1964 Cedar Point 8mm Family Film

Here's my contribution to the historical documentation of CP. My Grandpa & Dad took these 8mm family films in 1964 around the time the Main Midway was paved to start to turn it into the Amusement Park we know and love. The park basically ended where Coasters Drive-Inn is today. Then the boat ride went into the back in the lagoons. They had a stagecoach ride, horse ride, "politically incorrect" Indian attack-style Riverboat ride scenes and a fort that fired cannon (water bombs). I wish they still had that. The burning half-sunk Riverboat by CCMR must have come later because it's not in here. Rides were paid for by tickets. A road went across the Midway in front of the rear Sky Ride station. Check out the totem poles. The Sky Ride buckets were round. You could film from the Skyride. Yes that's my Uncle smoking a cigar on the Midway. He owned a bar. He died of a heart attack 10 yrs later.

See the video descriptions for more info. Or add any here if you wish. I wasn't around in those days ; )

Cedar Point 1964 Miscellaneous Rides and Atmosphere
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q2ji0294Oo

Cedar Point 1964 Sky Ride Over Main Midway
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhew-LlEmUA

Cedar Point 1964 River Boat & Horses & Stagecoach Rides
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsK10dECAmY

I wonder if the stagecoach is the one that's in the Fright Zone these days.

I think it's cool how the park still has some of that charm it had back in the day. A trip on Sky Ride hasn't changed all that much since the beginning.

Okay, even though I don't like to do thise whole predict what Cedar Point should do next...I think it would be cool if they added on or made something bigger like they have in the Town Hall...something that gives more of a look back at the park...maybe with a movie like the ones you have. I think that would be the coolest thing to see added.

Hey Halloweekends, I have seen your footage before and as a Cedar Point history buff, I am floored by your footage and very greatful that you decided to share your familys memories with everyone! If only more people would scan thier old photos and share them with all of us.. I spent a lot of time talking with the curator of Town Hall Museum on 10-6-07 and he basically said dont expect to see much from the 50-now. They are only interested in continuing the focus on the 1870's through the 1930's. Town Hall hasnt changed much at all since I have been going there. I would love for them yearly to have different exhibits from the time of your footage up to the recent past. Who wouldnt love to see an exhibit of White Water Landing with a boat from the actual ride as well as construction, and removal footage? Just my 2 cents.

Anyhow, thank you again!!

That is great film. I love that kind of stuff. I'd love to see something like that in the Town Hall.

The Town Hall is one of my favorite attractions at CP. I love the history of the park. We are fortunate CP has a museum. Many parks don't address their history.

I like the photos of the old rides. Though my favorite exhibits are the old site maps of the park. I like to compare where the current rides and buildings are in relation to the old. I would love to see an interactive exhibit where you can overlay maps from different years to compare the changes.

While I think the current musuem is nice, it could be so much more. There is so much unused space. They could add more exhibits from the 50's to the present. CP could hire a museum exhibit design firm who could design the exhibits and make better use of the space while increasing the content.

Unfortunately, I doubt this will ever happen. The Town Hall isn't a big draw with the masses, so I can't see a big investment. I'm thankfull for what is there, plus the old photos in the halls of the Breakers.

^ There is a lot of stuff in Town Hall they could do without that has nothing to do with the park whatsoever. Such as the row of 4 or 5 bicycles from the 1930s that sits in the middle of the floor having nothing to do with anything. They really wouldnt need to bring in a design firm, just have someone creative enough to do it on their own. It really wouldnt take any money, just a few man hours of going through the parks archives and pulling photgraphs and articles and maybe a small portion of a saved ride (like a canoe from WWL).

I agree there is plenty in there that has nothing to do with the park. I imagine the fact that Town hall is in frontier town that the original idea behind the musuem was to display items from that era. That points to what the curator said to you about not getting more up to date items.

I personally could do with fewer old bycycles and old barber and doctor items. I'd hate to see those eliminated though. Just becuase I don't spend a lot of time looking at them. I think they fit in with the spirit of the location. However, they do have the models of Mean Streak etc., so I like them to built on that aspect too.

I agree Town Hall has a potential they haven't realized. And there's items in there that really aren't interesting. The late David Francis' books are more interesting. But I've been told those don't even cover everything. They should almost take an informal survey questionaire like they have for HalloWeekends and just ask people what they would want or expect to see.

I think a design firm who specializes could help. I've worked in exhibit design before. Can't say that I liked it. But a design firm has resources to source materials etc and reference and can get price breaks on material costs and special materials etc. and they do it every day. So you would get a better result if they worked closely with an art director and historian at CP. Kind of like Planning & Design working with Intaride to create Maverick. One knows the park and the guests. The other knows roller coasters.

I also have always thought of how interesting an overlay map would be. It took me a while to realize where some of the rides and attractions were in the 8mm film. It was easier when I edited together. Some history buffs like RonAnnArbor & Jim Hancock on TPOL had insight when I posted still images last year. I believe it was Walt's schmidty.com and then bholcomb's (I hope I got the right PB'er) Brochures collection online helped identify things and areas.

The one ride at the end in the background where my Grandpa took a shot of the guest with an arrow thru his head. rcdb.com said it might be Flight to Mars. A Wild Mouse type of ride with a fun house facade. Interesting to note that CP's Town Hall museum has a b&w photo of a similar ride. Broadway Trip. That photo is a promo taken at a park in New Jersey! Wizard's Cavern is another such ride on rcdb.com.

Here's what Duane at rcdb.com had to say last year: "I don't think that is the Broadway Trip. The cars appear to be traveling in the opposite direction. What did look very similar to the Broadway Trip was another ride called the "Flight to Mars". I'm not sure if Cedar Point had this ride or not, but it traveled to a lot of the same parks as the Broadway Trip such as the World's Fair in Seattle and Palisades Park."

Some names of the things you see in our film are The Rotor facade, the Scamper, Rocket Ride, Scrambler, Super Satellite Jets, Miniature Golf next the Arcade and the Sky Wheel double ferris wheel.

Town Hall museum has had The Summertime Tradition DVD playing on a small TV in the back that they sell at the park. But it could be a larger presentation. I think it comes down to budget. But they are painting that mural on the outside. So they're giving it some attention.
*** Edited 10/12/2007 12:46:37 AM UTC by HalloWeekends!***

I'm going to double post to keep these thoughts separate:

If anyone has such film and wants to share it online like I did this is how I did it:

I found my Grandparent's 8mm family film in good condition. If it isn't there's ways a service place that does the transfers can try to correct it.

MiniDV digital tape is what you want film transferred to. The type you use in digital camcorders. You can get it at Wal-Mart. Panasonic is a good brand. It's the best format to have film transferred to. Not VHS. Not DVD. Because MiniDV tape is a high resolution. And most importantly it's editable. VHS is low resolution. DVD's aren't easily editable. Digital tape is more of an archival medium as well. Until hi-def tape comes out this is the highest resolution and plenty good enough for 8mm or 16mm film transfers.

And don't throw out your original 8mm film source material!

I went to a local camera store who subcontracts a retired detective to transfer the film properly without any digital effects, edge enhancement, increased color saturation or unwanted sharpness. He also transfers the entire frame. He may have corrected blown out scenes to make them visible. Whatever he did he did it properly. It costs a bit more since he's a subcontractor. I think it was 15 cents per foot. Expect to pay between 12-18 cents a foot from a camera store who sends it out to a lab.

I asked him to make MiniDV tape masters and backups that I keep in a safe offsite. I rewind them once a year to make sure the tape doesn't stick together over time just sitting there.

I put the MiniDV tape into a Sony TRV-30 digital camcorder. It was hooked up to my Mac via a 4-pin to 6-pin Firewire cable. Captured in iMovie in the 4:3 format. It was edited to get the scenes in a logical manner.

From there I burned DVD-R's for family members with iDVD and Maxell blanks.

For the youtube video I "Shared" the iMovie file with "iPod" which actually sends it to iTunes Moives tab at the proper youtube recommended settings:

MPEG4 format
320x240 resolution
MP3 audio (AAC in iTunes works)
30 frames per second

From there I located the .m4v file on the hard drive and uploaded that to youtube where it's converted to Flash video. It's not as high quality at this point. But it's easy to share.

I'm sure PC's have comparable software I'm not familiar with. But that's one way to do it. The important thing is MiniDV tape transfers.

*** Edited 10/11/2007 8:00:35 PM UTC by HalloWeekends!***

thats shot in 64? Wow! I love it :)

I miss the old fountain. It was redone in either the late 80's or very early 90's. They used the same pond, just redid it. It used to have very colorful lights and constantly changed what it did. If you look closely below the ugly ball that replaced the old you can see where they cut out and filled in.

Hopefully they can manage to maintain KI's fountain.

Wow... thanks.

The movies are awesome. THANKS so much for sharing. I have them book marked, something to get me through the next 7 and a half months till I can get back to Cedar Point.

Also I watched all of you Halloweekends videos this morning. *** Edited 10/12/2007 1:25:21 AM UTC by 9 hour ride to RIDE!!***

My 7-year old loves the museum and is always very interested in how the park looled like when I was 7 (many years ago). It is one of our favorite places to visit at CP. Kudos to CP for this!!! Now bring Big Dipper to CP and rename her The Clipper!

HalloWeekends! said:

I wonder if the stagecoach is the one that's in the Fright Zone these days.

I believe the stagecoach in the Fright Zone is actually one of the coaches used in the ride. I remember riding the stagecoach a number of times when I was a kid.

Awesome movies! I have my own CP movies from the 60's that I need to get around to digitizing sometime.

That would be cool to see others. I've seen the other ones one youtube. It's fun to see what people back then chose to film. My Grandpa actually was filming the family in the miscellaneous footage but it still gives and idea of what CP was like.

It makes sense the stagecoach is CP's just like the Frontier Lift bucket number 13 is a HalloWeekends prop. I was hoping a WWL canoe would be but I guess they sold all those?

I've been told the old Frontier Lift Sky Ride buckets replaced the the Sky Ride's round ones you see in the 8mm film. Those are the ones used today. I think there's no number 13. So that would be where it's at as a HW crash test dummy prop under SR.

all i can say is look at all those trees they had back then.

also, with the riverboat cruise, i wonder if they had the same corny jokes then, as they do now...

I doubt the spiel was comedic like it is today based on the fact this set-up was all was a response to Disney and the themeing is more of the Indian attack frontier in one part. On a map they say another part with the animals was a "Jungle". So they had about 3 different parts along the route. I would think it was more along the lines of telling a short story before the Indian popped out or the cannons fired from the fort. Or telling you where to look. I don't know for a fact. Just a good guess with the type of displays compared to today's more humorous displays. *** Edited 10/12/2007 8:33:14 PM UTC by HalloWeekends!***

The round cabins on the Sky Ride were replaced with square 4 place cabins before the Frontier Lift was built. The Frontier Lift opened with indentical cabins. When the Frontier Lift closed, the Sky Ride's square cabins were retired and the Frontier Lift's cabins were put on the Sky Ride.

I got half of it right. Thanx for clearing it up!