The outlandish, hilarious, terrifying, and almost impossible-to-believe story of the legendary, dangerous amusement park where millions were entertained and almost as many bruises were sustained, told through the eyes of the founder's son
Andy Mulvihill is the son of famed Action Park founder Gene
Mulvihill. In addition to testing rides, Andy worked as a lifeguard
at the park before moving into a managerial role. He is currently
the CEO of Crystal Springs Resort Real Estate.
Jake Rossen is a senior staff writer at Mental Floss. His byline
has appeared in The New York Times, The Village Voice, ESPN.com,
and Wired, among others. He is also the author of Superman vs.
Hollywood, examining the life of the Man of Steel from 1940s radio
dramas to big-budget features.
“I went to Action Park exactly once in the 1990s. I saw people with
open wounds. I was asked if I was an expert swimmer by a bored 16
year old before entering a pitch dark water pipe that ejected me
feet over ice cold water. I bruised my ribs on the turn of one
water slide and spent the next day in exquisite pain. I never
wanted to go back again. Until I read this book. Now I miss it. Why
do we as a species crave danger and punishment? You won’t find the
answer here, but you will find story after unbelievable story of a
place that should have never existed.” —John Hodgman, author
of Vacationland and Medallion Status
"The lore of the place — the scars and stitches, the wipeout tales,
and the sheer notion of a theme park so slapdash, unregulated and
deserving of nicknames like “Traction Park”— has inspired oral
histories, a documentary and a movie helmed by no less a
connoisseur of bodily harm than Johnny Knoxville of “Jackass”
fame. But the truest version may be the latest ... Beyond
painting a compelling portrait of Gene Mulvihill, Action Park
captures the frenetic energy of a place very much a function of its
time: parental supervision and safety precautions — low; teen
hormones, illusion of infallibility and recklessness —
high." —The Washington Post
“Action Park’s ridiculous history... is a compelling, entertaining,
albeit horrifying read.” —A.V. Club
"Action Park, like Jurassic Park, brims with mortal danger, except
Action Park was somehow real. If you ever worked a summer job with
guys named Smoke, Puff and Ring-Ding, you'll instantly recognize
the time and place. Every page is so redolent of beer, fear, lust
and chlorine that it’s practically scratch-and-sniff." —Steve
Rushin, author of Sting-Ray Afternoons and Nights in White
Castle
"Every traditional amusement park exhales a whiff of the sinister,
but an afternoon at Action Park was more akin to visiting the
Western Front on a busy day than suffering some mild jostling in a
bumper car or rattling through the Laff in the Dark. The son of
Gene Mulvihill, founder of Action Park’s unique—and uniquely
dangerous—concoction of violent diversions reveals its almost
unbelievable and frequently hilarious history with high-hearted
gusto and impressive frankness. Here was an operation founded on a
strange application of the old principle that the customer is
always right: if you got hurt—and hundreds did—it was your own
fault. After all, one had only to look at the rides to see that
most of them offered the likelihood of a compound fracture or
worse. Fueling Mulvihill’s implausible success was his libertarian
conviction that people are responsible for their own choices,
however reckless. And there is a larger story here: a glimpse--at
once chilling, fascinating, and oddly touching—of American
entrepreneurial genius at its most audacious." —Richard Snow,
author of Disney's Land
"Reading Andy Mulvihill’s chronicle of fast times at his father
Gene’s amusement park resembles an actual visit: fun and hilarity
one second, shock and horror the next…Alternately wistful and
clear-eyed about the past, Andy’s story will be cherished by those
who remember their own Coppertone-scented teen
summers.” —Booklist
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