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Frederic Thompson
Frederic Williams Thompson (October 31, 1873 – June 6, 1919) was an American architect, engineer, inventor, and showman known for creating amusement rides and one of the first large amusement parks. Biography Frederic Thompson was born in Ironton, Ohio on Halloween 1873. His father, Casey, moved the family around frequently working as a manager in the steel industry in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Springfield, Illinois and Nashville, Tennessee. Frederic trained as an architectural draftsman at his uncle's office and studied at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Ecoles des Beaux Arts in Paris. He had many jobs early on including draftsman, artist and as a salesman in his own business selling building materials and furniture to local contractors. Exposition and entertainment business At age 19 or 20 Thompson traveled to Chicago and ended up working several jobs at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. He won a prize for designing a ...
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Ironton, Ohio
Ironton is a city in and the county seat of Lawrence County, Ohio, United States. Located in southernmost Ohio along the Ohio River northwest of Huntington, West Virginia, the city includes the Downtown Ironton Historic District. The population was 11,129 at the 2010 census. Ironton is part of the Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH, Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). As of the 2010 census, the MSA had a population of 287,702. New definitions from February 28, 2013, placed the population at 363,000. Ironton is a contraction of "iron town." The city has a long history with the iron industry. It also had one of the first professional football teams. History Ironton was founded in 1849 by John Campbell, a prominent pig iron manufacturer in the area. He chose the location of Ironton because of its site along the Ohio River, which would allow for water transport of iron ore to markets downriver. Between 1850 and 1890, Ironton was one of the foremost producers of iron in the world ...
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Phonograph
A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue recording and reproduction of sound. The sound vibration waveforms are recorded as corresponding physical deviations of a spiral groove engraved, etched, incised, or impressed into the surface of a rotating cylinder or disc, called a "record". To recreate the sound, the surface is similarly rotated while a playback stylus traces the groove and is therefore vibrated by it, very faintly reproducing the recorded sound. In early acoustic phonographs, the stylus vibrated a diaphragm which produced sound waves which were coupled to the open air through a flaring horn, or directly to the listener's ears through stethoscope-type earphones. The phonograph was invented in 1877 by Thomas Edison. Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Laboratory made s ...
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New York Hippodrome
The Hippodrome Theatre, also called the New York Hippodrome, was a theater in New York City from 1905 to 1939, located on Sixth Avenue between West 43rd and West 44th Streets in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan. It was called the world's largest theatre by its builders and had a seating capacity of 5,300,Shanor with a 100x200ft (30x61m) stage. The theatre had state-of-the-art theatrical technology, including a rising glass water tank. The Hippodrome was built by Frederic Thompson and Elmer "Skip" Dundy, creators of the Luna Park amusement park at Coney Island, with the backing of Harry S. Black's U.S. Realty, a dominant real estate and construction company of the time,Alexiou and was acquired by The Shubert Organization in 1909. In 1933, it was re-opened as the New York Hippodrome cinema, and became the stage for Billy Rose's ''Jumbo'' in 1935. Acts which appeared at the Hippodrome included numerous circuses, musical revues, Harry Houdini's disappearing elephant, va ...
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Sea Lion Park
Sea Lion Park was a amusement park started in 1895 on Coney Island by Paul Boyton. He fenced the property and charged admission, the park becoming the first enclosed and permanent amusement park in North America. Up until the establishment of this park, amusement areas around the country consisted of pay-as-you-go concessions.History of Enduring Coney Island
Retrieved 4 August 2007.
In 1903, Sea Lion Park was replaced by .


History

Paul Boyton achieved international notice with various demonstrations of a rubber suit, which was a life saving device, similar to a type of kayak, ...
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Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, behind New York County (Manhattan). Brooklyn is also New York City's most populous borough,2010 Gazetteer for New York State
. Retrieved September 18, 2016.
with 2,736,074 residents in 2020. Named after the Dutch village of Breukelen, Brooklyn is located on the w ...
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Coney Island
Coney Island is a peninsular neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, Manhattan Beach to its east, Lower New York Bay to the south and west, and Gravesend, Brooklyn, Gravesend to the north and includes the subsection of Sea Gate, Brooklyn, Sea Gate on its west. More broadly, Coney Island or sometimes for clarity the Coney Island peninsula consists of Coney Island proper, Brighton Beach, and Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, Manhattan Beach. This was formerly the westernmost of the Outer Barrier islands on the southern shore of Long Island, but in the early 20th century it became a peninsula, connected to the rest of Long Island by Land reclamation, land fill. The origin of Coney Island's name is disputed, but the area was originally part of the colonial town of Gravesend. By the mid-19th century it had become a seaside resort, and by the late ...
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Steeplechase Park
Steeplechase Park was a amusement park in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City. Steeplechase Park was created by entrepreneur George C. Tilyou in 1897 and operated until 1964. It was the first of the three large amusement parks built on Coney Island, the other two being Luna Park (1903) and Dreamland (1904). Of the three, Steeplechase was the longest-lasting, running for 67 years. The first rides in Steeplechase Park were standalone attractions scattered around Coney Island that Tilyou had purchased in the early 1890s. Steeplechase itself opened in 1897 to unite these formerly separate attractions, and quickly gained popularity as a family-friendly destination with exhibitionist and risque undertones. It was destroyed by fire in 1907, but was quickly rebuilt. Steeplechase remained profitable as the Tilyou family continually brought in new rides and new amusements, such as the Parachute Jump. However, by the 1960s Steeplechase Park was becoming unprofitable due to high crime, ...
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Night In Luna Park, Coney Island (1905)
Night (also described as night time, unconventionally spelled as "nite") is the period of ambient darkness from sunset to sunrise during each 24-hour day, when the Sun is below the horizon. The exact time when night begins and ends depends on the location and varies throughout the year, based on factors such as season and latitude. The word can be used in a different sense as the time between bedtime and morning. In common communication, the word ''night'' is used as a farewell ("good night", sometimes shortened to "night"), mainly when someone is going to sleep or leaving. Astronomical night is the period between astronomical dusk and astronomical dawn when the Sun is between 18 and 90 degrees below the horizon and does not illuminate the sky. As seen from latitudes between about 48.56° and 65.73° north or south of the Equator, complete darkness does not occur around the summer solstice because, although the Sun sets, it is never more than 18° below the horizon at lower c ...
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A Trip To The Moon (attraction)
A Trip to the Moon was a pioneering early dark ride, best known as the flagship and namesake of Luna Park in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City. History A Trip to the Moon was originally designed by Frederic Thompson for the Pan-American Exposition of 1901 in Buffalo, New York. Tickets for the popular ride were US$0.50 ($ in dollars) at the time, twice the price of other attractions at the exposition. It was experienced by over 400,000 people before it closed on November 2, 1901. It was the first electrically powered mechanical "dark ride" and one of the first space rides. After the exposition, Thompson and his partner Elmer "Skip" Dundy brought the attraction to Tilyou's Steeplechase Park, then later established it as the anchor of their newly opened Luna Park in 1903, on land formerly occupied by the Elephantine Colossus. Experience The first version of the ride involved a simulated trip for thirty passengers from the fairgrounds to the Moon aboard the airship-ornithopte ...
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Midway (fair)
A midway at a fair (commonly an American fair such as a county or state fair) is the location where carnival games, amusement rides, entertainment, dime stores, themed events, exhibitions and trade shows, pleasure gardens, water parks and food booths cluster. The term originated from the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago, Illinois, in 1893. It was the first world's fair with an area for amusements which was strictly separated from the exhibition halls. This area, which was concentrated on the city's Midway Plaisance, included amusement rides (among them the original Ferris Wheel), belly dancers, balloon rides, and other attractions. After the Exposition, the term ''midway'' came into use as a common noun in the United States and Canada to refer to the area for amusements at a county or state fair, circus, festival, or amusement park. Midway. Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 11th Edition. Retrieved 2 Aug 2012, from CollinsDictionary.com Web site: ...
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Elmer "Skip" Dundy
Elmer Scipio "Skip" Dundy Jr. (March 31, 1862 – February 5, 1907) was an American showman and promoter known for creating amusement rides and one of the first large amusement parks. Biography Elmer Scipio Dundy Jr. ("Skip") was born in Falls City, Nebraska on March 31, 1862, the first of four children (and only son) of lawyer (and later United States District Court Judge) Elmer Scipio Dundy and Mary Dundy. Young Skip Dundy's had an early exposure to show business, due to in part the stories told by wild west showman Buffalo Bill Cody who was a familiar visitor in the Dundy home. He supposedly attended the University of Nebraska (although there is no record for his attendance) and in 1882 was appointed to the position of district court clerk by his father. When his father handled the bankruptcy of the Union Pacific Railroad Skip Dundy was appointed master in charge of that $20 million case, showing his aptitude for financial matters. At the 1898 Trans-Mississippi Expositi ...
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Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Southern Ontario. With a population of 278,349 according to the 2020 census, Buffalo is the 78th-largest city in the United States. The city and nearby Niagara Falls together make up the two-county Buffalo–Niagara Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which had an estimated population of 1.1 million in 2020, making it the 49th largest MSA in the United States. Buffalo is in Western New York, which is the largest population and economic center between Boston and Cleveland. Before the 17th century, the region was inhabited by nomadic Paleo-Indians who were succeeded by the Neutral, Erie, and Iroquois nations. In the early 17th century, the French began to explore the region. In the 18th century, Iroquois land surrounding Buffalo Creek ...
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