In 2004 Amusement Today, a trade paper for the theme park industry, ranked the Lake Compounce ride No. 1 in the world for wooden coasters.
And today, tens of millions of their human descendants seek summer amusement by leaping the other way.
I felt like a mannequin in a 1950s amusement park diorama representing some hypothetical motoring life at the outer reaches of the solar system.
Rivals for the honor include a 1948 amusement device, but it required pictures placed over the screen in contrast to Dr. Higinbotham's self-contained system.
The beauty of this area led to the proliferation of summer resorts in the 1830s, amusement parks in the 1890s and permanent neighborhoods in the 1930s, and was more recently discovered by Brooklynites in undersized straw fedoras.
Rye Playland, the 1920s-era amusement park owned by Westchester County, would get a complete makeover under a proposed development that emphasizes year-round activities and more green space, county officials announced Thursday.
With expansive water views and Art Deco architecture, Rye Playland — the 1920s-era amusement park owned by Westchester County — has offered generations of children in the area their initial taste of cotton candy and first spin on the scream-inducing Dragon Coaster.
Designers had the lofty goal of creating "an amusement park possessing artistic merit to attract a class of people who before resented going to summer amusement resorts of the 'Coney Island' type and to educate the habitual amusement parkgoers to an appreciation and a desire for things beautiful".
Opening April 16, this striking museum - designed by David Chipperfield and named for the painter J. M. W. Turner, one of Margate's famous visitors - has already spurred new galleries, pubs and cafes, as well as the restoration of Dreamland, a 1920s amusement park down the road.
"We can assume that will include amenities for guests to stay overnight," she added But as this summer unfolds, the park can expect to draw its fair share of thrill seekers, like Frank DeSantis of Bayonne, who says that he takes about 2,000 amusement park rides a year and has sampled 350 different roller coasters around the country.
