#tbt Cedar Point 1969

I had a fair amount of stuff from '74 and earlier, but it was "mishandled" by my soon to be ex wife. Some of it survived the divorce, but I've managed to rebuild some of what I had plus some stuff that I couldn't get back in the day (ain't eBay great?). Besides Interstate United there was Coffelt's Candys from Springfield, OH, and Barrardi's was still a concessionaire then. The park had just taken over all the games from an outside operator about then as well (I've forgotten their name). The Million Dollar Midway was still only a couple years old, the Giant Wheel was still going through it's teething pains (it was generally referred to by us as "The Giant German Lemon" due to it's excessive down time). When I left I had no idea what was in store for the park, or for the people that worked there. The passing of Emil LeGross was a shock, as was the ascension of Robert Munger. I had a friend that continued to work there a couple seasons afterwards. She told me that it just wasn't the same. I've been back there several times in the off season, once during. The in season visit, it just didn't feel right. The off season ones I got to talk to people that I knew that had survived all the changes. It was good to talk to them, and it made me ponder whether or not I had made the right decision to leave back then. But then you can't go back.

74 was my first year and the last year of IU. I worked for them. Yes, beer at the Circus and Ballroom dances was Pabst. When we had catering gigs that served draft beer, we'd always take any leftover partial kegs (customer paid for them when I stuck a tap in them!) over to the Circus. In general, they sold it, but, I made sure my Catering folks drank it for free! But then, we drank it with our customers out in the picnic area too. Got to be hospitable! Never get away with that now, I'm sure!

Had to laugh when I saw the Swiss Chalet on that map! Back in the kitchen that was known as the Garbage Garage (said with a faux french accent!) Leftovers from anywhere went on the line there.

If you guys ate breakfast in the cafeteria back then, you may vaguely remember the old timer who was the short order breakfast cook back then. He worked 7 days, but, only did breakfast. I subbed for him a few times when he was sick (excessively hungover). The guy was amazing! He could have that whole grill covered with 20 orders and remember exactly what he had, in order.

One of my best friends and mentors from back then was John Cochran. He was the kitchen manager for the main kitchen behind the cafeteria. He was a WWII mess sergeant and ran the kitchen just that way! Cool guy! He'd have us over to his house in Sandusky from time to time just drinking beer and shooting the bull. I still have an old grey beer stein that he brought back from Germany during the war and gave to me.

Just a reandom question (sorry I didnt think it was necessary to start a new topic on this) but did Pointbuzz used to be called Guide to the Point? Or was GTTP something else. Sorry I enjoy reading old topics sometimes and I keep seeing GTTP so I was just wondering.

There were two sites, Guide to the Point and Virtual Midway. The two sites merged and became PointBuzz.

PointBuzz launched on May 12, 2004. The site is the result of the merger of two highly successful unofficial Cedar Point fan sites: Virtual Midway, founded by Walt Schmidt in 2000, and Guide to the Point, founded by Jeff Putz in 1998.

http://pointbuzz.com/Content/AboutUs

Oh okay i get it now. Thanks for clearing that up for me!

The answer can also be found by clicking "about" at the bottom of this very page.
:-)

Well ya look at that. It is under "about" haha. I didn't even think to look there.

wow love the lady jumping out of the ride and then continuing to try to meet up with her group. Also enjoyed watching the old sky ride through the trees :)

I remember the Circus Bar around 1969.It was for the guests of Breakers.I think it was originally called the Tavern Terrace in the 1930"s.I wish i could find a picture of it.

When I worked there in the early/mid 70’s the Circus was still there, but was used as an employee “after hours” bar. I spent every night there with my friends and never walked out sober. It was 3.2 draught served in small pitchers for a buck. And no, we didn’t need no stinkin glass.
It still looked like a circus tent then, too. I bet we took a million photos, but alas- too long ago.

TimChat2 said:

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

45Wheelgun said:

What was the hippodrome theater and what show was there?

I have been doing some family photo archiving, and recently came across this picture.

Sorry for the rotation, but the watermark was cluttering the important parts of the picture. The hula dancing was happening at the Hippodrome Stage in summer 1969. And thanks to the above 1969 map link, we know the Hippodrome Stage was where the loop of Raptor is today. Thanks all for helping link this together.

They had acts on that stage all summer, occasionally big name acts. We saw Brenda Lee there, and I think Louis Armstrong performed then, too. It was a circular stage with a zig zag shaped roof. There were no seats and the audience just stood on the midway to watch shows there.
In 1970 the new Calypso came to that corner and the stage was dismantled. The roof, however, lived for many years over a sundries stand, or maybe lockers, near the front gate restrooms.

Old farts like RCMAC and I remember the Circus well. As I recall, it didn’t open until the park closed, though, it may have been open for food earlier. Everybody went there at night. Those were the days when you could buy 3.2 beer at 18. All the beer sold in the park back then was 3.2 except maybe Surf Lounge and Anchor Room. RC is right, we NEVER walked out of there sober! Of course, we only had to stumble across the midway to the Cedars.

Nothing is more surreal on PointBuzz than clicking on a resurrected thread that I don't initially recognize as being old (paying no attention to the post dates) and then seeing a comment from Pete and his immediately recognizable avatar just a few posts into the thread!

The Circus was open for lunch, as well as dinner. They couldn't pour beer until 10:01 PM when the park was officially closed. Ate supper there frequently, burgers, hot dogs and fries, oh my!