How many of you remember Palisades Amusement Park? we used to go several times a year from Yonkers...always a great time.....joe
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Yes indeed. The Cyclone Roller Coaster. My favorite as a kid.
John
never got a chance to use the pool.....but remember it well....
My parents first took me there, and then as a teenager, I used to take the bus to go swimming in their famous saltwater pool.
Grew up in Rutherford. Was there many times.
When I hear the name Palisades Park I think of Freddy Cannon.
Great amusement park and coaster! Once my girlfriend and I (age 16?) ran out of money on rides and those great milk shakes! Consequently, had no money for bus fare back to Port Authority or subway fare. We hiked to the George Washington Bridge and asked a policeman for subway carfare, walked across the bridge to Manhattan, then took the subway and el back to Woodhaven, Queens. Ah, youth! LOL!
Remember the jingle that saturated the radio airwaves?
"Palisades Amusement Park,
Swings all day and after dark."
My parents took me there many times. We would take the subway to 168th Street, and take the Public Service buses from their open air lot (before the GWB bus terminal had opened) across the bridge. As a city boy who could see the magical lights and roller coaster from across the Hudson in Riverside Park, going to Palisades was traveling to another world, full of trees and shady roads and private homes, so different from the Upper West Side. My favorite ride was the Wild Mouse.
Hey, tripleo, not just Freddie Cannon, but Cousin Bruce Morrow did live shows.
Never got there but I remember the great view of the park all lit up at night viewed from the west side of Manhatten..
Never went there but that jingle has been in my head for over 50 years.
We went to Rockaway Beach Playland.
When things are good why do they change ?
I grew up after they tore it down. What a shame!
You guys are all making me terribly envious. While I was growing up in Westchester, my grandparents had an apartment on riverside Drive. When we visited them, I could see that roller coaster across the river and wish I could go there.
On Tuesday evenings in the summer in the 1960's, we would walk over a couple of blocks to Riverside Drive Park and pick a spot with a clear view of the river to watch the weekly free fireworks show on the Hudson River. The twinkling lights of Palisades Amusement Park shone on the opposite shore. Radios would be playing music, people would be playing bongo drums and other instruments, there would be people on blankets or on lawn chairs, all waiting for the show to start.
Sadly, the fireworks show stopped forever when one evening (we were there) a stray firework fell onto the barge in the middle of the river and ignited the barge's entire stock of fireworks. It was a spectacular display, but I think there were some casualties, and the show never returned.
WOW!!!!! I didn't think anyone remembered Palisades Amusement park and the jingle!!!! I went there many times with my mom! Loved it. And then there was Rockaway Playland too! Good Times, Good Times!!!
And then there was Coney Island - end of three BMT and one IND subway lines. Has anyone else ridden on the horses at Steeplechase Park. My parents took movies of themselves on the parachute ride around 1940.
To get there, you could ride the McDonald Avenue trolley line under the el and sharing tracks with the South Brooklyn railroad.
I remember Rockaway Playland in the 1940's as a young child. Palisades always seemed a cleaner place than Coney. Rye, NY also had a nice amusement park that could be reached by a boat ride from Manhattan. Lots of good times!
Wow, stuff I haven't heard about in decades. I only remember going to Rye Playland and Coney Island. I think Palisades was gone by the time I was old enough to go on my own and I never made it out to Rockaway.
Oh almost forgot there was also a small amusement park around Bartow Ave or Co-op city in the Bronx, what was that called?
@ChooChoo1972 posted:Oh almost forgot there was also a small amusement park around Bartow Ave or Co-op city in the Bronx, what was that called?
Freedom land?
For me, Downa Shore was Atlantic City and Ocean City. I miss Million Dollar Pier, Central Pier, Steel Pier, Steeplechase Pier...
Mitch
@MIKATT1 posted:Freedom land?
Yes. Freedom Land. I went there a few times with my family.
@mlaughlinnyc posted:And then there was Coney Island - end of three BMT and one IND subway lines. Has anyone else ridden on the horses at Steeplechase Park. My parents took movies of themselves on the parachute ride around 1940.
To get there, you could ride the McDonald Avenue trolley line under the el and sharing tracks with the South Brooklyn railroad.
I rode the Steeplechase Park roller coaster horses once in the 1950's with my father. I was too small to ride by myself so I was placed on my father's horse together with him. In retrospect, that was incredibly dangerous to do, but safety precautions were pretty much non-existent back then.
At the end of the ride, a clown stood by with a paddle ready to whack the riders on their rear ends as they got off the horses.
After that, there were lots of rides to go on inside the huge ancient glass and iron Steeplechase Park pavilion.
@West Side Joe posted:Yes. Freedom Land. I went there a few times with my family.
I lived right near there on City Island. Freedomland was right where Co-op City is now in Baychester. It was shaped and set up like each of the states and ran into financial trouble right from the get go. Plans to expand it never happened.
John
I still remember the Chicago firemen
Mommy and Daddy take my hand,take me out to Freedom land.......
Freedom Land,It's ring a ding grand......
All great memories of our youth and happier times! :-)
My dad liked going to Coney Island, as well. I think he liked Coney Island for the hotdogs and beer, and Palisades (which was closer to Hoboken, where we lived), for the French fries in those conical cups and beer! I definitely loved the salt water wave pool. Oh, and tossing ping-pong balls into little fish bowls to win a goldfish.
@West Side Joe posted:I rode the Steeplechase Park roller coaster horses once in the 1950's with my father. I was too small to ride by myself so I was placed on my father's horse together with him. In retrospect, that was incredibly dangerous to do, but safety precautions were pretty much non-existent back then.
At the end of the ride, a clown stood by with a paddle ready to whack the riders on their rear ends as they got off the horses.
After that, there were lots of rides to go on inside the huge ancient glass and iron Steeplechase Park pavilion.
Remember it well, also road the horse coaster with my father. The big wooden slide inside with the spinning disks at the bottom.
Never went, but remember seeing the Ferris wheel from the NY side.
Thanks for posting Joe.
Tom
@ChooChoo1972 posted:Wow, stuff I haven't heard about in decades. I only remember going to Rye Playland and Coney Island. I think Palisades was gone by the time I was old enough to go on my own and I never made it out to Rockaway.
Living nearby in Scarsdale, I was a frequent flyer on the Dragon Coaster. In the 40's just after the war, my parents took us to the beach there, and I remember seeing the steamer from New York at the pier. We went their in high school. In the 80's we took our kids to Playland and two of the three girls went with me on the Dragon Coaster. Playland exopects to be open this year and I believe the dragon will still be eating riders.
I especially remember the boat ride to Rye Playland from Manhattan passing under the Hellgate Bridge.
As long as we are talking river boats (and with the moderators' indulgence), who remembers the Hudson River Day Line Alexander Hamilton side-paddle-wheel steamboat that ran from 42nd Street to 125th Street, then to Bear Mountain and West Point? We took it several times. What a wonderful day on the water. And in the center of the boat, there was an open gallery where you could see the huge piston rods sliding back and forth as they turned the paddle wheel crankshaft.
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@West Side Joe posted:As long as we are talking river boats (and with the moderators' indulgence), who remembers the Hudson River Day Line Alexander Hamilton side-paddle-wheel steamboat that ran from 42nd Street to 125th Street, then to Bear Mountain and West Point? We took it several times. What a wonderful day on the water. And in the center of the boat, there was an open gallery where you could see the huge piston rods sliding back and forth as they turned the paddle wheel crankshaft.
My mother took us to Bear Mountain on that boat when I was in elementary school. Unfortunately I was not yet old enough to know about cylinders and pistons and why that funny quadrangle on the top of such boats was going back and forth.
Quadrangle???
By "quadrangle" I think he means the diamond - shaped linkage like on top of this boat:
That was part of the linkage driving the paddle wheels. But I don't think the Alexander Hamilton had that.
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Better get this thread back on Palisades Park and away from boats! :-)
@Joe Connor posted:Remember the jingle that saturated the radio airwaves?
"Palisades Amusement Park,
Swings all day and after dark."
"Ride the Coaster/ get cool/ in the waves of the pool/You'll have fun, so/come on over!"
It may be why today I have a kayak, a canoe, and an aluminum runabout, but the boat ride at Palisades Park was a must for me when I was a kid! I was terrified of the wood coaster!
@Craftech posted:I lived right near there on City Island. Freedomland was right where Co-op City is now in Baychester. It was shaped and set up like each of the states and ran into financial trouble right from the get go. Plans to expand it never happened.
John
There have been some good books written on Freedomland, It closed when I was like a year old. I have read several books about it, and I have heard different theories about why it didn't make it. The initial construction ran long and the pavement from what I hear was still soft on opening day,was one of the funnier stories.
.Part of the problem it had was for a city attraction, it was relatively hard to get to, you had to take a subway and then a bus to get there, unlike with the world's fair where the city built extensions to the site, there was no attempt to do this (whether it would have been practical, I leave to the experts, I don't think you could have expanded the number 6 there, and building a branch off of the 5 train would likely have been impossible to justify). Maybe a train station on what is now Amtrak and a shuttle bus would have worked, could ride from Penn Station to there.
The other thing I heard was that Moses used his clout to try and keep the park from getting financing and that caused problems with the construction of it, he didn't want a rival to the world's fair (sad how both of them ended up busts).
My guess is what did it in was changing demographics, the middle class were leaving NYC by then, the area around it (Baychester) was changing, and that likely took away a significant part of what could of been their audience.
Lot of Nostalgia here, many of the parks have been gone a long time. Coney Island kind of hung on as a shadow of itself, it still is nowhere near what it was in its heyday but is still fun, and as a train watcher it is fun to look at the subways and recall the history of how they were built, the hotel that was put too close to the sea and had to be dragged across the street and so forth
. Palisades park was one of those ironies, it actually did well financially from what I hear but fell value to the land being worth a lot more than the business, which is what happened to Rockaway Park as well (ah, the Cinerama coaster, guaranteed headache!). Most of the amusement parks that fell ended up dying for that reason, the land just became too valuable. I believe Rye Playland is now a county park, so it isn't likely to fall to a developer.
@pdxtrains posted:"Ride the Coaster/ get cool/ in the waves of the pool/You'll have fun, so/come on over!"
You can still listen to it on youtube.
@joe krasko posted:How many of you remember Palisades Amusement Park? we used to go several times a year from Yonkers...always a great time.....joe
Swings all day and after dark. You'll have fun, so come on over.
@bluelinec4 posted:I still remember the Chicago firemen
Fascinating history of Freedomland. I didn't realize Co-op city was built on the same land.
@West Side Joe posted:By "quadrangle" I think he means the diamond - shaped linkage like on top of this boat:
That was part of the linkage driving the paddle wheels. But I don't think the Alexander Hamilton had that.
From the photos, I'm sure you are right about the Hamilton. I wouldn't have noticed it when I was on the boat. I did notice them on some boats and definitely recall wondering what they were.
@bigkid posted:Lot of Nostalgia here, many of the parks have been gone a long time. Coney Island kind of hung on as a shadow of itself, it still is nowhere near what it was in its heyday but is still fun, and as a train watcher it is fun to look at the subways and recall the history of how they were built, the hotel that was put too close to the sea and had to be dragged across the street and so forth
The coaster on Cinerama was one of the best that I've ridden. Wikipedia says "The film includes POV scenes of the Atom Smasher roller coaster from Rockaways' Playland, "
@mlaughlinnyc posted:The coaster on Cinerama was one of the best that I've ridden. Wikipedia says "The film includes POV scenes of the Atom Smasher roller coaster from Rockaways' Playland, "
Tomorrow I'll try to remember to post something about the coaster at Saltair Beach, where we derailed with my mother watching from the ground.
Almost 60 years later the TV & radio jingle is still burned into my mind.
Palisades has the rides
Palisades has the fun
Come on over
Shows and dancing are free
So's the parking, so gee,
Come on over
Palisades coast to coast
Where a dime buys the most
Palisades Amusement Park
Swings all day and after dark
Ride the coaster
Get cool in the waves of the pool
You'll have fun
So Come on over.
This Wikipedia link has a short, yet interesting account of the park's history.
As a young man fresh out of college and working as a 9-to-5 professional, I also ran the weekend life guard staff for the Winston Towers pool - the high rise condominiums built on the site. I had more fun there that at the former amusement park 
@mlaughlinnyc posted:From the photos, I'm sure you are right about the Hamilton. I wouldn't have noticed it when I was on the boat. I did notice them on some boats and definitely recall wondering what they were.
A Walking Beam.
FWIW - Rye Beach Playland is a national historical monument. It was the 2nd amusement park in the country (afer Kennywood) and the first planned amusement park. And, AFAIK, the NY Rangers still practice at the ice rink there.
It seems there's more to the history of Palisades Amusement park than most know. The beginning of this article about Eddie Mannix ties the park's owners, the Schenk Brothers, to the beginning of MGM studios. Who knew?
I have a recollection of my mother and grandmother taking me to the circus - I believe it was at Palisades Amusement Park in the early 1950's. I don't remember anything about the circus, but I do recall walking alongside a train car right outside the Park lettered "Circus Train" on the side. That was the first circus train I ever saw.......and regretfully the last circus train I saw.
Anyone recall seeing a "circus train" at PAP?
Geez, you guys are lucky.
I grew up in a sterile, upper middle- class suburban housing development, and all I had was a cul-de-sac and a bicycle. That was it. There was no "town" or "downtown." Just 1950s and 60s strip shopping malls, five miles away. Oh yea, and about six miles away, . . . there was a bowling alley. :-(
There was no such thing as public transportation.
Mannyrock
@Mannyrock posted:Geez, you guys are lucky.
I grew up in a sterile, upper middle- class suburban housing development, and all I had was a cul-de-sac and a bicycle. That was it. There was no "town" or "downtown." Just 1950s and 60s strip shopping malls, five miles away. Oh yea, and about six miles away, . . . there was a bowling alley. :-(
There was no such thing as public transportation.
Mannyrock
Same here. Almost an identical description of childhood. Life was terrific. And 15 miles away was PAP.
I grew up in White Plains, I have been to Playland in Rye 100 times, love the Dragon Coaster,,We had a place in Belle Harbor on 139 st and Beach Channel Drive so I went to Rockaway Playland during the summers..
"Skip the bother and skip the fuss, take a Public Service bus.
Public Service sure is great, it takes you right up to the gate!"
Another little tune, ear worm, from the AM radio.
Heard the jingle on the TV a thousand times, parents never took us there. I did bid on that guy - I see now who won.
Jim
