Palisades Amusement Park was a 38-acre

amusement park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...

located in

Bergen County, New Jersey Bergen County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. It was located atop the

New Jersey Palisades The Palisades, also called the New Jersey Palisades or the Hudson River Palisades, are a line of steep cliffs along the west side of the lower Hudson River in Northeastern New Jersey and Southeastern New York in the United States. The cliffs s ...

lying partly in

Cliffside Park Cliffside Park is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 23,594,Fort Lee. The park operated from 1898 until 1971, remaining one of the most visited amusement parks in the country until its closure in 1971, after which a high-rise luxury apartment complex was built on its site.

Trolley park era: 1898-1910

The park overlooked the Hudson River on of

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

riverfront land. It straddled what is now

Cliffside Park Cliffside Park is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 23,594,Fort Lee, and facing the northern end of Manhattan. In 1898, before common use of

automobiles A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as ...

, the Bergen County Traction Company conceived the park as a

trolley park Trolley may refer to: Vehicles and components * Tram, or trolley or streetcar, a rail vehicle that runs on tramway tracks * Trolleybus, or trolley, an electric bus drawing power from overhead wires using trolley poles ** Trolleytruck, a trolleyb ...

to attract evening and weekend riders. It was originally known as "The Park on the Palisades". In 1908, the trolley company sold the park to August Neumann and Frank Knox, who hired Alven H. Dexter to manage it. Dexter imported a crude assortment of attractions which included a

Ferris wheel A Ferris wheel (also called a Giant Wheel or an observation wheel) is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating upright wheel with multiple passenger-carrying components (commonly referred to as passenger cars, cabins, tubs, gondolas, capsules ...

, a baby parade, and diving horses.

Schenck brothers' ownership: 1910-1934

By 1908, the park was renamed ''Palisades Amusement Park'', and the new owners began adding amusement rides and attractions. In 1910 the park was purchased by

Nicholas Nicholas is a male given name and a surname. The Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Anglicanism, Anglican Churches celebrate Saint Nicholas every year on December 6, which is the name day for "Nicholas". In Greece, the n ...

and

Joseph Schenck Joseph Michael Schenck (; December 25, 1876 – October 22, 1961) was a Russian-born American film studio executive. Life and career Schenck was born to a Jewish family in Rybinsk, Yaroslavl Oblast, Russian Empire. He emigrated to New York City ...

and their Realty Trust Company. The Schencks were brothers who were active in the nascent

motion picture A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

industry in nearby Fort Lee, as well as operated the

Fort George Amusement Park Fort George Amusement Park was a trolley park and amusement park that operated in the Washington Heights and Inwood neighborhoods of Upper Manhattan, New York City, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It occupied an area between 190th an ...

in New York City, across the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

to the east. They renamed the park once again, naming it ''Schenck Bros. Palisade Park''. In 1912 the park added a salt-water

swimming pool A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming or other leisure activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built ...

. It was filled by pumping water from the saline Hudson River, 200 feet (60 m) below in the town of Edgewater. This pool, 400 by 600 feet (120 meters by 180 meters) in surface area, was advertised as the largest salt-water wave pool in the nation. Behind the water falls were huge pontoons that rose up and down as they rotated, creating a one-foot wave in the pool. As the park added more and more attractions, it became so famous by the 1920s that the Borough of Palisades Park, located just west of the amusement park, considered changing its name to avoid confusion among amusement park visitors. In 1928 the park introduced the

Cyclone In meteorology, a cyclone () is a large air mass that rotates around a strong center of low atmospheric pressure, counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere as viewed from above (opposite to an anti ...

roller coaster, the third of

Harry Traver Harry Guy Traver (November 25, 1877 – September 27, 1961) was an American engineer and early roller coaster designer. As the founder of the Traver Engineering Company, Traver was responsible for the production of gentle amusement rides like t ...

's "Terrifying Triplets". Due to the high maintenance costs, the ride was removed six years later.

Rosenthal brothers' ownership: 1934-1971

In 1934 or 1935, Nicholas and Joseph Schenck sold the site for $450,000 to Jack and

Irving Rosenthal Irving Rosenthal (December 5, 1895 – December 27, 1973) was an amusement company owner who, along with his brother Jack Rosenthal, operated the Palisades Amusement Park near Cliffside Park and Fort Lee, New Jersey, from 1934 until its closi ...

. The brothers and entrepreneurs had made a fortune as concessionaires at

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, L ...

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, be ...

. They also owned some concessions and a carousel at

Savin Rock Amusement Park Savin Rock was an American amusement park in West Haven, Connecticut. It was previously called The White City and was established in the 1870s . The park included a number of roller coasters, other rides and numerous funhouses. The park has been ...

West Haven, Connecticut West Haven is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. It is located on the coast of Long Island Sound. At the 2020 census, the population of the city was 55,584. History Settled in 1648, West Haven (then known as West Farms) ...

. The Rosenthals built the

Coney Island Cyclone The Cyclone, also the Coney Island Cyclone, is a wooden roller coaster at Luna Park in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City. Designed by Vernon Keenan, it opened to the public on June 26, 1927. The roller coaster is on a plot of land at the ...

, a wooden coaster (completely different from the Travers' Triplets), in 1927. In 1935 the park was partially damaged by fire. In 1944, a second fire killed six, forcing the park to close until the start of the 1945 season. The Rosenthals reverted the park's name to the more recognizable ''Palisades Amusement Park.'' One of the many attractions, rebuilt and redesigned by construction superintendent Joe McKee, was the Skyrocket roller coaster. The Rosenthals named the newly repaired coaster the "Cyclone", after their Coney Island coaster. In 1958, Joe built the Wild Mouse roller coaster with his construction foreman Bert Whitworth,. The park's reputation and attendance continued to grow throughout the 1950s and 1960s, largely due to saturation

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

and the continued success of the park's music pavilion and Caisson bar erected during that time. During the mid-1950s the park started featuring

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from Africa ...

shows hosted by local radio announcers

Clay Cole Clay Cole (born Albert Franklin Rucker Jr.; January 1, 1938 – December 18, 2010) was an American host and disk jockey, best known for his eponymous television dance program, ''The Clay Cole Show'', which aired in New York City on WNTA-TV and ...

and "Cousin Brucie" Morrow, and starting during the 1960s,

Motown Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''moto ...

musical acts were performed there. Advertisements for the park were frequently printed in the back pages of 1950s and 1960s

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

s, along with clip-out coupons good for one free ride on a specific attraction. The Rosenthals realized that youths in the

New York metropolitan area The New York metropolitan area, also commonly referred to as the Tri-State area, is the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban area, urban landmass, at , and one of the list of most populous metropolitan areas, most populous urban agg ...

represented the largest single market for comic books in the nation, and that comic book advertising was a cheap way to reach thousands of potential customers.

Segregation

In 1946, the park formed the Sun and Surf Club and restricted pool access to members only. In the book ''Palisades Amusement Park: A Century of Fond Memories'', the author Vince Gargiulo writes that "In reality, the club allowed park officials to discriminate according to the color of the patron's skin". He cites an example in July 1946, where eight black and two white people entered the park together; the white people were allowed to purchase tickets while the black people were prohibited from doing so. In response, African Americans started protesting against the Palisades Amusement Park pool's segregation policy; some protesters held signs that stated "Protest

Jim Crow The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...

". On July 13, 1947, Melba Valle, a 22-year-old African-American woman, tried to use a pool admission ticket from a Caucasian friend, but was not allowed to enter the pool. Valle was then "'forcibly dragged and ejected' from the Park", as described in several newspapers; as a result, the

Congress of Racial Equality The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is an African Americans, African-American civil rights organization in the United States that played a pivotal role for African Americans in the civil rights movement. Founded in 1942, its stated mission ...

(CORE) started protesting at the Palisades Amusement Park entrance. Even though police detained 11 CORE members, the group stated that they would protest at the park entrance on Sundays, and would only stop their protests when the pool started allowing African Americans. The protesters handed out the following flyer in 1947, which is now on exhibit in the Fort Lee Museum. The policy was dropped by the 1950s.

"Palisades Park" song and boom in popularity

In 1962,

Chuck Barris Charles Hirsch Barris (June 3, 1929 – March 21, 2017) was an American game show creator, producer, and host. Barris was known for hosting ''The Gong Show'' and creating ''The Dating Game'' and ''The Newlywed Game''. He was also a songwrite ...

composed and

Freddy Cannon Frederick Anthony Picariello, Jr. (born December 4, 1936), better known by his stage name Freddy Cannon, is an American rock and roll singer, whose biggest international hits included "Tallahassee Lassie", " Way Down Yonder in New Orleans", and " ...

recorded a song about the park entitled " Palisades Park"''.'' The song was an up-tempo

tune initiated by a distinctive organ part. The song also incorporated amusement park sound effects. "Palisades Park" received nationwide radioplay and increased the park's fame even more. The "Palisades Park" song generated a surge of park visitors. Palisades_Amusement_Park_Ride_Ticket

There was a hole in the fence behind the amusement park's music stage, which was used by local children to sneak into the park without paying admission. Although the Rosenthal brothers knew about the hole, they did not repair it. Unlike many modern amusement parks that require visitors to buy an all inclusive pass before entering the grounds, Palisades Amusement Park also charged individual fees for each ride and attraction inside the park. Irving Rosenthal, who loved children even though he had none of his own, allowed this "secret" entrance to remain and instructed security personnel to ignore anyone sneaking through it. He felt that children, who had little money to start with, would be more willing to spend their limited funds inside the park if they got in for free. Irving Rosenthal also printed free-admission offers on

matchbook A matchbook is a small paperboard folder (known as a matchcover) enclosing a quantity of matches and having a coarse striking surface on the exterior. The folder is opened to access the matches, which are attached in a comb-like arrangement a ...

s and in other media. He owned an advertising company that put up billboards known as "three sheeters" all over New York City. Parking was free for the same reasons. However, as the park began attracting bigger and bigger crowds in later years, the on-site parking lot became less and less adequate, often rapidly filling to capacity. An overflow parking lot was opened at the bottom of the cliff in Edgewater, and shuttle buses carried visitors up to the park. The overflow lot sometimes also reached capacity, and when this happened, motorists were directed to park on local streets anywhere between the nearby

George Washington Bridge The George Washington Bridge is a double-decked suspension bridge spanning the Hudson River, connecting Fort Lee, New Jersey, with Manhattan in New York City. The bridge is named after George Washington, the first president of the United St ...

and the

Lincoln Tunnel The Lincoln Tunnel is an approximately tunnel under the Hudson River, connecting Weehawken, New Jersey, to the west with Midtown Manhattan in New York City to the east. It carries New Jersey Route 495 on the New Jersey side and unsigned New Y ...

several miles south. This reduced parking for local residents and businesses, as well as added to street congestion. From 1947 to 1971 Palisades Park averaged 6 million visitors. Peak attendance was reached in 1969 with 10 million visitors. Radio and television commercials broadcast in the greater New York area encouraged the public to, "Come on over!" They did just that.

Demise

Three factors contributed to the eventual closing of Palisades Amusement Park: inadequate parking facilities; growing uncertainty about the park's future; and an increase in the number of incidents where visitors got injured or killed. By 1967, Jack Rosenthal had died of

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

, leaving his brother Irving as sole owner. Irving, in his 70s, was not expected to manage the park for much longer. Without family heirs, it was unclear as to who would eventually assume ownership. Meanwhile, the park had become so popular that the towns of Cliffside Park and Fort Lee saw increased and worsening congestion from park patrons who did not live in the area. Local residents objected to the traffic jams, litter, changing racial demographics, and other effects of the park's immense popularity. They demanded action from local elected officials. Developers wanted to profit by the Palisades' view of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, and they successfully pressured the local government to re-zone the amusement park site for high-rise

apartment An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ma ...

housing Housing, or more generally, living spaces, refers to the construction and assigned usage of houses or buildings individually or collectively, for the purpose of shelter. Housing ensures that members of society have a place to live, whether it ...

and condemn it under

eminent domain Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...

. During the next few years, the land was surveyed by a number of builders who made lucrative offers, but Rosenthal tried to postpone the park's inevitable closing and refused to sell. During the heyday of "Palisades Park" in the 1950s and 1960s, Irving would refer to Fort Lee as his town. In January 1971 a

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

developer, Winston-Centex Corporation, acquired the property for $12.5 million and agreed to lease it back to Irving Rosenthal so that Palisades Amusement Park could operate for one final season. The park permanently closed on Sunday, September 12, 1971. The last person to swim in the famous "world's largest outdoor saltwater pool" was Curt Kellinger, son of long time park employee and pool manager George Kellinger Sr. After it closed, Morgan "Mickey" Hughes and Fletch Creamer Jr. tried to reopen the park for one more season and obtained a lease from Winston-Centex. However, the town of Fort Lee would not issue a business license until the next spring, and even then the town could not guarantee such a license. The buildings were subsequently demolished; the rides sold, dismantled and transported to other amusement operators in the United States and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The towns of Cliffside Park and Fort Lee considered using the park's salt-water swimming pool for municipal recreation, only to find that its filtration system had been damaged beyond repair by

vandals The Vandals were a Germanic peoples, Germanic people who first inhabited what is now southern Poland. They established Vandal Kingdom, Vandal kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean islands, and North Africa in the fifth century. The ...

. Four high-rise luxury apartment buildings stand on the old park site today. The first two built were Winston Towers. Carlyle Towers followed and then the Royal Buckingham. In 1998, on the centennial of the opening of the original Park on the Palisades, Winston Towers management dedicated a monument to Palisades Amusement Park on its property. The monument is a small park, with the names of the rides inscribed on its bricks, named "The Little Park of Memories." In June 2014, five original roller coaster cars from The Cyclone that were "gathering dust for decades" were returned to Bergen County from Pennsylvania, and were planned to undergo a restoration project, more than 40 years after the park's closing. Though the cars are not functional, they were anticipated to be publicly showcased and displayed.

In popular culture

The park influenced future game show producer, host and then-songwriter (and alleged/denied CIA hitman) Chuck Barris to write the song " Palisades Park," a 1962 hit for

. In opening credits of the 1956 film Somebody Up There Likes Me, the park's lighted sign and roller coaster can be seen clearly from across the Hudson River in Upper Manhattan. In the sixth episode of ''

Mad Men ''Mad Men'' is an American period drama television series created by Matthew Weiner and produced by Lionsgate Television. It ran on the cable network AMC from July 19, 2007, to May 17, 2015, lasting for seven seasons and 92 episodes. Its fict ...

'',

Don Draper Donald Francis Draper, born Richard “Dick” Whitman, is a fictional character and the protagonist of the AMC television series ''Mad Men'' (2007–2015), portrayed by Jon Hamm. Up to the Season 3 finale, Draper was creative director of ficti ...

is carrying his daughter, Sally Beth Draper to bed after an outing for

Mother's Day Mother's Day is a celebration honoring the mother of the family or individual, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on different days in many parts of the world, most commonly in the ...

. Sally is holding a pink helium bloom that reads "Palisades Amusement Park". Alan Brennert's novel ''Palisades Park'' is a fictional account of a family beginning in 1922 and ending in 1971 when the amusement park closed. The author used the park as a backdrop and interviewed many local people as part of the background of the novel. In Chapter IV of the comic book ''

Watchmen ''Watchmen'' is an American comic book Limited series (comics), maxiseries by the British creative team of writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons and colorist John Higgins (comics), John Higgins. It was published monthly by DC Comics in 1986 a ...

'', Dr. Manhattan looks at an old photograph that is taken at the amusement park. In the 1945 film '' The Clock'', the lights of the rollercoaster and other structures in the park can be seen across the Hudson while the young lovers wait for a bus on Riverside Drive. The "Palisades Park" song can be heard playing on the radio of the taxi driver who is harassed by the Newark police in the HBO film

The Many Saints of Newark ''The Many Saints of Newark'' (marketed with the subtitle ''A Sopranos Story'') is a 2021 American crime drama film directed by Alan Taylor and written by David Chase and Lawrence Konner. A prequel to Chase's HBO crime drama series ''The So ...

, the prequel film to

The Sopranos ''The Sopranos'' is an American Crime film#Crime drama, crime drama television series created by David Chase. The story revolves around Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey-based American Mafia, Italian-American mobster, portraying h ...

HBO crime drama.

References

External links

Palisades Amusement Park Historical Society
* {{Authority control Buildings and structures in Bergen County, New Jersey Defunct amusement parks in New Jersey New Jersey streetcar lines 1898 establishments in New Jersey 1971 disestablishments in New Jersey Amusement parks in New Jersey Cliffside Park, New Jersey Amusement parks opened in 1898 Amusement parks closed in 1971