, theme park rides can malfunction, as Alan said right, either due to human or mechanical error, but I'm not going to dwell on theme park accidents unless they're part of the urban legends that we're going to discuss, because I know that they're plentiful, but they're tragic, and some of them are recent and just out of respect for people and families.
Speaker 2:We'll keep those to other podcasts.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're going to. We're going to talk a little bit more about urban legends. For the most part, there's a few things we'll mention, but we're not going to dwell. Lake Shawnee Amusement Park is an abandoned park located in Princeton, west Virginia. It first opened in 1926 and eventually closed in 1988. Lake Shawnee is particularly rife with urban legends and local lore. I do want to give a quick content warning on this story, because it does talk about the, the murder of Native Americans in the 1700s. In 1926, lake Shawnee opened its doors and offered visitors a Ferris wheel, swimming pool, racetrack, dance hall and a swing ride.
Speaker 2:A swing ride. You say Like the flying swings. I do like the flying trapeze swing.
Speaker 1:What's the flying trapeze swing?
Speaker 2:It's just the name of the ride.
Speaker 1:You know that ride the Gravitron.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we used to. I mean, it goes in a million names. I knew it as the rotor. But yeah, it's just. You go to the walls and the floor drops out. Yeah, I think you just get. Do we get? I always forget, is it centripetal force or centrifugal force? Centrifugal there you go.
Speaker 1:Never heard of that word before.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:Okay, so centripetal force is going towards the center, towards the axis that's spinning, and centrifugal force is going from the center point outwards.
Speaker 1:I understand the more you know. So back to Lake Shawnee here. So coal mining was a big industry in the Lake Shawnee area and families of miners enjoyed bringing their children here. But the park had a hard time maintaining momentum and around 1966, 1967, the park closed. Now I found some conflicting reports as to why. One source said the park did not pass a health inspection and another said that two children were killed on a ride, and of course both could be true. In 1987, it reopened for less than a year before closing again due to increased insurance rates. After it closed its doors, the owner tried to find other uses for the land and brought on a crew to create a roadway for motorists. The crew uncovered Native American artifacts and eventually unearthed 13 Native American skeletons.
Speaker 2:Where was this? In the US? Again West Virginia. Huh, it's just wild Like you can bury a body in the woods and it's like gone in. You know a matter of decades. From experience, From decay, you know you bury somebody in the desert and they're mummified, they're there forever. The fact that a body.
Speaker 1:But you're saying if you bury a body in the woods, it disappears.
Speaker 2:Eventually even the bones decay yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't think in a matter of decades.
Speaker 2:According to Google, it takes about 20 years for an untreated body to completely decompose. So you know that means bones and all no trace, nothing.
Speaker 1:Fascinating. I would have never thought that.
Speaker 2:Well, right, because you know we find bodies in the desert that are thousands of years old, but it's just so arid that you know there's no like acid in the soil or water to do or bog bodies. Yes, why is the? I forget.
Speaker 1:Obviously there's something, there's a mineral in it that preserves them. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:Because, again, it just kills the bacteria. If there's no bacteria to break these things down, as long as, like insects and everything else, then yeah, the body's going to stick around. Otherwise, 20 years Interesting. So if you murder someone 20 years later, it's got free.
Speaker 1:Though the story goes back even further. In 1783, native Americans killed three of the 13 clay children, children of colonizers settling in the area, and, in order to seek revenge, the father and several local men killed multiple indigenous people who they suspected to have been involved. This was well documented and is known as the Clover Bottom Massacre. You can piece together the legends of cursed land that follow this property for years to come, only solidified further with the discovery of skeletons on the land. Lake Shawnee has been featured on many paranormal investigation shows and is well documented by visitors. The park is currently visit by appointment only and sometimes opens for paranormal tours. Almost every list of haunted or abandoned amusement parks starts with Nara, dreamland in Japan.
Speaker 2:Nara Dreamland.
Speaker 1:Nara Dreamland.
Speaker 2:Is this on Nara Island?
Speaker 1:It is in Nara, but Nara is not an island.
Speaker 2:I was making an educated guess. Clearly my education was flawed.
Speaker 1:The park was constructed in 1961 and modeled after the original Disneyland in California. There are even copied rides and sections from the original Disney. It was a huge success and at its peak hosted 2 million visitors a year. The man behind Nara Dreamland was directly influenced by Disney and struck a deal with the company but at a point grew frustrated with the licensing fee that Disney was collecting. So after this, nara Dreamland shifted to making its own rides and mascots to avoid the payment of the fee. But it's kind of like everyone marvels at it as a really dystopian example of an abandoned amusement park, because when you go in it's like literally, you know a verbatim, like a recreation of Disneyland, but it's abandoned.
Speaker 2:All like decayed and shit.
Speaker 1:Right, like all the welcome stuff, everything that you would see in California today actively, but it's like a wasteland. That's cool, yeah. In 1983, disneyland Tokyo opened in Japan and it completely stole all of the attention away from Nara Dreamland. A supermarket chain actually purchased the park in 1993, but without any major improvements. It remained on the decline, especially after Universal opened a park nearby in 2001. It officially closed its doors in 2006.
Speaker 2:That's not that long ago.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:So it might still be there decaying.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it is. I think it's rare. Here's the thing it is fairly rare. I found in my research it does happen, for the reason why abandoned amusement parks linger for so long is because of the cost of removing these huge, massive rides and infrastructure that's built Like. In a lot of cases it's easier and cheaper to leave it versus knocking it down because it's so expensive. And if you're bankrupt because you're running this thing, then there's no buyers because nothing is safe. You know it's like you really have to just want that land really badly.
Speaker 2:Man, do you think you could I mean you think you could sell it for a scrap? It's a lot of metal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know the. You know we'd have to talk to an expert.
Speaker 2:My father has scrapped many a ride.
Speaker 1:I'm sure he has. Also in Japan was Kijonuma Leisureland, which has a fascinating legend attached to it.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:A real haunted amusement park, if you will.
Speaker 2:How haunted are you talking Real?
Speaker 1:haunted. I'm going to quote from an Askcom article by Allison Chen.
Speaker 2:Previously known as Ask Jeeves.
Speaker 1:Is it? I think it's different.
Speaker 2:Askcom yeah, it's the same company.
Speaker 1:Interesting. Well, Allison Chen, I will say she does a great job at providing the creepy back stories associated with a lot of these amusement parks, so she did a great job collecting the urban legends. If you will, so I'm going to quote from her Quote Kijonuma Leisureland was home to all the typical amusement park rides, but it also housed something darker. Japanese legend says that a woman gave birth to a snake on the grounds. The snake baby then escaped into the water.
Speaker 2:Baby.
Speaker 1:Constantly crying for her mother and slowly driving her mad. The woman committed suicide by drowning herself in the lake. Some explorers say their cries can be heard when visiting the park grounds at night. Visitation remained high until 2000, and the park finally closed. Tourists can now wander the grounds and watch nature, consume the slowly resting Ferris wheel and other attractions. End quote. I thought I wanted to include that one because it feels like it has the most defined legend attached to it, the most specific.
Speaker 2:I thought you were going to say the most plausible. I'm like oh, she's giving birth to snakes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like I'm partially curious if anybody is local to that area knows more like why birth to snakes? How did it come to be?
Speaker 2:So there I was birth in a snake.
Speaker 1:Oh, terrible. Thanks, Al. It's claimed that disembodied laughter of children can still be heard at the abandoned Six Flags New Orleans. Six Flags. New Orleans was first called Jazzland when it opened in 2000. And I believe, I am pretty sure, that it was actually the largest Six Flags to have ever been made.
Speaker 2:Previously Jazzland.
Speaker 1:Previously Jazzland.
Speaker 2:I want to go to Jazzland. Well, you can't.
Speaker 1:Three years later, after an infusion of money from Six Flags, the park reopened in 2003 with the Six Flags name. After Katrina hit in 2005, the park closed and never reopened and you can actually, if you Google this, see images which, like for weeks after I think was the case of the park totally flooded Like six feet of water, like the whole thing is. It looks just like an amusement park peeking up from the water. It's crazy.
Speaker 2:I mean, that was so much in New Orleans.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know, but it's. I think it's just that you know the scale of a roller coaster and so when you see the water coming up that high on something that massive, it puts it into a perspective for you.
Speaker 2:Oh, I mean floods in general. Anytime you see them water where it's not supposed to be, it's just so unsettling.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Anytime you see something submerged in water that's not supposed to be submerged in water, it can trigger a fear response in people, which is known as submicophobia.
Speaker 1:That Alan has Also obviously like. A big part of this is the visual of these abandoned parks, right? So I do have an article on lunaticsprojectcom. I just pick out five of them and kind of show some examples. But it's a cool, you know. It's kind of the missing piece of this episode because you want to see these like crazy dystopian universes of these parks. So back to Six Flags, new Orleans. Several rides were removed and taken to other parks, but that was kind of all they could salvage. Since its closure, the space has been used as a filming location, notably for Percy Jackson, sea of Monsters, jurassic World, dawn of the Planet of the Apes and Deepwater Horizon. We also have to pause because I want to talk a little bit very briefly about Six Flags in general. Recently I found out for the first time what Flags the Six Flags brand name is actually referring to.
Speaker 2:Oh do tell.
Speaker 1:And those are the flags of the different quote unquote nations that have governed Texas, where the company first began, in 1957. So, alan, do you know which flags those are?
Speaker 2:So there's the US government. Correct, the Confederate government.
Speaker 1:Boo yes, correct.
Speaker 2:That's all I got.
Speaker 1:The Republic of Texas, spain, france and Mexico, but yikes, anyway, I just thought I would leave that here. We can't talk about amusement parks without talking about Dottie Park in Belgium.
Speaker 2:I was waiting for Dottie Park in Belgium. Of course we can't Thanks for keeping me humble Alan.
Speaker 1:The now defunct park started as a playground at a church in 1950, specifically designed for the children of pilgrims visiting the nearby Basilica, so you can file this one under religious amusement parks. There'll be another one later. Over the next 30 years it morphed into an amusement park with full blown rides offering entertainment for visiting tourists. At its peak it welcomed about 1 million visitors a year. So again, it's really capitalizing on the fact that because of this basilica, there's an influx of pilgrims, and oh, we can turn that into entertainment, right, of course we can. It's also held the record for Europe's longest monkey bridge for a period of time.
Speaker 2:No way I thought the world's largest monkey bridge was in South America.
Speaker 1:Yes, it only briefly held the title, not forever. Sadly, the rides did not get the maintenance they needed to stay safe and in 2000, a boy lost his arm on the Nautic Jet Ride, which caused the park to close for quote unquote renovations. Okay, what is the Nautic?
Speaker 2:Jet Ride.
Speaker 1:It's sort of like a water slide with a car. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2:I highly recommend everyone Google Nautic Jet Ride because it's freaking wild. So it's like this track that a boat flies down and then eventually hits water and then you know, I assume just the momentum carries it across the water, but there are pictures of people just flying. It's amazing. The kid only lost his arm.
Speaker 1:A miracle, they say, the park never reopened and finally, in 2017, it was demolished. So this is one of those examples of parks that were totally demolished.
Speaker 2:There's instructions on how to build one at home. What do you need? There's whole schematic. So there's quite a bit involved, and this one does not look safe at all. There's nothing that even keeps you on the track. Gravity, it's a boat that's just like an upside down horseshoe. It's like a pontoon boat.
Speaker 1:Have you seen those like mountain coasters that are like a single rail? It's like the same sort of thing to me, which I'm still like. How do they stay on it? Because it feels like they would just fly off.
Speaker 2:A mountain coaster being like when you go down on wheels and there's like a single rail in the middle holding you on no, no, wheels no wheels yeah. Here it's like a sled thing and you have a brake.
Speaker 1:Yeah, with a brake yeah.
Speaker 2:I've done the thing with the brake.
Speaker 1:How does it stay?
Speaker 2:on. I mean it's because it's got the well the rail.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but how is it attached to the rail? It's just a single rail, it's not a double rail.
Speaker 2:Right, but it's not on top of the. I'm assuming here. Let me show you it's got that. It's like the sides of the rail are indented kind of like an I-beam and the wheels are both above and below. So it's you have wheels that are kind of like latching onto this rail in the middle, like a, like a clamp, almost. So like you know how a mono rail works.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like that.
Speaker 1:Okay, interesting.
Speaker 2:If a mono rail, operated like a normal railroad track, does of just giant wheels on top, it would just fall off.
Speaker 1:Exactly my concern, alan. A German theme park called Spree Park in Berlin is also worth mentioning. The park is interesting because of the nefarious activities of the owner. It was built in East Berlin in 1969 and at its peak would host about a million visitors a year. It closed in 89 and reopened in 91 with the new owner, norbert Witt. The park was open for about 11 years before police discovered the Witt had used pieces of the rides to smuggle cocaine when they were shipped from Peru to Europe. Yeah, but everyone does that. In 2014, the park was burned in an act of arson. Today it's an abandoned area with a few remaining relics.
Speaker 1:I also have to mention Pripyat Amusement Park in Ukraine, which was a sparkling new park in 1986. Unfortunately, no one ever rode a ride because the Chernobyl disaster happened less than a week before opening day. Oh geez. There was a rumor that the owners tried to open the park as a distraction, but an evacuation order put an end to that. That'll do it. You can still take tours to this day and there's a lot of pictures online of people who have kind of urban explored it if you will, but due to the radiation levels it is not encouraged.
Speaker 2:This amusement park is a level in Call of Duty. There you go.
Speaker 1:You can go there, I mean virtually, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, virtually. Yeah, I remember that because it's like this Ferris wheel, like with all this, like tall grass growing, yeah, exactly. There's, you know, chernobyl nearby.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's one of the most haunting, I would say, in terms of imagery. If you, if you Google it.
Speaker 2:Oh right, because it's like completely been retaken by the wild.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, and it's also just sort of haunting because you know that people who are there are risking their own health to take these pictures Depends. But yes, yeah it's. It's certainly the most solemn, I would say, of amusement parks.
Speaker 2:Hmm.
Speaker 1:Though I am always afraid of Disney, we're going to mention the rumors of why Disney's River Country closed. River Country was Disney's first amusement park.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry, why are you always?
Speaker 1:afraid of Disney because they're like the NFL, you know. They're like the Marines of companies like they're gonna slap us with like a the NFL.
Speaker 2:Yeah is a villain in your mind.
Speaker 1:And it felt. Films is one of the most intense media companies that's Existed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the pioneer of almost every camera technology.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm not gonna fuck with either of them. River Country was Disney's first amusement park, and it opened in 1976 and closed in 2001. It was described as an old-fashioned swimming hole. Quoting from Wikipedia. Quote there were several deaths that took place at River Country. The first was an 11 year old boy who contracted amoeboic meningo encephalitis, an amoeboic infection of the brain. He got this from the water. In 1980. Park officials noted that similar amoeboic infections Also occurred relatively frequently elsewhere and said it was an inherent problem with freshwater lakes and warm weather and thus could not be Blamed on the park's water system. Three other children had died in similarly questionable Situations in Florida in the same month. The two other deaths at the park were from drowning in 1982.
Speaker 1:In 1989, and quote after it closed. It spurred rumors. This is a prime example of local urban legends that spiral out of control. There was much talk of the quote brain-eating virus that killed children here. Typhoon lagoon opened in 1989 and Blizzard Beach in 1995. Their success was far greater than River Country, which closed in 2001. Quoting again from Wikipedia, quote River Country is one of only two Disney parks to permanently close, along with Discovery Island, which is situated parallel to the water park. There are many similarities between the two closures and that both closed permanently within two years of each other, and we're both abandoned and never mentioned by Disney, and quote one truly horrifying failure of a park was Warner Brothers Jungle habitat in New Jersey. Oh yeah, do you know about this? No, that sounds fun. I think you're gonna like it. The premise was an open concept zoo, sort of like an animal kingdom.
Speaker 2:Oh and OCC.
Speaker 1:The park housed over 1500 wild and exotic animals, but, as you might expect, park was soon hit with a few hardships. Once, a man and woman were attacked by animals.
Speaker 2:What kind of animals?
Speaker 1:angry ones. Not only that, but animals escaped into West Milford, new Jersey, the neighboring town, and a tuberculosis outbreak among the animals meant that several of them had to be put down, sadly.
Speaker 2:Animals can get tuberculosis.
Speaker 1:I know that was shocking to me too.
Speaker 2:Wow, they should bring them to With Waverly Hills. What's the island Roosevelt?
Speaker 1:Island.
Speaker 2:Roosevelt Island put it, shove it full of elephants.
Speaker 1:The land is now a public park for local residents, so happy ending. Okay, just a few more here. I want to talk about Holy Land, usa, which was located in Waterbury, connecticut, of course it was which is my father's hometown. So prepare for some personal stories.
Speaker 2:So there I was, charging the Holy Land.
Speaker 1:Holy Land was an 18 acre theme park inspired by the biblical Holy Land, bethlehem and Jerusalem. It opened in 1955 and closed in 1984, but opened again in 2014. And I have driven by this place, allen, like hundreds of times. So have you actually, and I did not know that the big cross on the hill Was a theme. Was this park? I don't know if it was the. I guess it's a theme park more than an amusement park.
Speaker 2:What's the difference?
Speaker 1:Well, just that there's no rides. I'm gonna talk about what it is. This is it's more of like a ticketed situation a ticketed situation. Intuition yeah like speeding like you buy a ticket and you go in and you walk around and it's filled with little tiny Like it's a little tiny replica town of like a side show, jerusalem, kind of there's there, there's no rides.
Speaker 2:No none None.
Speaker 1:But when you talk about like the creepiest amusement parks, like all of these lists online, it's always there the Holy Land, holy Land.
Speaker 2:okay, it's not the just holy land just holy land.
Speaker 1:It also has religious landmark status and my dad said that he thinks it kind of popped up initially because of some Quote-unquote miracle that was performed nearby.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Quoting from Wikipedia, quote among the original attractions at the site we're recreation of the Garden of Eden, a diorama depicting Daniel in the lion's den.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry there's a recreation of the Garden of Eden. Yeah, one to one.
Speaker 1:No, I don't think one to one.
Speaker 2:And various recreations of the life and ministry of Jesus was there two of every animal, or is that just the arc that's just the arc.
Speaker 1:The centerpiece of the site was a 56 foot cross and an illuminated sign that read Holy Land USA. During its peak years in the 1960s and 70s, holy Land USA attracted upwards of 40,000 visitors annually. Greco closed Holy Land USA in 1984 with plans to improve and expand the site, but the work was left unfinished when Greco died in 1986. The property was left to the religious sisters of Philippi. And quote and just a quick content warning here I'm gonna talk about sexual assault if you want to skip ahead a second. But on July 15th 2010, 16 year old Chloe Otman was tragically raped and murdered at the site of the cross. The killer was caught in a serving 55 years in prison.
Speaker 1:Despite this tragedy, the park was able to come back to life in 2014. If you look up photos, it's truly a bizarre concept, a mini version of Jerusalem, and if you want to visit, the site has an official website with more information and an updated cross. It seems like you might need to sort of book a tour. Nowadays it's it might not just be open, you know, all the time. Also, my dad, who has raised Catholic and has visited many times as a kid and teen I think he quoted me hundreds of times, told me about a nearby spot called Little Village in the woods of Middlebury, next to Waterbury.
Speaker 2:Is this where he goes running and finds the weird people?
Speaker 1:That's a different story. Oddly enough, it's officially called Little People's Village, and it's described as a complex of crumbling, doll-sized houses next to the ruins of a stone house, and it certainly has a host of urban legends tied to it. One story goes that a woman living in the stone house over a century ago Started to see fairies in the woods and thus created a village for them. There's also darker versions of this urban legend, including a man who started to hear voices demanding that they build this village for them, and then slowly continued to lose his mind until he took his life. One legend states that if you stay too long, the voices of little people will soon haunt your brain as well.
Speaker 2:Are they little voices?
Speaker 1:Little voices and there are like tiny, like fairy sized people. There's even a throne, allegedly carved for the king of the little people.
Speaker 2:What's it for King Oberon?
Speaker 1:Who's King Oberon?
Speaker 2:King of the fairies.
Speaker 1:What fairies the fairies in what world Of the Fae from Celtic folklore.
Speaker 2:Probably, but most notably from Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream.
Speaker 1:Okay, see, that is the question that I was asking. What from Shakespeare? Thank you.
Speaker 2:That's summer's night dream. That's where most people know him from, but he's from mythology.
Speaker 1:Okay, but the truth of all of it, sadly, alan, is that there was no fairies in the woods of Middlebury, connecticut. The truth is that little people village was once an attraction on a trolley line as part of the Lake Quasi Amusement Park. It was built in the early 1900s and was known as the fairy village. After the trolley went away, the village was no longer accessible outside of a hike in the woods and it fell into disrepair, where people like my dad would hike up there with his friends all the time and cause Chaos. I am sure the final park to mention near my hometown also has a dark past Rocky Point amusement park in Rhode Island.
Speaker 1:Rocky Point was famous for its dinner hall and over 25 other attractions. Quoting from Allison Chen, quote Shortly after the opening of the park, a five year old girl was murdered by her father after they finished their meal at the dining hall. He took her to the edge of the water and bludgeoned her to death with a rock. The gruesome murder didn't mar the park's reputation, however, and it stayed open for more than 150 years. The park finally closed in 1995 due to financial issues, but you can still go explore the grounds and quote.
Speaker 2:I have one final park is this one I've heard of it's hard to say Okay, what is it?
Speaker 1:It's one that I would like to go to and, in fact, I've put my name on a list.
Speaker 2:Huh, is it in the US.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Is it on the West Coast? No is it in Florida? No are there sea mammals there?
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:I have no idea then.
Speaker 1:Land of Oz. What so? Land of Oz is a strange one because, yeah, it's still semi-active, but also, like your, noble but also somewhat not, and Many people brought this up to me when I have to talk to my friends and such about this episode. It's been brought up several times. I thought it was worth mentioning. Land of Oz is a park based on the books by L Frank Baum. It's located in Beach Mountain, north Carolina. The park opened in 1970 and remained open for 10 years.
Speaker 1:Quoting from Wikipedia on Sunday, december 28th 1975, a fire was set to the Emerald City Amphitheater and Surrounded gift shops. Two buildings were destroyed, along with the park's offices, costumes, sound equipment and props. At the same time, many items were stolen from the parks museum, including Judy Garland's Dorothy dress, land of Oz, and so again, of course, the park had like original pieces from the film. Right, it was made up to look like the film land of Oz would be rebuilt and managed by a new company but never recouped. But it sounds like such an interesting park because it has, like the munchkin houses, the Yellowbrook Road, like the hot-air balloon, like there's all of these, like really iconic Tributes right to this.
Speaker 1:What I've seen the movie. I haven't read the books. But the other thing that I realized researching this is how Vast the world of the books are. It seems like there's whole pages online like pages and blogs and About, like the maps of the land of Oz, like outside of this park, like just based on the books, like the flags, the maps, like Not the movie from the books, and so I'm like, oh, I've never read these books.
Speaker 2:How many books are there?
Speaker 1:I'm not sure exactly, but I think it was somewhat of a series.
Speaker 2:I thought there was only two.
Speaker 1:Okay, maybe there's two.
Speaker 2:But I could be wrong.
Speaker 1:Yeah, worth that. Maybe. Maybe a wizard was, it was it was it was. It was really horrifying so we could do it an episode on that really. Oh yeah, like a ton of people died on set.
Speaker 2:Oh, oh, the production, yeah though.
Speaker 1:It's been closed since the 80s. The park reopens on Fridays, in June for Journey with Dorothy tours and in September for Autumn at Oz. When you visit their website, the park looks very active and full of life. It does not look abandoned and they have yet to announce the 2024 dates, but promised to do so soon. So I put my name in and we'll see. I see any of you there meet.
Speaker 1:There are so many not only amusement parks, but abandoned amusement parks, not just in the US but across the globe, and Like there's so many that I wanted to include, but this was would have been way too long. Like crinkly bottom park. There's a park in North Carolina called like the park of the hills or the park of the sky that you can only get to by hiking up now because there's no other way. Like it's just there's all these crazy, quirky Amusement parks and I think they sort of represent like these big, bright ideas and then, of course, they're incredibly Expensive to maintain and the second there's an accident or anything else that can really like fuck with insurance and all that. But it's sort of fascinating that essentially you have these like graveyards of what was right and it's very. It's such duality of like this Essence of what was pure joy and innovation To something that's totally overrun and abandoned and forced to sort of sit, because, again, what we've talked about like the, the money of totally demolishing something. So it's this bizarre little dystopian ecosystem.
Speaker 2:You always hear about theme parks closing down or getting run down or whatnot. You very rarely hear about them opening.
Speaker 1:I wonder what the well, I have an answer to that. Okay which is that I think when you and I were kids I mean you talked about it on this episode, but we both had a lot of local Theme parks that we would go to our local amusement parks, and then both of us, in both of our cases, there were six flags that opened up near us.
Speaker 1:Right and so you end up with Disney, universal, six flags like these big names with huge investment, and the mom and pop amusement parks can't compete with that, of course, you know. And not only are they safer in some ways, because they have the ability to be safer and bigger, they also have the shiny new thing that you talked about. Yeah, and so they buy out the little parks, they, you know, and so and I'm not knocking those things, you know, I think safety concerns are yeah, you want to clarify.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the shiny new thing was only from before six flags. Bought it. Got it after they did it, they just, they corporate shitified everything yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I had Six flags New England somewhat nearby when I was growing up and it's it was. I remember, you know, being in middle school but still in high school, but in awe, you know there was like a whole DC universe, you know, and like these Batman coasters and it's just like so cool. Even now I feel like it's so cool to go Superman, batman, like all of these Incredible, and when you walk around the park it plays the music and it just felt like the coolest thing you could do. You know, when you were that age.
Speaker 2:I actually Also have an abandoned amusement park In my hometown the water park one. I actually have an To abandon a museum parks in my hometown. Yeah so when Charlie would, he was the like local Super rich guy. Yeah that made the great escape. He turned it before it was. The great escape it was. Is it called my husband? Called Storytown or?
Speaker 1:I think it was Storytown.
Speaker 2:Is it a Storytown or Frontier Town? Oh yeah because there were. There's three things there's Storytown, frontier Town and Gaslight Village.
Speaker 2:Sounds like I'm there every day and One other that looked to be Frontier Town, but I think it was Gaslight Village actually, that was down the road and that couldn't compete and that got shut down. Yeah, but also In just the last few years I think it actually shut down During the pandemic, or maybe just before was Water Slide World, water Slide World, yeah, and so now it is. I wish we had gone before it shut down fully abandoned water park.
Speaker 2:That is just like full of decrepit mermaid statues yeah, it's weird. And just like when you see like a lazy river. That's just like full of trash and no water. It's weird.
Speaker 1:It is. It's also just like. So it's like that blue that you paint water slides and then, when there's no water in it, it's like this sad, the saddest blue.
Speaker 2:Because it starts to bleach in the sun. But not uniformly. Yeah, it's gross yeah.
Speaker 1:So of course, we have to talk about how all of this relates to horror. That is why we're here. I will say this there are a ton, an absolute metric ton, of horror movies that take place in amusement parks carnivals, that sort of thing.
Speaker 2:There is not that many.
Speaker 1:The majority of them are tragically terrible. It's a weird. I'm saying it right now, it's a phenomenon, I'm calling it out. There are five or six, less than 10, that I would say are good movies. The majority of them are bizarre.
Speaker 2:It was kind of odd going through some of this library.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And we pick a movie and it like, wow, this looks good. And then you start watching it and you're like this got made with $14.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which like I'm off four, but they were like llama, get in level.
Speaker 2:Don't call out llama, get in like that I'm going to.
Speaker 1:That's my personal opinion.
Speaker 2:But that's very. It's a very fair comparison, Thank you. I think a lot of these come from the fact that somebody has access to an amusement park and they decided to film a horror movie.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's one of those things where you can. You know it's a setting that lends itself well for whatever reasons. If it's an active amusement park, then things can pop out. There's places to hide, right there's. There's always like carnival scenes in horror movies and things like that.
Speaker 2:It's also this. I mean, yes, inherently, carnivals are can be very, very creepy. It's actually. I think you have to work hard to not make it creepy, Exactly. So it's just an easy it is. It's like amusement parks in general are like some super like happy go lucky place, right, you think of clowns.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, and that it's the same reason why, around Halloween, it's so easy to make these into like horror themed parks yeah.
Speaker 1:Because the you're you just need to reskin them a little just the littlest bit.
Speaker 2:You're just some, a few spider webs and one guy with a chainsaw, away from having a whole horror lens situation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly. So let's talk about some again. I have strong opinions. The first I want to talk about is not strictly an amusement park film, but it is a historically important film. So Freaks from 1932 is a film that I actually watched in film school and gets a lot of credit, I think, for it's a precode film. Gets a lot of credit because it's essentially about a group of freak show performers who find out that someone in the troop is going to get this big inheritance and sort of plot to kill them. But it gets a lot of credit because of the way that it depicts all these people who have physical disabilities in like a very empowering and positive light. So that's cool, yeah, so I think for 1932 that's great, and hats off to Freaks. Carnival of Souls from 1962. I know you think it's boring. I like it.
Speaker 2:I? I'm sorry, I just went in with high expectations. It bears a striking similarity and name to Tornado of Souls, which is my favorite mega death song, and this has very little tornado, no tornado, I would say zero. Actually, that makes more sense now that I said it out loud there is no tornado in the movie there's no tornado and, yeah, there's not even like any kind of soul vortex situation.
Speaker 1:No, it was made in 1962 on like a shoe string budget, very guerrilla style filmmaking. But the thing that I like about this and I actually have an article up on the website if you guys want to read it more in depth but the thing that I really like about this movie is that it gives you a definitive ending. There's an ending and the filmmakers make a choice, but it's a definitive ending that can be interpreted in many ways and I think that's cool.
Speaker 2:You like that.
Speaker 1:It's not open ended.
Speaker 2:Okay, because open ending is usually lazy filmmaking.
Speaker 1:No, it's not open ended. There's a definitive ending and there is a specific way that this should be interpreted. But given that there's still, like you know, a bunch of different theories out there, and I just think that's fun- I mean, it's a very famous movie, yeah, and it's been remade a couple of times. Yeah, as a few remakes under its belt. Carnival of Blood from 1970. The Fun House, 1981.
Speaker 2:We actually tried to watch Fun House, but we watched the wrong Fun House.
Speaker 1:We watched Fun Land.
Speaker 2:No, I did this on my own and I watched Fun House because like it seemed thematic, thematically correct for this episode, sure, but it was about a bunch. It was a modern movie about a bunch of like washed up reality stars and they went into like a big brother type competition and things get dark real fast.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, oh, I did watch this with you. Yeah, you're right, I did watch that too. I forgot about it. Something Wicked this Way Comes from 1983. Carnival of Souls Remake from 1998. There's a film that we watched, that we almost watched, called Dark Ride 2006, which again feels very low budget. Final Destination 3, from 2006 as well.
Speaker 2:Which I haven't seen. I've only seen the first two.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 2:I feel like Final Destination could be a fun series to do a thing on.
Speaker 1:Absolutely but. You want to be really panicked for a few months.
Speaker 2:Well, basing my knowledge off the first two, I'm just assuming there's like a roller coaster accident.
Speaker 1:That they survive, correct.
Speaker 2:And then the rest of it has nothing to do with the theme park.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it's, they have a premonition, it's, you know, it follows the same format.
Speaker 2:Right, kind of like the first one should be an airport movie, but it's not Right.
Speaker 1:A film called Amusement from 2008. 2009 gave us both Zombie Land and Adventure Land. I think Zombie Land stands out as one of the better amusement park films.
Speaker 2:Is Adventure Land a horror movie? I don't know, I don't think so at all, but I should put it on there. Well, zombie Land Is a zombie movie? It is, and there's definitely some amusement parks in there.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, the whole premise is that they're trying to get to this amusement park that they think is zombie free. That's like a safe haven.
Speaker 2:They're all trying to get to different places.
Speaker 1:Well, the kids are Everyone is.
Speaker 2:That's how they define their names. One of them is trying to go, I see.
Speaker 1:Clothes for the season from 2010. The Devil's Carnival, which we watched, from 2012. A musical.
Speaker 2:That was a wild one and first off, the movie was 56 minutes.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So fuck yeah, filmmakers, for making a movie the exact length that it needs to be, not longer just to pad it out to your 90.
Speaker 1:Yeah, actually there was something about this film that surprised me because it has this sort of like raunchy carnival vibe to it, which isn't really my thing. But the music had a cleverness and there was almost like it felt like Halloween town in some way, like it felt like kind of fun and whimsical, despite the darkness of the subject matter, I guess.
Speaker 2:I thought it was great. I'm not a big musical guy, but there's something charming about the Devil singing about all the shit that's wrong with the souls.
Speaker 1:And you watched Funland.
Speaker 2:I did watch Funland.
Speaker 1:I only made it through halfway.
Speaker 2:So I will say this right now it's not a horror film even remotely, but about 20 minutes before the end and that's including credits is when the mildly horrific elements begin, which is so misleading because the box art shows a clown with a gun.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And that does happen in the last bit of the film and it's like very, very tame yeah. But the premise is that a guy dies because the mob is kind of moving in on this local amusement park. And they just want to use it for money laundering and just like as also an extra form of revenue and they go deep into it about the inner workings of a theme park and you just kind of learn about how to run a theme park, which is kind of cool.
Speaker 1:Especially if you have the help of the mob.
Speaker 2:They weren't very helpful at all. In fact, it was a very successful theme park and then they kind of stepped in to take the business because it has a high cash flow and it's very easy to hide paper trails. Right, and you know I won't give the movie away because I think it's actually worth a watch. Just don't expect a horror film.
Speaker 1:There's also a film that I made through about 10 minutes of, even though I rented it called Screen Park from 2013, which was truly a llama get in.
Speaker 2:No, it is not a llama get in. This is a higher tier than llama get in, Although I think llama get in has more charm. This movie is 100% just a slasher that takes place in a theme park. You know low budget, everything. It's quirky, it has its moments. I didn't mind it. I thought it was a pretty okay ultra B movie.
Speaker 1:All right, escape from tomorrow from 2013. Carousel, carousel, carousel from 2016.
Speaker 2:That's a movie? Yeah, we sure did. The premise is a carousel horse I forget why Becomes sentient and goes on a murder rampage and he talks and he is really horny Gross. There are some content advisories for that film.
Speaker 1:Shopping.
Speaker 2:I will say that off the bat.
Speaker 1:Great Health Fest from 2018, which is actually a very scary. It's probably the best example I can think of of a modern horror film that's very scary and amusement park themed Health Fest is great yeah.
Speaker 2:That's actually a very good movie.
Speaker 1:We watched that during the pandemic and it's scary. Yeah it was scary it was good.
Speaker 2:I mean, I'm biased. I think haunted houses are very scary.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But this happened. You know it's a haunted house that takes place inside an amusement park.
Speaker 1:You won't even go to sleep, no more. Yeah, too scary, too scary.
Speaker 2:But this is super well done.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't even remember if there's supernatural stuff. I think it keeps you guessing?
Speaker 1:No, I think it's a. I think it keeps you guessing. Oh, I don't know. My memory is that it was just a killer, but maybe I'm wrong.
Speaker 2:Well, that's because you've seen the ending and that's a spoiler for everybody.
Speaker 1:Maybe. And then, finally, the last one I'll mention. Again, this is not an exhaustive list, but the last one I will mention is Is us from 2019. Jordan Peele's second film. The reason I'm mentioning it is that the entrance to the other world, if you will, in the movie is the way that we as an audience find out is through the fun house at the boardwalk amusement park, and so it's not like in the whole film, but it is there a multiple times and it kind of is the access point for the other world.
Speaker 2:It's just because there's mirrors and it's an allegory.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but the whole thing is at a carnival, at an amusement park.
Speaker 2:I get it. You like Jordan Peele why?
Speaker 1:can't I mention it? You can talk about Kershel, I didn't talk about the sequel and the one after that. I didn't either. I just had a second film.
Speaker 2:You forgot to mention the peak of amusement park horror. It's One Day at Horrorland, written by RL Stein.
Speaker 1:Oh I forgot that even reading the book.
Speaker 2:I read an entire novel for this episode, a Goosebumps novel. Yes, two hours, two hours and 30 minutes. All right, tell us about it, which I got to say. It's great, you feel like you read a book, because it's not a short story, it's a novella.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a novella and first off I had to put it down. It was too scary. No, it wasn't. I was freaked out. Why it triggered me in a lot of ways, tell us. I was like these family goes to a amusement park called Horrorland because they're lost and they just find this thing and then their fucking car explodes. They're trapped in the middle of nowhere and it's just it's-.
Speaker 1:Is it an abandoned amusement park or a functioning?
Speaker 2:one. No, it's fully functional.
Speaker 1:So why wouldn't they go in? Why would they be afraid of it?
Speaker 2:I was afraid for them and then they went in and some real bad shit happens. It's a scary book. I can't believe this is for kids. Okay, I can't talk about it.
Speaker 1:How many out of 10? How many stars?
Speaker 2:20. Wow, no, I mean, it's not amazing. I don't remember these books being nearly as scary as a kid.
Speaker 1:Maybe you had a thicker skin back then.
Speaker 2:I also didn't read this one as a kid.
Speaker 1:I'm slowly wearing you down. Maybe You're getting your skin.
Speaker 2:Yep Peeling away. I highly recommend. It's interesting how, despite us having a horror podcast, goosebumps doesn't really come up that often. I actually acquired all Goosebumps books in order to be prepared for future episodes. All of them, all of them. There's 58.
Speaker 1:Okay, so are you going to start like a Goosebumps reading club with patrons?
Speaker 2:You want me to.
Speaker 1:Maybe I think that's going to be fun.
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 1:Let me know when you pick one up and we'll alert the masses.
Speaker 2:Well, they can start with one day. No, it's too scary, I'll have to pick one at random.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's cool. You bulk bought them. Yeah, on digital yes, since we live in a studio.
Speaker 2:That is correct and they all fit in. It's amazing how many books you can fit in just a little microchip.
Speaker 1:Especially little tiny books. So, alan, why are amusement parks so scary? I'm going to quote again from Levine of the Vox article.
Speaker 2:Please quote from Levine at the Vox article Quote.
Speaker 1:We also go to parks to dream about the future. They're often the first places where we experience innovations at scale. That was the appeal of the original Ferris wheel when Disney introduced them. The monorail and the people mover offered wide-eyed passengers a chance to step aboard the transit systems of tomorrow. Despite its nostalgic allure, the Coney Island Cyclone still packs a potent punch, thanks to new launch systems and other technological and design breakthroughs. Some coasters today tower over it, blasting riders over 400 feet in the air and well beyond 100 miles an hour.
Speaker 2:There's no way there's a faster roller coaster than the Cyclone.
Speaker 1:All right, alan. That's a good thing. In a country where people are anxious and divided, we need places where we can encounter one another, share experiences and enjoy stories together. We need the reassurance, the connection to the past and the hope for the future that parks provide.
Speaker 2:Did you write that?
Speaker 1:No, who did Levine from Vox? What the guy I'm quoting from? That was a quote, end quote.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:But I think his point is an important one, which is why I quoted it versus interpreting it on my own, because I think parks are very symbolic to us, especially right now, but they've always been right. They've always been divided in some ways, and I think that's also why, when you have abandoned parks, which again are sort of symbolic in a way that things don't last here, it feels maybe creepier because of the idealism that we place on amusement parks in the first place. And so when you see one that's so run down and abandoned and empty and without laughter enjoying children, it's even further from this dream state that was this utopian state that was sold to you.
Speaker 2:It's the opposite of that. It's the juxtaposition between you're putting horrific elements in something that shouldn't be scary at all. When you tweak these just a little bit, you also hit uncanny valley. It's the same reason why Five Nights at Freddy's is spooky with the animatronics. It's four kids and these things are creepy as hell. But they shouldn't be. It's just uncanny valley. Clowns, Clowns, fuck them.
Speaker 1:Fuck them. I'm so thrilled because next episode we have some very, very haunting amusement park horror stories that we're getting together for you guys. So really, really, I just really love when we can really round out a series and kind of bring it together with the modern horror to top it off.
Speaker 2:That's the best.
Speaker 1:That's the best, as always. Thank you all so much for being here. Happy 2024. Welcome to a new year. We're back, we're excited. We have our resolutions. Mine was to be funnier, mine was yours, alan.
Speaker 2:That you are funnier.
Speaker 1:To help me be funnier, and we'll talk to you very soon. Bye.
Speaker 2:Thanks for watching.