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Overview
Northeast Ohioans who grew up visiting amusement parks in the 1940s through 1970s will cherish the memories captured in this book, which includes Euclid Beach Park, Luna Park, Geauga Lake Park, Puritas Springs Park, White City, Memphis Kiddie Park, Geneva-on-the-Lake, and others.
Those boisterous, colorful, exciting meccas fulfilled the fantasies of entertainment-hungry Clevelanders. Each park had its own personality, its own alluring smells and sounds. At Euclid Beach it was the stately sycamores and the unforgettable odor of the lake and of damp earth beneath the pier. At Puritas Springs, the odor of warm oil on the chain of the Cyclone coaster. The chatter of Monkey Island at Luna Park, the sharp reports of the Shooting Gallery at Geauga Lake.
David and Diane Francis, authors of several books on amusement park history, including “Cedar Point: The Queen of American Watering Places,” draw on their own extensive archive and on the memories of fellow park buffs to create a vivid, nostalgic portrait of days gone by.
Editorials
Alliance Review
Lavishly illustrated with well-produced black-and-white photos.— Thomas Harper
Amusement Today
Another aspect that adds a surprisingly personal dimension to the text is the inclusion of a series of quotes from park employees and guests.Cleveland Jewish News
Chronicles the history and trends of Cleveland amusement parks with 192 beautiful black-and-white photos, dating from the 1890s to the 1970s. The reader also gets vivid firsthand accounts of people who either worked at the parks or frequented them.— Michael Goroff
Cleveland Scene
Gives a photo-filled history of all the local parks that existed in the 1940s through 1970s . . . Methodically details the racial and class obstacles that amusement parks crashed through during their peak years.— Michael Gallucci