Just Playing Around: Summertime, the History of Amusement Parks, and the Importance of Leisure

It’s summertime (almost)! That can only mean one thing for kids across the modern world…it’s time to have fun! It’s time to roll out the slip-n-slides, hit up the batting cages, and swim in all the oceans and outdoor pools! When I was a kid, outdoor games like “spud” and “red rover” were all the rage. Classic sports like baseball and basketball were also of course popular. Motorboat rides, diving boards, and waterslides had their summertime places, as did the subject of today’s article- amusement parks.

In our salad, theme-park-going days, these were the questions we might’ve asked or statements we might’ve made: How shall we “waste” our time? Shall we ride the bumper cars or venture into the haunted houses? The Ferris Wheel looks relaxing. What do you say we grab a few rafts and float down the lazy river or put in a few coins and enjoy the carousel? The water slides and log flumes will provide wet and wild experiences, and then there are of course all the arcades and other entertainment booths. Let’s pop a few balloons or toss a few rings. First, though, let’s strap ourselves into one of these giant coasters!

Fairs, Pleasure Gardens, Exhibitions

Historically, the amusement park evolved from three earlier traditions: pleasure gardens, traveling/periodic fairs, and exhibitions such as world fairs. The world’s oldest amusement park was Bakken (“The Hill”), a pleasure garden that the city of Klampenborg, Denmark (just north of Copenhagen) opened in 1583^1,2. A close rival of it was the Vauxhall Gardens of London (opened in 1661). The Prater in Vienna, Australia, which began as a royal hunting ground, opened for public enjoyment in 1766.

All these places and events provided eclectic attractions, including (but certainly not limited to) acrobatics, juggling, tightrope walking, and conjuring. In later centuries, they would put on concerts, firework displays, and hot air balloon shows. Mechanical rides, such as Frederick Savage’s “galloping horses” and Thomas Bradshaw’s steam-powered carousel at Aylsham Fair, arrived as the newest attractions in the 1860s and 1870s.

Fun in the Gilded Era

With the beginning of the world’s fairs in the late 19^th century, people further developed the concept of a fixed park for amusement. Londoners, who constructed the Crystal Palace in 1851, used their exposition to educate and entertain visitors, and to celebrate the industrial achievements of the nations of the world³. American cities and businesses also wanted to demonstrate their industrial and economic success.

Nonfiction writer Erik Larson notably recounted the history of the World Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago in The Devil in the White City (2003). The story details architect Daniel Burnham’s efforts to construct the exposition (the “White City” refers to the visual effect that the exposition’s blazing lights had on its surroundings and was not racial). The fair, an enclosed site that merged entertainment, engineering, and education, bedazzled visitors with all sorts of wondrous attractions. Famous visitors included Hellen Keller, Alexander Graham Bell, and Theodore Dreiser.

Famous new creations on display included Juicy Fruit gum, Shredded Wheat, and Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer. Its Midway Plaisance (a feature that later carnivals, fairs, and circuses would incorporate) contained not just rides but also shooting galleries, live shows, penny arcades, and games of chance^3,4. The exposition’s piece de resistance, though, was the Ferris Wheel, which made its inaugural appearance in 1893. George Ferris Jr. designed and constructed his eponymous invention to “out-Eiffel” Paris’s “Eiffel Tower.”

With the advent of the industrial revolution, the ever-quickening global pace of everything, and the rise of free time and disposable income, many modern amusement parks evolved from earlier pleasure resorts. The public traveled to them on weekends, holidays, and daytrips. In the United States, some amusement parks, such as Lake Compounce in Connecticut and Riverside Park in Massachusetts, grew from picnic groves along lakes and rivers and provided bathing and water sports⁵. Seaside resorts cropped up in Blackpool (UK) and Coney Island (US), the latter of which pleasure seekers initially arrived at by horse-drawn streetcar (1829) and later the Coney Island Railroad (1875)^6. Hotels and amusements accommodated both the upper and working classes. The first carousel in the U.S. appeared at Coney Island (1870s), as did “The Switchback Railway,” the first roller coaster.

Trolley Parks, Seaside Resorts, and Fixed Locations

In the final decade of the 19^th century, many large American cities developed electrical trolley lines. Companies that established these transportational amenities developed “trolley parks” at their destinations. Streetcar companies expanded popular natural leisure spots, such as Atlanta’s Ponce de Leon Park and Reading’s Carsonia Park. They transformed them into massive entertainment sites that featured dance halls, sports fields, boat rides, mechanical amusements, restaurants, and other resort facilities.

Premiere bathing resorts like Atlantic City in New Jersey also became popular in the late 19^th and early 20th centuries, and entrepreneurs capitalized on these locations by building them out onto beachside piers. These “boardwalks,” including Ocean Pier (1891) and Steel Pier (1898), drew in visitors with Midway-style games and electric trolley lines.

Sea Lion Park, the first permanently enclosed entertainment area (which a single company regulated) was founded in 1895 in the Coney Island area. It was the first site to charge admission and ride fees⁷. George Tilyou designed Steeplechase Park, which joined Sea Lion Park two years later. The combination of New York City’s population and their ease of access to the area made Coney Island the “embodiment of the American amusement park”⁷! It was such a success that by 1910 daily attendance sometimes reached one million people⁷.

England’s first amusement park, Blackpool Pleasure Beach, opened in 1896, and introduced Sir Hiram Maxim’s famous “Flying Captive Machine” (1904). Maxim, who designed an earlier, unsuccessful aircraft that steam engines powered, opened this pleasure ride where flying carriages revolve around a central pylon.

The “Russian Mountain”

The main amusement park attraction that expanded both in size and sophistication was the roller coaster. New innovations including extreme drops and speeds thrilled the many riders who, by the end of World War I (in an era defined by trains and automobiles) sought out greater thrills⁸. The 1920s was the “Golden Age” of roller coasters, as many parks frenetically built them⁸. One of the most notable was the Scenic Railway in England’s Dreamland Margate.

Over the 20^th century, wooden coasters gave way to steel coasters, which pushed the envelope in so many ways. Instead of just climbing up and racing down, steel coasters could invert their passengers with loops, corkscrews, and other features. Coasters also could accelerate backwards or launch off from their loading stations, and sturdy shoulder harnesses replaced the standard lap belts on many inverted rides. Sometimes the trains rested on the tracks; sometimes they dangled from them; sometimes the passengers even stood up for the ride’s duration.

The Rise of Franchises

The Great Depression and World War II certainly caused the amusement park industry to plummet. The newly prosperous and optimistic world of 1950s and 1960s America, though, saw a rise in all sorts of leisurely attractions and pursuits. Walt Disney World, the “happiest place on Earth,” opened on October 17, 1971. Designed as a larger version of Disneyland outside Burbank, California, Disney World was one of the most financially ambitious projects Walt Disney Productions had ever undertaken. Visiting EPCOT, the Magic Kingdom, or Hollywood Studios became a rite of passage for every American child born into the Gen-X, Millennial, Gen-Z, or Alpha Generations. “I’m going to Disney World” …the punchline for every football team that won the Superbowl! Other major franchises- MGM Studios, Universal Studios, Six Flags, and Busch Gardens- followed suit, and, today, they are some of the most well-visited theme parks in the world.

Thrilling Features

The roller coaster is the modern-day amusement park’s primary attraction, but let’s not neglect some of the other delightfully inventive rides. The “Ali Baba” is a stationary horizontal gondola that swings 360 degrees. The “Drop Tower” slowly elevates to the top of a high-rising shaft and then quickly plunges hundreds of feet. The “Pendulum Ride” swings its passengers forwards and backwards (sometimes completing full inversions). The “Scrambler” uses centrifugal forces to spin its suspended riders along two separate axes. The riders are seated in small carriages clustered together and connected by beams at the top to a central point. The clustered vehicles spin in one direction, while the ride spins in the opposite direction⁹. Other whimsical rides include the “Alpine Slide,” “Balloon Race,” “Bayern Kurve,” “Condor,” “Disk-O,” “Devil’s Wheel,” “Fireball,” “Flying Scooters,” “Gravitron,” “Loop-O-Plane,” “Octopus,” “Orbiter,” “Skycoaster,” “Skywheel,” “Tilt-a-Whirl,” “Topple Tower,” “Troika,” “UltraMax,” and “Zipper.”

Work vs. Play

Never in the history of humanity have people had more free time than they do now…in the 21^st century. Those of us who work 90 hours a week may certainly think that such an observation is ludicrous. Those who live in struggling nations may think so as well, but I’m more speaking at the collective level. Compared to people in ancient, medieval, or colonial times, the average modern-day person might as well be retired or on PTO their entire life. We have our gym memberships, happy hours, ski-trips, sporting events, and Netflix subscriptions; all the kinds of pastimes our great ancestors probably would’ve relegated to the “afterlife.”

And yet…leisure and play are not the superfluities of life. They are both necessary and important. British analytical philosopher Bertrand Russell, no stranger to hard work, wrote an essay entitled In Praise of Idleness in 1932. In the essay, he argued that deep-rooted and mistaken attitudes about work contributed to the economic chaos of the time. He then very carefully explored several kinds of work and lamented the prospect that a “cult of efficiency” could potentially eclipse the playful, lighthearted side of life. As you may have guessed, his beliefs didn’t sit well with everyone. Namely, those who opposed a certain murderous political ideology and had their antennas out for it wherever they went, weren’t totally in favor of what he had to say.

The Play Drive

The question of work vs. leisure though isn’t geopolitical. It’s existential…it’s psychological…. it’s deeply engrained into us. Estonian American neuroscientist/psychobiologist Jaak Panksepp, who coined the term “affective neuroscience,” discovered that the “play drive” was one of the seven affective systems in human beings¹⁰. The other six include “seeking” (expectancy), “fear” (anxiety), “rage” (anger), “lust” (sexual excitement), “care” (nurturance), and “panic/grief” (sadness)¹⁰.

Playfulness, it turns out, is a serious matter. It builds social cohesion and establishes boundaries. But it’s also just fun and a meaningful good time. My niece and nephews are very young, and so toys, trucks, dolls, big balls, and dog-wrestling are obviously their “all and [their] everything”! They don’t want to sleep, drink coffee, or read newspapers like all of us “boring, lifeless adults.” They just want to play all day every day, and we wouldn’t want to have it any other way! Naps for us are great; naps for them are like prison sentences!

Becoming “Cool” Adults

But perhaps we adults are not nearly as “boring and lifeless” as we once observed those above us to be. Our “boring and lifeless” demeanors reflect our crushing, age-old responsibilities, and existential worries…not some disdain for all things fun and playful! We’d of course give anything to return to that unbridled state of enthusiasm for life. And, to the extent that we can imbue our lives with a wide-eyed sense of wonder, we do. Like junk food, “empty fun” may be an unhealthy waste of life…but well-integrated fun adds to the richness and joy of life. Can we frame our jobs as “playful”? How about relationships? Our health is an omnipresent worry for many of us. Could we spin that as some sort of “game”?

And what about politics? When did they shift from wholesome “competitions” to life-or-death emergencies? The people who stormed the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, weren’t playing any “games,” nor were those who took to the streets in 2020. In an era of boundless luxuries and entertaining (or not-so-entertaining) distractions, you’d think we all become jesters and clowns. But…no…we have all become dark and morbid people. Everything is dark and serious. Depression and anxieties of all sorts plague us. Even stand-up comedians are having a difficult time doing their thing.

Conclusion

I use the pronoun “we” because I’m certainly not exempting myself from this melancholic crowd. For all my whimsical pastimes and interests and my light sense of humor, I am quite the dark and serious person…. or, at least, I can be. Deep philosophical ruminations can be engaging at times, but often are quite distressful. Where and how life can be playful and fun…it should be! Let us, therefore, keep the amusement parks that are our conscious everyday lives open year-round, let us keep their admission prices low, and let us keep all their attractions exciting and engaging!

SOURCES

1. “Bakken History -History about the hill”. Archived from the original on 22 February 2015. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
2. “Worlds Oldest Operating Amusement Parks”. National Amusement Park Historical Association. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
3. “World’s Fairs (1853–1897): A New Idea”. Midway Plaisance. Archived from the original on 9 December 2007. Retrieved 29 September 2007.
4. Alter, Judy (1997). Amusement Parks. Amazing New York: Franklin Watts
5. Samuelson, Dale; Wendy Yegoiants (2001). The American Amusement Park. St. Paul, MN: MBI Publishing Company.
6. Cross, Gary Scott; Walton, John K. (2005). The Playful Crowd: Pleasure Places In The Twentieth Century. Columbia University Press. Retrieved 7 February 2013.
7. Adams, Judith A. (1991). The American Amusement Park Industry: A History of Technology and Thrills. Boston: Twayne Publishers.
8. Rutherford, Scott (2000). The American Roller Coaster. Osceola, WI:
9. “The Twist”. University of Sheffield National Fairground Archive. Retrieved 2017-10-01.
10. Panksepp, Jaak; Biven, Lucy (2012-09-17). The Archaeology of Mind: Neuroevolutionary Origins of Human Emotions (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology). W. W. Norton & Company.