Of Corn and Fun

by

Lauren Roberts

                                                                                     

When the words “Coney Island” are mentioned the first thought that comes to mind, even for those who have never been to the place or even the state, is “New York” But there is a second Coney Island, one of which I’d never heard until I bought this bookmark on eBay a couple of years ago: the one in Cincinnati, Ohio.

No doubt anyone who lives in the Midwest thinks me foolish. But discovering things like this is the best thing about writing this column. I may  not get an in-depth education in what I write about, but I sure gain a lot of pop culture information.

The truth is I have no idea why an ear of corn was chosen for the design of this park’s bookmark souvenir. It’s not “Corn-y Island,” after all. And an inquiry to the park elicited no answer. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that the park is in Ohio, and corn is the state’s second most valuable agricultural crop (behind soybeans).

Coney Island is in fact an amusement park located in “Cincinnati’s Playland” on the banks of the Ohio River. It began as a 400-tree, twenty-acre apple farm which James Parker purchased for $2,500 in 1866. Soon thereafter some local businessmen rode by on horseback and asked if they could rent the place for a private picnic whose participants would arrive by steamboat. Parker quickly realized more profits could be made by renting out his land for picnics than by growing apples. He also added a dining hall, dancing hall, bowling alley, and mule-powered merry-go-round. As the apple trees died, he replaced them with maple trees (which still shade the grounds). And Parker’s Grove, as it was then known, soon became a popular local destination.

In 1886, he sold the land for $17,500 to the Ohio Grove Corporation, a group headed by two steamboat captains, William and Malcolm McIntyre, who planned to use it to encourage travel on their boats. They renamed the park Ohio Grove, the Coney Island of the West. The name was chosen specifically to link the park with its more famous namesake in New York. It opened on June 21, 1886 with a steamboat delivering the first guests to the park. Hoping for wide appeal, it was declared to be “Cincinnati’s Moral Resort,” safe for women and children. It hadn’t changed much from the time Parker owned it—picnicking, dancing, refreshment stands, and fireworks were the entertainment.

It opened on June 21, 1886. The first guests came by boat, a lucrative arrangement for the McIntyre brothers since the boat made four runs a day at a cost of fifty cents per passenger, the price including admission. Within a year, the Ohio Grove part of the name was dropped and the park became known as Coney Island.

In 1889, the Coney Island Company, led by a man named Commodore Lee Brooks, took over the park. Brooks was already wealthy, having made his money in tobacco, retail, trolleys, and steamboats. Neighboring farms were purchased and the park’s size increased; one of its most notable features, Lake Como, was added on the site of a former cornfield in 1893, and it became the focal point for many of the park’s early amusements including the Giant Swing Circle, Shoot the Chutes, and rowboats.

Just before the turn of the century, one of the region’s first movie theatres was added, as was a wood Ferris wheel and an early simulation of a railroad trip. And each year brought more new rides. In the early years of the twentieth century, a Figure-8 rollercoaster was added, and in 1904, Lake Como was enlarged. The years 1911-1913 saw the additions of a Dip the Dips rollercoaster, and the Little Dipper though the latter was delayed by flooding of the Ohio River.

The park sold again in 1924. The new owners, led by George Schott who would run the park with his brother Edward, spent one million dollars on improvements, increasing the park’s size to 120 acres, adding more rides and a new “kiddie-land” with scaled-down rides. In addition to building a new boat that held not only 4,000 passengers but also a ballroom, cafeteria, squeal arcade, arcade games, souvenir stands, and refreshment counters, they also built a famous entrance gate for arriving passengers, a wide grassy mall between the lake and the river, and a car park to accommodate the increasing number of guests arriving by automobile. One major feature was Sunlite Pool, the largest recirculating swimming pool in the world, holding over three million gallons of water ragning from six inches to ten feet. It could hold up to 10,000 swimmers.

In 1926, the park, for the first time, used the title “America’s finest amusement park.” It had reason. Two new rollercoasters were introduced: the Wildcat and the Twister. Shortly thereafter came the hand-carved three-row carousel as well as Bluebeard’s Castle (a fun house). A new water ride, the  Cascades, made its debut in 1928.

By the end of the decade, Coney Island had become one of the largest amusement parks in the country. Then it ran up against the Great Depression. It survived (unlike its competitor, Chester Park), but it wasn’t until the mid-thirties that success again reared its head, though it had another challenge, nature-made, before that happened.

Recognizing its location on riverbanks as risky, the park took special precautions each winter to deal with rising flood waters. But in 1937, one of Ohio’s largest floods hit Coney Island, submerging it in twenty-eight feet of water. There was considerable discussion among the board of directors as to whether to rebuild, but they did, using labor that, due to the Depression, had become relatively inexpensive.

Only three months and $300,000 later, Coney Island reopened. Old wooden buildings were replaced with Art Deco-style structures reinforced with steel foundations. And fans returned—until World War II reached America. Gas rationing made the drive difficult, and the Island Queen also suffered from fuel shortages though the park appealed to the rationing board to keep the boat operating as an essential “morale booster.”

By the time the war was nearing an end, Coney Island’s adult rides included the Wildcat, the Laff-in-the-Dark, Tumble Bug, Flying Scooter, Dodgem, Flying Tigers airplane swing, Carousel, Clipper roller coaster, the Showboat fun house, Moon Rocket, Cuddle Up, Whip, Ferris Wheel, Lost River and Boats and Canoes in Lake Como. Expansion soon resumed, new attractions added, and older rides were improved or replaced. The year 1947 appeared to be a success until after the closing when the famous Island Queen, in a terrible accident, burnt to the water and nineteen people were killed. This ship, connected to the park since the beginning, was not replaced due to cost.

Despite that, the park continued to regain its popularity while others died. The reason lay mostly with the owners who continued to pump money into new rides and exquisite landscaping. (Walt Disney actually visited the park in the early 1950s to get ideas for what would eventually become Disneyland.) Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Coney Island remained a favorite vacation for families in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, where the marketing department focused its efforts.

Improvement continued, but one sad development for park lovers was the removal of the Wildcat in 1965. The year before flooding had again submerged the park under fourteen feet of water. What had been the park’s most popular ride, the Wildcat, was replaced with a modern sky ride that traveled from one end of the mall to the other.  

In 1968, Fess Parker, an actor known for his role as television’s Davy Crockett, announced plans to build his own theme park in northern Kentucky, not far from Cincinnati. It was potentially serious competition, and Coney Island’s owners decided to go ahead with plans for a new theme park. They sold Coney Island to Taft Broadcasting, a local company known for its Hanna Barbera cartoon characters. Taft’s interest was in increasing exposure for its television programs, and the money gave the park’s former owners the financial ability to build a new park, named Kings Island, on 1,600 acres northeast of Cincinnati. The park’s last year in its original location was 1971; it was a season-long party that drew 2.75 million visitors.

The smaller rides were disassembled and moved to Kings Island. But others didn’t make it including the Sunlite Pool, which Taft continued to operate. An attempted sale failed, and Taft eventually reopened the picnic groves in 1973, then added a private tennis club in 1974. They also renovated and rebuilt some rides and an old miniature golf course. Old Coney, as it was now called, got a substantial lift in 1984 when the Riverbend Music Center opened on a 15-acre parcel donated by the park. It features a lattice-work structure somewhat reminiscent of a roller coaster support structure, and is designed to withstand the perennial flooding.

Improvements continued. In 1985, the remains of the old Moonlite Gardens were restored as an outdoor dance hall, the parking lot was expanded, Lake Como was re-contoured, the golf course renovated, and the old games building reopened. Most importantly, the name Coney Island was restored. Two years later, Great American Communications purchased Taft Broadcasting and, realizing the Coney Island could never be Coney Island without rides, began rebuilding them, centering them around the lake as they were before the 1920s. Since then and through even more management changes, the park has continued to build itself back to its reputation despite regular flooding. The Sunlite Pool is thriving, rides continue as does dancing at Moonlite Gardens. Each year, more rides, more thrills are added.

I still don’t know why an ear of corn is a souvenir from this amusement park, but I like it, corn-y (or “coney”) as it may be.

Bookmark specifications: Coney Island
Dimensions: Card: 3 1/2" x 2 1/2" (card); bookmark: 3" x 1/2"
Material: Metal
Manufacturer: Coney Island
Date: Unknown
Acquired: eBay


Almost since her childhood days of Mother Goose, Lauren has been giving her opinion on books to anyone who will listen. That “talent” eventually took her out of magazine writing and into book reviewing in 2000 for an online review site where she cut her teeth (as well as a few authors). Stints as book editor for her local newspaper and contributing editor to Booklist and Bookmarks magazines has reinforced her belief that she has interesting things to say about books. Lauren shares her home with several significant others including three cats, 1,300 bookmarks and approximately 2,000 books that, whether previously read or not, constitute her to-be-read stack. She is a member of the National Books Critics Circle (NBCC) as well as a longtime book design judge for Publishers Marketing Association’s Benjamin Franklin Awards. Contact Lauren.