"On your right is the Aaron Burr pavilion"

June 3, 2022 6:59 PM

Freedomland, USA. The defunct theme park has an interesting history. 'The Rise and Suspiciously Rapid Fall of Freedomland U.S.A.' (previously)
posted by clavdivs (14 comments total)

The "previously" post focused on a defunct site that is fortunately archived here.
posted by LarryC at 8:56 PM on June 3, 2022 [1 favorite]

I didn't quite get this bit: “You’d never be able to get away with a whole section called ‘Old Chicago’ just ten years later.” Because there was, in fact, an amusement park called Old Chicago, which itself was only around for five years (although the building was visible from the interstate for many years afterward before it was demolished), a fully-enclosed amusement park, which wasn't quite the draw that its builders thought that it would be. (I remember it mostly because it had, tucked away in one corner, a mutoscope which featured pictures of topless women; I can only imagine that whoever put it there just thought of it as some kind of old-timey antiquey thing that couldn't possibly draw the interest of random thirteen-year-olds such as myself at the time.)
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:28 PM on June 3, 2022 [5 favorites]

"And when the park added late-night movies, more rides, and concerts by A-listers like Lesley Gore and Paul Anka to attract patrons, some of the sponsors revolted. The Benjamin Moore paint company even sued the park for $150,000 for "changing character" and becoming a hub for "commonplace and vulgar mass unrestrained teen-age entertainment," according to a 1962 article in the New York Times. The suit was dismissed as "groundless."

Paul Anka as a gateway drug.
posted by clavdivs at 9:44 PM on June 3, 2022 [4 favorites]

I accidentally flagged this post as a HTML issue and couldn't note that the second-to-last URL should probably go to Atlas Obscura's article directly rather than the Google AMP URL (the whole AMP concept is basically a man-in-the-middle attack vector for ads and tracking).
posted by tclark at 9:44 PM on June 3, 2022 [5 favorites]

🎢😬🎢
posted by clavdivs at 9:56 PM on June 3, 2022

Mod note: Fixed!
posted by taz (staff) at 10:00 PM on June 3, 2022 [3 favorites]

Because there was, in fact, an amusement park called Old Chicago, which itself was only around for five years ... a fully-enclosed amusement park, which wasn't quite the draw that its builders thought that it would be

We actually went there back when I was but a wee lad. My only memories of it are the sight of an entire amusement park located indoors, and the ride where you'd go straight up inside a rocket tower and do the circling thang riding back down (seen in the background here around 1:08 and 1:56). If it still had mutoscopes by then, my parents made sure I wasn't anywhere near them.

There's a decent YT mini-doc about it; let's just say that it's no surprise that Old Chicago didn't last too long. (There's probably at least at least one alternative universe out there where one of the fires resulted in major casualties).
posted by gtrwolf at 12:36 AM on June 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

The thought of Benjamin Moore paints furious over the bait-and-switch with what they thought they were sponsoring vs. - gasp!- Lesley Gore concerts is just incredible. The past is a foreign country, and always has been, and Benjamin Moore would be interested in sponsoring that foreign country as long as it never condones the interests of kids these days.
posted by Navelgazer at 6:07 AM on June 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

I loved Freedom Land as a kid. My best memories are all about the Chicago fire. I was too little to work the pumps and it closed before I grew up enough.
posted by tommasz at 7:56 AM on June 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

Oooh this is one of my favorite rabbit holes, and the short-lived trend of indoor parks (ala Old Chicago or Krofft World in Atlanta) is kind of fascinating as well. Remember that Disney was planning an indoor park in Saint Louis and then those plans fell apart over who was going to pay for the building.

And if we're doing wacky theme parks in Illinois don't forget Shireland. If you've driven I-90 towards Rockford you've certainly passed by the sign that stood for a decade or two afterward. The story of this park (and its owner) is incredible. And Dragonwood has nothing on the Jungle Cruise.
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:07 AM on June 4, 2022 [5 favorites]

Love me some Defunctland. This was really interesting, thanks for the link.
posted by neon909 at 8:26 AM on June 4, 2022 [3 favorites]

No malls and amusement parks. What exactly are people doing in their free time. There is a rumor that Cedar Point is moving from Sandusky to North Carolina, where it can be open all year. It used to get so crowded that you would spend a couple of hours waiting in line for a roller coaster. A few years ago we went in late May and it was gloriously quiet. My kid was running strait back into the Skyhawks entrance and go again, probably 15 times in a row. Someone invariably threw up so they closed the ride to clean it up.
posted by waving at 11:28 AM on June 4, 2022 [3 favorites]

Love me some Defunctland. This was really interesting, thanks for the link.

The channel is a must-subscribe. They produce such fantastic videos about these places.
posted by Down10 at 1:32 PM on June 4, 2022 [2 favorites]

If you were a kid in the Bronx in the 60s - and I was - Freedomland was everything you imagined Disneyland to be - and conveniently just up the Cross Bronx Expressway. My siblings still recite the Jungle Safari speech to each other, and yes, I got my Coonskin cap in Frontierland. The final night featured a concert by Count Basie and his Orchestra (it was advertised by Officer Joe Bolton on The Three Stooges Show!) so my Dad took us.

It was replaced by a housing developement called Coop City, which was run as a kind of socialist fairyland by old school union organizers, and still exists today.
posted by zaelic at 4:12 AM on June 5, 2022 [3 favorites]