Whenever I write about Great America, there are often comments from some of you good people that remember the park from its earliest days. Now, I must confess that I was a bit underwhelmed with what I found on my first visit in 1981, and I’m not one of those lunatics that expects a regional park to meet Disney standards. However, I felt that Marriott’s Great America fell short of the expectations set by the closest park to my Hometown, Six Flags Over Georgia. That in itself is worth exploring in this space one day, because there are many of you younger readers that may not be aware that the original Six Flags parks weren’t just coaster parks, but actual theme parks.
But I’m drifting, because this isn’t the time for anything but a fun trip to the past. I recently had some reels of Super 8MM film digitized, and the camera I used was with me on that first trip to the little park in Santa Clara. So for those that look back at that time with fondness, this one’s for you.
We’ll start with some fun old footage . . . but stick around to the end for recent parks news as well!
First up is that 1981 footage, which is silent like all of these videos. After a couple of establishing shots, I have the Demon, my favorite ride of the day. We next shift to the twin fumes of Loggers Run and Yankee Clipper, with a point of view ride on the latter. If you look in the background, there are glimpses of the triple Ferris wheel thingie, Sky Whirl. Finally, the Tidal Wave (aka Greased Lightning; you Knott’s folks know it as Montezuma’s Revenge) from the ground and from the gondola at sunset.
Fast forward to 1986, and I’m employed by the park as a photographer while studying at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco. But on one visit during a day off, I brought out the ol movie camera and a tripod. This reel begins with some increasing in speed driving scenes I don’t even remember, but is fun and only lasts 39 seconds. This is followed by The Edge, the park’s original drop ride. Note how riders end up on their backs before reorienting vertically when the vehicle drops below the ride track. Finally, it’s another POV of The De….. hold on. Let’s ensure everyone is up to speed on the camera I was using. Take a look at this.
Yep, I carried that contraption that would probably trigger a security alert from an airport X ray onto a looping roller coaster-attached to a tripod! These days I’ve had a train be stopped on a lift hill on three different coasters because some phool (n. phone phool. ex “that phool made them stop the ride”) had their phone out. This machine weighs about three pounds! A whole new world, indeed. In those days, though, they let me brace the tripod against the front of the car and cleared for dispatch. Madness!
Once again there was a glimpse of the Sky Whirl at the end of the Demon’s circuit, but I feel bad that I don’t have better footage for a ride several of you have referenced. As a small compensation I have a still I did for a night photography assignment.
Now let’s set the way back machine to 1980 for the oldest clip in this collection shot in Redwood City at Marine World when I was technically still on my 2 week vacation to California, a trip that has continued indefinitely. Included is a bit of the bird show, some sea lion antics, and then a sad memory with their orca. Had I been there a few days earlier, there would have been two orcas. Unfortunately one of the pair had recently died leaving his companion clearly mourning. To their credit, the trainers did not pressure him to perform as one can see in these few seconds that movement was lethargic, and they mentioned that he was doing things that weren’t in the show, maybe even that slow back swim in the footage below. Some say mammals other than humans don’t feel emotions, but I am not one of them. We conclude on a more upbeat mode with the late, great water ski show that breathed its last some years back.
That’s all I ever did here beside The Bay, but we could head south circa 1982. I went sans camera of any kind on my third visit to Disneyland in May of that year, my first as a semi-adult, 21 months into my 2 week vacation, but had the super 8 with me the next day at Universal Studios. After some scenes from the animal show are the highlights of the Tram Tour from that time: burning house, collapsing bridge, flood, Red Sea and Jaws. There’s some production going on that I think was a commercial or something, the Tram didn’t stop, so the imagery is less than clear (like my memory 36 years down the trail).
Encore? Sure. When my Dad announced a visit to Six Flags Over Georgia in 1968, I didn’t know what a Six Flags Over Georgia was. I’d heard of Disneyland of course; the guy on TV Sunday nights lived there. I hated the Dolenaga Mine Train at that tender age, and avoided coasters for 4 years. When jumping back in, though, your humble narrator went full tilt boogie riding the Great American Scream Machine in Atlanta, at the time of its construction the tallest, longest and fastest roller coaster on Earth. In 1981, a mere 10 months into my 2 week California vacation, I returned to the south for the first time, and tried a POV. Things got too rough on the hills, but at least I released the record button at those moments. After the coaster ride is footage from a San Francisco tourist helicopter the following week, but that concludes my park escapades.
Hope you enjoyed bouncing back to a more primitive time when phones didn’t have built-in cameras, and 3 minutes of silent film cost about nine 1980 dollars to purchase and develop. While we’re already gathered together, let’s take a look at Bay Park news.
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