Chicago's Riverview Park, circa 1952

This silent footage of Riverview Park in the early 50s was uploaded to Youtube recently by the Chicago Film Archives. It's interesting and includes footage of several rides in action, including one of the coasters, the Shoot the Chutes and the Parachute Tower.

If there is a lost park in the universe that I ache for, it's Riverview.

I've lived in Chicago since 1997, and still, every time I'm on Western Avenue passing the location of the park -- it's now a shopping plaza, Riverview Plaza, where you buy groceries, pop into Radio Shack (well, not for much longer) or hit a dollar store -- it makes me a little sad. I wish I'd had the chance to visit the park.

We got out of the car and walked along what's left of Riverview's back midway, along a river I believe. We stood there and tried to imagine the Bobs, Bubble Bounce, and the Flying Turns there in front of us. I was pretty melancholy after that.
I think Riverview closed the same season as Cleveland's Euclid Beach, 1968, 9 maybe? I feel fortunate to have visted E.B., but I was just heading into high school around then and didn't even know Riverview existed. If I had I would have tried to see that we got there.
I'd call it the greatest traditional amusement park ever. I've studied the place over the years and I can't imagine a greater collection of rides and funhouses in it's day. And I wonder if they hadn't closed what the place would be like today.

Riverview is definitely one of *those* lost parks for me as well. Palisades would have been closer to my childhood home (closed the year I turned 4), but the list of wooden coasters at Riverview is impressive to say the least.

Palisades closed on my 7th birthday. I went there, but unfortunately have no specific memories of what the park was like.

One of my pinball machines 'Comet' (Williams, 1985) is named for the Comet at Riverview. Does that make me cool?

HeyIsntThatRob? said:

One of my pinball machines 'Comet' (Williams, 1985) is named for the Comet at Riverview. Does that make me cool?

No. ;)

Because everyone* knows that Cyclone is a far better pin. Hurricane? Not so much.

Later,
EV

* everyone who's a pinball geek that is....

I know... I know... When I was picking up my Comet machine there was someone else at the same place picking up their Cyclone machine. Jealous.

Still don't understand why they didn't make those 'multiball' machines.

Someday a Cyclone will be mine. And a Space Shuttle.

~Rob

PinBot.

We had a Big Ben in the basement as a kid.

In college, I fell in love with PinBot and F-14 TomCat (as well as SpyHunter). I was poor, but spent hours playing anyway...

Come to think of it, Big Ben sits on my sister's porch, covered. Hmmmm....

Fireball.

RCMAC, you ever make it back to Jersey, I gotta take you to the Silverball Museum on the Asbury Park boardwalk. I believe they have both of the machines you mentioned.

Wow, the miniature train is the same model that runs in Balboa Park (SD Zoo).

The Miniature Train Co. sold a lot of those, as did Allan Herschell after the bought the company for a while. Production of the streamliners was stopped and replaced with AH Iron Horse model.

Mike Gallagher said:

RCMAC, you ever make it back to Jersey, I gotta take you to the Silverball Museum on the Asbury Park boardwalk. I believe they have both of the machines you mentioned.

I know they have Cyclone. Not sure about Comet.

I plunked many rolls of quarters into Funhouse back in the day.

FWIW, some of that footage was from the late 50's/early 60's. The Wild Mouse opened in '58, Fireball in '59 and the neon Bob's sign was not installed until the '60s.

Thanks, Mike. I only knew what the CFA had posted with the video.