Title: Love of amusement parks inspire author
Author: Susan J. Conrad
Publisher: The Daily News Online
Date: 6/25/2011
Niagara Falls resident Rose Ann Hirsch has always enjoyed amusement
parks. She recently published her third book about local parks.
Hirsch will be available at 1 p.m. today at Present Tense, 101
Washington St., Batavia, to sign her book, "Western New York
Amusement Parks," which is part of Arcadia Publishing's "Images of
America" series.
The book focuses on the history of about 20 amusement parks that
operated during the last 100 years, including Darien Lake Theme
Park. Along with more than 200 historical images, Hirsch includes
chronological information on the growth or decline of each park.
Some of the pictures depict Darien Lake before it became the
sprawling thrill center of recent decades.
"I really enjoyed revisiting my memories of going to these parks
with my family," Hirsch said. "Only four of the parks featured in
the book are still open."
Crystal Beach Amusement Park is Hirsch's all-time favorite
amusement park, she said. Her family visited the park at least once
a summer during her youth.
"It had dark rides and roller coasters," Hirsch said. "Everything a
thrill-seeker could want was at Crystal Beach."
Hirsch also has fond memories of Christmas Park in Albion. That
park helped her to love and appreciate the Christmas holiday, she
said.
As a child, the Sky Fighter was Hirsch's favorite kiddie ride. It
can still be found at Carousel Water and Fun Park in Beach Lake,
Pa. As soon as she rode the Silver Comet at Fantasy Island, that
ride took over as her favorite, she said.
Hirsch took about a year to research and write "Western New York
Amusement Parks."
Finding some of the old photographs was the trickiest part of the
research, she said.
They were obtained through Hirsch's own post card collection, at
the Buffalo State College Archives and from other amusement park
fans on Facebook.
She also wrote books for Arcadia on "Kiddie Parks of the
Adirondacks" and "Crystal Beach."
They're the stuff childhood dreams are made of.
From Grand Island's Fantasy Island, to the legendary Crystal Beach,
to the variety of parks that have called Olcott Beach home over the
years, generations of Western New York children grew up visiting
them --and now a new book by author Rose Ann Hirsch documents these
local amusement parks through more than 100 years of
photographs.
"Western New York Amusement Parks," part of Arcadia Publishing's
Images of America series, features almost 200 photos from area
parks, from the obscure and short-lived to the popular but
long-gone, to prominent institutions like Fantasy Island and Darien
Lake.
"I think anybody who likes amusement parks, even if they didn't
live in Western New York, would enjoy the book," Hirsch said.
"There are some photos that are rare, difficult to come by and
people probably haven't seen them.
"I hope it brings back some memories for some people and makes
other people wish they could have been there ... and I hope it
promotes the parks that still exist and helps keep them open."
Hirsch, who grew up in Cheektowaga and now lives in Niagara Falls,
said she's always had an affinity for amusement parks, starting
with family trips to Crystal Beach and Fantasy Island when she was
a child.
The interest continued as an adult: Her first book, "Crystal
Memories: 100 Years of Fun at Crystal Beach Park," was published in
2004 and is now in its third printing. She has also written a prior
Arcadia Publishing book, "Kiddie Parks of the Adirondacks."
It was quite an effort amassing such a collection of pictures, and
Hirsch turned to a variety of sources for the task.
"Some of them came from my own collection, some from friends. I
also lobbied people on Facebook and quite a few people came
through," said Hirsch, who also found some of her collection on
eBay.
Other photographs came from the Herschell Carrousel Museum in North
Tonawanda, the Buffalo State College Courier-Express collection and
from the parks themselves.
Some of the pictures are quite rare. Hirsch could only obtain one
photo from Liberty Park, which opened in 1948 in Cheektowaga. There
are pictures of Celoron Park in Chautauqua County, 1960s photos
from Fantasy Island and photos of Darien Lake from its
pre-amusement park days.
"Very few people remember the park when it was not a park," she
said. "I was lucky to get them."
The collection includes one photo that's quite personal -- of
Hirsch, her husband, Tim, and wedding party, family and friends on
their wedding day Sept. 9, 2000, on the Silver Comet at Martin's
Fantasy Island. Hirsch said they considered getting married on the
coaster, but couldn't find a Catholic priest who would do so.
"Marty (Fantasy Island owner Martin DiPietro) offered the coaster
to us, because that was our first date," she said. "We had fun that
day."
The ride was appropriate -- the couple met while members of the
Western New York Roller Coaster Club while on a trip to Kennywood
in Pittsburgh.
"Western New York Amusement Parks" features chapters on early
summer resorts, parks in the Southern Tier, Crystal Beach, Darien
Lake and Fantasy Island. The chapter "The Lost Neighborhood Parks"
pays homage to such smaller locales as Page's Whistle Pig in the
Town of Niagara and Fun and Games Park and Dealings Rides in the
Town of Tonawanda.
Another chapter deals with the several parks located in Olcott
Beach over the years, including a chapter on the rebirth of Olcott
Beach Carousel Park as it is now.
Rosemary Sansone of the Carousel Park said that Hirsch is a
volunteer at the attraction.
"I thought it was great," she said of the book. "She really knows
her history. And I know she volunteers at the Herschell Carrousel
Museum as well, so she's very familiar with her amusement park
background."
There are also many references to North Tonawanda's Allen Herschell
Company and the rides it produced, which were staples at many parks
-- and still are to this day.
"Allan Herschell was the largest manufacturer of kiddie rides in
the U.S. His company built rides to last," Hirsch said, noting that
Olcott Carousel Park has Herschell rides from the 1940s (and a
carousel from the 1920s) still going strong. "They're old. And
they're still running and kids still love them."
Many Herschell rides, she said, were very interactive, including
pony carts with reins and movable guns on planes that "really kept
kids' imaginations running."
"His factory, being in NT, may have had an influence on so many
kiddie parks in the area," she said. "We were lucky. In this area,
we had a lot of -- not just kiddie parks, but amusement parks.
Western New York has so many lakes and streams, it's just a natural
place for those parks to spring up."
While there are stories in the book of parks that are now long
gone, there are comeback stories, too -- including those of Olcott
Carousel Park and Fantasy Island, which went through a number of
ups and downs before it was purchased by DiPietro in 1994.
It's key to "get the right people who step in to rescue the park,
build a new park out of the ashes of the old one," Hirsch said.
"The right people can really make a park succeed."
"Western New York Amusement Parks" is available for $21.99 at
roseannhirsch.com and at local bookstores and museums.
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