Daved Thomson

What an incredible find.  I don’t ever recall seeing this commercial as a ten year-old kid.  Anyone that was any kind of GA fan would have instantly recognized the park as Great Adventure.  The park’s name is really only legible on the one child’s hat and much less so on their T-Shirts.   I wonder if it played in the NY TV market.

Any idea which magazine(s) this ran in?

I just learned that Ned DeWitt passed away September 2021.

Just seeing this picture for the first time.  Is this Al Bowen in the picture with Gabe Kaplan?  I can't make out the name on his GA name tag, but he looks a lot like Ned DeWitt, then President of GSC/Six Flags.  Coincidentally, September 1977 would have been around the time that Six Flags was in talks with GA's then current owners to buy the park.

Larry Cochran, President of Six Flags at the time, working as a Grounds Dept. employee.

Food Carts circa 1976-1979.

Food Carts uniforms circa 1980-1985.

This is an opening season (1981) Roaring Rapids male uniform as well as female.  Both males and females also had the option to wear the same colored pants in shorts.  I could be wrong, but I believe this was the first time males had the option of wearing shorts in the park.

These are supervisor uniforms.  Food service, Merchandise and Operations seasonal supervisors all wore the same uniforms.  At least for the 1980, 1981, and 1982 seasons.

The dark red/tan uniforms are general Food Service uniforms (meaning most of the food stands like Great American Hamburger, Wheelburger, Bandstandza, etc.), the brown/orange are male food carts uniforms while the yellow/orange are female food carts, the dark red with white stripes were for Yum Yum Palace and Gingerbread Fancy.  Best of the West may have had these same uniforms, but if I recall correctly, they had a denim uniform jeans with a red shirt similar to ride ops in that section of the park.  La Cantina and Goya Taco in the "Spanish section" wore uniforms very similar to those of Rolling Thunder's operators.  I'm referring to the 1980, 1981, and 1982 seasons.

I agree.  Great Adventure was pretty nice when It came to not only the real estate acquisitions they made to somewhat satisfy the judgements against the Switliks, but even the personal property mentioned here.  When you consider the entirety of the legal battle between the two parties (Hardwick and Switlik), I tend to agree with the final outcome ultimately reached by the Supreme Court.

The crazy part, in my opinion, is that all of the problems between the two seem to have been created, not by Stanley Switlik, but by his son Richard.  I get the impression that he had stuck his nose into his father's business (meaning the land sale to Hardwick) when his father was comfortable with what had been agreed upon with Hardwick, because Richard wanted the land himself.

1982 was my second season working at the park and I worked right next door to Pinball Parlor at Big Wheel Burger.  I never really got into the whole PacMan craze or even video games other than at home (Atari, etc.).  But, several of my friends from high school also worked at the park with me in food service and were into PacMan.  But, I distinctly remember going with them to what was the Dream Street Arcade (Blue Tent) to play PacMan and other video games (Asteroids comes to mind).  I don't recall ever stepping foot in Pinball Parlor until the 1985 season when I briefly worked graveyard in cash control and had to go in there when the park closed to collect money from the bill/token change machines.

No idea who they may be.  Don't know why, but for some reason, NJ and some of the northern NJ mafia families came to mind.

The Cardona family?

Great memory for details.  I was working nights in Cash Control at the time and moved to Marketing Research the Monday following the contest.  I have never ridden the Starship, but did quite a bit of exit interviews among riders.

Looks like it would be a minimum of five.  Assuming the writer had a wife (or other companion) along with them, it would be six.  There were only four seats in those Sky Ride cars and in this photo four of them are crammed into two seats.

From what I have been able to discern when looking at these articles on a continuum, October of 1973 was the last mention of Maxwell's Wild Preserve.  Starting in November of 1973, the name Great Adventure is used exclusively.  I'm just guessing, but I would say that the actual park proposal document was presented to township, county, and NJ officials sometime between October and November of 1973.  I can't find any dates on the actual proposal posted on here.

I found that a bit strange myself.  Given the article was published in May of 1975, it does fit that the picture could have been taken in November or December of 1974.

The article appeared on two different pages of the Times when published.  I consolidated those two different pages on this one page.

We know Warner LeRoy tended toward hyperbole, but I get the impression Charles Stein was at least Warner's equal when it came to expressing things as a bit more grandiose than they would come to be.  His attendance projections are all over the board, as is the actual cost to construct the park.  I get the impression they both simply said whatever they thought the elected officials at the time wanted to hear in order to get it built.

Interesting...  Back in the days of Dymo tape name tags (All Dymo tape tags were seasonal employees/All engraved name tags were permanent employees), orange was 15-years old and green was seasonal administrative/office workers.

Great song and highly appropriate for the ride, but, sadly would never fly in todays political environment.

What a fantastic picture of these bears!  Can't believe they were never used in a brochure or pamphlet.  Really great!

A very young Larry B. Cochran.  Larry was 37 years old when he took the reigns at Great Adventure in 1977.  This picture of Larry was taken in 1976 while Vice President/General Manager of Six Flags over Mid-America.  Larry eventually went on to lead the Six Flags Corporation as President.

While I do not know this for sure, I believe he may have been tasked with creating the scale models for all of the Six Flags parks new attractions in 1978, which was his first and last season with the company.

Much of this, I have to believe, Warner LeRoy was behind given his penchant for everything over the top.  I can only imagine the battles he must have had with Hardwicke when it came to the marketing of the park.  But, in the end, it was absolutely crazy to have had multiple tag lines during those first two seasons when they should have been positioning the park very clearly in the minds of consumers.

When I worked in research at the park (1985), the research library (basically a closet) was where we met each morning before going into the park to do ATS.  I would often read the various reports they had on the shelves.  It was crazy how many different research studies they conducted (during those first few seasons) regarding awareness and imagery of the park.  Huge proportions of those considering a visit to the park were unsure of exactly what the park was supposed to be.  I'm talking figures like two-thirds and more.