1980-08-31 Thrills Big Business.jpg

An interesting article largely focus on theme park thrill rides and their ability to draw park guests.  The screams of Great Adventure guests are mentioned as coming from Lighting' Loops and Rolling Thunder, two coasters long gone from the park.  With history now in the rear view mirror, however, one of the ride consultants in the article incorrectly believes that theme parks will focus more on families in the coming decades, choosing rides with something for everyone.  As we all know, the late 1980s began the fad toward the biggest, fastest, longest, most loops, most unique elements for rollercoasters and wars between parks for the rights to make such claims.  Other than the Disney parks, most parks moved farther away from the family market and toward thrills, fewer unique themes (or completely dropped their original themes) and focused more on the film/movie industry as Hollywood's studios came to own many of the country's largest parks.