Friday, May 21, 2010

The Pit - Revere Beach

This photograph is from inside the "Nautical Gardens" area of the amusement park at Revere Beach, Massachusetts. Postmarked in 1911, the postcard shows a turntable, which rotated and as it increased in speed threw people off to the edges. A viewer's gallery allowed people to watch as others tried to stay on. Many of these fun-house buildings at amusement parks were made entirely of wood and suffered many fires that burned them to the ground. Additionally, they may not have been especially safe, but in those days people just took the bumps and bruises in stride, pre-our litigious society.


Oh oh! Look what happened to the Pit, on August 28th, 1918 (as reported in the Lewiston, Maine Daily Sun.....

4 comments:

Beth Niquette said...

What a novel way to have fun! I'd never heard of this! I totally enjoyed reading this post...wonderful!

Happy PFF!

Postcardy said...

Interesting postcard. It looks awful scary to me.

Mary said...

I remember something like this at POP (Pacific Ocean Park in Santa Monica, California) except the floor lowered as the "pit" spun and you stuck to the sides through centrifical force. I always loved that ride!

viridian said...

This 'ride' sounds frightening, and must have led to many injuries. I note there are no ladies on this! What an interesting postcard.