The Death of Ocean View Park
In the mid 1970s, the park was slated to be torn down, but was saved from total oblivion by having its rollercoaster featured in at least two Hollywood disaster films. One was "Rollercoaster", starring Henry Fonda, and Timothy Bottoms, which featured Ocean View Amusement Park as one of many around the nation which were being targeted by a mad terrorist bomber (Bottoms). The other film was "The Death Of Ocean View Park", a "Playboy" production, starring Mike Conners (Mannix), in which the actual destruction of the coaster served as the climax of the film. Although the films themselves turned out to be rather cheesy, the scenes filmed in Ocean View Park remain dear to the hearts of all who fondly remember it.
A testament to the strength of the old ride's wooden structure remains fixed in the memories of those who witnessed its demolition. When the time came for the filming of the movie's climax, the primary supports of the coaster were fitted with explosive charges. At the signal of the director, one of the wooden trains, filled with mannequins, was sent for its "last" ride down the aged track. The charges were set off, blowing the large wooden posts to smithereens, while at the same time, huge, fiery gasoline explosions were set off for visual effect. The coaster refused to budge. The somewhat melancholy crowd watching from across the street broke into spontaneous laughter, and applause, for their beloved, and defiant coaster. Inspections were made, new charges were set on the secondary supports, and the scenes were re-staged. The charges went off, the coaster remained standing, and the crowd cheered.
Unwilling to spend any more time or money on explosives, the movie company finally devised a way to bring down the Rocket once and for all. A bulldozer, off-camera, and fitted with cables tied to strategic points along the track, finally did what the dynamite couldn't do, and amid the smoke and fire of one final gasoline bomb, as well as the geers and tears from the crowd, it slowly dragged the wooden monster to the ground. (A close review of the film may even reveal a cable or two in the final scenes.)
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“For ‘tis not in mere death that men die most.”
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)
“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No. This my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
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—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)