Chapter 1: What historical context surrounds amusement parks and their origins?
Hey weirdos, I'm Ash. And I'm Alayna. And you're listening to Morbid Bitch. Whoa, you are, bitch. I changed it up, bitch. Let's go. Good morning, good afternoon, good night. You could be driving to work, home from work, picking up your kid. Doing laundry. Going to sleep. Just chilling. Picking your nose. Yeah. Farting. I hope you're doing all those things. Simultaneously.
Driving to and from work at the same time is crazy. While picking up your kid. Yeah. That's a lot. I sounded like Josh. You did. You know what really rips? Driving to and from work, bro. Honestly, if you're not listening to Josh. Josh. It's J-A-W-S-H on TikTok and Instagram. I think you can find him. But we love Josh. We love Josh. We love Josh. We love his hottest homie.
We changed our husband's contacts to my hottest homie because of Josh and his hottest homie. Because of Josh. He's delightful. I love him. He will tell you what really rips. Yeah, he's just literally the most positive person, and he's always just telling you what rips in life. So if you're looking for something that just rips, he will show you to romanticize the small moments of life. Truly.
Because he's doing nothing but. Yeah. By the way. Everything rips. Today what ripped for him and for us is that it's fucking Friday the 13th. Yeah. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. And then tomorrow is Valentine's Day. Yeah. What a fucking weekend we have ahead of us. What a one-two punch. I'm going to see Chicago this weekend. That's fun. And I'm going to lose my head. I'm going to lose my head.
I'm going to lose my head. I've never seen Chicago, first of all. That's going to be great. And I'm going to see Whitney from Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.
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Chapter 2: What are the common causes of amusement park accidents?
She's playing Roxy. Damn. And I'm so fucking excited. I'm excited for you. Thank you. What are you doing this weekend? Going to the Science Museum in Boston. Okay. With the kids. That's the most us thing ever. I'm like, I'm going to New York City for the weekend. And you're like, I'm going to the Science Museum with my children. Yep. I love that. This will come out after, so don't worry.
Nobody will find us. Nobody will find us. you never know you never want to say your location right when you're there no that's what we are here to teach you yeah little tip from me to you i don't post about shit until after i finished it yep and you should too all of you listening yep um because the world is really fucking crazy yeah right now it's the world is um probably burning A little bit.
Yeah. I think it's what I am hoping. We're going to rise from the ashes. Yeah. Like I hope it's burning because fire is cleansing. Agreed. And we're going to start anew. I love it. I think we're going to burn it all down. We're going to start with way less pedophiles. That'd be dope.
And way more chill motherfuckers who want to protect kids and don't want to be shitheads to each other and hateful and divisive. Those are my top two things that I want in the new life. Yeah. That's all I'm looking for. In this new world. Those are my New Year's resolutions. I hope that the system does in fact crash. Yeah.
That there's less pedophiles and more cool people who want to protect kids. Yep. That's it. I'm for that. It's so simple. Honestly, that should be, and I know that there's going to be people that are angry at us for saying that, but I can't fathom how you can find something wrong with that. How could you want the system to burn right now? It's been in place since 1776. No.
How could you want less pedophiles? That's something we should all be able to agree on. I think that's the least controversial thing I have ever said in my life is we should have less pedophiles. Somehow people will find controversy. But here's the thing. Our listeners? No. Our listeners? No. They're not going to. You guys aren't going to find. It's the bots. The bots will find controversy.
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Chapter 3: How did the Derby Racer roller coaster accidents unfold?
Yeah, for sure. Oh, my God. But you guys listening, you get it. I'm probably not the first person to ever say this, but God, I hope I am. It's the bots and the ops. There you go. That came to me. That came to you. That came to me up here in this noggin. Well, you know what? Tell me. In the spirit of being crazy, being kooky, let's talk about amusement park disasters.
You're going to ruin my fucking life like that? You would. Honestly, this wasn't even my idea. You would ruin my life.
dave our beloved dave beloved david had this idea and i said hell yeah brother it's a great idea yeah except i thought here's the thing about this show one of us sitting on one of these couches despises amusement parks with her entire i bet you can't decide the other one of us would literally go to an amusement park every day to be amused That sounds horrible.
Wow, so you really let them know that. We didn't even give that one second to land. I mean, I think people know. No, I know. I'm kidding. I think people know by now. We're going to be talking, well, we have two of these. Okay. Today we're going to be talking about independent parks. Okay. So we're not going to be talking about, you know. The big ones. The biggies. My faves.
We're going to be talking about some independent parks. And this is all just things that happened. This isn't us having opinions on how they're run or anything like that. No, I don't even know how they're run. These are just things that have happened that have been reported on. And let's start in the way back, shall we?
So this first one, I'm going to do my absolute best to not butcher the pronunciation. But when we get there, we get there. And we're going to see what we do, okay? We're going to see how we handle it. Okay. Okay. So as early as the 14th century... That's a long ass time ago. Long time. People have always loved to attend like big gatherings with other people.
They love to combine those gatherings with music, food, performances. Culture. Explicitly for the sake of entertainment and enjoyment. We've all needed that forever. I love entertainment and enjoyment. For example... In, and here I go with this pronunciation. I believe in you. Lingbutarbek. Not sure. Denmark. And this is in a place called, here comes another one. Oh, there's more?
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Chapter 4: What tragic incidents occurred at the Big Dipper roller coaster?
Here comes another one. Hold on. Dyerhavsvakken. Dyerhavsvakken in Denmark. Sure. That translates, Dyerhavsvakken translates to Animal Park Hill. Oh. It has been entertaining guests for nearly 450 years. Initially. That's insane. Long time.
Initially with clowns and animal shows and music, then with mechanical rides, and eventually with modern thrill rides and roller coasters commonly associated with like modern day amusement parks that we think of.
And while it's fair to say that like amusement parks that we think of now like modern ones of the last century or so can trace at least some of their roots to like fairs and carnivals of like the Middle Ages. Mm-hmm. Their real point of origin can be found in the mid-19th century, quote-unquote, pleasure gardens of London. Not pleasure gardens. Not pleasure gardens.
I feel like they should have workshopped that one. So these are not like the sprawling parks filled with mechanical rides that we are thinking of right now. What happens at a pleasure garden? Pleasure gardens. And here's the thing.
There's a lead from these to the modern day parks that we're thinking of, but obviously there was a branch off of who they were catering to and what they were catering. But the same idea was there of being a place that is purely for amusement. Yes. What amusement it is, pleasure gardens are for something different.
They provided a similar kind of escapism through fantasy, entertainment, and commercialism that would eventually be the amusement parks we know now. According to British journalist Kath Pound, the pleasure gardens offered, quote, an environment in which societal norms could be cast aside, if only for a few hours. They captivated the public with their heady mix of culture, fashion, and vice.
Yeah, bitch. That's why I'm wearing Disney ears. Mickey ears. You could also argue that this is kind of like Renaissance fairs. Yeah. Like that kind of thing, you know? Now, during the day, the gardens resembled casual, albeit like more fantastical types of social experiences one might find at a fair. Okay, that's fun.
But the real thrills came later in the day when the parks began their, quote, dark walks. These would be led by masked performers whose identities, gender, and perhaps even intentions were unknown to patrons. You had me up until intentions. You had me until intentions. One thing about me is I want to know a motherfucker's intention. This is so interesting.
So these dark walks were tours that began in like well-lit areas of the park and eventually made their way into the deliberately unlit areas of the garden. This is fucked up. And as the light began to fade, the whimsical and colorful garden gave way to more hedonistic activities. Bitch, what? As sex workers would emerge to offer their services in dark corners of the garden.
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Chapter 5: What safety measures were introduced after the accidents?
So the real purpose of the Pleasure Garden and its whimsical tone remain the same as modern day parks.
like that the tone of everything especially during the day rather than simply offering an opportunity for hedonistic pleasure the garden's true purpose was to break down these like rigid social and class barriers of the day that were honestly like dictating public life at the time and give the people of london a place to play engage in fantasy together without the stigmas of the outside world kind of bogging them down it was a place to vibe
And the result, or at least the result that was intended, was increased social cohesion that minimized conflict. Which is nice. Everybody got together. Enjoy some shit together. That doesn't hurt anybody. A more contemporary example of these opportunities for like blowing off steam are things like professional sports. A shared interest and activity that kind of transcends.
what would be like pretty restrictive social constructs like race and class. Like these all kind of, when you really look at them that way, you're like these are much more like tightly held together and like woven together than you would think. Yeah, you're right. Just on the outside. Agreed.
Now eventually the explicit hedonism of the pleasure gardens gave way to the more commercially oriented boardwalks in places like Coney Island, New York, and Santa Barbara, California. Mm-hmm.
Beginning in the late 1800s, places like Coney Island offered games, performances, and what were then known as freak shows, in which real and manufactured medical anomalies were put on display for entertainment and amusement. I've seen AHS. Yeah, exactly. By the end of the decade, the mechanical and technological inventions that were unveiled at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, where H.H.
Holmes was busy. H.H. Holmes? They had begun to make their way onto the boardwalks and small amusement parks around the world. These mechanized rides quickly replaced the animal shows with carousels, Ferris wheels, and roller coasters. And that's when the amusement park thrill rides were born. Let's fucking go.
So by the early 20th century, entrepreneurs in North America and Europe started building parks around the mechanical rides that drew from the boardwalks and pleasure gardens of the past. including vendors, fantasy-inspired landscapes, and even mascots. In the early 1940s, Indiana businessman Louis Koch developed 260 acres of land in Santa Claus, Indiana into Santa Claus Land. Fun.
That was the nation's first theme park. Wait, that's actually iconic. Isn't that crazy? Santa Claus. Yeah. I'm obsessed. Opening in 1946, Santa Claus Land offered a, quote, dreamy alpine village with a toy shop, rides designed just for children, and daily appearances from fucking Santa himself, y'all. Let's go. That sounds fun. Yeah.
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Chapter 6: How did public perception of amusement parks change after disasters?
Therefore, the more times a person rode a Ferris wheel, the more safely, the more likely it was that they were going to experience a problem. Yeah. The more safe rides equal we're creeping up. We're counting down until an unsafe ride. We're getting edged by that disaster here.
Yeah.
That's actually a horrible way to think about that. It really is. I want to be the person that goes on the ride like two times after the bad thing. Yeah, there you go. I'm sorry. Wow. I'm sorry. So that fact was further complicated by the fact that in the case of early amusement parks, rides were typically permitted and expected by the same people who gave out licenses for the other park vendors.
That's to say that these individuals rarely understood how the rides worked. Much less whether they were safe. That's really awesome. So that led to some problems. Yeah, I bet. In 1911, on the Revere Beach boardwalk, just a few miles outside of Boston, manufacturer Fred Pierce built an early wooden coaster named the Derby Racer. See, me, I don't fucks with wooden coasters.
And remember, this is before, like, the Santa Claus land of 1940, whatever. Yeah, yeah. Among the largest roller coasters of the day, the Derby Racer was a standard two-track coaster where two passenger cars would, quote-unquote, race one another side by side. Within just a couple months of being built, the Derby Racer experienced its first accident. Or nor.
That's when PFC Arthur Lamar, a sailor on the battleship New Jersey, was thrown from one of the coaster cars, quote, Oh, fuck. Although the specifics of how exactly Lamar was thrown from the car, his body hit the structural beams of the coaster with, quote, Oh.
fracturing his skull breaking his arm and causing severe internal injuries yeah he was rushed to frost hospital in nearby chelsea and while he did survive the accident he was left with lifelong problems as a result a fractured skull will fuck you right up just a month later Another accident occurred on the Derby Racer. These are bad probabilities.
When Oscar Young, the assistant manager of the ride, was thrown from one of the cars. At the time, Young had been accompanying a group of young women on the ride. And according to a press report, at one point, the group, quote, were making so much noise and moving about so actively that Young feared for their safety.
As they approached a sharp curve in the track, he turned around to remind the young women of the safety protocols. But just as he turned, the car lurched slightly to the side and he was thrown from the ride headfirst. Oh, fuck. Understandably, the party of young women, quote, became panic stricken and two of the passengers had to be physically prevented from jumping out of the car in terror.
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Chapter 7: What legal repercussions followed the amusement park tragedies?
They were like, seems good to me. I'm like, I don't know. I think you should put some mechanisms in place to make it so people stop flying off. Whatever repairs were made to the Derby Racer do appear to have made it a little safer for riders. But a decade later, the ride's operators found themselves in trouble again. Hey, a decade is pretty solid. Yeah, I guess so.
After two passengers were injured on the Derby Racer. On the afternoon of September 10th, 1922, 25-year-old Frank Francis and his friend Joseph Jason... FF and JJ? FF and JJ. Obsessed. And, like, last name Francis, last name Jason. Like, what a weird thing to have that. That is weird. Like, first names, last names.
They visited the Revere Beach Boardwalk, and Francis decided he wanted to start their day at the beach with a ride on the derby coaster. but his friend opted to watch from the platform. Oh, fuck.
The ride was well underway when, for reasons unknown, it came to a lurching halt, and Francis and the passenger that he was sharing the car with were thrown from the ride and fell about six feet to the ground below. Oof. Fortunately, the young woman that Frank was riding with was largely unhurt.
Frank himself, though, sustained severe lacerations to one side of his body and serious internal injuries. Oof. So he survived his injuries, but less than a year later, 23-year-old Alice Blulin and her boyfriend Leland Back were thrown from the derby racer, pretty much under similar circumstances. Alice suffered a fractured skull, and Back was badly cut and bruised, but otherwise was okay.
In the years that followed that, the operators installed a leather harness to each car, as well as a safety bar that riders could grab hold of. I'm sorry, what was there before? Nothing. They're like, hey, I think a bar could, like, push people, you know, like, keep them in there. Also, a leather harness. They're like, what do you guys think about a seatbelt? Like, Jesus.
Then again, it's like people were just, like, plopping newborns in the back of their seat at this point. Seriously. Well, and also, I mean, this was, what, like, around, like, the early to mid-1900s. Yeah. This is, like, well, this is in the late 20s. Yeah. That's nuts. Yeah.
Yeah.
These safety measures, like, definitely lowered the risk level, but not entirely. In late May 1929, 27-year-old J.N. Clark was thrown from his car when the leather belt, quote, seemed to slide through his hands. And he was thrown from the car and suffered severe cuts all over his body. So the seatbelt was just like, nah. It didn't do a lot.
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Chapter 8: What lessons can be learned about amusement park safety today?
The afternoon of July 24th, 1930, it was like any other summer day at Omaha's Krug Park. All afternoon, tons of patrons lined up one after another to ride the park's most popular attraction, which was, of course... a large wooden roller coaster called the Big Dipper. Not the wooden roller coasters. Called the Big Dipper.
Like many coasters around the country, the Big Dipper was routinely inspected by a city inspector who was more accustomed to inspecting buildings than amusement park rides. A little different. And he deemed it safe for public use. Looks good to me. All righty. He said, I don't know. It's not a building, so I guess it's fine. I don't know. It's standing.
He said, maybe you could live in it if it was stationary. I guess. Maybe you could live in it. I don't know. Despite that approval, however, just weeks earlier, one park worker predicted there would be, quote, a terrible accident on the coaster any day. Oh, okay, park worker. And he said it was due to its constant use but lack of regular maintenance. He was like, this is just going to happen.
That's just kind of like common sense. A little past 7.30 that night, 23 people boarded the train on Big Dipper, separated into four connected cars. As the train of cars began climbing the first 75-foot hill, the group of teenagers braced themselves for the anticipated rapid descent. My favorite. Yeah. Unfortunately, none of them noticed the bolt sitting on the track several feet ahead of them.
As the car began its rapid descents down the track, the first car hit the bolt, tearing loose the brake shoe and lifting the car off the rail, sending it through the guardrail and over the side of the coaster. Holy shit. For several seconds, the first car in the train hung over the edge of the coaster, threatening to fall any second. Oh my god.
So 17-year-old Walter Bazas said, I can't even think about that. Holy God. Walter Bazas recalled, I was unable to move for a moment. So were the others. Seconds passed by in dead silence. Then somebody screamed, and it seemed to awaken everybody to their danger.
With just seconds to go before being dragged over the edge, several of the passengers desperately tried to free themselves from the seats. But being panicked and having no time to act, there was not a lot any of them could do, according to 16-year-old Antis Ouzdanis, who was in one of the rear cars.
They said, as the first car went over, people in the other three screamed and muttered short prayers while tugging desperately at their safety belts. This is so scary. The first car hit the ground just seconds after it went over the edge, with all the passengers still strapped into the wooden seats.
Now it's very, and Dave found this, the first car was dubbed Fred and it was named after the former park manager friend Ingersoll who killed himself a few years earlier. Oh God. And this car went plunging over the side. Yeah, that's haunting. Isn't that just like haunting? Yeah, that is. Absolutely.
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