#tbt Cedar Point 1969

A number of fun items in this video, including a guest jumping out of a still-moving Scrambler (1:18), on-ride footage of Frontier Lift (1:45), on-ride footage of Shoot the Rapids (2:28), Sky Slide, Space Spiral, and much more.

Where exactly is the hula dancing at 5:30-5:40 taking place? It doesn't look familiar.

I think that if might have been at Jungle Larry's. His compound went through several re modelings over the years

Walt nice film clip but isn't this from 1969 ? The reason I am asking because I seen mine car ride in the video.

Yeah, it would appear so.

I watched it all the way through, but I didn't notice it. Good catch. Someone else uploaded it on YouTube. I just took the title as is ... without the kittens. :)

Speaking of 1969:

Park Map

Wasn't the Mine Ride originally supposed to open for the '68 season? Seems to me that I was told that bad weather among other things delayed construction to the point that it didn't open during the regular season, but they managed to have it running for the bonus weekends. The "official" opening was pushed back to the next Spring. I know that everything that is in print now says that May 1969 was the "official" opening, but soft openings have been the norm for a long time.

In my memory 69 turned into 70.

That may very well be, that was a couple of years before I started working there.

From what I recall, Mine Ride was open in 1969.

Definitely '69. Just before this video was shot Jimmy quit the band, and Jody got married a few weeks later.

I love the 1969 Map. Amazing the changes. When did the Circus Bar go away? What was the hippodrome theater and what show was there? Are those bridges to "Safari Island" and if you crossed them what was there? They had mighty large beavers back then...

Not sure when The Circus closed to the public but when I worked there in 73/74 it served as the employee bar and rec for evening beverages and fun. Men lived in the Cedars and women lived in the Dorms and Breakers so we could all go there whenever we wanted. (Drunk on individual pitchers of 3.2% draught beer every night! Woo hoo!They were a dollar.)
The patio was still there too, although rundown. They would hold our occasional steak dinners there, the execs would man the grills.
The kids that worked for Cedar Point picked up their paychecks there too.

Safari Island was version 1 of the later Jungle Larry's African Safari. Those are bridges that you crossed to get to the island, which was basically a zoo with exotic animals. I don't believe they did shows yet, the animal shows came later.

But remember RCMAC, no beer was poured in the Circus before 10:00 PM. I recall vividly the countdowns (I worked swings) to 0 hour, and then the pitchers came forth. In '74 who ever was the regular supplier of suds was caught in a strike, (Papst I recall) and CP hurriedly brought in Strohs to fill the void. I used to eat my evening meal in the Circus, (had lunch in the cafeteria behind the Coral Dining Room that Interstate United ran) Geez all kinds of stuff is rushing back now, I better quit while I'm ahead ;)

No, you're good.
I remember Bill Bell, president of Interstate United was a big fan of Pabst beer (swill) and insisted we serve it everywhere. So folks would come from here or there and wonder how that tasted. We would pop open the can (I had beertab-puller's finger and case-lifter muscles.) and serve it then I would wind up replacing it. Well, occasionally, anyway. One of my girls wore one once, tossed thru the window by an a-hole. The same girl wore a sno-cone once, too.

I'm not surprised if the beer we drank at the Circus and the Thursday night ballroom dances wasn't Pabst.

I worked for Interstate United and we had room and board free. The cafeteria, although not all that great, was free and I ate most of my meals there. Our deal, even though we had the worst costumes, (white circus pants with orange and white striped shirts) was probably the best compared to what the C.P. kids had. Our hourly was slightly less than C.P. but we paid for nothing and still had the end of season bonus, at something like .25 cents an hour, .50 cents the second season I spent as a manager. So in the end, if we stayed, we made slightly more.

I seem to recall that my last room mate was a IU manager, worked one of the big stands. Hardly ever saw him, of course didn't spend much time in the room either. Yeah I remember the dances in the ballroom, and sleeping on the beach because the room was unbearably hot. Movies in the Coral Dining room after closing. Parties in the park on the bay front in Sandusky that was right next to the Police Station.

'74 was the year that the Feds raised the minimum wage after the park had already budgeted the payroll for the season. They somehow got around that by bumping up the bonus pay at the end of the contract.

Dutchman said:

Wasn't the Mine Ride originally supposed to open for the '68 season? Seems to me that I was told that bad weather among other things delayed construction to the point that it didn't open during the regular season, but they managed to have it running for the bonus weekends.

The park closed on Labor Day in 1968. As far as I know, Bonus weekends didn't start until 1980. I'm not saying the ride didn't open early. Just that there wasn't bonus weekends in 1968 (as far as I know).

Yeah we pretty much nailed it down that the the Mine Ride opened in '69, As far as Bonus Weekends, been talking with a couple of people and we believe that it started with the opening of the Million Dollar Midway in '70. We definitely had them when I was working in the mid 70's.

You are correct, I just double checked my brochures and saw bonus weekends mentioned back in 1975. I haven't found much in terms of a calendar on any of my earlier brochures yet. So, I can't say for sure when they started.

http://www.rollercoasterfreak.com/CP_Brochures/1975_eb_inside.jpg