Nostalgia pictures in the paper again

Greetings,

Getting excited for Friday morning/evening. Ran across some nostalgia pictures in the paper again.

http://photos.clevescene.com/20-nostalgic-photos-of-summers-spent-a...r-point/#1

Great photos and memories. Thanks for posting them.

I'm astounded that... Apparently at one time... The arcade didn't look like a total piece of crap...

In fact... In all the photos I'm amazed at how good the paint is on everything. It all looks so pretty and well cared for...

By arcade, do you mean the Coliseum building? What exactly is wrong with it? Are you implying that things don't look well cared for today?

Considering there are a lot of changes to infrastructure and midways, I'm willing to bet Matthew meant that it looked nice (as did other parts of the park) at one time. And that's why certain areas are being updated.

TwistedWicker77 said:

Considering there are a lot of changes to infrastructure and midways, I'm willing to bet Matthew meant that it looked nice (as did other parts of the park) at one time. And that's why certain areas are being updated.

You hit the nail on the head. Compare the Coliseum to the Gemini Midway. Obviously that's not a fair comparison, but that's not the point.

The Coliseum / Arcade looked really nice in its prime. I'd never seen a picture of when it was new-ish...

I wasn't being negative. Just genuinely impressed :).

It doesn't help that the Coliseum has to endure a fairly epic amount of seagull poop throughout most of the year. I'm not sure how much the park can do about that other than constantly washing the roof down. Otherwise the building generally looks fine enough.

I wonder what we should consider its prime? It's been there since 1906.

Now, I ain't THAT old, but I've seen the building go from decrepit to pretty fabulous. It's had several different paint treatments and color combinations since the early 60's.

Once again I invite everyone here to visit the Town Hall Museum and really check out the photos. There's an interesting shot of some kids and a couple of grandmas on the Cadillacs, probably from the ride's first year, but the Coliseum is clear in the background. It's really awful looking, with covered windows and bad signage. I think in the 50's there was a bar in there. So the building has had its share of ups and downs.

But the important thing is that it remains to this day as an example of unique amusement park architecture. The 1040's remodeled art deco ballroom upstairs is a treasure when most (all?) park ballrooms no longer exist. But for somebody's care and insight it surely could've fallen to the wrecking ball for more modern development. It's on large, central, prime real estate.

I dont care how it looks, how in need it is of paint, how much bird poop covers it, or how many bats fly out of the cupolas every evening. I hope it lasts forever.

SIgh... Sorry if I ruffled anyone's feathers. I'mma shut my pie-hole now...

Side note... There's a museum?

It's a tough crowd here sometimes Mystical Matthew. Jeff? .

The Town Hall Museum in Frontier Town. To the left (if you are facing Antique Cars) of the "town square" gazebo in front of Antique Cars, across from Cedar Creek Mine Ride. The museum is well worth a visit. I tend to migrate in there on every visit to the park. Plus, the air conditioning tends to work quite well.

Mystical Matthew said:

In fact... In all the photos I'm amazed at how good the paint is on everything. It all looks so pretty and well cared for...

I was actually around when some of the photos were taken and things are not any less cared for today. I think you are just seeing the overly saturated colors of Kodachrome film, which going by the colors in some of the pictures, was probably used.

Jayme Criscione said:

It's a tough crowd here sometimes Mystical Matthew. Jeff? .

Are you asking a question?

Sigh... Okay. You know what? I was trying to keep from offending anyone, but here goes.

Before the current leadership at CF, a lot of "cosmetic" things went ignored. If a piece of themeing "broke" it was just ripped out. It wasn't repaired. The priorities were put other places than the overall beauty of the park.

I mean... There's a million threads on this forum about CP ripping out themeing. I know I'm not imagining this.

To me, that mentality went through the rest of the park. If it was a cosmetic issue, it got ignored in favor of other priorities.

Today, the CF leadership takes those "cosmetic issues" more seriously. I point, once again, at the Gemini Midway. It's my favorite area of the park.

In my post I was referring to what happened in the "gap" between when those pictures were taken and when CF changed direction and started caring about things like light bulbs and paint.

I don't think you're off base, but it's hard to really compare "the good old days" with the present at any given point in time. There were lots of problems to deal with then also.

I will say that I do notice that when the park is bright and fresh for the year that things are really clean, sparkly, light bulbs are all working, fresh paint, etc. As the year drags on, lots of lights that burn out stay that way for a while. the OCD in me gets irritated every time I see Blue Streak's hill have a missing light. Pain peels, midge corpses cake the bathrooms, and so on, and it seems that the later into the year, the slower the aesthetic things get cleaned/repaired.