A Look Back at the GA of the 1970's

[29yrswithaGApass]

Recently you may have seen our request for old Great Adventure photos in our "Enchanted Forest Canopy" newsletter.

 

 

We are happy to share with you a great assortment of photographs sent to us by our member "jerzijack". Check out all the wonderful photos in an album we have set up for his photos in our GAH Galleries.

 

Here are some fantastic samples!

 

The Best of the West BBQ's lower level walkway leading to the Western Shootout -

 

The Garden of Marvels castle and waterfall -

 

The Fender Bender Bumper Cars ride -

 

Early Street Entertainment in Fun Fair -

 

Great Adventure's first indoor stage show at the American Music Hall -

 

A sign for the Moon Flume stands in front of Gingerbread Fancy!

 

Great Arena Circus -

 

The Swiss Bob with its original snow backdrop -

 

The rarely photographed "The Happening!" -

 

The Tilt-a-Whirl ride -

 

An on-ride photo of the Wild Rider Troika ride -

 

Please feel free to comment on these photos here.

 

As always, if you have any photos that you can share we would love to see them. Just drop us a note!

 

 

 

 

[pashacar]

Great pictures! What was "The Happening"?

[29yrswithaGApass]

^ The original plans for Dream Street included five tent structure (the buildings at the base of the Boardwalk that houses Attitudes, Six Flags Kids, etc.). Land was cleared for five but only four were built. The fifth was suppose to be located where the Teacups are today. Rather than just leave an empty site they installed a small stage and placed benches in front of it. The Happening featured singers, magicians, acrobatic acts, and similar entertainment.

 

The stage remained until 1976 when the Pretty Monster ride was relocated to the site.

[Railer]

Some more "classic" pics. for the archives. They are getting more rare as the years go by.

[The Master]

Sure looked like better times back then.

[GAcoaster]

It depends...would you consider it better times with only 3 coasters instead of 13? Most people would opt for more coasters.

[Mr. Hot Dog]

Yahhh! What a creepy looking clown in the 4th picture!

 

 

[RobertDavid]

It depends...would you consider it better times with only 3 coasters instead of 13? Most people would opt for more coasters.

 

 

That's the thinking that destroyed the park's atmosphere and led to bankruptcy, "do whatever you have to do to cram as many roller coasters into the park as possible".

 

The most successful parks in the country have less than half as many coasters. I love coasters as much as the next guy, but half as many really good coasters would be just as good and not so damaging to the park itself. Building new coasters and keeping old ones just to say you have the most will not make a park successful.

[GAcoaster]

There is a happy medium between the two, but to think that when those pictures were taken the biggest thrill ride in the park was Lightnin' Loops I think 9 out of 10 park goers today would be bored out of their minds by Great Adventure if it were still like that.

[RobertDavid]

No park has stayed exactly the same as it was in the 70s. Other parks, however, have been able to build a few great coasters while maintaining the park's atmosphere instead of building a lot of mediocre coasters with conflicting theming on top of each other and in the parking lots. At least half of the coasters at Great Adventure are not worth the eyesores that they are.

 

Roller coasters aside, the main difference between the park in the 70s and the park today is the atmosphere. In the 70s the park was a magical place with magical, unique buildings and attractions in a forrest. Today the park is a slab of cement with generic buildings, fast food restaurants, and the same rides as every other park. It's lost it's identity, it's uniqueness, and it's magic. All of that could have been maintained while adding roller coasters.

[Daved Thomson]

There is a happy medium between the two, but to think that when those pictures were taken the biggest thrill ride in the park was Lightnin' Loops I think 9 out of 10 park goers today would be bored out of their minds by Great Adventure if it were still like that.

 

With attendance surpassing 3 million visitors for the first time for the 1978 season and remaining above the 3 million mark for almost every season of the 1980's, I have to disagree about the merits of having so many roller coasters. Great Adventure had much more "balance" to it back then and resulted in the park drawing a higher and more balanced attendance (families in attendance together, crazy teens on their own, senior citizens who came for the safari and the shows). Despite recent efforts to appeal more to families (and I believe, improve the balance of attractions), GA and Six Flags, in general, appeal more to the polar ends of the demographic spectrum rather than the middle.

 

While I have heard it said on here time and time again that Great Adventure changed "to keep up with the competition" and that theme parks began to focus "less on themes and more on thrills." If this is true, the revolving plethora of GA management made those choices from a very ill informed perspective.

 

I can remember when Larry Cochran arrived as VP, General Manager in 1978 and how important he said it would be for theme parks to focus on and draw from the increasingly "aging" American family. The single largest demographic group in the U.S. (the baby boomers) would reach middle age in the 1990s and appealing to them would be vital to continually increasing attendance. Themeing would become "more important" to parks, not less important, because themeing is appeals to the adults/seniors and traditionally was what drew "families" to theme parks (the concept of being able to enjoy a park together as a family unit). Cochran demonstrated the increased importance of themeing to an increasingly successful Great Adventure when the Spanish section surrounding Rolling Thunder was added in 1979.

 

A huge new attraction each season was "not" essential to increasing attendance over the prior season. While a simple flat ride (the Buccaneer) was added appropriately to what was then "Neptune's Kingdom" for the 1980 season, attendance that year surpassed that of both 1978 (Lightnin' Loops added) and 1979 (Rolling Thunder, Enterprise, Haunted Castle, Australian Section, and Pet-a-Pet). When the park added Roaring Rapids in 1981 (which, at the time, was the park's most costly investment in a new attraction), the park saw attendance decline below the 1980 level. Spending a great deal of money on a single attraction and expecting that attraction to increase attendance over the prior season's level is really naive. Growing a theme park requires good, cohesive themeing with a real concern for not just how many guests the new attraction may draw, but also the type of guest it will draw and how the new attraction will affect the balance of the parks attractions (i.e., the park's offerings overall).

 

Again, all we have to do is look to Disney and Busch to understand and see the success that has come with good balance and well thought out planning. The Busch parks didn't come near Great Adventure's attendance in the late 1970's and 1980's but now regularly approach and/or surpass GA in terms of attendance. Both Busch parks have added roller coasters, but when they have added these rides, they were always added consistent with the themeing in the section of the park in which they would be introduced. And, clearly, Busch management balanced roller coasters with other theme consistent attractions.

 

Without having seen recent demographics for GA's attendance, I am sure that the median guest age (as well as the median household income for guests) at the Busch parks are significantly higher than the median guest age and household income for GA. Simply put, because those parks offer a better balance of attractions, they do a much better job of attracting (the still very significant baby boomer) families (in attendance together) with money to spend, versus the likely younger (thus, likely to be less affluent) guest that visits GA.

[The Master]

I agree with your post Daved, through the 90s and half the 2000s SF used roller coasters as a band aid to their problems. While I do like many of the coasters at GAdv the park is very unbalanced compared to what it once was. The way GAdv is set up now is drawing mosty onnoxious kids and young adults with short attention spans, not familes. I rather GAdv have the type of visitors of the 1970s rather than the park goers of today which are a rougher crowd that sees GAdv as a place to go wild and trash. GAdv is not the only park this has happened to, Dorney also has under went such a negative change. However the current management is trying to slowly change and improve the situation the GAdv is in now. They have restored alot of stuff which I am happy to see but they also removed alot of classic rides and thew the park further out of balance. Regardless in some ways those may have been better times and in other ways they may have been worse compared to now.

Edited June 2, 2010 by The Master

[RobertDavid]

I just hope that with this new change in leadership Six Flags finally begins to create quality and brings back the individuality and character each park once had. Every time there is a leadership change the new management says they are going to do this, but something always happens to derail that thinking and they continue in the direction of tackiness and mediocrity.

 

While nothing can ever return the forrest that was needlessly destroyed, I will never give up hope that someday Great Adventure will once again become a world class theme park instead of a tacky amusement park.

[GAcoaster]

The problem is the definition of a thrill ride has changed.

 

Rides like Buccaneer, Roaring Rapids, and Enterprise were considered thrill rides when they debuted. Now, those are family rides to most people.

 

Now thrill ride is much more specialized and generally means coaster.

 

The best thing that could happen to Great Adventure and to Six Flags is for them to map out long term plans and stick to them no matter what. Instead of planning 10 months in advance for a new attraction, plan 10 years in advance for a lineup of attractions and improvements. Too many times plans change with every little whim in the industry and each person sticking their oar in to override the decisions that are best for the park.

 

Other parks, however, have been able to build a few great coasters while maintaining the park's atmosphere instead of building a lot of mediocre coasters with conflicting theming on top of each other and in the parking lots. At least half of the coasters at Great Adventure are not worth the eyesores that they are.

 

Which of our current coasters would you consider mediocre and/or unnecessary?

 

RMT- Our first and one of the best mine trains ever built?

Rolling Thunder- A nicely themed racing wooden coaster?

GASM- What had been the world's tallest and fastest roller coaster?

BTR- (once) highly themed coaster?

Skull Mountain- Highly themed (at least on the outside) coaster?

Kingda Ka- centerpiece of a themed section?

El Toro- centerpiece of a themed section?

 

The only coasters that were just kind of plopped down are Nitro (which was at least set in the woods), Medusa/Bizarro which while it doesn't fit the area it was built is hardly "mediocre", just it's theme (or lack thereof), and SUF which once again is hardly a mediocre coaster, just badly placed and themed.

 

The only other coasters I think you could say truly are mediocre are TDK and BBLT, but at least TDK has a theme and is in an appropriate are of the park and Blackbeard is one of those good filler family rides the park needs.

 

I think you could argue that GASM has outlived it's useful life and should have been removed but aside from that it's hard to say that any of the others should have been removed or are eyesores.

[scipiomask]

^ I agree! The only eyesores in the park are: A) the parking lot GASM is on top of, the American flag idea was a good idea for giants or people in airplanes, but from the ground it just looks sloppy, and the now abandoned simulator building; it was ugly in the first place but now that there's no theming whatsoever, and not even a ride anymore, it's just ugly.

 

My friend told me the problem with GADV is they're "obsessed with metal and industrial looks". Now, while I don't entirely agree with this, I can see his point. If you don't know the backstories of Batman: The Ride and the simulator building, it looks like GADV just plopped down a bunch of metal everywhere. Nitro's boring metal queue and station building don't help defeat his accusations - I feel that Movietown needs to be partially redone. It was never meant to be filled with the rundown buildings of Batman: The Ride AND The Chiller, it was just supposed to be Batman: The Ride. We need to give the area more of a general movie lot look, and not a run-down Gotham City look. I don't want Movietown to turn into another Six Flags "Gotham City".

[MarioSonic94]

In my opinion, the park's mediocre roller coaster happens to be Superman Ultimate Flight.

[Up_Up_and_Away]

In my opinion, the park's mediocre roller coaster happens to be Superman Ultimate Flight.

 

 

And now, back to our comments on the 1970s photos...

[Csogi]

I worked in the park during the late 70's and then purchased season passes in the mid 90's when my children were small. How the park changed during that time. In my opinion, the park was run down and dirty in the 90's (both inside the park and in the parking lot). The employees we dealt with were less then courteous (when you could understand them). What did we do? Instead of driving the 15 minutes to GA, we drove 3 hours to Hershey Park. The park was clean, well maintained, and the workers were pleasant and helpful. For a few years, we even purchased season passes to Hershey (sometimes staying at a hotel and others for a day trip). While the park did some expansion, they also kept the 'old standards'. This is why we took that 3 hour ride. The kids had their favorites, with a new exciting coaster coming in every few years. Hershey made it a place for "children of all ages" to enjoy. This is how GA was during the 70's. Sadly, it did not carry forward.

[The Master]

The ride op in the tilt a whirl photo looks thrilled .

[RobertDavid]

Which of our current coasters would you consider mediocre and/or unnecessary?

 

 

GASM is the biggest eyesore in the park, and not a good coaster at all. It's hardly worth keeping just because it used to be the world's tallest and fastest.

 

Skull Mountain is a VERY mediocre coaster in a rediculous looking square building poorly disguised as a mountain.

 

TDK is a VERY mediocre coaster in another ugly building.

 

SUF is a mediocre coaster that is not worth the long wait, and a huge eyesore in the parking lot.

 

Batman the Ride is an awful suspended coaster.

 

Kingda Ka is actually mediocre also, and a huge eyesore. You wait way too long just to go up one side and down the other. They wasted all that momentum just gliding back to the station. They could have actually attached a coaster. The only thing I will say for it is it has very appropriate theming.

[jomo56]

Isn't that Bobby Williams in the Swiss Bob picture?