Letter
to the
Editor
Morgan
Hughes
remembered
Dear Editor:
Recent coverage of the death of Morgan
Hughes centered on his contributions to auto racing, and
rightfully so, but that’s not what brought him to
our area. When he purchased Williams Grove Park and Speedway
in 1971 it was the height of his career in the amusement
park field.
Following
his service
in World War II he came to this country and became a pioneer
in the business of importing amusement rides from Europe.
Many of what are now standard rides, found in most parks
and carnivals, were introduced to America by Morgan
Hughes.
Over the decades he supplied numerous World’s Fairs,
including New York in 1964, Knoxville in 1982, and New Orleans in 1984. After
having been closely associated with New Jersey’s legendary Palisades Park,
his dream of owning his own amusement park was realized with the purchase of
Williams Grove, one of America’s oldest parks, dating
at least
to the 1870s, and possibly earlier.
Almost immediately disaster hit, with the Agnes flooding of 1972, but he cleaned
up, fixed up, and persevered. The classic 1933 wooden roller coaster, originally
named Zipper, but rechristened Cyclone with the installation of trains from Palisades,
would, over the years, take many a hit. A succession of storms, floods, even
major vandalism, when a hot-wired truck was driven through it, might have led
a more hard-nosed businessman to close or even raze it, but Mr. Hughes always
found a way to get it up and running again. As other coasters in other parks
fell to time and progress, the Cyclone/Zipper remained running, thanks to Mr.
Hughes.
Williams
Grove is
one of
very few
amusement parks to operate in the 19th, 20th, and 21st
centuries, and when the time came in recent years to devote
his attention to the Speedway, the Cyclone/Zipper was one
of the
oldest remaining roller coasters in the country. It wasn’t offered for sale in last year’s
auction,
and still
holds its
ground, where Morgan Hughes had continued to maintain and
improve it almost to the end.
While his
contributions
are little
known outside
the industry,
Morgan Hughes was, in his way, as much a pioneer of today’s
theme parks
as Walt
Disney,
and he
will be missed, both here and abroad.
J. W. Green
Carlisle, Pa.
Cartoon
by: Bubba Flint
Editorial
Fire:
an
industry menace
Fire!
This is
one four-letter word that every amusement park operator
dreads to hear. Fire-related disasters were an all-too
common occurrence in the early days of the industry due
to the fact that most buildings and ride structures were
composed of wood and other highly combustible materials
while integrated fire suppression systems were unheard
of.
In many
instances,
a small fire would spread quickly, unimpeded by the limited
firefighting technology of the day. Very often, entire
operations were lost such as Coney Island’s
sprawling
Dreamland (1911) and Steeplechase Park (1908). Despite
being located over water, pier-based amusement parks were
particularly vulnerable. Many of the Southern California
coastal piers like the Venice Pier (1920) and Ocean Park
Pier (1924) all vanished in dramatic conflagrations.
Forest Park Highlands in St. Louis was
destroyed by a monstrous inferno that leveled the park
in 1963 while Idora Park suffered a devastating 1984 blaze
that began in the darkness of the Old Mill ride. A single
spark from a welder’s
torch ignited a fire that destroyed not only that ride, but also claimed one-third
of Idora’s signature attraction, the Wildcat wooden roller coaster. This
event directly led to the park’s demise later that
year.
While many
fires are relatively innocent though tragic accidents,
there are those that are deliberately set. Some are attributed
to so-called “insurance
jobs” while others are more disturbing because they are nothing more than ‘entertainment’ for
deranged
and/or mean-spirited individuals. Whether called pyromaniacs
or arsonists, the label is irrelevant.
Already
this year,
two historic sites fell victim to arson: Conneaut Lake
Park’s
100-year-old Dreamland Ballroom, and the classic Scenic Railway wooden roller
coaster at England’s dormant Dreamland. While a 19-year-old
delinquent
has been charged at Conneaut, the U.K. culprit remains
at large.
I cannot
fathom
why someone
would expend
the effort to destroy something created solely
to bring
joy into the world? It makes no sense whatsoever. In my
opinion, such deplorable crimes against history should
be punished to the fullest extent of the law ...
and then
some.
—Scott Rutherford
