Get Sleepy: Sleep meditation and stories - The Sleepy History of Amusement Parks

Starting point is 00:00:00 Tonight's episode is sponsored by our friends at BetterHelp. What are your self-care non-negotiables? The things you do your best to never skip. Whether your schedule is packed with kids activities, big work projects, social events or anything else, it's easy to let your personal priorities slip. But when you feel like you have no time for yourself, non-negotiables like therapy are more important than ever. On the occasions that I've been in therapy, those sessions have been such a vital

Starting point is 00:00:35 part of my schedule. It's like a reset point every week or fortnight to declutter the difficult stuff and regain some control and balance over my own life. So if you're thinking of starting therapy give Better Help a try. It's entirely online designed to be convenient, flexible and suited to your schedule. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash get sleepy to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp.com slash get sleepy. Welcome to Get Sleepy, where we listen, we relax, and we get sleepy. As always, I'm your host, Thomas. Thanks for tuning in.

Starting point is 00:01:45 Tonight's story is a deep dive into the origin of one of the world's favourite forms of outdoor entertainment, amusement parks. We'll look into how they got started and how they've developed over the years. It was written by Layla and I'll be reading it for you. We absolutely love doing these sleepy history episodes, particularly when we focus on quirky themes like tonight's, that might not usually be spoken about in a historical sense, and there's definitely a few facts I've learned from them that have come in handy at a few pub quizzes I've attended recently. Many of the ideas for these stories come from you, our wonderful listeners.

Starting point is 00:02:32 So if there are any topics that you think would work well, feel free to get in touch via the contact page on our website at GetSleepy.com. Now, let's prepare for tonight's sleepy journey back in time by making ourselves comfortable, relaxed and ready for rest. So make any adjustments you need to get your body into a cosy spot and close your eyes if you haven't yet done so. See if you can become deeply present in the here and now. Note the space you're in. Are there any subtle sounds you can hear, like the soft hum of an electrical appliance, some distant traffic outside or anything else. Let it all become a part of your comforting environment. Focus on the pleasant support of the bed beneath you, the soft touch of the covers keeping you warm and bringing feelings of safety and comfort. Note the pace and depth of your breathing.

Starting point is 00:04:30 Is it relaxed and steady or do you need to encourage a deeper pattern of breath to help you become calmer and more present. And how do you feel inwardly? Is your mind free of destruction? Or are there a few thoughts floating around vying for your attention. See if you can focus primarily on the here and now and I am safe, calm and present. I am safe, I am calm and I am present. Just continue to breathe naturally and let yourself sink gently into the surface below. And let's travel back in time to learn about the sleepy history of amusement parks. This is where our story begins. From water parks to theme parks, from Disneyland to Universal Studios, amusement parks are a favorite form of entertainment around the world.

Starting point is 00:06:56 Most of them offer something for everyone, with attractions for people of all ages, as attested to by the crowds they often draw. But such huge permanent entertainment grounds, filled with rides, activities, vendors, and shows, went always around. So how did these unique venues get started? To begin with, fairs of all sorts including county fairs and seasonal festivals have existed in different forms all around the world since ancient times. Indeed, the word fair itself comes from a Latin term for feast days or holidays. Similarly, traveling minstrels and other wandering performers have existed around the world since long ago. Nomadic groups of performers eventually gave rise to phenomena like traveling circuses, attracting vendors alongside the entertainers. But in order to trace the origins of more permanent entertainment grounds, experts

Starting point is 00:08:38 hark back to something called pleasure gardens. These places of entertainment started popping up in Europe from the end of the 16th century and through the 17th and 18th centuries. Unlike temporary fairs or traveling entertainments that moved from place to place, these pleasure gardens offered consistent entertainment in a designated area. The first of the European pleasure gardens is believed to have been one that developed around a natural spring discovered in Denmark in the late 1500s. The discovery of the spring drew crowds of people who came to enjoy its waters. who came to enjoy its waters. And soon, peddlers and performers followed, catering to the spring-goers.

Starting point is 00:09:56 The vendors and entertainment that took root in this spot formed a rudimentary kind of amusement park. After that, a few decades later, a pleasure garden called Spring Gardens opened in limited by modern standards. Its main offering was lawn bowling, also known as bowls, an outdoor sport similar to bocce ball. But by the following century, the 1700s, pleasure gardens really came into their own. That's when two much more impressive pleasure gardens opened up in London. One of these in particular became famous around the world. It was called the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. Vauxhall and other pleasure gardens of this era featured bowling, plus a great deal more. Games and simple rides were on offer, alongside dancing and shows in elaborate settings that included flower gardens and fountains. that included flower gardens and fountains.

Starting point is 00:11:54 Vauxhall especially developed notably extravagant parklands. The grounds included sumptuous buildings such as a theatre, a concert pavilion, an art gallery, a salon, a supper room, and a bar. There were gravel walkways lined with theatrical scenery, evoking ancient scenes and far away places. Fashionably dressed visitors strolled the voxel walkways day and night. After dark, the gardens were ablaze with thousands of lamps and fireworks shows dazzled spectators. The Gardens offered a heady environment that historian Jonathan Conlin compares to modern day Las Vegas. The BBC quotes Conlin as saying that what happened in Vauxhall stayed in Vauxhall. The Vauxhall gardens were so popular that imitation gardens soon opened up in New York, Paris and elsewhere. The word Vauxhall was even adopted into

Starting point is 00:13:29 numerous European languages from Dutch to Russian and various others in between. The Vauxhall Gardens in New York were the first pleasure gardens of the Americas. They opened up shortly before the founding of the continent's first carousels or merry-go-rounds. After the birth of the United States, the New York Vauxhall Gardens became famous for their Fourth of July festivities, marking the independence of the young nation. For example, the 1817 celebration, just four decades after the country's founding, featured a concert and 29 firework displays. It also included several thousand lights illuminating the voxel grounds. A massive 12-foot-wide Star of Freedom and paintings of two US peace treaties were also on display for the occasion.

Starting point is 00:15:12 Throughout the rest of the 1800s, pleasure gardens proliferated around the United States and various countries in Europe. and various countries in Europe. Along the way, the classic gardens slowly morphed into something closer to the amusement parks we know today. Take Tivoli Park, which opened in Copenhagen, Denmark in the mid-1800s. It featured various games and it soon began adding early roller coasters, plus other prototypes of the rides that have come to characterize modern amusement parks. In fact, some say that Tivoli Park helped inspire Walt Disney in his creation of Disneyland. In addition to the games and rides, many pleasure gardens hosted well-known performers

Starting point is 00:16:50 and top entertainers of their day. Famous composer Johann Strauss performed at the Prater in Vienna. This amusement destination had opened to the public in the late 1700s. It was built on former hunting grounds donated by the Austrian emperor for the entertainment of his people. Similarly, a Moscow pleasure garden that opened in the late 1800s would eventually draw such famous entertainers as escape artist Harry Houdini and actress Sarah Bernhardt. Meanwhile, in New York, a place called Coney Island was soon to become the country's most famous amusement destination and the inspiration for countless imitators. inspiration for countless imitators. Brooklyn's Coney Island was a seaside resort that grew popular thanks in part to the arrival of the first railroad in the latter part of the 1800s. of the 1800s. As in the case of the natural spring in Denmark centuries before, the crowds of visitors to Coney Island inevitably drew vendors and entertainers to the area as well. Soon, pavilions along the earliest pioneering roller coasters, known then as scenic railways.

Starting point is 00:18:57 In fact, many people consider Coney Island's Switchback gravity pleasure railway to have been the world's first true roller coaster. There was another element to the Coney Island story's place in amusement park development. This involved something called trolley parks. This involved something called trolley parks. City trolleys had recently been invented and were being installed in various urban areas for public transportation. These electric-powered railways carried passengers around the city streets. As soon as trolleys were developed, many people began riding them to get to work, to errands, or to school during weekday hours. during weekday hours.

Starting point is 00:20:13 But trolley companies quickly realized that they could maximize the return on their investment if they drew weekend and evening riders as well. To this end, the trolley companies started building attractions at the end of their lines. The idea was that these would attract pleasure riders outside of the regular commuting hours. These so-called trolley parks featured entertainment facilities like dance halls, restaurants, picnic grounds, games, and yes, rides. island trolley terminus led the pack, inspiring thousands of similar parks. Around the same time as the rise of the trolley and trolley park, the late 1800s also saw the dawning of another major influence on the world stage, and this one too would leave its mark on the history of amusement parks. This was the emergence of huge exhibits called world's fairs or world expositions. These events were put on across Europe and North America to showcase major inventions and creations of modern science and engineering. They were temporary, but very imposing events that left behind such impressive

Starting point is 00:22:11 buildings as the Eiffel Tower, and much later, Seattle's iconic Space Needle. And these remarkable exhibits also had an important influence on the development of amusement parks. In fact, the 1893 World Columbian Exposition in Chicago featured extravagant buildings and brilliant electric lighting that inspired theme parks at Coney Island and elsewhere. And the World Columbian Exposition also presented a ride that would quickly become a major fixture of amusement parks across the world. That was the Ferris Wheel., named for its 33-year-old engineer. Now, wooden wheel rides or observation wheels as George Ferris called his creation had been cropping up in pleasure gardens for a couple of decades.

Starting point is 00:23:50 in pleasure gardens for a couple of decades. But George Ferris created a wheel that outdid all the others with its enormous size and innovative design. And this earned him, or at least his name, a lasting place in ferris wheel history. The success of the giant ferris wheel quickly inspired imitators from Coney Island to Europe. In Vienna, the Prater Pleasure Gardens soon added a large ferris wheel alongside its other amusements which included seesaws, carousels, bowling alleys, puppet shows, and concerts. The Prater wheel became an iconic feature in Vienna that made it onto the silver screen more than once. In 1914, for example, a film was made of a female circus director accomplishing an astonishing feat on the wheel. She rode a horse standing on the roof of one of the Ferris wheel cabins, staying in place while the wheel went around in a full rotation.

Starting point is 00:25:27 Meanwhile, back in the United States, Chicago saw another development the year after it hosted the Columbian Exposition. This was the unveiling of the first enclosed amusement park that charged admission. It was called Paul Boyton's Water Shoots and the trend it kicked off would come to dominate amusement parks. This park was potentially also the model for another theme park that subsequently opened at Coney Island called Sea Lime Park, which in turn soon inspired three more Coney Island theme parks. These were Luna Park, Dreamland, and Steeplechase Park. Each had its own separate entrance fee, as well as attractions that pushed the boundaries as well as attractions that pushed the boundaries of amusement park entertainment. For example, visitors to Luna Park could enjoy a ride called Trip to the Moon.

Starting point is 00:27:09 This simulated a visit to the Man in the Moon's palace with a scenic detour over Niagara Falls. Luna Park also featured ornate architecture and electric lighting built in an Arabian Nights inspired theme. This exciting setting drew more than 40,000 people to its opening night. At this point in the story, the modern incarnation of the amusement park had well and truly been born. By 1910, there were more than 2,000 amusement parks in the United States. And by the 1920s, some larger cities had multiple parks, as many as six in fact. The end of the 1920s saw the construction of the first fully planned amusement park from the ground up, called Playland in New York. There then was a lull in park

Starting point is 00:28:32 construction for a period, but it wasn't so long before the US baby boom and prosperity of the 1950s brought a new wave of development in entertainment. In the early part of that decade, developers built play parks called kiddy lands near to new shopping centers that were cropping up all around the United States. And then, in the mid-1950s, came the most famous amusement park of all time, Disneyland. Walt Disney saw his theme park as an experience more than a collection of rides, according to Disney historian Richard Snow. It was a way to put the audience inside the movie. Disney envisioned a fantastical world brought to life through meticulous attention to detail. Bringing that vision into reality cost him $17 million, the most that had ever been spent on an amusement park. Disney's team designed and constructed the park in just about one year, a short period

Starting point is 00:30:19 for such a major endeavor. endeavor and that hurried construction showed through in some bumps during Disneyland's opening day in 1955. For example, because construction continued so close to the opening, the pavement in the park was still soft when the press and celebrities entered for the opening day. In fact, it was so soft that it reportedly pulled the high heels off Frank Sinatra's wife. What's more, nearly all the rides broke down by the end of the opening day. A gas leak forced one area of the park to close, and there was even a shortage of beverages for the celebrity visitors,

Starting point is 00:31:28 because a strike of the plumbers meant there wasn't any supply to the water fountains around the park. Unsurprisingly, media reviews weren't flattering. Surprisingly, media reviews weren't flattering. Nevertheless, visitors flocked to the park, and it was an immediate commercial success. Disneyland began making a profit within the first month of opening, and some 3.8 million guests visited during its first season of operation. The popularity of Disneyland kicked off a new era of theme theme parks. This boom saw many iterations of ride-focused parks that looked more and more like the amusement parks we know today. For example, in 1961, Six Flags Over Texas opened in Arlington, Texas, becoming the first major regional theme park and quickly attracting 1.3 million guests. By the 1970s, there was a huge uptick in amusement park construction,

Starting point is 00:33:07 with major corporations, from Marriott to Mattel, getting in on the action. Disney's second location opened in 1971. station opened in 1971. Walt Disney World was built on over 27,000 acres in Orlando, Florida. Like the original Disneyland, this new Disney park again broke records for its cost, this time coming in at around 250 million dollars. During this period, engineering advances and technical innovation spawned ever faster innovation spawned ever-faster and more thrilling rides and attractions. At the same time, nostalgia for old-fashioned amusement parks and classic wooden rides began alongside the push for newer, better, and bigger entertainments. For example, Kings Island near Cincinnati, Ohio brought back the traditional wooden roller coaster with a ride called the Racer. The growing nostalgia around classic parks and rides led the National Register of Historic Places

Starting point is 00:34:59 to add some amusement parks during the 80s and 90s, theme parks continued expanding around the world. Disneyland opened up locations in Tokyo and Paris and then beyond, later moving into Hong Kong and Shanghai. Since the turn of this century, newer theme parks have been built on Disney's vision of bringing popular movies and stories to life. and stories to life. Probably the most famous of these has been Universal's Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Harry Potterworld for short, it caused a sensation with its detailed recreations of the fictional film. The addition of the Harry Potter-themed area increased visitors to Universal by around 2 million people during its first year alone. In recent years, China has become a significant and fast-growing market for theme parks, as

Starting point is 00:36:32 new parks and even bigger rides debut change and the technology involved becomes increasingly futuristic, amusement parks remain at their core, much escape into a world of fantasy and adventure. Places of laughter and carefree fun, where people of all ages can indulge in the pure pleasure of amusement. The I'm going to go ahead and start the video. You You You You You You You You You You You You you

Get Sleepy: Sleep meditation and stories - The Sleepy History of Amusement Parks

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.