Action Park : fast times, wild rides, and the untold story of America's most dangerous amusement park / Andy Mulvihill with Jake Rossen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mulvihill, Andy, author.

Rossen, Jake, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Manners and customs.

Action Park (Vernon, N.J.)--History.

Action Park (Vernon, N.J.).

Amusement parks--New Jersey.

Amusement parks.

New Jersey.

New Jersey--Social life and customs--20th century.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

342 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm

Place of Publication:

[New York, New York] : Penguin Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2020.

Summary:

"The outlandish, hilarious, terrifying, and almost impossible-to-believe story of the legendary, dangerous amusement park where millions were entertained and almost as many bruises were sustained, told through the eyes of the founder's son Often called "Accident Park," "Class Action Park," or "Traction Park," Action Park was an American icon. Entertaining more than a million people a year in the 1980s, the New Jersey-based amusement playland placed no limits on danger or fun, a monument to the anything-goes spirit of the era that left guests in control of their own adventures--sometimes with tragic results. Though it closed its doors in 1996 after nearly twenty years, it has remained a subject of constant fascination ever since, an establishment completely anathema to our modern culture of rules and safety. Action Park is the first-ever unvarnished look at the history of this DIY Disneyland, as seen through the eyes of Andy Mulvihill, the son of the park's idiosyncratic founder, Gene Mulvihill. From his early days testing precarious rides to working his way up to chief lifeguard of the infamous Wave Pool to later helping run the whole park, Andy's story is equal parts hilarious and moving, chronicling the life and death of a uniquely American attraction, a wet and wild 1980s adolescence, and a son's struggle to understand his father's quixotic quest to become the Walt Disney of New Jersey. Packing in all of the excitement of a day at Action Park, this is destined to be one of the most unforgettable memoirs of the year"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: ch. 1 Fort Nonsense

ch. 2 Fuel

ch. 3 A Crash Course

ch. 4 The People Movers

ch. 5 The Wave

ch. 6 An Education

ch. 7 The Hangman's Fracture

ch. 8 Action Park After Dark

ch. 9 The Floor Beneath Our Feet

ch. 10 Afloat

ch. 11 The Draft

ch. 12 Flight Risk

ch. 13 Freefall

ch. 14 The Loop.

Other Format:

Online version: Mulvihill, Andy. Action park.

ISBN:

9780143134510

0143134515

OCLC:

1122798557