Past amusements of Old Orchard Beach, White Way and Palace Playland

[laffinthedark]

Old Orchard had some of New England's finest amusements prior to the July 1969 fire. I rode them all in 1961. See for yourself in our new post:
http://laffinthedark.com/articles/OOB/oob_1.htm

[mrceagle]

Great article. I didn't know that the clown on the arcade building had been around so long. I really wish Palace had a dark ride. The Fun-house isn't anything amazing.

[laffinthedark]

Thank you mrceagle. You should have seen the Palace Playland building back in 1961. It was huge. It housed several indoor adult rides and kiddie rides. The building also supported the Fun House and VooDoo Hut which fronted out in the midway. After all the walk-though fun houses were destroyed by fire, there were no companies still building them. Plus, I think those fun houses were grandfathered in terms of the obstacles they had. I doubt they'd get operators' permits today. Don't get me wrong -- they were all safe. It's just that you had to use common sense to get through them; something that's lacking in today's society. The Noah's Ark across from Playland was both challenging and startling. Plus it ended with a spiral slide. I give Kennywood credit for rebuilding its Ark using state-of-the-art stuff but OOB's was raw, old-time fun. You saw the big fun house behind Noah's Ark in our story? As enjoyable as it was was, it could never exist today.

[mrceagle]

So true. People do seem to lake Common sense. in turn so much has been lost. I miss the days when you could watch a commercial without some stooped disclaimer on how the toy doesn't move on itself or that a hot beverage may be hot. I have been told that Whalom waled off some of its stunts in their fun house.

It did seem like the area had more personality then. I am discouraged by the amount of divey bars that are in the area.