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Mashable: By the time things enter the realm of legend, it can be difficult to divine what was true. To tell what actually happened.
"Action Park."
If you grew up near Northern New Jersey, the chances are pretty strong that the mere sight of those words is flooding your brain with feelings of dread, doom and possibly the memories of at least a few scars.
For the rest of you, here's the gist: In the years since it closed down in 1996, Action Park has earned a reputation as the most insane — and possibly the most dangerous — amusement park that ever existed. A lawless land that was ruled by drunk teenage employees, frequented by even drunker teenage guests, and filled with rides that seemed to defy even the most basic notions of physics and common sense.
Let's put it this way: The park had a waterslide that went in a complete loop.
One more time: A waterslide. That. Went. In. A. Complete. Loop.
Like many adults who visited Action Park decades ago, I find it impossible not to look back and think that at least some of what I remember and have heard in the subsequent years is a product of the snowballing effect of time and legend. Sure, things weren't as rubber-coated and insurance-obsessed as they are today. But still...
And so, I got together with a documentary crew from the video site Dailymotion, and we set out to answer a simple question: It couldn't all be true... could it? No amusement park could have really been this insane. This incredible. This bizarre. And yes, this fun.
Turns out, it was.
"Every story that you hear, any legend that you hear about it — it's all true. This is a place that it actually happened," Andrew Mulvihill, son of Action Park founder Eugene Mulvihill, and a guy who spent much of his teenage years working at the park, told me.
Click
here for Part 2.
15 Comments
siftbotThe thumbnail image for this video has been updated - thumbnail added by eric3579.
lurgeeI need a time machine toaster for the Alpine Slide.
lurgeehttp://weirdnj.com/stories/action-park/
chingalera*wildwestshow
siftbotAdding video to channels (Wildwestshow) - requested by chingalera.
chingalera*promote the insanity
siftbotPromoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued Thursday, August 29th, 2013 6:47am PDT - promote requested by chingalera.
Huntersays...Mt. Hood in Oregon has the Alpine Slide. Been going for 20 years. Upon further investigation, there are a LOT of these.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpine_slide#Alpine_Slide_Locations
uberzipThey have an alpine slide at one of the great wall sites near Beijing - it's really fun but pretty dangerous. The employees just yell at you to go faster too, which is pretty funny.
Fausticlesays...No... I have the world's most dangerous amusement park....
zzzzzzzziiiiip! Flubida flubida.
Trancecoach*related=http://videosift.com/video/The-Demise-of-the-Worlds-Most-Dangerous-Amusement-Park
siftbotThe Demise of the World's Most Dangerous Amusement Park has been added as a related post - related requested by Trancecoach.
SDGundamXOMG nostalgia! I lived not even 20 minutes from there when I was a kid. I almost got killed in the parking lot there on the 4th of July once when a firework exploded right after launch and sent fiery fragments out into the crowd (one of them smashed the windshield of the car next to me). I also remember totally wanting to go on the Cannonball loop but my parents wouldn't let me (in hindsight probably a good decision on their part).
Motorworld there was awesome--it was across the street from Action Park and I think run by the same people. They had these cage-enclosed go-karts tanks equipped with compressed-air tennis ball cannons and sensors that stopped the tanks temporarily if they got hit by a tennis ball. You could pay to drive the tanks around inside an enclosed arena or you could also shoot at the tanks from the outside of the arena using air-cannon turrets that required quarters to operate. Tons of fun.
Mostly, though, I went to the water park, which according to Wikipedia had the most casualties. I got a fair amount of scrapes from the waterslides and I can totally see how people could get seriously injured on some of them.
Esoogsays...Chattanooga is listed on that page as previously having an Alpine Slide. We went up there twice at night after they closed when I was in high school. They always left the shed with the sleds unlocked. We lost most of the skin on our shoulders and elbows after a couple runs. It was a blast to do during the day...it was terrifying at night without lights.
Mt. Hood in Oregon has the Alpine Slide. Been going for 20 years. Upon further investigation, there are a LOT of these.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpine_slide#Alpine_Slide_Locations
siftbotInfamous Action Park - Vernon, New Jersey Original Advert has been added as a related post - related requested by Trancecoach on that post.
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