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By the s the Chicago firm was doing park and carnival concessions and advertised complete Kiddieland packages. A contest on local TV brought the name Zoomerang. Mostly forgotten today, Ray had a tremendous influence on parks in the midth century.
Born John C. Ray, he started a business designing displays in Canada at age Meanwhile, he launched his own design studio and produced carnival shows, where he met a showgirl who became his wife. Park managers took note of his progressive ideas about colors and materials and began hiring him to update and design entire structures.
In a feature on painting tips, Jack explained that the traditional park colors of red, white and blue had been superseded by new hues like chartreuse, lemon and purplish maroon. In Jack moved to a San Diego suburb to open an office specializing in design and scenic work for amusement parks. He also leased Mission Beach Amusement Park five miles away to serve as a workshop where new ideas could be tested.
He renamed it Belmont as a tribute to his early design work at a park by that name in Montreal. With Zoomerang open, the Daffy Klub, a walk-through fun house between the Jack Rabbit and Racer coasters, was converted to 3-in-Line, a tic-tac-toe game played with five rubber balls rolled towards a grid of holes. The building itself was rechristened Pastime. On the other side of the Racer, about feet away, Jack Ray designed an upswept-roof refreshment stand in that survives mostly unchanged.
The Star stand was named for an adjacent Ferris wheel that had light bulbs strung in a star pattern. The main midway got an overhaul for A bridge would carry customers from the parking lot over traffic to a new entryway near the road, an outlandish mix of angles and overhangs, circles and spears.
From there, a new midway led past the pool to the Skooter ride. To the left, squeezed between the road and the pool, was a Turnpike ride. New for was another refreshment stand, the Novelty, this one between the Auto Race and Tower stand. Jack Ray designed it in a restrained style to complement the Sportland building, just a few steps away. The next year the Pippin coaster got an updated front and streamlined cars to match. The park had recently gotten a Round Up, which it called the Satellite, and keeping with the outer space theme, a Scrambler purchased for was named the Crazy Orbit.
The Star stand continues to impress with its upswept roof. The Henninger and McSwigan families continued to run the park effectively by agreeing to keep the park family-oriented without alcohol, gambling, and other undesirable activities, a tradition that has continued into the present day.
In the s and 70s Kennywood received additional competition from theme parks like Disneyland. To remain viable, Kennywood added a variety of new rides, including the Turnpike in Although the Thunderbolt started and ended on the same track that the Pippin had, the new coaster added a foot drop in the middle of the ride.
This renovation marked the first time that the mid-section of a rollercoaster had ever been completely redesigned. The Raging Rapids, which simulated a whitewater rafting trip, was added in Just two years later, Kennywood was named a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service, one of only two amusement parks to have received this honor. When it was first constructed, it held world records for the longest drop feet and the fastest speed 80 mph.
Featuring a foot drop into a pool of water, the Plunge was inspired by an old Kennywood ride, Luna Parks. Today Kennywood stretches over a massive ninety-two acres and is home to a total of forty-six rides that vary from wooden and steel roller coasters, to water rides, thrill rides, classic rides, dark rides, and even rides for younger children.
Thanks to the postwar Baby Boom, school picnics grew by leaps and bounds in the s. The park added many new rides, including the Hurricane, Looper, Rotor the first ride imported from Europe , the Wild Mouse and the Octopus. The '60s and '70s brought competition from Disneyland and other national theme parks.
Kennywood stepped up to the plate by adding signature rides like the Thunderbolt roller coaster dubbed King of Coasters by the New York Times in and in , the Log Jammer, the park's first million-dollar ride.
Later that summer, the Ghost Ship, a dark ride operating out of the former Dance Hall, burned to the ground. Despite firefighters battling the blaze that destroyed or damaged several other rides and buildings, the park continued operations! While Kennywood moved into the future in this era by adding its first steel roller coasters, highlighted by the Steel Phantom converted into the Phantom's Revenge in , the park cemented its legacy by being named a National Historic Landmark in Kennywood is one of only two amusement parks to be honored with the highest-level historic designation offered in the United States.
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