July 4th, 1977 - Amusement Parks & More!

From 39 years ago, here is the July 4th, 1977 issue of Time Magazine. It's Time Magazine's "Here Comes Summer" issue and it covers Amusement Parks, Beer, Food, Swimsuits and more!

The magazine starts out with President Jimmy Carter's 1976 income tax return.

The country had just finished celebrating it's year-long bicentennial celebration and Jimmy Carter had only been in office for 6 months. This intro gives an idea of what else was going on in the country at the time.

After the brief 1977 history recap, we move on to the fun stuff. Amusement Parks:

Walt Disney World's Space Mountain is pictured above, but there is no mention of Disneyland's Space Mountain, which would have opened just about 6 weeks earlier.

I wonder how many of the amusement parks mentioned below are no longer in business? I know for sure that Circus World, Astro World and Opryland have all closed. And a family of four could get into Disney World for around $30? Wow, times have changed!

I'm also wondering how many of these roller coasters are no longer standing. I know that Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida tore out their Python coaster (an identical twin of Knott's Berry Farm's old Corkscrew) in 2006 and replaced it with a Sesame Street themed children's area.

Beer and Bluegrass:

Summer Camp for adults:

I have to apologize here. The section covering swimsuits was ripped out by my older brother back in 1977 and the second page to this article about the National Parks went with it.

Also torn out, along with the women in seventies swimwear, was the first page of this article about food.

Here are a couple car ads. It seems that back in the day, most of the ads in Time magazine were for cigarettes, so I didn't bother scanning them since I don't want to encourage anyone!

That Toyota ad seems to be using only half of their slogan from the time period. I still remember the commercials and the jingle, "You (BOOM!) asked for it, YOU GOT IT TOYOTA!"

Here are a couple Toyota car commercials that used that jingle.



By the way, yellow was a popular color for cars back then! And I think that's Edie McClurg (wearing the glasses) as one of the "starving" interns in this second video.



Happy 4th of July, everyone! And I hope you all have a great summer, wherever you go or whatever you do!

Vintage Magic Mountain Trip Report & Colossus Opening - 1978

Are you ready for something completely different here at Meet The World? It's my very first Magic Mountain post, and it's all about my very first Magic Mountain trip! The year was 1978 and I had just graduated from eighth grade (and had recently gone on the school's Eighth Grade Graduation Trip To Disneyland.) Up to that point, I had been taken on many family trips to Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, Marineland, Universal Studios, Japanese Deer Park, and Busch Gardens (Van Nuys), but for some reason (probably distance), we had never gone to Magic Mountain. Well, as an eighth grade graduation present, my mom decided to take me to Magic Mountain.....probably because I had been asking her.....A LOT!



My mom even took this pamphlet and wrapped it up as one of my graduation gifts. I was very excited. I had been wanting to go for a long time, but even more so now because this was the summer that Colossus was opening. The model for Colossus was pictured in the pamphlet along with a description of the "greatest rollercoaster in the world."




Here are some other pics from the pamphlet.



I'm flipping this one pic around to show what's happening to the two kids in this photo. This exact same thing happened to me the first time I rode Revolution. When we went through the 360 degree loop, my head was forced down into my lap. I remember it kind of screwed up my neck for the rest of the day. They hadn't installed the headrests on the cars yet, so I don't know if that is what made a difference or if it was just being kid-sized, but I went back about a year later and the headrests were there and I didn't have the same problem. Did anyone else have that happen to them while riding Revolution?



And here are the only four photos that I shot that day. The first one shows Revolution's loop. I had actually rode Revolution one year earlier...."virtually," that is. It was featured in the 1977 Universal film, "Rollercoaster." I remember really liking that movie. The tag line was something like, "This summer, watch for the man watching the Rollercoaster!" If you haven't seen the movie, I highly recommend it. It stars George Segal, Henry Fonda, Helen Hunt (before she won her Oscar), Richard Widmark (after he signed Lucy's grapefruit), and features guest appearances by L.A. radio disc jockey, Charlie Tuna, and the band "Sparks." The real star however, is Timothy Bottoms (before he hilariously played our nation's former president in Comedy Central's "That's My Bush!") as a young man who travels around the country blowing up amusement parks. The film was one of only four that were filmed in "Sensurround."



Colossus had already opened before our visit. In fact, it opened on June 29th..... 33 years ago today! But as with many new rides, it was experiencing some technical problems and when we got to the park, we were told that it probably would not be opening until sometime in the afternoon. We did get in line for it later that day....I believe even before it opened, because they had announced that it would be opening for sure. I took these next three pics from the Colossus observation deck while my family held our place in line. Note the dirt and the trucks at the base of the structure.



Just on the other side of those trees was "Trollywood," home to the Magic Mountain Trolls. This was sort of Magic Mountain's version of "Storybook Land" and was only visible while riding the "Train to Trollywood" (see the map below).




Here's the parking ticket from that day.



And here's the park map and entertainment schedule.





We had seen people in the park wearing these buttons, but when we went to purchase one at the Colossus merchandise cart, they had sold out.



When we got home, I wrote a letter to the park asking if it was still possible to purchase a button. They sent the following response.





So I sent them the money and I did end up getting an "I RODE IT!" button.

One other memory from that day is that my aunt and my grandparents went along with us on this trip. Actually my grandfather is the one that drove us all up there. He also rode on every ride that day with my brother and me, including Colossus. I remember the ride operators on Colossus warning him about removing his eyeglasses, so he took them off and put them in his shirt pocket and buttoned the pocket up. Well, on the very first hill, the button ripped right off from the force of the glasses which flew straight up out of the pocket and into the air. I remember feeling really bad about him losing his glasses.

When I think about it, my grandfather was always such a good sport. He was also the one that sat next to me the very first time I rode Space Mountain. In my Father's Day post last week, I thanked my dad for taking us to many of the different Southern California theme parks throughout my childhood, but my grandparents also took us on many of our fun theme park outings....including my one and only trip to the Long Beach Pike! I'd like to take the time now to also thank my grandparents for all the wonderful memories they gave my brother and me......I love and miss you both very much! And thanks to my mom too, for such a cool graduation present!

Space Mountain - 33rd Anniversary!

Thirty three years ago today, Space Mountain opened at Disneyland. About two months after it opened, my grandparents took my brother and me to the park to check it out. I still remember sitting in the front seat with my grandfather for that very first ride and the excitement of not knowing exactly what to expect.

Below, is the park entertainment guide that I saved from that day.

Here's a photo that I took with my Kodak 126 Instamatic camera during that visit. Doesn't the whole Space Mountain Complex look bright and shiny and new? Hey Disney, bring back the Speed Ramp, the Space Mountain Stage, and the Space Place Restaurant!

Prior to this visit, I was clipping and saving everything that was written about the new attraction, including this L.A. Times article that reported on the opening day ceremony and "inaugural flight."

This photo ran in the local newspaper. I have saved these newspaper clippings for thirty three years!

I bought the Space Mountain set of Pana-Vue slides about thirty years ago, but never realized until now that the people in this particular slide are the same people in the photo above. I wonder where these people are today? Hey, that guy in the second row is looking at the camera.....BAD MODEL!

When I ride Space Mountain today, I often think back to when I rode it that first time with my grandfather. My grandparents actually took us back to the park seven months later and I was able to ride it with him again. (I also rode Colossus at Magic Mountain for the first time with my grandfather after it opened in 1978....but that's the subject for a future post!)

Happy Birthday, Space Mountain!

Farewell to Knott's Corkscrew!

Twenty years ago today, Knott's Berry Farm threw an employee farewell party for the Corkscrew. Commemorative buttons were handed out and employees were given a chance to ride the attraction one last time.


Built by Arrow Dynamics, the Corkscrew opened at Knott's in 1975 and was the first modern inverting roller coaster in the U.S. There actually used to be a recorded welcome announcement in the queue stating this historical fact.

Here are three vintage Corkscrew postcards. The first one shows what it looked like when it first opened....the track and the supports were all painted white. Notice also that there is no Sky Jump parachute tower in the background. That came one year later when the Airfield area was added to the Roaring Twenties section of the park. I can't remember exactly when the Corkscrew's track was painted blue, but I believe it was shortly after the Airfield opened.

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After the Corkscrew closed in 1989, it was packed up and shipped to Silverwood Theme Park in Idaho where it opened in 1990 and still operates to this day. The Silverwood website even explains the history and origin of this historical attraction. Below, is a photo of the Corkscrew at Silverwood.

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The closing of the Corkscrew came as a surprise to me. Why wouldn't Knott's have wanted to keep this little part of U.S. theme park history? They replaced it with "Boomerang" which isn't any longer in length (935 ft. of track compared to the Corkscrew's 1,250 ft.) Of course Boomerang goes backwards, but Knott's already had a coaster that did this....Montezooma's Revenge. It didn't make sense!

As a side note....I have not been to Silverwood Theme Park to ride the Corkscrew in it's new home, but several years ago, I visited Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida and they had a roller coaster called The Python which was identical to the Corkscrew. The Python had opened in 1976 and was the park's first roller coaster and Florida's first inverting roller coaster. Unfortunately, The Python was removed from Busch Gardens in 2006. :-(
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The Python 1976-2006

Roller Coaster!

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Today, we will continue with this month's theme of non-Disney parks. This is also a follow-up to my April Fool's Day/Disneyland Trip Report post. I had a record number of hits with that post, but surprisingly, nobody asked me where those photos were taken, and at least one reader believed they were actually taken at Disneyland...and I apologize for that! I did go back and add "Happy April Fool's Day" at the end of the post to hopefully clear things up. Well, just in case anyone out there was wondering, the photos in that post were all taken at Hanayashiki Park in Tokyo Japan, with the exception of the Sleeping Beauty Castle construction photo.

Hanayashiki Park opened in 1853 as a flower park and in 1872, the first rides were installed. The oldest roller coaster in Japan can be found at Hanayashiki (seen below.) It was built in 1953 and was considered to be the most "modern" roller coaster at that time. What is the name of this historic attraction, did you ask? It's simply named, "Roller Coaster." I think I would have at least put an exclamation point after the name, but that's just me.

The oldest existing attraction in Hanayashiki is the "Surprising House," which was built in 1949. It was the Three Little Pigs themed structure seen in that April 1st post. The guide describes this attraction as "A mysterious house that spins around." I did not go inside at the time that photo was taken, but on a recent trip back to Tokyo and Hanayashiki Park, I did venture inside. Basically, you sit on a long suspended bench seat, which then begins to rock forward and back while the room you are sitting in does 360 degree flip flops around you. The room is "finished" with painted windows, hanging pictures, light fixtures and the real door that you entered through, so it really does a number on your head. It made me think of the 1951 Fred Astaire movie, "Royal Wedding," where he dances up the wall and onto the ceiling. (As a side note, that movie set was supposedly a real room that rotated along with the camera, as Mr. Astaire literally danced "around" the room.) This attraction was definitely not for people prone to motion sickness. I think it's kind of neat that the attraction still exists and continues to entertain people 60 years after it's debut at the park.

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Below, is a view of the Sky Ships attraction boarding area. Gee, I wonder where they got the idea for flying pirate ships? If you look off in the distance and to the right, you will see a hellicopter on a track below the blue Sky Ships rail. That attraction follows the same route as the Sky Ships, but the helicopter vehicles ride on top of their track. The attraction is similar to the Sky Trip ride at Tokyo Dome City, but you don't have to pedal these vehicles yourself!

Here is a photo showing both a Sky Ship and a Hellicopter vehicle passing each other. In the background is the "Kiddy Ferris Wheel" and in the foreground is the park's Merry-go-round.

Last up for today is a full view of Hanayashiki's Merry-go-round.

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I may do one more non-Disney park post just to finish out the month (perhaps another Knott's post) and then we will get back to Disney stuff. I did visit Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea during my recent Tokyo trip, so I will definitely be posting some current photos and items from those two parks!