The Bizarre and Dangerous Amusement Park Rides of the Early 20th Century

Historidame took a look at the bizarre and dangerous amusement park rides of the early 20th century, citing examples such as the Scenic Spiral Wheel at Coney Island and the wildly experimental roller coasters with no safety features that began popping across North America.

Creepy clowns, weird Sideshow attractions, and rides that were actively dangerous– early amusement parks were terrifying, and I want to visit them so badly.

She also looked at the darker history of amusement parks, which reveals how a lack of regulations led to both thrilling innovations and scandalous, even racist, attractions.

Early amusement parks were also full of racism, ableism, and animal cruelty. One common attraction that you might stumble across back then was a Lilliputian village, where little people would be employed to inhabit a fake city for the entertainment of parkgoers. There were also a variety of racist carnival games, like the African Dodger, where white patrons could pay to throw baseballs at African-American men with the goal of hitting their faces to win a prize. And of course, animal cruelty was always expected back then.

Change was inevitable, and amusement park regulations were installed in the 1970s.

Though changes would be made over the years, the process of removing the more problematic elements from amusement parks, as well as improving ride safety, would be slow and gradual. It wasn’t until the 1970s that stricter laws would be created to regulate entertainment venues in North America, but by then, the golden age of amusement parks was already over.