Steeplechase Park - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

  • One of Steeplechase's more infamous rides, "The Flopper," was the subject of a famous torts law case, Murphy v. Steeplechase Amusement Park in 1929 where the plaintiff, Murphy, fell and fractured his kneecap. Murphy lost his case, decided by Justice Cardozo, because he legally "assumed the risk" inherent in riding The Flopper, a moving belt run in a groove by an electric motor.
  • The park is fondly remembered in the song "Coney Island Steeplechase" (1969) by The Velvet Underground.
  • The park is mentioned in the song "Tunnel of Love by Dire Straits: "from Steeplechase to Palisades."
  • The park plays an important role in the novel Closing Time (1994) by Joseph Heller.
  • The park is the setting for Fredrick Forsyth's book The Phantom of Manhattan, the bases for Andrew Lloyd Webber's sequel to The Phantom Of The Opera, Love Never Dies

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