Gemini History

I thought everyone would be interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KLHJ4b6UAw

you were actually aloud to have cameras on the ride back in the day?

Rollercoasterer said:
you were actually aloud to have cameras on the ride back in the day?

I doubt it...i'm assuming this was always "illegal" at the point...

ah the days of no trims before the helix

Finally some footage of my favorite coaster in it's opening year! Awesome video! It was great seeing such a big sign in front of Gemini with CP's old logo. The guy yelling the 'S word' at the top of the first drop was classic too!

ps---Is it just me or does it look like there is a small hill where there is normally a section of straight track just before the helix finale? Was this removed or am I just seeing things? *** Edited 8/11/2007 7:32:39 PM UTC by JetstarIII***

JetstarIII said:

ps---Is it just me or does it look like there is a small hill where there is normally a section of straight track just before the helix finale? Was this removed or am I just seeing things?

No, I don't think you're seeing things. It defnitely seemed to me like there was an extra hill in there and no flat section. I'm pretty sure it was flat, however, when I first rode a two-year old Gemini in 1980. I'm guessing some issue, maybe clearance, made them take that hill out shortly after it opened.

Hello, natives? Any input on the hill? :)

They may have allowed cameras back then, seeing as it wasn't really until this decade that people started to become aware of varying safety concerns. I, however, wasn't at the park in 1980, and I wasn't even alive either.

But looking at it again and comparing it to the "current" Gemini POV video, it looks like there is a flat section but shorter than it is now. I'm thinking, the more I look at it, that the last hill before the helix is higher in the early video. Suggesting there was some reprofiling but I'm less sure as to when.

(Edited to remove an answer to a now deleted post). *** Edited 8/11/2007 8:01:19 PM UTC by Larry Stone***

After comparing the vid to some newer POV shots of Gemini, it looks like the hill is still there now, but there is a longer straight section just BEFORE and AFTER this hill leading into the helix. Where the trims are I can't tell...

Larry Stone said:
But looking at it again and comparing it to the "current" Gemini POV video, it looks like there is a flat section but shorter than it is now. I'm thinking, the more I look at it, that the last hill before the helix is higher in the early video. Suggesting there was some reprofiling but I'm less sure as to when.

Lol, looks like our investigations and findings are the same!

I love listening to the comments after the first drop....

"That was like straight down..."
"You couldn't even see the bottom"

It's amazing to think of people saying that on Gemini, but at that time it was the tallest and fastest in the World.

I also noticed how fast it came into the station before it started braking.

And I will agree... something seems different about that last section before the helix.

Did anybody notice the at the beginning of the movie it said Cedar Point about 1874... or so. I had no idea the Gemini was over 100 years old. Damn..

Haha. It's funny to me to hear that kind of reaction on Gemini.

Though it got me thinking, if we can almost laugh at rides like today, what will be considered "tame" to people 29 years from now???

It did open as the tallest fastest roller coaster. Also, 55 degrees is a fairly steep drop.

I was working at CP the summer that Gemini opened. It was a big deal at the time. I remember manning the tower position on the Shoot-the-Rapids and watching them run the first trains around the track. They used sand bags for weight. One of the first trains to run bottomed out on the second dip after the first drop. It took them a few days to get that train back to the station.

Before they opened to the public, they had a few nights where, after the park closed, employees could test ride it. You could stay on for as many rides as you wanted. It served as training for the crew (with many supervisors present). My girlfriend (who also worked at CP) and I rode it five times in a row before we were too shook up to continue.

It was and is a fun coaster, especially when both trains are running!

cptroublemaker said:
Did anybody notice the at the beginning of the movie it said Cedar Point about 1874... or so. I had no idea the Gemini was over 100 years old. Damn..

Gemini had its debut in 1978.

Nckinfn04 said:

cptroublemaker said:
Did anybody notice the at the beginning of the movie it said Cedar Point about 1874... or so. I had no idea the Gemini was over 100 years old. Damn..

Gemini had its debut in 1978.

I guess You didnt catch the sarcasm.

I don't think parks thought that much about cameras on rides back then. They were not as common as they are today (particularly not movie cameras). I remember going to Six Flags Over Georgia (probably sometime in the late 70s). It must have been media day for the Mind Bender because they let my dad and I ride the front seat all day long. He had an 8 mm film movie camera (which by today's standards was huge). We waited in line like normal but when we got near the front of the line (as soon as one of the ride operators could see us), we were motioned to the front seat. And I remember the last couple of times we rode, when they motioned us to the front seat, we passed because we had already been there enough already. There wasn't a mount for the camera in the front row. My dad just held the camera against his chest during the ride trying to keep it as steady as he could. Film rolls were only 2 1/2 minutes if I remember right so we had to splice two rolls together to get the entire ride. Final results from what I remember looked a lot like the Gemini video that is linked in this thread. I don't think media days were as formal as they are today.

One of the favorite pictures I took as a kid was from the front seat of the Beast, just as the car was coming over the top of the hill. You can see all the way down the track into the tunnel with a couple inches of the front of the car in the foreground. I am not sure if pictures were allowed on the ride back then (it would have been in the first 2-3 years of the ride being opened). But I know I didn't hide the camera from the ride operators getting on the ride: it was a 35mm slr.

I was in high school in '78 and I remember waiting nearly 2 hours for my 1st ride. I was really nervous about that 1st drop, it WAS amazing. I still love the 1st hill and the rest. CP's only "social coaster".

Cheers!

The 1982 park map is the first reference that I could find to cameras not being allowed on most rides