WEBVTT FILE
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Downloaded from
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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX
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[light dramatic music]
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♪ ♪
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- It's not really fair
to ask the question,
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"What was Action Park?"
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Basically, so it was
a waterslide park.
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But in truth, it was so much
more than a waterslide park.
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- Action Park was
the chaos summer park
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with very little oversight,
too much alcohol,
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whistles blowing,
people screaming,
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motors running.
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It was an energy, you know?
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You knew you were
jumping into the firepit.
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- The most dangerous
theme park of all time.
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- There was a waterslide
that held one person
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that went in a--
like, in a flip.
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- It looked like
a bunch of kids built it,
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because that's what it was.
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- We'll be back with more
"Headbangers Ball,"
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coming from Action Park
in Vernon, New Jersey,
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the biggest water park
in the world.
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- I think the very reason
people were attracted
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to Action Park was because
they could get hurt.
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That was the allure of it.
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I mean, who wants to sit
on a Ferris wheel?
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- It was a place
where death was tolerated,
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where death was put right
into the number situation.
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- Every member of my family
was injured in that park
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at some time or another.
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They called it
Traction Park.
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- Class Action Park.
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- Class Action Park,
the lawyers called it.
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- It starts out with people
having fun,
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and by the end,
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crimes have been committed.
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Cover-ups have happened.
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The story hasn't been told
truthfully.
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To me, that's probably
the worst thing of all.
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♪ ♪
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male narrator:
In order to truly understand
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a place like Action Park,
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we need to go back to New York
in the 1970s.
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[light music]
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Wall Street.
Everything was changing.
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Bankers and brokers
were transforming
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into masters of the universe.
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- A ton of money starts
to enter the industry.
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It is the place to be.
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And that is part of
what creates the environment
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that makes it perfect for
someone like Gene Mulvihill.
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♪ ♪
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- Gene Mulvihill
was Wall Street in the 1970s.
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He was Gordon Gekko before
there was a Gordon Gekko.
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- He's this mix of
P.T. Barnum, Donald Trump.
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It's not just
that he's a businessman.
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It's the personality
that he's bringing to it too.
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narrator:
Gene ran a brokerage firm
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called Mayflower Securities,
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and every time
he'd make a sale,
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he'd blast a bugle
through the office
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while the champagne bottles
crack open.
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- This was the era
of the penny stock,
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of the pump-and-dump scheme.
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- Penny stocks?
- Yeah.
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narrator:
Penny stock scams
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are when salesmen
take worthless stocks
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and trick unsuspecting
investors into buying them.
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- Come on.
Who buys this crap?
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- Enters Robert Brennan,
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fraudster, penny-stock king,
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and best friend of Gene.
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Brennan gets his start
as a salesman
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at Mayflower Securities,
working for Gene,
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and within a few years,
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he's the president
of the company.
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narrator: Under Gene
and Brennan's leadership,
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it wasn't long
before Mayflower
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got suspended by the SEC
for doing
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what "The New York Times"
referred to
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as "selling
worthless securities
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in a bankrupt
electronics company."
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Gene was effectively
kicked off of Wall Street.
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So he did what anybody
in this situation would do:
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buy up two ski resorts
in Vernon, New Jersey,
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Great Gorge and Vernon Valley.
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[lively music]
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- Located within
the magic 45-mile radius
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of metropolitan New York City,
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Vernon Township occupies
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67.9 square miles
of prime land,
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with a population of better
than 20,000 people.
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Also located in Vernon
is Wawayanda State Park,
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and that's just the beginning.
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- So many big,
larger-than-life people
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looked to Vernon in the '70s,
and they saw possibility.
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It's got all of this
amazing outdoor terrain.
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You can ski in the winter.
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You can hike or bike
in the summer.
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- You would never think
it was in New Jersey.
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For a country boy like me,
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it was an amazing place
to grow up.
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Everybody seemed
to know each other.
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It was like this little
idyllic small town.
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♪ ♪
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narrator: In the early '70s,
none other than Hugh Hefner
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opened a Playboy Club
in the hills of Vernon.
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Gambling had just taken over
Atlantic City,
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and Hef believed
it was on its way
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up to North Jersey soon.
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- And he wanted to build
the hopping spot,
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the casino
that would draw people
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from all over to New Jersey.
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narrator: Vernon had already
been catching the eye
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of outside investors,
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but the opening
of the Playboy Club
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took things
to a whole new level.
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- Every weekend, there was
some celebrity coming.
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People like Tony Bennett
would come to sing,
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or Wayne Newton used to come.
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- ♪ The love between
the two of us was dying ♪
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- And Vernon was absolutely
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poised to be the next Orlando,
even Vegas.
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[Wayne Newton's "Daddy,
Don't You Walk So Fast"]
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♪ ♪
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narrator:
Since he couldn't negotiate
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with New Jersey weather
and its short ski season,
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Gene became a pioneer
in artificial snow.
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He went so far as to construct
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the world's largest
snowmaking machine
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out of a jet engine.
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[jet engine roaring]
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- So the thing
with Gene's ski resort is,
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there were summer months.
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He had downtime.
So what do you do?
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Well, Gene started
building rides.
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- So he was looking
for something to do with it
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in the summer,
and he got the idea
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of starting an amusement park,
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but he wanted to kind of take
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the idea of where
you get on your skis
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and you go down
and you control how fast
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and where you go
to the amusement park.
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male announcer: And we reflect
on the sounds and sights
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of children's joy
at Action Park.
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Everything here
is strictly do-it-yourself.
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[light dramatic music]
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♪ ♪
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narrator:
To get his park built,
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Gene turned to his old buddy
Bob Brennan,
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always there
to find cash or investors
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anytime Gene
had a wild new idea.
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- They were saying
that New Jersey could compete
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with Orlando
as a theme park destination,
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and that's not that crazy.
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narrator: Enough people
were sold on the vision,
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and things started
to take off.
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♪ ♪
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- Action Park was one
of the very first
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modern water parks
in the country--in the world.
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Nobody knew what a water park
really was.
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They had to invent it.
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- Build it higher.
Make it faster.
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Do something that nobody's
ever seen before.
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That was what my father
was all about.
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narrator: They were
designing it on the fly,
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essentially throwing ideas
at the wall
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and seeing what stuck.
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Some worked okay.
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Others not so much.
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♪ ♪
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And in 1978,
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Action Park was born.
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- ♪ Baby, let me take you
where the action's hot ♪
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- ♪ Action, Action Park ♪
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- ♪ We can ride
the excitement ♪
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♪ And feel the park rock ♪
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- ♪ Action, Action Park ♪
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♪ The action never stops
at Action Park ♪
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[exciting music]
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♪ ♪
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- When we would all pile
into the car
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to go to Action Park,
it was always a little manic,
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everyone just kind of
on the edge of their seat,
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just all jacked up
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about the excitement
that was about to ensue.
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- Like, older teenagers
would take you.
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So that right there
is already dangerous,
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because they're just gonna
make you do things that they,
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as 17- and 18-year-olds,
feel comfortable doing.
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- I remember my parents
did not want me
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to go to Action Park,
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but we got lucky
because there was this family,
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they grew up
up the street from us,
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and their dad brought them
to Action Park.
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I think my parents were like,
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"Fuck, someone else
is offering it for free."
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And these kids, classic '80s,
children of divorce,
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they don't live with their dad,
and my parents knew,
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"We can't say no.
We can't say no."
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I remember my parents both,
on my way out the door,
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being like, "Please be smart.
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Like, please be really careful
and use your best judgment."
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[mellow music]
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♪ ♪
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narrator:
Action Park was divided
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into three main sections.
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You had Alpine Center,
home of the Alpine slide;
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Water World, filled with
fantastical waterslides;
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and Motor World,
an area dedicated
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to exhaust-spewing engines
and go-karts.
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And, of course, splitting
the park down the middle
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was a major highway, Route 94.
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- One of the first things
you saw
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when you walked
into Action Park
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was the infamous
Cannonball Loop,
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which for years,
it was like a myth
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that the thing
had ever been open.
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- Cannonball Loop was
an enclosed tube waterslide,
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and you would climb to the top
of a series of stairs,
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and you would ride down
the enclosed tube,
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and at the very end, the tube
would go into a huge loop.
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- I mean, you looked
at the thing,
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and it looked like it was
something out of, like,
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a Bugs Bunny
or a Road Runner cartoon,
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where they just made a loop
and said,
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"Yeah, there's our ride."
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- Some lunatic clearly
just was like,
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"Build me a slide
that's like that."
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And then
they didn't consult anybody
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who had a background
in engineering.
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- So the story is,
they build the loop,
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and they throw
some test dummies down.
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Come out dismembered,
missing a head, missing arms.
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"Okay, let's tinker
with things.
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"Change the height.
Change the angle.
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"Change the water pressure.
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"Next step, let's put
some humans in this thing.
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"Who we got?
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How about these
teenage employees?"
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So Gene's just waving
$100 bills in the air.
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Any teenager gutsy enough
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to go down this thing
will get one.
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100 bucks, that's real money.
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- I'm $100 richer
because Uncle Gene--
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we always called him
Uncle Gene--
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gave $100 for an employee
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to test the Cannonball Loop.
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- And I can remember looking,
staring down
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into this black tube
and looking at the loop
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and being like, "There's no way
that I would go on this thing."
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- So you look down
the Cannonball Loop,
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and all you see
is pitch black.
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It's darkness.
255
00:11:17.018 --> 00:11:19.020
- There's the water flow
at the top of it
256
00:11:19.022 --> 00:11:22.014
that gets you mo--you know,
'cause you got to have water
257
00:11:22.016 --> 00:11:24.014
to get, you know--
it's a waterslide.
258
00:11:24.016 --> 00:11:27.001
You know,
somehow it's a waterslide.
259
00:11:27.003 --> 00:11:30.000
And it's just way too steep.
260
00:11:30.002 --> 00:11:32.010
- So they spray you down
with a garden hose,
261
00:11:32.012 --> 00:11:34.002
and you go down,
and you're supposed to go down
262
00:11:34.004 --> 00:11:36.017
feetfirst with your
arms and legs crossed.
263
00:11:36.019 --> 00:11:40.015
- And then as soon as you,
like, kind of scoot forward,
264
00:11:40.017 --> 00:11:42.008
it just takes you.
265
00:11:42.010 --> 00:11:44.008
All of a sudden, you're going
really, really fast.
266
00:11:44.010 --> 00:11:46.001
I'm like,
"I'm gonna shit my pants."
267
00:11:46.003 --> 00:11:47.013
It was absolutely terrifying.
268
00:11:47.015 --> 00:11:48.023
And then you feel--
269
00:11:49.001 --> 00:11:50.019
all of a sudden,
you feel your feet go up.
270
00:11:50.021 --> 00:11:52.015
And then as I go up,
271
00:11:52.017 --> 00:11:55.010
you kind of lose contact
with the loop for a second.
272
00:11:55.012 --> 00:11:57.007
It just kind of--
gravity just takes you.
273
00:11:57.009 --> 00:12:00.015
You just...[slaps hands]
Kind of flop.
274
00:12:00.017 --> 00:12:02.011
The catch pond,
wherever you landed,
275
00:12:02.013 --> 00:12:03.022
was way too short.
276
00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:05.013
You got to the bottom,
and I'm like,
277
00:12:05.015 --> 00:12:07.013
"Shit, I did it.
I made it."
278
00:12:07.015 --> 00:12:09.021
The loop was fun,
and yes, it hurt.
279
00:12:09.023 --> 00:12:11.007
You know,
going through the loop
280
00:12:11.009 --> 00:12:13.006
and having your nuts
get smashed on a--
281
00:12:13.008 --> 00:12:15.012
you know, a fiberglass tube
was not fun.
282
00:12:15.014 --> 00:12:16.022
But then, you know,
Uncle Gene's standing there,
283
00:12:17.000 --> 00:12:18.022
and he hands you 100 bucks.
284
00:12:19.000 --> 00:12:20.019
- The first couple people
that came in came out,
285
00:12:20.021 --> 00:12:22.013
and their mouths
were all bloody,
286
00:12:22.015 --> 00:12:24.011
and that was before they had
put sufficient padding
287
00:12:24.013 --> 00:12:26.006
in the top;
there was a little bit.
288
00:12:26.008 --> 00:12:27.021
So they sent a couple
other people down,
289
00:12:27.023 --> 00:12:29.008
and when those people
came down,
290
00:12:29.010 --> 00:12:31.000
they came down
with lacerations.
291
00:12:31.002 --> 00:12:32.022
They couldn't figure out
why these people
292
00:12:33.000 --> 00:12:35.010
had lacerations
from a giant loop.
293
00:12:35.012 --> 00:12:37.011
Then they took the loop apart
and they found teeth
294
00:12:37.013 --> 00:12:39.012
stuck in the padding
from the first couple people
295
00:12:39.014 --> 00:12:41.000
that went down the slide.
296
00:12:41.002 --> 00:12:42.011
They had gotten their teeth
knocked out.
297
00:12:42.013 --> 00:12:43.020
And these other people
298
00:12:43.022 --> 00:12:45.015
were just going up
and ripping into it.
299
00:12:45.017 --> 00:12:47.004
narrator: After Action Park
test pilots
300
00:12:47.006 --> 00:12:49.012
came out woozy
and unable to stand,
301
00:12:49.014 --> 00:12:51.006
Gene brought in
a navy physician
302
00:12:51.008 --> 00:12:53.000
to measure
the slide's effects.
303
00:12:53.002 --> 00:12:54.013
- Let me put it this way.
304
00:12:54.015 --> 00:12:56.008
There's two places
that you can experience
305
00:12:56.010 --> 00:12:58.000
nine Gs as a civilian.
306
00:12:58.002 --> 00:13:00.004
One is the back seat
of an F-14,
307
00:13:00.006 --> 00:13:02.010
and the other one
is at Action Park.
308
00:13:03.007 --> 00:13:04.022
- You couldn't go down
the Cannonball Loop
309
00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:06.008
if you were too small.
310
00:13:06.010 --> 00:13:07.013
You couldn't go down
the Cannonball Loop
311
00:13:07.015 --> 00:13:08.022
if you were too big.
312
00:13:09.000 --> 00:13:10.008
Too big, you'd get stuck.
313
00:13:10.010 --> 00:13:11.016
Too small,
you wouldn't get up
314
00:13:11.018 --> 00:13:13.011
enough momentum
to make the loop.
315
00:13:13.013 --> 00:13:16.002
There was a trapdoor
at the top that they--
316
00:13:16.004 --> 00:13:18.017
that's how they would extricate
people from the loop
317
00:13:18.019 --> 00:13:20.001
if they got stuck.
318
00:13:20.003 --> 00:13:22.016
- So as you entered the park,
319
00:13:22.018 --> 00:13:25.001
you saw this thing.
320
00:13:25.003 --> 00:13:26.015
It was one of the things that,
you know,
321
00:13:26.017 --> 00:13:28.012
you had kind of heard
whispers about.
322
00:13:28.014 --> 00:13:30.003
So right away, you walk in,
you're like,
323
00:13:30.005 --> 00:13:32.009
"Well, that's real.
This shit's real."
324
00:13:32.011 --> 00:13:35.005
[upbeat music]
325
00:13:35.007 --> 00:13:37.003
I did get hurt on a ride
326
00:13:37.005 --> 00:13:39.009
that was called
Cannonball Falls.
327
00:13:39.011 --> 00:13:41.009
And it looked like
a pretty normal waterslide.
328
00:13:41.011 --> 00:13:43.011
You'd sit down.
You'd go down the waterslide.
329
00:13:43.013 --> 00:13:45.016
What is not discernible
from the top
330
00:13:45.018 --> 00:13:47.008
is that at some point,
you come around a corner,
331
00:13:47.010 --> 00:13:50.005
and there's
this big black tunnel.
332
00:13:50.007 --> 00:13:51.013
You feel like,
all of a sudden,
333
00:13:51.015 --> 00:13:52.021
you're just going faster
as well.
334
00:13:52.023 --> 00:13:54.006
And I'll never forget.
335
00:13:54.008 --> 00:13:56.000
I'm going down this waterslide.
336
00:13:56.002 --> 00:13:58.004
I enter the tunnel, and you
just hear people, "Oh, no!"
337
00:13:58.006 --> 00:13:59.023
Ahead of you--
"Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no!"
338
00:14:00.001 --> 00:14:02.010
So you're like, "What--
what's going on here?"
339
00:14:02.012 --> 00:14:05.002
And then you'd see
this little piece of light
340
00:14:05.004 --> 00:14:06.014
at the bottom of the tunnel,
341
00:14:06.016 --> 00:14:08.011
and then you'd just get
shot out.
342
00:14:08.013 --> 00:14:10.018
And you'd just be there in
the middle of, like, the air.
343
00:14:10.020 --> 00:14:12.010
And I'm not kidding when I say
344
00:14:12.012 --> 00:14:15.017
you're, at minimum,
ten feet in the air.
345
00:14:15.019 --> 00:14:18.010
It shoots you out
the side of a mountain,
346
00:14:18.012 --> 00:14:21.002
and you're just, like,
in the sky.
347
00:14:21.004 --> 00:14:23.010
You think you're getting
on a waterslide,
348
00:14:23.012 --> 00:14:26.021
and the next thing you know,
you're in the fucking sky, man!
349
00:14:26.023 --> 00:14:28.015
- And yes,
you were over water,
350
00:14:28.017 --> 00:14:30.007
but there was a few seconds
where you'd be like,
351
00:14:30.009 --> 00:14:32.011
"I'm gonna fucking die.
What am I doing?"
352
00:14:32.013 --> 00:14:34.002
And you just look around,
353
00:14:34.004 --> 00:14:35.022
and then gravity would take you
down into the water.
354
00:14:36.001 --> 00:14:39.000
- And you're in
ice-cold water, 17 feet deep,
355
00:14:39.002 --> 00:14:41.018
so people were constantly
getting pulled out of there
356
00:14:41.020 --> 00:14:44.011
for, you know,
being unable to swim
357
00:14:44.013 --> 00:14:47.008
or just landing wrong
and being disoriented.
358
00:14:47.010 --> 00:14:49.023
- There's nothing in the world
like Action Park.
359
00:14:50.001 --> 00:14:52.014
[screams and laughter]
360
00:14:52.016 --> 00:14:54.022
- The rides that got built
at Action Park
361
00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:57.001
would often come to Gene
362
00:14:57.003 --> 00:15:00.003
through people
who just had a wild hair
363
00:15:00.005 --> 00:15:03.009
and wanted to build
this crazy idea that they had.
364
00:15:03.011 --> 00:15:05.018
- A certain number
of the Action Park rides
365
00:15:05.020 --> 00:15:09.011
were more or less
designed in-house
366
00:15:09.013 --> 00:15:12.005
by people
without engineering degrees,
367
00:15:12.007 --> 00:15:14.005
and I was certainly
one of them.
368
00:15:14.007 --> 00:15:15.014
- The people who were kind of
369
00:15:15.016 --> 00:15:17.015
on the fringes
of the ride-design world,
370
00:15:17.017 --> 00:15:21.011
people who Six Flags or Disney
wanted nothing to do with,
371
00:15:21.013 --> 00:15:24.015
these guys would literally
track Gene down
372
00:15:24.017 --> 00:15:27.006
at amusement industry
conventions.
373
00:15:27.008 --> 00:15:29.012
- You could tell these guys
went and did bumps of coke,
374
00:15:29.014 --> 00:15:31.008
and were like, "Let's
fucking-- let's drill a slide
375
00:15:31.010 --> 00:15:33.004
"right through the fucking
middle of a mountain,
376
00:15:33.006 --> 00:15:35.012
and it'll shoot them
20 feet in the fucking air!"
377
00:15:35.014 --> 00:15:37.015
You just couldn't
trust anything there.
378
00:15:37.017 --> 00:15:39.012
- Guys would come to us,
and no matter
379
00:15:39.014 --> 00:15:42.012
what the idea was,
my father would try it.
380
00:15:42.014 --> 00:15:45.014
- And then when each of these
rides went into construction,
381
00:15:45.016 --> 00:15:49.015
Gene would change them
drastically.
382
00:15:49.017 --> 00:15:51.023
narrator: Action Park's
most prolific ride designer
383
00:15:52.001 --> 00:15:54.009
was none other
than Gene himself.
384
00:15:54.011 --> 00:15:56.020
After designs came in,
he would almost always
385
00:15:56.022 --> 00:15:59.000
tinker with them
during construction,
386
00:15:59.002 --> 00:16:03.000
making them bigger, badder,
more extreme.
387
00:16:03.002 --> 00:16:04.015
And the Cannonball Loop?
388
00:16:04.017 --> 00:16:06.005
Its design actually came about
389
00:16:06.007 --> 00:16:08.019
when Gene drew a circle
on a cocktail napkin
390
00:16:08.021 --> 00:16:12.017
and hired some local welders
to put it all together.
391
00:16:12.019 --> 00:16:14.017
- Many of the rides
were experimental,
392
00:16:14.019 --> 00:16:16.017
and on paper,
the design looked good.
393
00:16:16.019 --> 00:16:19.005
But in reality,
once the ride was turned on,
394
00:16:19.007 --> 00:16:22.009
it was not fit for a safe ride
395
00:16:22.011 --> 00:16:24.022
by the average person
in public.
396
00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:26.008
- One of those rides was
397
00:16:26.010 --> 00:16:28.002
the Man in the Ball
in the Ball.
398
00:16:28.004 --> 00:16:29.019
The Man in the Ball
in the Ball
399
00:16:29.021 --> 00:16:32.010
was this giant ball
that we had
400
00:16:32.012 --> 00:16:34.018
with ball bearings inside it
with another ball,
401
00:16:34.020 --> 00:16:36.001
and you would open up two doors
402
00:16:36.003 --> 00:16:37.009
and get in the ball
403
00:16:37.011 --> 00:16:38.018
to go down the mountain.
404
00:16:38.020 --> 00:16:40.011
And what he did is,
the guy built it
405
00:16:40.013 --> 00:16:43.016
with PVC pipe
all the way down the mountain.
406
00:16:43.018 --> 00:16:45.009
- Like, it's a great idea;
you can see how someone
407
00:16:45.011 --> 00:16:47.002
would think that'd be
a lot of fun,
408
00:16:47.004 --> 00:16:49.011
and I think it might work
and be relatively safe.
409
00:16:49.013 --> 00:16:52.010
It turned out, you know,
there were limitations to it.
410
00:16:52.012 --> 00:16:54.021
- It's a crazy concept.
411
00:16:54.023 --> 00:16:58.003
I mean, it's so big
and so heavy and so unwieldy
412
00:16:58.005 --> 00:17:00.014
that there's no way it's gonna
stay in any kind of track.
413
00:17:00.016 --> 00:17:03.005
- The day that we were gonna
put a live man in it,
414
00:17:03.007 --> 00:17:04.018
it got really hot,
415
00:17:04.020 --> 00:17:06.020
and he didn't realize
that PVC expanded.
416
00:17:06.022 --> 00:17:09.004
So when we put the live man
in the ball
417
00:17:09.006 --> 00:17:11.012
and tested it
to go down the mountain,
418
00:17:11.014 --> 00:17:13.004
the ride just fell apart.
419
00:17:13.006 --> 00:17:15.004
And the guy ended up
going down the ski slope,
420
00:17:15.006 --> 00:17:18.004
right over 94,
into the swamp down below.
421
00:17:18.006 --> 00:17:21.004
It was unbelievable.
422
00:17:21.006 --> 00:17:23.004
narrator: Another
prototype waterslide
423
00:17:23.006 --> 00:17:26.012
was inspired
by zero-gravity airplanes.
424
00:17:26.014 --> 00:17:30.008
Gene's vision: riders
would actually take flight
425
00:17:30.010 --> 00:17:32.005
as they plummeted downhill.
426
00:17:32.007 --> 00:17:35.012
- We built this, and we tested
several versions of it,
427
00:17:35.014 --> 00:17:38.011
and we started sending
employees off of it.
428
00:17:38.013 --> 00:17:40.014
And it was working perfect.
429
00:17:40.016 --> 00:17:42.005
narrator:
But unfortunately,
430
00:17:42.007 --> 00:17:44.008
after dozens
of successful test flights,
431
00:17:44.010 --> 00:17:46.009
one went horribly wrong.
432
00:17:46.011 --> 00:17:50.006
- This one kid went down,
and I don't know how he did it,
433
00:17:50.008 --> 00:17:52.011
but he got himself going
way faster
434
00:17:52.013 --> 00:17:54.006
than anybody else had.
435
00:17:54.008 --> 00:17:56.010
He went way high in the air
436
00:17:56.012 --> 00:17:58.014
and completely missed
the landing.
437
00:17:58.016 --> 00:18:01.016
He had to be backboarded
off of the ride.
438
00:18:01.018 --> 00:18:04.004
He's gone on
to lead a normal life,
439
00:18:04.006 --> 00:18:05.020
but he was hurt that day,
440
00:18:05.022 --> 00:18:08.023
and that was
the end of that ride.
441
00:18:09.001 --> 00:18:10.013
narrator: While some rides
never made it
442
00:18:10.015 --> 00:18:11.023
past the testing phase,
443
00:18:12.001 --> 00:18:15.007
dozens of other
questionable ideas did.
444
00:18:15.009 --> 00:18:17.000
- Right here,
that's called the Speed Slide.
445
00:18:17.002 --> 00:18:18.008
It's over seven stories.
446
00:18:18.010 --> 00:18:20.009
They tell me that you go
over 60 miles an hour.
447
00:18:20.011 --> 00:18:21.021
So tell me,
any preparations
448
00:18:21.023 --> 00:18:23.020
as we're about to embark
on the Speed Slide?
449
00:18:23.022 --> 00:18:25.004
- Yeah,
Preparation H.
450
00:18:25.006 --> 00:18:27.020
[soft music]
451
00:18:27.022 --> 00:18:30.012
- There was a canopy around
the first 20 feet or so
452
00:18:30.014 --> 00:18:32.003
in case you flew off.
453
00:18:32.005 --> 00:18:34.010
The idea was that it would
bounce you back in.
454
00:18:34.012 --> 00:18:36.005
You had a bar
you had to hold on to
455
00:18:36.007 --> 00:18:38.015
and lower yourself
to vertical...
456
00:18:38.017 --> 00:18:40.004
- And you just drop.
457
00:18:40.006 --> 00:18:41.020
And you've got to be
free-falling
458
00:18:41.022 --> 00:18:42.020
for a few seconds,
459
00:18:42.022 --> 00:18:44.002
and then you actually
460
00:18:44.004 --> 00:18:45.021
make contact
with the waterslide,
461
00:18:45.023 --> 00:18:46.020
and you go down.
462
00:18:46.022 --> 00:18:48.011
- Tops would come off.
463
00:18:48.013 --> 00:18:51.004
Bottoms would be up
around their shoulders.
464
00:18:51.006 --> 00:18:52.021
People would be
all disoriented.
465
00:18:52.023 --> 00:18:54.009
Not the most pleasant
experience.
466
00:18:54.011 --> 00:18:56.006
- What did you think
about the Speed Slide?
467
00:18:56.008 --> 00:18:58.013
- I'm feeling
kind of juicy right now.
468
00:18:58.015 --> 00:19:01.003
- It puts more fluids
469
00:19:01.005 --> 00:19:02.018
through your system, that's--
470
00:19:02.020 --> 00:19:04.005
I'm trying to think
of a nice way to say it.
471
00:19:04.007 --> 00:19:05.009
What would you say?
472
00:19:05.011 --> 00:19:07.006
- I'd say my fig
is puckered.
473
00:19:07.008 --> 00:19:09.003
- I think the
Super Speed Slide was the one
474
00:19:09.005 --> 00:19:11.009
that a lot of people would say
that it would just sort of,
475
00:19:11.011 --> 00:19:13.023
like, shoot water
straight up their assholes,
476
00:19:14.001 --> 00:19:17.017
that it was designed in a way
where you just--
477
00:19:17.019 --> 00:19:19.009
you got your first colonic
for free
478
00:19:19.011 --> 00:19:20.021
courtesy of Action Park.
479
00:19:20.023 --> 00:19:23.011
- Everybody that got off
that ride walked funny.
480
00:19:23.013 --> 00:19:25.008
Yeah, whether you're a guy
or a girl, you know,
481
00:19:25.010 --> 00:19:27.001
you were not just getting off
and walking away.
482
00:19:27.003 --> 00:19:29.001
You were, you know,
picking and prodding
483
00:19:29.003 --> 00:19:30.022
and hopping and poking
for quite a while
484
00:19:31.000 --> 00:19:32.004
after you got off that ride.
485
00:19:32.006 --> 00:19:34.015
♪ ♪
486
00:19:34.017 --> 00:19:36.013
narrator: Questionable
design decisions
487
00:19:36.015 --> 00:19:38.007
weren't limited to the rides.
488
00:19:38.009 --> 00:19:41.013
The construction and layout
of Action Park itself
489
00:19:41.015 --> 00:19:44.005
had its own way
of leaving a mark.
490
00:19:44.007 --> 00:19:46.014
- All the park was, like,
paved in asphalt.
491
00:19:46.016 --> 00:19:49.015
So everywhere you went,
you had to walk around
492
00:19:49.017 --> 00:19:53.016
on, like, dark, you know,
highway-grade type asphalt
493
00:19:53.018 --> 00:19:54.023
that was absorbing heat
494
00:19:55.001 --> 00:19:56.018
and reflecting it
back on you all day.
495
00:19:56.020 --> 00:19:58.021
- So if you don't bring
your own flip-flops
496
00:19:58.023 --> 00:20:00.013
or those water shoes,
497
00:20:00.015 --> 00:20:02.007
you are going to suffer
498
00:20:02.009 --> 00:20:06.002
from the notorious ailment
known as chopped-meat feet.
499
00:20:06.004 --> 00:20:08.018
Everybody's, like, limping
around from running around
500
00:20:08.020 --> 00:20:12.010
on fucking jagged
and poorly paved asphalt.
501
00:20:12.012 --> 00:20:13.023
♪ ♪
502
00:20:14.001 --> 00:20:16.019
- There was a great ride
called the Aqua Skoot,
503
00:20:16.021 --> 00:20:19.015
which was essentially
warehouse rollers
504
00:20:19.017 --> 00:20:21.015
built on an angle
like a ski jump.
505
00:20:21.017 --> 00:20:23.007
You rode a plastic sled,
and then you would see
506
00:20:23.009 --> 00:20:24.023
how far you could skim
across the water,
507
00:20:25.001 --> 00:20:27.008
like a stone skipping
across the water.
508
00:20:27.010 --> 00:20:29.003
- People didn't sit back
on the ride
509
00:20:29.005 --> 00:20:30.023
and they'd lean
too far forward,
510
00:20:31.001 --> 00:20:33.010
they would face-plant
into the water.
511
00:20:33.012 --> 00:20:35.005
narrator:
Unbeknownst to most patrons,
512
00:20:35.007 --> 00:20:38.012
the Aqua Skoot was also home
to a thriving bee nest.
513
00:20:38.014 --> 00:20:42.014
Guests who lingered too long
were likely to be stung.
514
00:20:42.016 --> 00:20:44.005
- I'll tell you something
about the Aqua Skoot.
515
00:20:44.007 --> 00:20:45.022
Took one look at that thing,
I said,
516
00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:47.019
"No fucking way.
No way, man."
517
00:20:47.021 --> 00:20:49.007
That just looked like a thing
where you'd get
518
00:20:49.009 --> 00:20:50.020
your fucking toes
or your balls
519
00:20:50.022 --> 00:20:52.016
get caught in those--
Aqua Skoot.
520
00:20:52.018 --> 00:20:54.016
I'm gonna Aqua Skoot
the fuck away from this thing,
521
00:20:54.018 --> 00:20:55.021
that was my instinct.
522
00:20:55.023 --> 00:20:58.018
[upbeat music]
523
00:20:58.020 --> 00:21:00.018
The culture, the atmosphere
at Action Park,
524
00:21:00.020 --> 00:21:04.008
it's most summed up
by the Tarzan Swing.
525
00:21:04.010 --> 00:21:07.004
Everybody wanted to go
on the Tarzan Swing.
526
00:21:07.006 --> 00:21:10.011
That was, like,
number one childhood
527
00:21:10.013 --> 00:21:13.000
test your mettle,
prove you got some guts,
528
00:21:13.002 --> 00:21:14.020
go on the Tarzan Swing.
529
00:21:14.022 --> 00:21:18.002
- The idea was that you would,
you know, swing and release.
530
00:21:18.004 --> 00:21:19.019
The problem was,
531
00:21:19.021 --> 00:21:21.013
people couldn't hold
their body weight.
532
00:21:21.015 --> 00:21:24.002
They would lean out
like they were gonna swing
533
00:21:24.004 --> 00:21:26.000
and then just do
a total face-plant
534
00:21:26.002 --> 00:21:29.002
from 10, 12 feet up
into the water.
535
00:21:29.004 --> 00:21:31.000
- People would think
on a 90-degree day
536
00:21:31.002 --> 00:21:33.001
that they were gonna be
jumping into pool water.
537
00:21:33.003 --> 00:21:34.010
No, no, no.
538
00:21:34.012 --> 00:21:36.006
That's a spring-fed stream
539
00:21:36.008 --> 00:21:38.000
that held native trout in it.
540
00:21:38.002 --> 00:21:41.005
It's cold, and, I mean,
people would go into shock.
541
00:21:41.007 --> 00:21:43.021
People would hit and start
to scream because of the cold,
542
00:21:43.023 --> 00:21:46.008
and they would actually
forget how to swim.
543
00:21:46.010 --> 00:21:48.021
Man, what a shock
to the system.
544
00:21:48.023 --> 00:21:50.016
- The Tarzan Swing was cool
545
00:21:50.018 --> 00:21:52.018
because there was kind of,
like, an observation deck,
546
00:21:52.020 --> 00:21:54.022
and that's where everybody
was waiting on line.
547
00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:57.007
- So you might have,
I don't know,
548
00:21:57.009 --> 00:21:59.008
probably over 75, 100 people
549
00:21:59.010 --> 00:22:03.009
at given times that could all
see you as you went.
550
00:22:03.011 --> 00:22:04.019
- Go to do it.
551
00:22:04.021 --> 00:22:06.010
Your weight would hit.
You'd flip off.
552
00:22:06.012 --> 00:22:07.016
You'd, like,
hit the back of your head
553
00:22:07.018 --> 00:22:09.003
on the water.
554
00:22:09.005 --> 00:22:10.017
No lifeguard would jump in
to help you.
555
00:22:10.019 --> 00:22:12.001
The water's ice cold.
556
00:22:12.003 --> 00:22:13.003
You come up for air.
557
00:22:13.005 --> 00:22:14.006
You're all shell-shocked.
558
00:22:14.008 --> 00:22:15.022
You're probably concussed.
559
00:22:16.000 --> 00:22:18.020
And you have, like,
150 people from New Jersey
560
00:22:18.022 --> 00:22:20.022
just being like, "Pussy!
561
00:22:21.000 --> 00:22:22.022
"You fucking bitch!
562
00:22:23.000 --> 00:22:25.012
You fucking wiped out!
Pussy!"
563
00:22:25.014 --> 00:22:27.016
And that's, like,
when it's at its classiest.
564
00:22:27.018 --> 00:22:30.011
- It was like,
"You fucking pussy, just do it!
565
00:22:30.013 --> 00:22:31.017
This is Jersey!"
566
00:22:31.019 --> 00:22:33.022
- "Oh, you fucking suck!
567
00:22:34.000 --> 00:22:35.007
Start swimming, pussy!"
568
00:22:35.009 --> 00:22:36.019
You know, I mean, it was just--
569
00:22:36.021 --> 00:22:39.006
it was actually--
it was a very demeaning place.
570
00:22:39.008 --> 00:22:40.020
- No one yelled at you.
571
00:22:40.022 --> 00:22:42.011
No lifeguard
ever blew a whistle
572
00:22:42.013 --> 00:22:45.012
and was like, "Hey,
stop chanting the word 'pussy'
573
00:22:45.014 --> 00:22:47.022
at this injured,
bleeding person."
574
00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:49.011
Nobody did that.
575
00:22:49.013 --> 00:22:51.005
- They always tell people,
576
00:22:51.007 --> 00:22:54.006
"No inverted jumps,
no obscenities,"
577
00:22:54.008 --> 00:22:56.010
and people would go up,
do backflips.
578
00:22:56.012 --> 00:22:57.020
People were dropping
their pants.
579
00:22:57.022 --> 00:22:59.015
- So you got
the people who, like,
580
00:22:59.017 --> 00:23:01.011
swing on the Tarzan Swing
and just, like,
581
00:23:01.013 --> 00:23:02.019
throw up the middle finger,
582
00:23:02.021 --> 00:23:04.015
and everybody's
fucking flipping--
583
00:23:04.017 --> 00:23:06.006
or people are, like, taking
their dick and balls out,
584
00:23:06.008 --> 00:23:08.001
mooning each other.
585
00:23:08.003 --> 00:23:10.004
- Of course,
girls in bikinis would go,
586
00:23:10.006 --> 00:23:11.020
they'd hit the water,
and, of course,
587
00:23:11.022 --> 00:23:14.011
the bikini top surfaces
before the girl does,
588
00:23:14.013 --> 00:23:16.016
and, you know, you get
the big round of applause,
589
00:23:16.018 --> 00:23:19.012
and you see the girl
get to the top, and...
590
00:23:19.014 --> 00:23:21.000
That happened all the time.
591
00:23:21.002 --> 00:23:24.001
[light music]
592
00:23:24.003 --> 00:23:25.017
♪ ♪
593
00:23:25.019 --> 00:23:27.011
- Action Park felt,
in some ways,
594
00:23:27.013 --> 00:23:29.021
like a strange
social experiment.
595
00:23:29.023 --> 00:23:32.019
What happens when you take
a bunch of riled-up teenagers,
596
00:23:32.021 --> 00:23:36.003
a bunch of alcohol,
bunch of dangerous rides,
597
00:23:36.005 --> 00:23:38.006
and you put them into a place
where there are no rules?
598
00:23:38.008 --> 00:23:40.003
- Yo, come on. Follow me.
599
00:23:40.005 --> 00:23:41.007
- [laughs]
600
00:23:41.009 --> 00:23:42.013
- Action Park was run by kids.
601
00:23:42.015 --> 00:23:44.004
- Hell yeah!
- Oh, my God.
602
00:23:44.006 --> 00:23:46.008
- You know,
the second you turn 14,
603
00:23:46.010 --> 00:23:48.001
you got your working papers,
604
00:23:48.003 --> 00:23:50.003
and then you went to work
at Action Park.
605
00:23:50.005 --> 00:23:53.015
You know, even the people in
the lead supervisor positions,
606
00:23:53.017 --> 00:23:55.000
it's like, "Oh, you've
been here for two years.
607
00:23:55.002 --> 00:23:56.017
Here's a radio.
You're in charge."
608
00:23:56.019 --> 00:23:59.017
- You had 16-year-old,
17-year-old kids
609
00:23:59.019 --> 00:24:02.014
with no prior management
experience whatsoever
610
00:24:02.016 --> 00:24:05.001
literally managing
a third of the park.
611
00:24:05.003 --> 00:24:08.006
Hazing became
a rite of passage
612
00:24:08.008 --> 00:24:09.010
at Action Park.
613
00:24:09.012 --> 00:24:11.012
[indistinct chatter,
laughter]
614
00:24:11.014 --> 00:24:14.010
It wouldn't be uncommon
to use a new recruit
615
00:24:14.012 --> 00:24:16.020
as a victim in a drowning.
616
00:24:16.022 --> 00:24:19.017
In the water, we would spin
the new employee over
617
00:24:19.019 --> 00:24:21.005
and put him on a backboard,
618
00:24:21.007 --> 00:24:24.001
strap him down real tight
while in the water,
619
00:24:24.003 --> 00:24:26.005
and just leave him be.
620
00:24:26.007 --> 00:24:28.009
There are certainly things
that happened at Action Park
621
00:24:28.011 --> 00:24:30.009
that are never spoken about.
622
00:24:30.011 --> 00:24:31.016
We lived through it,
623
00:24:31.018 --> 00:24:33.001
we regretted some
of the things we did,
624
00:24:33.003 --> 00:24:34.023
but we don't talk about it.
625
00:24:35.001 --> 00:24:36.015
- I was probably
a security guard
626
00:24:36.017 --> 00:24:38.003
for maybe three months,
627
00:24:38.005 --> 00:24:39.021
and then they worked me up
to a supervisor
628
00:24:39.023 --> 00:24:42.007
and then assistant
and then, eventually,
629
00:24:42.009 --> 00:24:43.018
if you stayed there
long enough
630
00:24:43.020 --> 00:24:45.011
and you had
anything going for you,
631
00:24:45.013 --> 00:24:46.022
they would make you
director of security.
632
00:24:47.000 --> 00:24:49.008
So it's not as impressive
as it sounded.
633
00:24:49.010 --> 00:24:51.013
- Somehow I ended up
in the kitchen.
634
00:24:51.015 --> 00:24:52.017
Like, all the bread products
in there--
635
00:24:52.019 --> 00:24:53.020
everything was stale.
636
00:24:53.022 --> 00:24:54.022
Everything was out of date.
637
00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:56.011
So what they would do is,
638
00:24:56.013 --> 00:24:58.014
they would put
the big pot of water on
639
00:24:58.016 --> 00:25:01.000
and put, like,
a colander over the water
640
00:25:01.002 --> 00:25:03.006
and then put the hot dog buns
in the colander
641
00:25:03.008 --> 00:25:05.018
and cover it with a towel,
and in five minutes,
642
00:25:05.020 --> 00:25:07.017
you'd have
moist hot dog buns again.
643
00:25:07.019 --> 00:25:09.014
Damn, how did
we not kill people?
644
00:25:09.016 --> 00:25:11.014
- I know there were people
older than them
645
00:25:11.016 --> 00:25:13.007
who owned it,
but you never saw them.
646
00:25:13.009 --> 00:25:15.017
Just literally imagine
teenagers you know right now
647
00:25:15.019 --> 00:25:17.004
opening an amusement park.
648
00:25:17.006 --> 00:25:19.003
That's what it was.
[chuckles]
649
00:25:19.005 --> 00:25:20.018
- Everybody worked
at Action Park
650
00:25:20.020 --> 00:25:22.010
because you knew
you'd get hired.
651
00:25:22.012 --> 00:25:24.018
They'd give you as many hours
as you wanted.
652
00:25:24.020 --> 00:25:26.004
But, you know,
653
00:25:26.006 --> 00:25:28.010
Action Park didn't care
about, like, labor laws.
654
00:25:28.012 --> 00:25:31.008
It was like,
"Yeah, I just worked 46 hours.
655
00:25:31.010 --> 00:25:32.019
Yeah, I'm 16."
656
00:25:32.021 --> 00:25:34.007
narrator:
According to New Jersey law,
657
00:25:34.009 --> 00:25:35.023
employees had to be
16 years old
658
00:25:36.001 --> 00:25:37.017
in order to operate rides.
659
00:25:37.019 --> 00:25:40.019
According to local newspapers,
kids as young as 14
660
00:25:40.021 --> 00:25:43.005
were, in fact,
working in these roles.
661
00:25:43.007 --> 00:25:46.004
- They were kids.
They were teenagers.
662
00:25:46.006 --> 00:25:49.003
So I'm sure their priorities
were on, like, hooking up
663
00:25:49.005 --> 00:25:50.011
and getting fucked up.
664
00:25:50.013 --> 00:25:52.018
- There was romance
between everybody.
665
00:25:52.020 --> 00:25:56.002
They were teenagers,
horny teenagers.
666
00:25:56.004 --> 00:25:57.019
- At the top
of the Alpine Slide,
667
00:25:57.021 --> 00:25:59.014
we had a shack,
like, where we kept
668
00:25:59.016 --> 00:26:00.023
our employee carts,
669
00:26:01.001 --> 00:26:02.015
where you would put
your backpacks,
670
00:26:02.017 --> 00:26:03.022
where you kept your water.
671
00:26:04.000 --> 00:26:05.003
People would go in the shed
672
00:26:05.005 --> 00:26:06.015
to smoke weed and have sex.
673
00:26:06.017 --> 00:26:08.015
That's what they would do
in that shed.
674
00:26:08.017 --> 00:26:11.010
Why anybody would want to have
sex in there, I can't fathom,
675
00:26:11.012 --> 00:26:15.009
because it was always, like,
95,000 degrees in that thing.
676
00:26:15.011 --> 00:26:18.016
And it always stunk
like dirty backpacks,
677
00:26:18.018 --> 00:26:21.014
feet, weed,
and just ball sweat.
678
00:26:21.016 --> 00:26:24.001
- There are definitely people
who worked at Action Park
679
00:26:24.003 --> 00:26:25.023
who have stories about that's
the first time they fingered
680
00:26:26.001 --> 00:26:27.013
and/or got fingered.
681
00:26:27.015 --> 00:26:29.000
Like, clearly,
a lot of fingering
682
00:26:29.002 --> 00:26:30.013
going on after hours,
I would imagine.
683
00:26:30.015 --> 00:26:32.003
There's a child
who was conceived
684
00:26:32.005 --> 00:26:33.015
at Action Park, right?
685
00:26:33.017 --> 00:26:35.000
There's some kid who's, like--
686
00:26:35.002 --> 00:26:36.015
you know,
his name's Adam Peter
687
00:26:36.017 --> 00:26:38.018
'cause his initials are AP
'cause he got conceived
688
00:26:38.020 --> 00:26:41.021
down behind the bumper boats
on one hot summer eve.
689
00:26:41.023 --> 00:26:45.008
- Now, I was a good girl,
so I wasn't really involved
690
00:26:45.010 --> 00:26:48.016
in much of the shenanigans
that took place.
691
00:26:48.018 --> 00:26:53.012
But there were parties
that I heard about.
692
00:26:53.014 --> 00:26:55.023
I may have attended one.
693
00:26:56.001 --> 00:26:57.019
narrator: The Action Park
employee parties
694
00:26:57.021 --> 00:27:00.015
became the stuff
of New Jersey legend.
695
00:27:00.017 --> 00:27:02.001
- [shouts]
696
00:27:02.003 --> 00:27:03.017
- We would save
all the money we found
697
00:27:03.019 --> 00:27:06.002
in the pools over the course
of the summer,
698
00:27:06.004 --> 00:27:07.017
and at the end of the summer,
699
00:27:07.019 --> 00:27:10.015
one huge all-night bash
right up in Water World
700
00:27:10.017 --> 00:27:13.004
called
the kamanawanalea party.
701
00:27:13.006 --> 00:27:15.022
- Everyone stayed over,
so no one was driving,
702
00:27:16.000 --> 00:27:17.013
but that was back in the days
703
00:27:17.015 --> 00:27:19.013
when you could get away
with stuff like that.
704
00:27:19.015 --> 00:27:22.002
- You'd find anyplace
you could find to sleep--
705
00:27:22.004 --> 00:27:24.008
on the mats,
under the umbrellas,
706
00:27:24.010 --> 00:27:25.023
on the picnic tables.
707
00:27:26.001 --> 00:27:28.009
Some days, we'd wake up
after the kamanawanalea party,
708
00:27:28.011 --> 00:27:29.021
we'd put our shorts on,
709
00:27:29.023 --> 00:27:31.008
put the whistle
round our neck,
710
00:27:31.010 --> 00:27:33.001
and find our way
to the lifeguard chair
711
00:27:33.003 --> 00:27:34.016
as soon as we could.
712
00:27:34.018 --> 00:27:38.020
[soft music]
713
00:27:38.022 --> 00:27:41.016
narrator: Of course,
leadership comes from the top.
714
00:27:41.018 --> 00:27:44.001
And Action Park's
free-for-all atmosphere
715
00:27:44.003 --> 00:27:46.019
was inspired by
Gene Mulvihill's disdain
716
00:27:46.021 --> 00:27:49.014
for rules of any kind.
717
00:27:49.016 --> 00:27:51.008
- We called him Uncle Gene
718
00:27:51.010 --> 00:27:55.001
because he actually did have
a lot of endearing qualities.
719
00:27:55.003 --> 00:27:58.006
I mean, he was always out
and around in the park.
720
00:27:58.008 --> 00:28:01.021
You know, he was a very
personable guy to talk to.
721
00:28:01.023 --> 00:28:04.005
- So I go in his office
one day for a meeting,
722
00:28:04.007 --> 00:28:05.022
and he has a cattle prod.
723
00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:09.002
And he goes,
"Joe, I can't do this anymore."
724
00:28:09.004 --> 00:28:11.007
And he takes the cattle prod.
725
00:28:11.009 --> 00:28:13.016
He puts it to his chest,
726
00:28:13.018 --> 00:28:16.006
and he hits the button,
and the thing goes boom!
727
00:28:16.008 --> 00:28:20.006
And I get so freaked out
that I'm like, "Oh, my God."
728
00:28:20.008 --> 00:28:22.012
He starts laughing
hysterically,
729
00:28:22.014 --> 00:28:24.015
and at that point,
he basically goes, like,
730
00:28:24.017 --> 00:28:26.017
"Don't get nervous.
It's fake."
731
00:28:26.019 --> 00:28:29.006
And then he pitches me an idea.
732
00:28:29.008 --> 00:28:31.011
"Joe, the people sneak
on the lift.
733
00:28:31.013 --> 00:28:33.006
"And they go on the lift
without tickets,
734
00:28:33.008 --> 00:28:35.011
"and we want to make sure
they all have tickets.
735
00:28:35.013 --> 00:28:39.004
"So what I'm gonna do is,
I'm gonna get the cattle prod,
736
00:28:39.006 --> 00:28:40.023
"and I'm gonna
stand by the lift.
737
00:28:41.001 --> 00:28:43.003
"We got to get one of those
real dirty-looking kids
738
00:28:43.005 --> 00:28:44.017
"that work down
in the train park.
739
00:28:44.019 --> 00:28:45.022
"I'll be working the lift,
740
00:28:46.000 --> 00:28:47.003
"and when they come up,
I'll go,
741
00:28:47.005 --> 00:28:48.015
"'Hey, where's your ticket?'
742
00:28:48.017 --> 00:28:50.009
"And they'll say,
'I don't have a ticket.'
743
00:28:50.011 --> 00:28:53.011
"I'll take out the cattle
prod, I'll hit him,
744
00:28:53.013 --> 00:28:55.019
"he'll pass out
like he's dead,
745
00:28:55.021 --> 00:28:58.007
"and then we'll have patrol
come drag him away,
746
00:28:58.009 --> 00:28:59.016
"and then everyone will know
747
00:28:59.018 --> 00:29:01.006
not to come here
without a ticket."
748
00:29:01.008 --> 00:29:04.018
I laughed like,
"Gene, that's some idea."
749
00:29:04.020 --> 00:29:07.002
While I was out of town,
I get a phone call
750
00:29:07.004 --> 00:29:09.014
from the person
who runs guest services to say,
751
00:29:09.016 --> 00:29:11.004
"We have an issue.
752
00:29:11.006 --> 00:29:13.005
"We have hundreds of parents
who are calling
753
00:29:13.007 --> 00:29:14.023
"who are very upset
754
00:29:15.001 --> 00:29:18.004
"because they saw someone who
works lift today kill someone
755
00:29:18.006 --> 00:29:20.012
because they didn't have
a lift pass."
756
00:29:20.014 --> 00:29:22.013
- I had a friend of mine
that had worked there
757
00:29:22.015 --> 00:29:25.005
for couple seasons,
and he had told me
758
00:29:25.007 --> 00:29:28.012
that Gene Mulvihill
had a MAC-10 machine gun
759
00:29:28.014 --> 00:29:30.019
that he kept
in his office drawer.
760
00:29:30.021 --> 00:29:32.008
♪ ♪
761
00:29:32.010 --> 00:29:34.013
- He was far and away
762
00:29:34.015 --> 00:29:37.008
the most unique character
I've met in my lifetime.
763
00:29:37.010 --> 00:29:41.012
He was big and loud
and full of ideas.
764
00:29:41.014 --> 00:29:45.008
Probably 90% of those ideas
were just so crazy
765
00:29:45.010 --> 00:29:47.011
and off the wall
that nobody would get near him,
766
00:29:47.013 --> 00:29:50.002
and the other 10%
were pretty close to that.
767
00:29:50.004 --> 00:29:54.000
And we actually made
a lot of those ideas happen.
768
00:29:54.002 --> 00:29:55.017
narrator:
Gene's rule-bending antics
769
00:29:55.019 --> 00:29:57.015
may have been common
on Wall Street,
770
00:29:57.017 --> 00:29:59.004
but in this small town,
771
00:29:59.006 --> 00:30:01.001
the locals had no idea
how to handle him.
772
00:30:01.003 --> 00:30:03.008
- Well, they obviously
didn't know
773
00:30:03.010 --> 00:30:06.023
Gene Mulvihill's personality
until they got to know him.
774
00:30:07.001 --> 00:30:10.009
But Vernon is a little bit
of a mixed bag.
775
00:30:10.011 --> 00:30:12.021
There were those who embraced
776
00:30:12.023 --> 00:30:15.006
someone like Gene Mulvihill
with open arms,
777
00:30:15.008 --> 00:30:17.004
and there were those
who hated him
778
00:30:17.006 --> 00:30:21.008
because they see him
as having destroyed
779
00:30:21.010 --> 00:30:26.017
our beautiful, bucolic, sleepy
little town with his resorts.
780
00:31:09.009 --> 00:31:11.010
- The man could wear a suit
in 90-degree heat.
781
00:31:11.012 --> 00:31:12.020
I had no idea how he did that.
782
00:31:12.022 --> 00:31:14.013
He just was a--
he was a cool dude.
783
00:31:14.015 --> 00:31:17.005
- I think he was
a piece of shit.
784
00:31:18.006 --> 00:31:20.002
narrator: Action Park's
growing reputation
785
00:31:20.004 --> 00:31:21.022
posed an important question:
786
00:31:22.000 --> 00:31:23.022
what insurance company
would dare cover
787
00:31:24.000 --> 00:31:26.015
this creatively designed park?
788
00:31:26.017 --> 00:31:29.006
- Gene didn't believe
in the concept of insurance.
789
00:31:29.008 --> 00:31:31.019
He thought if you got hurt,
you should be responsible.
790
00:31:31.021 --> 00:31:33.014
He shouldn't have to pay
an insurance company.
791
00:31:33.016 --> 00:31:36.005
However, he needed insurance
to stay in business.
792
00:31:36.007 --> 00:31:38.003
It was part of the terms
of his lease.
793
00:31:38.005 --> 00:31:39.019
So he had a work-around.
794
00:31:39.021 --> 00:31:42.001
narrator: He created
his own fake insurance company
795
00:31:42.003 --> 00:31:43.016
based in the Cayman Islands.
796
00:31:43.018 --> 00:31:45.004
Its name?
797
00:31:45.006 --> 00:31:47.004
The very real
and very legitimate-sounding
798
00:31:47.006 --> 00:31:49.019
London and World Assurance.
799
00:31:49.021 --> 00:31:53.014
- This company's documents
were very, very homemade.
800
00:31:53.016 --> 00:31:56.008
They looked like they were
ginned up in a basement.
801
00:31:56.010 --> 00:31:58.001
The letterhead
was not official.
802
00:31:58.003 --> 00:32:00.004
Might as well have been
on napkins.
803
00:32:00.006 --> 00:32:01.021
narrator: Gene was,
if nothing else,
804
00:32:01.023 --> 00:32:03.012
efficient with his schemes.
805
00:32:03.014 --> 00:32:05.008
And so his fake
insurance company
806
00:32:05.010 --> 00:32:07.020
wasn't just used to avoid
paying for insurance.
807
00:32:07.022 --> 00:32:11.014
It also became a vessel
for him to launder money.
808
00:32:11.016 --> 00:32:13.020
- I said,
"We can't do that."
809
00:32:13.022 --> 00:32:16.004
And he said,
"Why can't we do that?"
810
00:32:16.006 --> 00:32:18.010
And I said, "Because the state
says we can't do that."
811
00:32:18.012 --> 00:32:20.006
And he goes,
"Well, who the hell are they?
812
00:32:20.008 --> 00:32:21.019
They can't shut us down."
813
00:32:21.021 --> 00:32:24.014
And I said, "Well, actually,
yes, yes, they can."
814
00:32:24.016 --> 00:32:26.008
narrator:
These crimes would attract
815
00:32:26.010 --> 00:32:27.019
the attention of the state
and eventually lead
816
00:32:27.021 --> 00:32:29.012
to a large-scale
investigation,
817
00:32:29.014 --> 00:32:33.000
three-day hearing,
and a 110-count indictment.
818
00:32:33.002 --> 00:32:34.010
- Top officials
819
00:32:34.012 --> 00:32:36.004
from the Vernon Valley
Recreation Association
820
00:32:36.006 --> 00:32:37.016
today refused to testify
821
00:32:37.018 --> 00:32:39.012
before the State Commission
of Investigation.
822
00:32:39.014 --> 00:32:43.010
Gene Mulvihill did not appear,
citing client privilege.
823
00:32:43.012 --> 00:32:45.005
narrator:
The outcome?
824
00:32:45.007 --> 00:32:47.017
Gene pled guilty
to counts of fraud,
825
00:32:47.019 --> 00:32:49.018
theft, and conspiracy
826
00:32:49.020 --> 00:32:52.005
and was ordered to give up
control of Action Park,
827
00:32:52.007 --> 00:32:54.009
which was partially
on state land.
828
00:32:54.011 --> 00:32:57.015
But to Gene,
that would not do.
829
00:32:57.017 --> 00:32:59.019
So he came up
with yet another scheme.
830
00:32:59.021 --> 00:33:03.000
He decided to become
the worst tenant he could.
831
00:33:03.002 --> 00:33:05.016
He stopped paying bills
and filing paperwork.
832
00:33:05.018 --> 00:33:08.001
He basically did
everything he could
833
00:33:08.003 --> 00:33:10.020
to antagonize
his landlord state.
834
00:33:10.022 --> 00:33:13.000
- The SCI
accusing Vernon Valley
835
00:33:13.002 --> 00:33:16.012
of "arrogantly violating
its agreement with the state
836
00:33:16.014 --> 00:33:18.009
to lease land
for the ski resort."
837
00:33:18.011 --> 00:33:20.009
Vernon Valley
allegedly diverted funds
838
00:33:20.011 --> 00:33:21.018
to avoid paying the state
839
00:33:21.020 --> 00:33:24.009
several hundred thousand
dollars in rent.
840
00:33:24.011 --> 00:33:27.004
The SCI probe also disclosed
Vernon Valley
841
00:33:27.006 --> 00:33:29.003
created a phony
insurance company
842
00:33:29.005 --> 00:33:30.020
to avoid premium payments
843
00:33:30.022 --> 00:33:33.000
and changed the terrain
of the ski resort
844
00:33:33.002 --> 00:33:34.016
without obtaining permission.
845
00:33:34.018 --> 00:33:36.004
narrator:
And it worked.
846
00:33:36.006 --> 00:33:38.008
New Jersey got
so fed up with Gene
847
00:33:38.010 --> 00:33:40.006
that they decided
to sell him the land
848
00:33:40.008 --> 00:33:42.018
for just over $800,000
849
00:33:42.020 --> 00:33:45.001
just to get him
off their backs.
850
00:33:45.003 --> 00:33:48.008
Gene was free from the pesky
state of New Jersey.
851
00:33:48.010 --> 00:33:51.021
And so Action Park continued
to expand and grow.
852
00:33:51.023 --> 00:33:54.014
And anytime Gene needed cash
for a new ride,
853
00:33:54.016 --> 00:33:57.007
his buddy Bob Brennan
was waiting in the wings
854
00:33:57.009 --> 00:33:59.023
to support Gene's wild ideas.
855
00:34:00.001 --> 00:34:02.003
- Excellence always succeeds.
856
00:34:02.005 --> 00:34:03.014
When you have
an excellent facility
857
00:34:03.016 --> 00:34:05.014
run by extraordinary people,
858
00:34:05.016 --> 00:34:07.019
you're able to bring out
the fans,
859
00:34:07.021 --> 00:34:09.017
and the facility does well.
860
00:34:09.019 --> 00:34:12.004
[rock music]
861
00:34:12.006 --> 00:34:13.023
narrator: But things
really started to take off
862
00:34:14.001 --> 00:34:16.014
when Gene started running
TV ads
863
00:34:16.016 --> 00:34:18.003
created by his daughter
864
00:34:18.005 --> 00:34:20.007
and starring the park's
teenage employees.
865
00:34:20.009 --> 00:34:23.020
- Just go to Action Park.
There's no other park like it.
866
00:34:23.022 --> 00:34:25.018
- When it's hot out,
this is a great place
867
00:34:25.020 --> 00:34:27.013
to spend the day
with your family.
868
00:34:27.015 --> 00:34:30.006
- Race like a pro.
It's great.
869
00:34:30.008 --> 00:34:32.010
- These are the most
amazing rides in the world.
870
00:34:32.012 --> 00:34:33.022
I love it here.
871
00:34:34.000 --> 00:34:35.006
- ♪ There's nothing
in the world ♪
872
00:34:35.008 --> 00:34:37.016
♪ Like Action Park ♪
873
00:34:37.018 --> 00:34:39.020
It's absolutely insane!
874
00:34:39.022 --> 00:34:42.021
[upbeat music]
875
00:34:42.023 --> 00:34:44.009
♪ ♪
876
00:34:44.011 --> 00:34:46.005
narrator:
A lot of Gene's ride ideas
877
00:34:46.007 --> 00:34:48.002
took inspiration
from natural settings
878
00:34:48.004 --> 00:34:51.004
and environments
that he grew up playing in.
879
00:34:51.006 --> 00:34:53.017
His thinking was,
if kids couldn't make it
880
00:34:53.019 --> 00:34:56.018
to real nature, he'd create
the next best thing.
881
00:34:56.020 --> 00:34:59.001
How else to explain
an amusement park
882
00:34:59.003 --> 00:35:03.008
that lets six-year-olds jump
off a 20-foot cliff?
883
00:35:03.010 --> 00:35:10.004
♪ ♪
884
00:35:10.006 --> 00:35:13.007
- They also had a slide
you could slide off
885
00:35:13.009 --> 00:35:14.021
of the same cliff
into that water.
886
00:35:14.023 --> 00:35:16.019
- So the slide version
of the Cliff Dive,
887
00:35:16.021 --> 00:35:19.004
I think, was also
really good for people
888
00:35:19.006 --> 00:35:22.003
who wanted to treat it
like a ride mentally
889
00:35:22.005 --> 00:35:23.016
and didn't want to know
the feeling
890
00:35:23.018 --> 00:35:25.009
of committing suicide.
891
00:35:25.011 --> 00:35:27.020
- I remember being on
the diving cliff looking down,
892
00:35:27.022 --> 00:35:30.011
being scared out of my life,
and to add to that,
893
00:35:30.013 --> 00:35:32.005
there were people
right down below,
894
00:35:32.007 --> 00:35:35.023
and they had no idea
you were about to jump.
895
00:35:36.001 --> 00:35:38.009
- Conceivably, if you
just wanted to chill out
896
00:35:38.011 --> 00:35:41.007
for a minute from all
the action of Action Park,
897
00:35:41.009 --> 00:35:43.006
you could just hang out there.
898
00:35:43.008 --> 00:35:44.023
You could be minding
your own business,
899
00:35:45.001 --> 00:35:46.022
and somebody could land
right on top of you
900
00:35:47.000 --> 00:35:48.014
without any warning.
901
00:35:48.016 --> 00:35:50.018
So it was not actually
a chill-out area at all.
902
00:35:50.020 --> 00:35:53.014
- You could do it safely,
but people didn't.
903
00:35:53.016 --> 00:35:55.017
You know,
people just didn't listen.
904
00:35:55.019 --> 00:35:58.003
They would jump stupidly.
They would slip and fall.
905
00:35:58.005 --> 00:36:00.011
- And people would jump, and
the lifeguards always told you
906
00:36:00.013 --> 00:36:02.005
to cross your arms
over your chest,
907
00:36:02.007 --> 00:36:04.001
but people didn't listen,
908
00:36:04.003 --> 00:36:05.020
and they would land
on the water like this,
909
00:36:05.022 --> 00:36:07.011
and their arms
would get thrown up,
910
00:36:07.013 --> 00:36:09.006
and they'd dislocate
their shoulder.
911
00:36:09.008 --> 00:36:11.010
So you'd see somebody
coming out of the water,
912
00:36:11.012 --> 00:36:12.016
and one shoulder's, like,
913
00:36:12.018 --> 00:36:14.022
six inches lower
than the other one.
914
00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:17.023
And their arm would just be,
like, hanging.
915
00:36:18.001 --> 00:36:19.018
narrator: The floor
of the pool below the cliff
916
00:36:19.020 --> 00:36:21.020
was eventually painted white
to make it easier
917
00:36:21.022 --> 00:36:25.008
for lifeguards
to spot any bodies below.
918
00:36:25.010 --> 00:36:28.019
[exciting music]
919
00:36:28.021 --> 00:36:30.010
And this wasn't
the only attraction
920
00:36:30.012 --> 00:36:31.022
that was to feature cliffs.
921
00:36:32.000 --> 00:36:33.020
The original concept
for Surf Hill,
922
00:36:33.022 --> 00:36:36.016
which was basically a giant
Slip 'N Slide on a mountain,
923
00:36:36.018 --> 00:36:38.023
was to have guests
jump off a cliff
924
00:36:39.001 --> 00:36:40.017
before the mat
would catch them.
925
00:36:40.019 --> 00:36:44.005
This idea was abandoned
due to space limitations.
926
00:36:44.007 --> 00:36:47.009
- Staff members started
building up the jump
927
00:36:47.011 --> 00:36:49.005
by sliding the mats
underneath,
928
00:36:49.007 --> 00:36:51.005
making it bigger
and bigger and bigger,
929
00:36:51.007 --> 00:36:54.006
until eventually one of the
guests got seriously injured.
930
00:36:54.008 --> 00:36:56.019
We had been told
the person broke his neck.
931
00:36:56.021 --> 00:36:58.011
[cheers and laughter]
932
00:36:58.013 --> 00:37:00.011
[indistinct shouting]
933
00:37:00.013 --> 00:37:03.019
[people cheering and whistling]
934
00:37:06.002 --> 00:37:08.007
narrator: Roaring Springs
was an expansive collection
935
00:37:08.009 --> 00:37:11.014
of tube rides designed
to mimic the experience
936
00:37:11.016 --> 00:37:13.018
of a mountain swimming hole.
937
00:37:13.020 --> 00:37:16.003
- I remember this guy
coming up behind me.
938
00:37:16.005 --> 00:37:19.008
He hit my tube
right before the tunnel,
939
00:37:19.010 --> 00:37:20.023
and I went off to the side,
940
00:37:21.001 --> 00:37:24.022
and I slammed my head
into the center of this tube
941
00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:27.000
that you were meant
to go through.
942
00:37:27.002 --> 00:37:30.003
- Some of the padding had got
torn away and exposed a bolt,
943
00:37:30.005 --> 00:37:32.003
and one of the guests
came down,
944
00:37:32.005 --> 00:37:33.021
and they basically
got impaled on the bolt,
945
00:37:33.023 --> 00:37:36.013
and it tore a nice gash
through their midsection,
946
00:37:36.015 --> 00:37:39.007
and they had to be evacuated
off the ride.
947
00:37:39.009 --> 00:37:41.002
- Those ride attendants,
948
00:37:41.004 --> 00:37:44.002
they spent their time
twisting their whistles
949
00:37:44.004 --> 00:37:48.011
and then just going,
"Go, go, go."
950
00:37:48.013 --> 00:37:52.007
And a lot of the time,
those tubes would bunch up.
951
00:37:52.009 --> 00:37:54.009
And then what happens
when you get to the bottom
952
00:37:54.011 --> 00:37:56.009
when you have to squeeze
into a particular area?
953
00:37:56.011 --> 00:37:57.020
People were crashing
into each other,
954
00:37:57.022 --> 00:37:59.008
slamming on top of each other.
955
00:37:59.010 --> 00:38:00.013
One person would be
in the water.
956
00:38:00.015 --> 00:38:02.004
The next person coming down
957
00:38:02.006 --> 00:38:04.001
would then dunk
the next person and go under.
958
00:38:04.003 --> 00:38:06.016
And if you couldn't swim well,
yikes.
959
00:38:06.018 --> 00:38:08.021
- [laughs]
960
00:38:08.023 --> 00:38:11.010
CFS stood for
"can't fucking swim."
961
00:38:11.012 --> 00:38:14.011
- Security guys, lifeguards,
they carried Sharpies.
962
00:38:14.013 --> 00:38:16.005
Action Park gave out
daily wristbands,
963
00:38:16.007 --> 00:38:19.020
and they would write "CFS"
on the wristband.
964
00:38:19.022 --> 00:38:21.016
If someone had CFS
on their wristband,
965
00:38:21.018 --> 00:38:24.000
that means they probably
had gotten saved already
966
00:38:24.002 --> 00:38:25.015
at some point in the day,
967
00:38:25.017 --> 00:38:28.021
and it was a warning
to other people.
968
00:38:28.023 --> 00:38:30.012
Like, if CFS
was on your wristband
969
00:38:30.014 --> 00:38:32.009
and you knew
you couldn't swim,
970
00:38:32.011 --> 00:38:34.013
what the hell are you doing
jumping off a 20-foot cliff
971
00:38:34.015 --> 00:38:36.015
into a deep pool of water?
972
00:38:36.017 --> 00:38:38.021
But people just--you know,
they thought, like,
973
00:38:38.023 --> 00:38:41.000
this was some magical place
where all of a sudden,
974
00:38:41.002 --> 00:38:43.011
they would have
the ability to swim.
975
00:38:43.013 --> 00:38:44.021
- We should talk
about that other ride
976
00:38:44.023 --> 00:38:46.006
that's right near there,
977
00:38:46.008 --> 00:38:49.000
the Colorado River Ride.
978
00:38:49.002 --> 00:38:51.000
Holy shit, dude.
979
00:38:51.002 --> 00:38:54.009
I will say everybody talks
about Tarzan Swing.
980
00:38:54.011 --> 00:38:57.012
Cliff Dive, Cannonball Falls,
you hear about those.
981
00:38:57.014 --> 00:38:59.010
Colorado River Ride
may have been
982
00:38:59.012 --> 00:39:01.009
the most underrated
dangerous ride.
983
00:39:01.011 --> 00:39:03.017
- You would load in,
and they would just let
984
00:39:03.019 --> 00:39:05.022
the laws of physics
take over from there,
985
00:39:06.000 --> 00:39:08.020
which sometimes meant
that you would fly really fast
986
00:39:08.022 --> 00:39:12.002
and also sometimes meant
that you would get stuck
987
00:39:12.004 --> 00:39:13.016
at certain points of the ride
988
00:39:13.018 --> 00:39:15.018
that they hadn't designed
all that well,
989
00:39:15.020 --> 00:39:19.005
and then you would get punted
by another tube.
990
00:39:19.007 --> 00:39:21.018
- That thing was just
a fucking whiplash machine.
991
00:39:21.020 --> 00:39:23.008
You're going up on the side.
992
00:39:23.010 --> 00:39:25.016
Your raft is getting stuck
on the wall.
993
00:39:25.018 --> 00:39:28.003
You have to all team up
and push off the wall,
994
00:39:28.005 --> 00:39:29.011
and now you're going backwards.
995
00:39:29.013 --> 00:39:30.021
Like, this is clearly not--
996
00:39:30.023 --> 00:39:34.006
there's no rhyme or reason
in this.
997
00:39:34.008 --> 00:39:36.006
narrator:
The Colorado River Ride
998
00:39:36.008 --> 00:39:38.020
actually began life
as a lazy-river ride.
999
00:39:38.022 --> 00:39:41.007
But during construction,
Gene decided
1000
00:39:41.009 --> 00:39:44.023
he wanted a realistic
simulation of Class IV rapids.
1001
00:39:45.001 --> 00:39:48.019
Early test pilots reportedly
came out unconscious,
1002
00:39:48.021 --> 00:39:52.005
forcing him to turn down
the ride's intensity.
1003
00:39:52.007 --> 00:39:56.001
- There was one section
where tubes tended to go
1004
00:39:56.003 --> 00:39:57.020
right up an embankment,
1005
00:39:57.022 --> 00:40:00.003
and everyone was
looking at it expectantly,
1006
00:40:00.005 --> 00:40:03.003
waiting for them
to fly over the side.
1007
00:40:03.005 --> 00:40:07.011
You would hear people
audibly go, "Oh...aw,"
1008
00:40:07.013 --> 00:40:10.001
when they didn't actually fall
to their doom.
1009
00:40:10.003 --> 00:40:13.001
- I mean, we're holding on,
getting slammed into stuff,
1010
00:40:13.003 --> 00:40:14.015
the thing's getting stuck,
we have to kind of
1011
00:40:14.017 --> 00:40:16.005
stick our own legs out
and push our way off,
1012
00:40:16.007 --> 00:40:18.012
and then we go past
a lifeguard chair that,
1013
00:40:18.014 --> 00:40:21.003
you guessed it, is empty.
1014
00:40:21.005 --> 00:40:24.008
Nobody there
keeping an eye on anything.
1015
00:40:24.010 --> 00:40:27.003
- Gene got involved during
the construction process,
1016
00:40:27.005 --> 00:40:29.011
and he said...[as Gene]
"Look, when you go down
1017
00:40:29.013 --> 00:40:31.003
"the Colorado River in a raft,
1018
00:40:31.005 --> 00:40:33.009
"there's not some guy
in a lifeguard shirt
1019
00:40:33.011 --> 00:40:35.016
pushing your raft
down the river."
1020
00:40:35.018 --> 00:40:37.012
[normally] And I said,
"Look, Gene,
1021
00:40:37.014 --> 00:40:39.005
"this is not
the Colorado River.
1022
00:40:39.007 --> 00:40:40.015
It's a water park."
1023
00:40:40.017 --> 00:40:43.013
[indistinct shouting]
1024
00:40:43.015 --> 00:40:45.019
- A lot of fights
on the Colorado River Ride
1025
00:40:45.021 --> 00:40:47.009
for the dumbest thing ever--
1026
00:40:47.011 --> 00:40:49.019
you know,
rafts bumping into each other.
1027
00:40:49.021 --> 00:40:52.020
And then people would get out
and just start having at it.
1028
00:40:52.022 --> 00:40:55.005
Some of the worst fights we had
were people standing
1029
00:40:55.007 --> 00:40:57.020
in the Colorado River Ride
punching each other.
1030
00:40:57.022 --> 00:40:59.008
It was just dumb.
1031
00:40:59.010 --> 00:41:00.020
You would be like,
"Really? Why here?"
1032
00:41:00.022 --> 00:41:02.021
- There's morons
in the pool with us,
1033
00:41:02.023 --> 00:41:04.014
morons in the pool with us.
1034
00:41:04.016 --> 00:41:07.005
narrator: Action Park was like
the movie "The Purge."
1035
00:41:07.007 --> 00:41:09.012
Thousands of kids
with pent-up aggression
1036
00:41:09.014 --> 00:41:12.007
and a healthy dose of alcohol
were given a space
1037
00:41:12.009 --> 00:41:15.008
where they could do
whatever they wanted.
1038
00:41:15.010 --> 00:41:17.020
- You know when you were
at pool parties or things
1039
00:41:17.022 --> 00:41:20.002
when you were a kid and there
was always those idiots
1040
00:41:20.004 --> 00:41:22.013
who were like, "Let's jump
in the pool off the roof!
1041
00:41:22.015 --> 00:41:23.020
"No, let's get higher!
1042
00:41:23.022 --> 00:41:25.015
Let's do
the second-story roof!"
1043
00:41:25.017 --> 00:41:27.019
And you're always--you know,
you're kind of on board for it,
1044
00:41:27.021 --> 00:41:29.008
but then at one point,
you're like,
1045
00:41:29.010 --> 00:41:30.021
"Ah, I got to pull out
at this point.
1046
00:41:30.023 --> 00:41:32.012
This is where it's getting
too dangerous."
1047
00:41:32.014 --> 00:41:34.018
It was all those kids
in one park with no rules.
1048
00:41:34.020 --> 00:41:36.002
There were no rules.
1049
00:41:36.004 --> 00:41:39.007
And for a lot of kids,
that was heaven.
1050
00:41:39.009 --> 00:41:41.019
- Action Park was basically
the only water park
1051
00:41:41.021 --> 00:41:44.005
within the New York City area.
1052
00:41:44.007 --> 00:41:47.000
And it was a place
that filled a void for people
1053
00:41:47.002 --> 00:41:48.013
who weren't spending
1054
00:41:48.015 --> 00:41:50.001
their summer vacation
at a beach house.
1055
00:41:50.003 --> 00:41:51.018
They weren't going
to Cape Cod.
1056
00:41:51.020 --> 00:41:53.002
They weren't going to Florida.
1057
00:41:53.004 --> 00:41:55.000
They were going
to Action Park.
1058
00:41:55.002 --> 00:41:57.013
And I think because of that,
it might've attracted
1059
00:41:57.015 --> 00:42:02.006
a more, say,
working-class clientele.
1060
00:42:02.008 --> 00:42:05.022
[soft music]
1061
00:42:06.000 --> 00:42:07.019
narrator: The more
news reports warned people
1062
00:42:07.021 --> 00:42:10.000
about Action Park's
potential danger,
1063
00:42:10.002 --> 00:42:13.017
the more adrenaline-fueled
teenagers flocked to it.
1064
00:42:13.019 --> 00:42:16.018
It became
a self-fulfilling prophecy.
1065
00:42:16.020 --> 00:42:19.014
In a world filled with people
telling you no,
1066
00:42:19.016 --> 00:42:24.010
Action Park became known
as the land of yes.
1067
00:42:24.012 --> 00:42:26.000
- I'd work the front
of the lot
1068
00:42:26.002 --> 00:42:27.017
to let people know
the lot was full.
1069
00:42:27.019 --> 00:42:29.016
And what would happen is,
people would come
1070
00:42:29.018 --> 00:42:31.020
to try to get in the lot
after it was full.
1071
00:42:31.022 --> 00:42:34.016
And one of the ways they would
try to get in is, they'd say,
1072
00:42:34.018 --> 00:42:37.009
"Hey, I'm from New York City."
1073
00:42:37.011 --> 00:42:39.011
And I don't know
what they meant by that,
1074
00:42:39.013 --> 00:42:42.000
but I think they didn't realize
1075
00:42:42.002 --> 00:42:44.015
that everyone here
was from New York City.
1076
00:42:44.017 --> 00:42:47.017
So as a 14-year-old, I'd say,
"Oh, my God.
1077
00:42:47.019 --> 00:42:49.005
"Are there big buildings?
1078
00:42:49.007 --> 00:42:50.020
"What is it like there?
1079
00:42:50.022 --> 00:42:53.015
You think one day,
I can go there?"
1080
00:42:53.017 --> 00:42:55.015
- There were a lot of people
that came up there,
1081
00:42:55.017 --> 00:42:58.023
usually younger guys,
that were just coming up there
1082
00:42:59.001 --> 00:43:01.001
for the idea
of starting trouble.
1083
00:43:01.003 --> 00:43:03.013
- It didn't always bring
the best.
1084
00:43:03.015 --> 00:43:06.008
It did bring sometimes
a criminal element.
1085
00:43:06.010 --> 00:43:09.004
I once heard
a police officer tell me
1086
00:43:09.006 --> 00:43:12.008
the majority of their calls
during the day
1087
00:43:12.010 --> 00:43:14.013
were for Action Park.
1088
00:43:14.015 --> 00:43:16.011
- There were a lot of fights
at Action Park.
1089
00:43:16.013 --> 00:43:20.015
You know, hot, in the sun,
lots of places to buy alcohol,
1090
00:43:20.017 --> 00:43:22.012
people that don't know
any restraint.
1091
00:43:22.014 --> 00:43:24.010
- Trying to start fights
with each other,
1092
00:43:24.012 --> 00:43:27.009
trying to start fights
with the ride attendants,
1093
00:43:27.011 --> 00:43:30.021
pulling the ride attendants
into the rides themselves.
1094
00:43:30.023 --> 00:43:32.016
- We used to call it
a Code Brown.
1095
00:43:32.018 --> 00:43:36.008
That was the code for
"somebody shit in the pool."
1096
00:43:36.010 --> 00:43:38.015
How angry do you have to be
on vacation
1097
00:43:38.017 --> 00:43:40.016
to just shit in a pool?
1098
00:43:40.018 --> 00:43:44.013
- The average customer
at Action Park was just insane.
1099
00:43:44.015 --> 00:43:46.008
And they just didn't care
half the time,
1100
00:43:46.010 --> 00:43:48.014
and, you know, combine that
with liquor, and anything goes.
1101
00:43:48.016 --> 00:43:51.017
[indistinct chatter
and shouting]
1102
00:43:51.019 --> 00:43:53.013
- I lived through it, man,
I lived through it.
1103
00:43:53.015 --> 00:43:56.006
[indistinct chatter]
1104
00:43:56.008 --> 00:43:58.006
[lively polka music playing]
1105
00:43:58.008 --> 00:44:00.003
- There was a big fest tent.
1106
00:44:00.005 --> 00:44:02.000
That's where the beer
used to be.
1107
00:44:02.002 --> 00:44:04.021
And they would have, like,
Summerfest, Oktoberfest.
1108
00:44:04.023 --> 00:44:07.015
- My father was crazy
for that kind of stuff.
1109
00:44:07.017 --> 00:44:09.019
I mean, we had
a German brewer.
1110
00:44:09.021 --> 00:44:12.012
We had a German baker.
We had German bands.
1111
00:44:12.014 --> 00:44:14.017
- And I remember them doing
a big Polish festival,
1112
00:44:14.019 --> 00:44:16.017
Irish festival,
German festival.
1113
00:44:16.019 --> 00:44:20.002
- Anything you could put the
word "fest" on the end of it,
1114
00:44:20.004 --> 00:44:21.014
Action Park did it.
1115
00:44:21.016 --> 00:44:23.009
And they were
kind of free-for-alls.
1116
00:44:23.011 --> 00:44:27.012
- Jump, jump, jump, jump!
Come on, jump, jump!
1117
00:44:27.014 --> 00:44:30.007
narrator: Gene took
this stuff seriously.
1118
00:44:30.009 --> 00:44:32.001
He went so far as to literally
1119
00:44:32.003 --> 00:44:34.014
dismantle an entire brewery
from Germany
1120
00:44:34.016 --> 00:44:38.002
and have it sent
to New Jersey.
1121
00:44:38.004 --> 00:44:39.018
And during festivals,
1122
00:44:39.020 --> 00:44:42.018
such as Action Park's famed
Oktoberfest celebration,
1123
00:44:42.020 --> 00:44:44.019
Gene would be
front and center,
1124
00:44:44.021 --> 00:44:48.010
wearing lederhosen
and dancing to polka music.
1125
00:44:48.012 --> 00:44:51.011
[upbeat rock music]
1126
00:44:51.013 --> 00:44:54.018
♪ ♪
1127
00:44:54.020 --> 00:44:58.010
- Now, anyone who worked
at Action Park knew
1128
00:44:58.012 --> 00:45:00.018
Water World
was for the daytime,
1129
00:45:00.020 --> 00:45:04.007
and then at some point
around 4:00 or 5:00,
1130
00:45:04.009 --> 00:45:08.022
the adults would have
a little fun in the bar area,
1131
00:45:09.000 --> 00:45:13.003
and then they'd make their way
over to Motor World.
1132
00:45:13.005 --> 00:45:14.016
One side of the highway--
1133
00:45:14.018 --> 00:45:16.020
you have 94 that runs
through the middle,
1134
00:45:16.022 --> 00:45:19.002
and you have Water World
on one side
1135
00:45:19.004 --> 00:45:21.004
and Motor World
on the other side,
1136
00:45:21.006 --> 00:45:23.022
with all the racing cars,
the racing boats.
1137
00:45:24.000 --> 00:45:27.004
And that was usually
after they had a few drinks.
1138
00:45:27.006 --> 00:45:30.005
[steady rock music]
1139
00:45:30.007 --> 00:45:33.013
♪ ♪
1140
00:45:33.015 --> 00:45:36.011
- The design was flawed
because the Grand Prix cars
1141
00:45:36.013 --> 00:45:37.023
were right next
to the beer tent.
1142
00:45:38.001 --> 00:45:40.003
- So at 5:00,
guys would come up.
1143
00:45:40.005 --> 00:45:41.019
They'd get a bunch
of beers in them.
1144
00:45:41.021 --> 00:45:44.002
They'd go down to Motor World
to drive the cars.
1145
00:45:44.004 --> 00:45:45.019
- Out of all the rides,
1146
00:45:45.021 --> 00:45:47.016
my opinion,
that's the craziest one
1147
00:45:47.018 --> 00:45:50.007
because it's not the ride
attendant's fault, you know?
1148
00:45:50.009 --> 00:45:52.004
You can't always tell
if someone's been drinking,
1149
00:45:52.006 --> 00:45:53.015
and if you didn't stink
like booze,
1150
00:45:53.017 --> 00:45:55.005
they would never know.
1151
00:45:55.007 --> 00:45:56.019
- Gene said to me one day...
1152
00:45:56.021 --> 00:45:58.010
[as Gene]
"You know what we need here?
1153
00:45:58.012 --> 00:46:00.019
"When somebody comes in
under 55 seconds,
1154
00:46:00.021 --> 00:46:03.020
"we got to have these girls
in bikinis come running out
1155
00:46:03.022 --> 00:46:06.018
"and a huge champagne bottle
that pops the top off
1156
00:46:06.020 --> 00:46:09.016
and shoots champagne
up in the air."
1157
00:46:09.018 --> 00:46:11.020
[normally] And I was laughing
when he said it.
1158
00:46:11.022 --> 00:46:13.020
And I looked at him,
and he had a straight face.
1159
00:46:13.022 --> 00:46:16.022
He was dead serious
about doing that.
1160
00:46:17.000 --> 00:46:18.020
- Occasionally
with the LOLA cars,
1161
00:46:18.022 --> 00:46:20.018
we would get a guest that,
1162
00:46:20.020 --> 00:46:22.013
instead
of following the course,
1163
00:46:22.015 --> 00:46:24.005
would decide he wanted
to make his own course,
1164
00:46:24.007 --> 00:46:26.010
that he would just start
driving around on the course,
1165
00:46:26.012 --> 00:46:27.019
drive off the course.
1166
00:46:27.021 --> 00:46:29.013
- I watched a guy
go off the track
1167
00:46:29.015 --> 00:46:32.015
and start chasing one of my
employees around in the field
1168
00:46:32.017 --> 00:46:34.000
with a LOLA car.
1169
00:46:34.002 --> 00:46:35.013
And so this kid
was running around
1170
00:46:35.015 --> 00:46:37.003
kind of like a bullfighter,
1171
00:46:37.005 --> 00:46:38.021
like, trying
to make tighter turns
1172
00:46:38.023 --> 00:46:41.012
than the car could make so
the car couldn't run him over.
1173
00:46:41.014 --> 00:46:43.000
- I'd heard the employees
figured out
1174
00:46:43.002 --> 00:46:45.006
how to override
the speed governor
1175
00:46:45.008 --> 00:46:46.017
so that the go-karts could go
1176
00:46:46.019 --> 00:46:48.021
as fast as 50
or 60 miles an hour.
1177
00:46:48.023 --> 00:46:51.016
And I'd heard that they would
then take those go-karts
1178
00:46:51.018 --> 00:46:54.007
on the highway that ran
through the middle of the park.
1179
00:46:54.009 --> 00:46:57.012
- Yeah, I took a LOLA car
on 94.
1180
00:46:57.014 --> 00:46:59.021
It has a top speed
of over 60 miles an hour.
1181
00:46:59.023 --> 00:47:02.003
It was worth it.
1182
00:47:02.005 --> 00:47:05.001
[engines roaring,
people screaming]
1183
00:47:06.011 --> 00:47:08.021
narrator: Many amusement parks
feature bumper boats.
1184
00:47:08.023 --> 00:47:12.011
Action Park had full-on
"Miami Vice"-grade speedboats,
1185
00:47:12.013 --> 00:47:15.005
where riders
regularly tempted fate
1186
00:47:15.007 --> 00:47:17.000
by treating them
like bumper boats,
1187
00:47:17.002 --> 00:47:19.009
a common action
that would send many a guest
1188
00:47:19.011 --> 00:47:23.006
tumbling into a pond
murky from leaked gas and oil
1189
00:47:23.008 --> 00:47:27.022
and known by employees
to be infested with snakes.
1190
00:47:28.000 --> 00:47:29.012
- Like, you'd be driving
a power boat,
1191
00:47:29.014 --> 00:47:31.002
and you'd see something
slither out
1192
00:47:31.004 --> 00:47:33.002
from, like, in the high grass.
1193
00:47:33.004 --> 00:47:35.006
- Oh, yeah, there were
big black snakes.
1194
00:47:35.008 --> 00:47:38.002
Motor World had lagoons
and swamp,
1195
00:47:38.004 --> 00:47:39.017
and there must've been
four-foot snakes.
1196
00:47:39.019 --> 00:47:42.009
Used to scare the hell
out of the New Yorkers.
1197
00:47:42.011 --> 00:47:46.014
- The things would flip,
I mean, on a regular basis.
1198
00:47:46.016 --> 00:47:48.006
If I stood there for an hour,
1199
00:47:48.008 --> 00:47:50.005
I could almost guarantee
I was gonna see one flip.
1200
00:47:50.007 --> 00:47:52.018
- Well, if you were a lifeguard
in Motor World,
1201
00:47:52.020 --> 00:47:54.022
you were being punished for
something, for the most part,
1202
00:47:55.000 --> 00:47:57.005
or you were somebody
who didn't know anybody.
1203
00:47:57.007 --> 00:47:59.009
You know, it was not the place
you wanted to be.
1204
00:47:59.011 --> 00:48:01.012
- I worked at Speedboats,
1205
00:48:01.014 --> 00:48:04.011
and everyone would get
three times around this pond,
1206
00:48:04.013 --> 00:48:08.003
this gas, oily pond...
1207
00:48:08.005 --> 00:48:10.022
[chuckles] That was just loaded
with dead fish.
1208
00:48:11.000 --> 00:48:12.010
I remember that.
1209
00:48:12.012 --> 00:48:14.014
One day, we had
a group of people.
1210
00:48:14.016 --> 00:48:18.012
I think you had about eight
boats going at the same time,
1211
00:48:18.014 --> 00:48:20.010
and they did
their three times around,
1212
00:48:20.012 --> 00:48:22.012
and they would throw
a red flag.
1213
00:48:22.014 --> 00:48:26.006
And this one gentleman
is coming toward the dock,
1214
00:48:26.008 --> 00:48:29.005
and he comes up,
flies forward,
1215
00:48:29.007 --> 00:48:31.009
up and over the small dock,
1216
00:48:31.011 --> 00:48:34.019
and on top of this other boat.
1217
00:48:34.021 --> 00:48:37.000
I thought this gentleman
was decapitated.
1218
00:48:37.002 --> 00:48:40.016
And I walk over,
and I see that he's--
1219
00:48:40.018 --> 00:48:43.020
you know, he's stuck forward
and his neck is bleeding,
1220
00:48:43.022 --> 00:48:45.006
but he's breathing.
1221
00:48:45.008 --> 00:48:49.020
I'm shocked, and I'm afraid
that this guy
1222
00:48:49.022 --> 00:48:53.020
is going to get his hair
pulled into the prop.
1223
00:48:53.022 --> 00:48:56.006
I remember taking my rod
1224
00:48:56.008 --> 00:48:58.006
and slamming
on top of the boat
1225
00:48:58.008 --> 00:49:00.004
to get the guy to let go
of the throttle,
1226
00:49:00.006 --> 00:49:02.012
for--you know, for God's sake.
1227
00:49:02.014 --> 00:49:05.015
And the gentleman
who was on top of the boat
1228
00:49:05.017 --> 00:49:09.003
just jumps off the ride
and just heads to the monorail
1229
00:49:09.005 --> 00:49:11.015
like--as if he hadn't done
anything wrong.
1230
00:49:11.017 --> 00:49:13.023
[rock music]
1231
00:49:14.001 --> 00:49:16.003
- One of the coolest
attractions
1232
00:49:16.005 --> 00:49:18.019
I've never seen anywhere else,
the Battle Tanks,
1233
00:49:18.021 --> 00:49:20.021
you know, kind of homebuilt
tanks where you drove around
1234
00:49:20.023 --> 00:49:23.014
and shot tennis balls
at each other.
1235
00:49:23.016 --> 00:49:25.014
And if it hit a target
on the tank,
1236
00:49:25.016 --> 00:49:27.005
it would be disabled
and spin in a circle.
1237
00:49:27.007 --> 00:49:29.001
- I got a call down there
one time,
1238
00:49:29.003 --> 00:49:31.000
and one of the guests
had gotten hold
1239
00:49:31.002 --> 00:49:34.021
of one of the gas cans,
and he poured gasoline
1240
00:49:34.023 --> 00:49:37.011
on his tennis balls
and was putting them
1241
00:49:37.013 --> 00:49:40.000
into the air cannon,
lighting the balls on fire,
1242
00:49:40.002 --> 00:49:42.011
and was shooting them
at the tanks.
1243
00:49:42.013 --> 00:49:45.013
So he wound up getting ejected
from the park.
1244
00:49:45.015 --> 00:49:48.014
[serious rock music]
1245
00:49:48.016 --> 00:49:53.015
♪ ♪
1246
00:49:53.017 --> 00:49:57.002
- At Action Park, the most
dangerous ride, probably,
1247
00:49:57.004 --> 00:50:00.003
from sheer amount of injuries,
1248
00:50:00.005 --> 00:50:02.015
would be the Alpine Slide.
1249
00:50:02.017 --> 00:50:06.008
♪ ♪
1250
00:50:06.010 --> 00:50:08.000
- People would get
on the chairlift,
1251
00:50:08.002 --> 00:50:10.011
and this was crazy,
but they would actually take
1252
00:50:10.013 --> 00:50:12.020
the carts that were on
their cart and pull them off
1253
00:50:12.022 --> 00:50:14.019
and throw them off the cart
and try to hit people
1254
00:50:14.021 --> 00:50:16.022
that were coming down
underneath them.
1255
00:50:17.000 --> 00:50:18.018
- With just a little nudge
of your elbow,
1256
00:50:18.020 --> 00:50:21.008
it was pretty easy to knock
the cart right off the ski lift
1257
00:50:21.010 --> 00:50:24.019
down on to the track where
people are riding the ride.
1258
00:50:24.021 --> 00:50:26.001
- There were some times
it happened
1259
00:50:26.003 --> 00:50:27.014
a couple times in a day.
1260
00:50:27.016 --> 00:50:29.016
It certainly happened
a few times a week.
1261
00:50:29.018 --> 00:50:32.018
narrator: Once they reached
the top of the Alpine Slide,
1262
00:50:32.020 --> 00:50:35.005
parkgoers were greeted
with signs
1263
00:50:35.007 --> 00:50:37.014
bearing bloody photos of
the ride's previous victims,
1264
00:50:37.016 --> 00:50:40.001
a grim warning that what
they were about to endure
1265
00:50:40.003 --> 00:50:42.009
was, in fact, truly dangerous.
1266
00:50:42.011 --> 00:50:44.018
♪ ♪
1267
00:50:44.020 --> 00:50:47.018
- It had a stick,
and, ostensibly,
1268
00:50:47.020 --> 00:50:49.017
you were supposed to be able
to pull up on the stick
1269
00:50:49.019 --> 00:50:51.000
as a brake,
1270
00:50:51.002 --> 00:50:53.015
push down on it to go faster.
1271
00:50:53.017 --> 00:50:56.023
But one thing that I learned
was very true:
1272
00:50:57.001 --> 00:50:59.011
the sleds were often broken.
1273
00:50:59.013 --> 00:51:01.003
- I didn't know it
at the time,
1274
00:51:01.005 --> 00:51:04.011
but the Alpine Slide was made
of fiberglass, concrete,
1275
00:51:04.013 --> 00:51:06.010
and mostly asbestos.
1276
00:51:06.012 --> 00:51:08.008
- Cement track.
It's summertime.
1277
00:51:08.010 --> 00:51:11.012
People are in bathing suits,
and they're flying down
1278
00:51:11.014 --> 00:51:15.007
this path at full speed ahead,
and they would just tumble off.
1279
00:51:15.009 --> 00:51:19.010
- I wasn't particularly excited
to go on the Alpine Slide.
1280
00:51:19.012 --> 00:51:21.015
I knew it was unsafe.
1281
00:51:21.017 --> 00:51:23.023
- One of the reasons the
Alpine Slide was so dangerous
1282
00:51:24.001 --> 00:51:28.003
is because it wasn't designed
to keep you on.
1283
00:51:28.005 --> 00:51:30.021
If you didn't touch your brakes
in a couple of key spots,
1284
00:51:30.023 --> 00:51:32.018
you were going to fly off.
1285
00:51:32.020 --> 00:51:34.012
♪ ♪
1286
00:51:34.014 --> 00:51:37.023
- You'd go up into this lip,
and if you didn't know
1287
00:51:38.001 --> 00:51:41.004
how to distribute your weight
when you came out
1288
00:51:41.006 --> 00:51:43.010
of that bank turn,
the thing would flip on you.
1289
00:51:43.012 --> 00:51:44.015
And when the thing
flipped on you,
1290
00:51:44.017 --> 00:51:47.020
that's when it started to hurt.
1291
00:51:47.022 --> 00:51:51.008
- You had kids breaking
their collarbones,
1292
00:51:51.010 --> 00:51:53.010
their skin ripped off.
1293
00:51:53.012 --> 00:51:55.000
And when I was in high school,
1294
00:51:55.002 --> 00:51:56.020
you would come back to school
in the fall,
1295
00:51:56.022 --> 00:51:59.012
and you'd see
all these kids bandaged up.
1296
00:51:59.014 --> 00:52:01.010
And you'd walk in the hallways,
and they were like,
1297
00:52:01.012 --> 00:52:03.017
"Yeah, Alpine Slide, huh?"
"Yeah."
1298
00:52:03.019 --> 00:52:05.022
- Kid shows up back
in the neighborhood,
1299
00:52:06.000 --> 00:52:08.021
and, like, he's got a big burn
on his thigh and his hip.
1300
00:52:09.000 --> 00:52:11.009
You assume, "Oh, you fall off
the Alpine Slide?
1301
00:52:11.011 --> 00:52:12.018
Oh, when did you go
to Action Park?"
1302
00:52:12.020 --> 00:52:14.006
Like, that--
He'd have to correct you.
1303
00:52:14.008 --> 00:52:16.005
He'd have to--
"Oh, no, I had surgery."
1304
00:52:16.007 --> 00:52:19.014
[dramatic music]
1305
00:52:19.016 --> 00:52:22.020
- The area around the slides
was just rock,
1306
00:52:22.022 --> 00:52:26.015
so, I mean,
everything from broken bones
1307
00:52:26.017 --> 00:52:29.001
to concussions.
1308
00:52:29.003 --> 00:52:33.020
On an average day, you would
have 50 to 100 people injured.
1309
00:52:33.022 --> 00:52:36.019
On a weekend,
you could double that.
1310
00:52:37.017 --> 00:52:39.014
- When I was a kid,
I was extremely law-abiding,
1311
00:52:39.016 --> 00:52:42.012
so every single time
that I saw a sign
1312
00:52:42.014 --> 00:52:45.007
that said "slow down,"
I would slow down.
1313
00:52:45.009 --> 00:52:48.009
I hit a bump,
and I was sort of airborne,
1314
00:52:48.011 --> 00:52:49.018
and I looked to my side,
1315
00:52:49.020 --> 00:52:52.011
and I saw that the slide
that I had been riding on
1316
00:52:52.013 --> 00:52:56.006
was rolling down the hill
next to me.
1317
00:52:56.008 --> 00:52:58.005
And I was taken
to the infirmary,
1318
00:52:58.007 --> 00:53:00.014
which was
this unsettling-looking
1319
00:53:00.016 --> 00:53:02.003
sort of shed.
1320
00:53:02.005 --> 00:53:05.001
They took a look at my wound,
and they told me
1321
00:53:05.003 --> 00:53:07.016
that they needed to spray
some sort of stuff on it
1322
00:53:07.018 --> 00:53:10.010
so that it would scab over
and heal.
1323
00:53:10.012 --> 00:53:12.017
And then, unlike a doctor,
1324
00:53:12.019 --> 00:53:14.016
the person who was
administering this stuff
1325
00:53:14.018 --> 00:53:16.022
said to me,
"This is gonna hurt."
1326
00:53:17.000 --> 00:53:18.014
- First aid had this spray.
1327
00:53:18.016 --> 00:53:20.014
It was a little squeeze bottle,
like a Windex bottle,
1328
00:53:20.016 --> 00:53:22.006
and it had
this orange solution in,
1329
00:53:22.008 --> 00:53:24.003
which I've been told
years later
1330
00:53:24.005 --> 00:53:26.007
that it was alcohol and iodine.
1331
00:53:26.009 --> 00:53:27.019
I know it was an orange color.
1332
00:53:27.021 --> 00:53:29.023
And they would spray the person
with this thing,
1333
00:53:30.001 --> 00:53:31.018
and from the looks of things,
1334
00:53:31.020 --> 00:53:33.019
this was the most incredible
pain this person had ever felt.
1335
00:53:33.021 --> 00:53:36.006
I can specifically remember
one time where we had this guy
1336
00:53:36.008 --> 00:53:38.000
come in, and this guy
was a bodybuilder.
1337
00:53:38.002 --> 00:53:39.013
I mean, this guy was jacked.
1338
00:53:39.015 --> 00:53:42.013
And he had friction burns
on his arm and his leg,
1339
00:53:42.015 --> 00:53:44.023
and this guy was in tears.
1340
00:53:45.001 --> 00:53:46.020
We told him, "Okay,
now we got to do the leg."
1341
00:53:46.022 --> 00:53:48.007
And he was like, "No."
1342
00:53:48.009 --> 00:53:50.007
We're like, "Dude,
this is gonna get infected
1343
00:53:50.009 --> 00:53:51.009
if we don't spray it."
1344
00:53:51.011 --> 00:53:53.002
And he's like, "I don't care.
1345
00:53:53.004 --> 00:53:55.000
I'd rather have an infection
than go through that again."
1346
00:53:55.002 --> 00:53:57.007
- They had a circle drawn
on the floor
1347
00:53:57.009 --> 00:53:58.023
in the first aid room.
1348
00:53:59.001 --> 00:54:01.009
And while they were cleaning
your slide burns,
1349
00:54:01.011 --> 00:54:05.001
if you managed to stay in
the circle, you won a prize.
1350
00:54:05.003 --> 00:54:06.023
They said over, like,
two or three years,
1351
00:54:07.001 --> 00:54:09.005
only two people actually stayed
in the circle,
1352
00:54:09.007 --> 00:54:12.003
and the best they could produce
was an Action Park pen.
1353
00:54:12.005 --> 00:54:14.000
- You could walk
around Action Park
1354
00:54:14.002 --> 00:54:16.022
and just see the people
with the orange spray.
1355
00:54:17.000 --> 00:54:19.013
It was like
an Action Park battle scar.
1356
00:54:20.022 --> 00:54:22.023
- Action Park
was this litmus test that--
1357
00:54:23.001 --> 00:54:24.017
it was very clear
from the time
1358
00:54:24.019 --> 00:54:26.009
I was eight or nine years old,
like, you got to go there,
1359
00:54:26.011 --> 00:54:28.000
and you got to come back
with some scars.
1360
00:54:28.002 --> 00:54:29.023
You got to go take your lumps
at Action Park
1361
00:54:30.001 --> 00:54:32.009
if you really want to be able
to kind of grow up
1362
00:54:32.011 --> 00:54:35.000
and be a young man
in this world.
1363
00:54:35.002 --> 00:54:39.000
- After a while,
the town couldn't dedicate
1364
00:54:39.002 --> 00:54:40.018
its ambulances to Action Park
1365
00:54:40.020 --> 00:54:43.003
because, you know,
Vernon was a small town,
1366
00:54:43.005 --> 00:54:45.003
and we had two
volunteer ambulance squads,
1367
00:54:45.005 --> 00:54:48.018
and Action Park would
keep them busy all day long.
1368
00:54:48.020 --> 00:54:50.016
So there was a meeting,
and, you know, the town said,
1369
00:54:50.018 --> 00:54:52.015
"Look, you got to buy
your own ambulance."
1370
00:54:52.017 --> 00:54:55.008
And they did.
They had either one or two.
1371
00:54:55.010 --> 00:54:57.023
I think at their height,
they might have had two.
1372
00:54:58.001 --> 00:55:01.010
- My wife, she worked--
she was one of the admins.
1373
00:55:01.012 --> 00:55:04.013
One of her jobs, it took her
an entire week, 40 hours.
1374
00:55:04.015 --> 00:55:07.014
She made an Excel spreadsheet
of all of the injuries
1375
00:55:07.016 --> 00:55:09.013
for one season at the park.
1376
00:55:09.015 --> 00:55:13.001
And it was a lot
of dislocated shoulders,
1377
00:55:13.003 --> 00:55:15.014
broken arms, wrists,
1378
00:55:15.016 --> 00:55:18.013
slide abrasions
from the Alpine Slide.
1379
00:55:18.015 --> 00:55:21.004
It was just a crazy,
crazy amount of injuries
1380
00:55:21.006 --> 00:55:23.000
at this place.
1381
00:55:23.002 --> 00:55:26.007
[solemn music]
1382
00:55:26.009 --> 00:55:28.001
narrator:
It's impossible to say
1383
00:55:28.003 --> 00:55:30.021
exactly how many people
were injured at Action Park.
1384
00:55:30.023 --> 00:55:32.021
The state only required
that they report
1385
00:55:32.023 --> 00:55:34.015
"serious injuries."
1386
00:55:34.017 --> 00:55:36.019
Of course, that left it
to Gene to decide
1387
00:55:36.021 --> 00:55:38.022
what he viewed as serious,
1388
00:55:39.000 --> 00:55:41.014
meaning that unless you
left the park in an ambulance,
1389
00:55:41.016 --> 00:55:45.018
it was almost certainly
not going to be reported.
1390
00:55:45.020 --> 00:55:47.012
- If the government
doesn't require you
1391
00:55:47.014 --> 00:55:49.018
to report something,
there's no way
1392
00:55:49.020 --> 00:55:51.014
that someone could determine
1393
00:55:51.016 --> 00:55:54.020
how many injuries occurred
on a daily basis.
1394
00:55:54.022 --> 00:55:57.003
And if Gene wanted
to cover that up,
1395
00:55:57.005 --> 00:55:59.011
it'd be very easy to do so.
1396
00:55:59.013 --> 00:56:02.022
[steady music]
1397
00:56:03.000 --> 00:56:05.020
narrator: Amusement parks
often embody their creators.
1398
00:56:05.022 --> 00:56:08.015
They are the personification
of some individual,
1399
00:56:08.017 --> 00:56:10.021
some auteur's worldview.
1400
00:56:10.023 --> 00:56:12.018
Walt Disney looked
at the world
1401
00:56:12.020 --> 00:56:15.006
and wanted it to resemble
turn-of-the-century America
1402
00:56:15.008 --> 00:56:17.012
with a hint of fantasy
and the Wild West.
1403
00:56:17.014 --> 00:56:19.018
And thus, you have Disneyland.
1404
00:56:19.020 --> 00:56:21.019
Gene Mulvihill had a vision
of a place
1405
00:56:21.021 --> 00:56:23.011
where there were no rules,
1406
00:56:23.013 --> 00:56:27.020
something between Ayn Rand
and "Lord of the Flies."
1407
00:56:27.022 --> 00:56:30.000
- My father wanted
to give people the freedom
1408
00:56:30.002 --> 00:56:32.017
to control the action,
to control their speed.
1409
00:56:32.019 --> 00:56:36.020
He loved to have fun,
and so the park reflected that.
1410
00:56:36.022 --> 00:56:39.015
- The way things were done
in the '80s,
1411
00:56:39.017 --> 00:56:43.008
it seems to me,
created this situation.
1412
00:56:43.010 --> 00:56:45.021
You have this sense
1413
00:56:45.023 --> 00:56:49.001
of not being bridled
1414
00:56:49.003 --> 00:56:52.008
by a federal or state
or local government
1415
00:56:52.010 --> 00:56:55.007
that's trying to keep you
from having fun.
1416
00:56:55.009 --> 00:56:58.016
So Mulvihill created
1417
00:56:58.018 --> 00:57:02.004
a business that allowed people
1418
00:57:02.006 --> 00:57:06.011
to thumb their nose
at conventional norms
1419
00:57:06.013 --> 00:57:11.013
and thumb their nose at people
who worried about danger,
1420
00:57:11.015 --> 00:57:13.010
and they put themselves
1421
00:57:13.012 --> 00:57:16.016
in the teeth
of a dangerous situation.
1422
00:57:16.018 --> 00:57:18.020
[soft dramatic music]
1423
00:57:18.022 --> 00:57:21.008
narrator: And while regulators
may have been tough
1424
00:57:21.010 --> 00:57:23.000
on other amusement parks,
1425
00:57:23.002 --> 00:57:24.021
Gene had friends
in high places,
1426
00:57:24.023 --> 00:57:26.007
and Action Park suffered
1427
00:57:26.009 --> 00:57:28.016
virtually no fines
or citations.
1428
00:57:28.018 --> 00:57:31.006
- In the Reagan years,
there was this idea
1429
00:57:31.008 --> 00:57:33.020
that people
should govern themselves,
1430
00:57:33.022 --> 00:57:35.020
that red tape got in the way
of innovation,
1431
00:57:35.022 --> 00:57:38.002
that American capitalism
was at its best
1432
00:57:38.004 --> 00:57:39.019
when it was unregulated.
1433
00:57:39.021 --> 00:57:41.003
And it's in this environment
1434
00:57:41.005 --> 00:57:44.005
that Action Park
is allowed to flourish.
1435
00:57:44.007 --> 00:57:46.000
narrator: It turns out
that Gene was friends
1436
00:57:46.002 --> 00:57:48.002
with future president
Donald Trump.
1437
00:57:48.004 --> 00:57:51.003
According to park employees,
Trump was actually very close
1438
00:57:51.005 --> 00:57:53.015
to investing in Action Park
at one point
1439
00:57:53.017 --> 00:57:55.021
and even dropped by the park
to check things out
1440
00:57:55.023 --> 00:57:57.015
and have a look around.
1441
00:57:57.017 --> 00:58:01.004
When he saw Gene's vision,
he realized it was too wild,
1442
00:58:01.006 --> 00:58:03.015
too nuts, even for him.
1443
00:58:03.017 --> 00:58:07.009
- Trump found Gene's vision
too unhinged.
1444
00:58:07.011 --> 00:58:09.021
Fuck yeah, dude.
Good for Gene.
1445
00:58:09.023 --> 00:58:13.005
narrator: So what would happen
if you sued Action Park?
1446
00:58:13.007 --> 00:58:15.017
Well, Gene would refuse
to settle.
1447
00:58:15.019 --> 00:58:19.006
He'd force you to trial
almost every single time,
1448
00:58:19.008 --> 00:58:23.007
and he'd make that trial as
long and painful as possible.
1449
00:58:23.009 --> 00:58:26.007
- Gene's philosophy was,
"We fight every case.
1450
00:58:26.009 --> 00:58:27.016
"We don't settle it.
1451
00:58:27.018 --> 00:58:29.014
We bring it all the way
to trial."
1452
00:58:29.016 --> 00:58:33.013
And we won 93% of them.
1453
00:58:33.015 --> 00:58:35.008
narrator:
Eventually word got around
1454
00:58:35.010 --> 00:58:37.003
that he wouldn't settle,
and most lawyers thought it
1455
00:58:37.005 --> 00:58:38.021
too much trouble to even try.
1456
00:58:38.023 --> 00:58:41.002
Even if you went to trial
and won,
1457
00:58:41.004 --> 00:58:42.020
Gene would simply refuse
to pay
1458
00:58:42.022 --> 00:58:44.022
unless you sent
the U.S. Marshals
1459
00:58:45.000 --> 00:58:46.017
to his door to collect,
1460
00:58:46.019 --> 00:58:49.016
something that happened
on more than one occasion.
1461
00:58:49.018 --> 00:58:51.015
- The U.S. Marshals,
the first time they showed up,
1462
00:58:51.017 --> 00:58:54.020
they surrounded
the ticket booth.
1463
00:58:54.022 --> 00:58:57.012
[chuckles] I found my way
to them pretty quickly
1464
00:58:57.014 --> 00:59:01.006
and asked them
to please not shoot me.
1465
00:59:01.008 --> 00:59:03.002
After the first time,
they would just come
1466
00:59:03.004 --> 00:59:05.013
and knock on my office and say,
"Yeah, we're here."
1467
00:59:05.015 --> 00:59:07.023
Then we'd go
to the general manager's office
1468
00:59:08.001 --> 00:59:10.019
and take care of it.
1469
00:59:10.021 --> 00:59:14.004
[ambient music]
1470
00:59:14.006 --> 00:59:18.019
narrator: Action Park
was a product of its time.
1471
00:59:18.021 --> 00:59:20.010
It was like an '80s movie,
1472
00:59:20.012 --> 00:59:23.005
an era of latchkey kids
going on adventures,
1473
00:59:23.007 --> 00:59:26.006
far from the worried eyes
of attentive parents.
1474
00:59:26.008 --> 00:59:28.019
♪ ♪
1475
00:59:28.021 --> 00:59:30.012
- That was probably
the last decade
1476
00:59:30.014 --> 00:59:34.004
of unsupervised fun for kids.
1477
00:59:34.006 --> 00:59:35.015
- There was no cell phones.
1478
00:59:35.017 --> 00:59:37.005
You know, it's like,
you wanted
1479
00:59:37.007 --> 00:59:38.016
to hang out with your buddy,
you called him up,
1480
00:59:38.018 --> 00:59:40.009
and you went over
to his house and met him.
1481
00:59:40.011 --> 00:59:42.009
You know, whosever house
you were at at lunchtime,
1482
00:59:42.011 --> 00:59:43.021
that's who fed you.
1483
00:59:43.023 --> 00:59:47.004
- We were all kids
that climbed trees.
1484
00:59:47.006 --> 00:59:49.015
We didn't come home
until after 8:00.
1485
00:59:49.017 --> 00:59:52.012
Our parents weren't even
looking for us.
1486
00:59:52.014 --> 00:59:55.022
- The '80s were
about outdoing each other,
1487
00:59:56.000 --> 00:59:57.008
about keeping up.
1488
00:59:57.010 --> 00:59:59.019
The '80s were not about,
"How are you feeling?
1489
00:59:59.021 --> 01:00:01.008
Are you afraid to do this?"
1490
01:00:01.010 --> 01:00:04.013
- Like, we would try
to die for fun.
1491
01:00:04.015 --> 01:00:06.013
We would try to die for fun.
1492
01:00:06.015 --> 01:00:08.017
When I was in high sch--
I've been in at least
1493
01:00:08.019 --> 01:00:11.005
six different abandoned
mental hospitals for fun.
1494
01:00:11.007 --> 01:00:14.010
Like, that--
no joke, in high school,
1495
01:00:14.012 --> 01:00:16.017
you can show up to school
on Monday and turn around
1496
01:00:16.019 --> 01:00:19.012
and be like, "Hey,
what'd you do this weekend?"
1497
01:00:19.014 --> 01:00:21.008
And your buddy could look
at you and be like,
1498
01:00:21.010 --> 01:00:22.017
"Oh, yeah, we went
and broke into
1499
01:00:22.019 --> 01:00:24.009
"the abandoned
mental hospital,
1500
01:00:24.011 --> 01:00:26.015
"and we went
in the tunnels underneath.
1501
01:00:26.017 --> 01:00:29.022
"Turned out, there were some
fucking skinheads down there.
1502
01:00:30.000 --> 01:00:31.012
"So they came at us,
1503
01:00:31.014 --> 01:00:33.006
so we beat up a Nazi,
and we went to a diner."
1504
01:00:33.008 --> 01:00:35.001
And they'd be like,
"What'd you do?"
1505
01:00:35.003 --> 01:00:36.013
And you'd be like, "Oh, yeah,
1506
01:00:36.015 --> 01:00:38.012
I went and visited my cousin
in Freehold."
1507
01:00:38.014 --> 01:00:42.013
And those were, like, both
totally standard things to say.
1508
01:00:42.015 --> 01:00:46.003
- You know, I can remember
being 14, 15 years old,
1509
01:00:46.005 --> 01:00:49.011
and we lived about 15 miles
from Action Park.
1510
01:00:49.013 --> 01:00:51.008
And I can remember
a bunch of us,
1511
01:00:51.010 --> 01:00:52.023
unbeknownst to our parents,
1512
01:00:53.001 --> 01:00:56.001
jumping on our bicycles
and riding to Action Park,
1513
01:00:56.003 --> 01:00:59.014
spending the day there, and
then riding our bicycles back.
1514
01:00:59.016 --> 01:01:01.005
Parents never know.
1515
01:01:01.007 --> 01:01:03.022
I would beat my kid's ass
if I ever found out. [chuckles]
1516
01:01:04.000 --> 01:01:09.015
♪ ♪
1517
01:01:09.017 --> 01:01:14.003
- Looking back on Action Park
with grown-up eyes,
1518
01:01:14.005 --> 01:01:15.013
Gene wanted to make sure
1519
01:01:15.015 --> 01:01:17.002
everybody was having
a good time.
1520
01:01:17.004 --> 01:01:19.020
And it probably wasn't
the best idea
1521
01:01:19.022 --> 01:01:24.002
to have, you know, a place
where you controlled the action
1522
01:01:24.004 --> 01:01:27.010
and a place
where kids were in charge.
1523
01:01:27.012 --> 01:01:30.007
It was scary.
It was dangerous.
1524
01:01:31.005 --> 01:01:33.003
- An amusement park
is designed
1525
01:01:33.005 --> 01:01:38.010
to look like a kind of place
that it isn't.
1526
01:01:38.012 --> 01:01:41.011
It's meant to look dangerous,
but it isn't.
1527
01:01:41.013 --> 01:01:44.013
Its artifice is baked
into the story,
1528
01:01:44.015 --> 01:01:46.014
and you're told that
from when you're very young.
1529
01:01:46.016 --> 01:01:49.001
"Go on the thrill ride.
It's a thrill."
1530
01:01:49.003 --> 01:01:51.010
But it's not really going
to fall apart.
1531
01:01:51.012 --> 01:01:53.023
It's not really going
to kill you.
1532
01:01:54.001 --> 01:01:57.008
But Action Park
was truly dangerous.
1533
01:01:57.010 --> 01:02:01.007
♪ ♪
1534
01:02:01.009 --> 01:02:02.018
- A lot of places you go to,
1535
01:02:02.020 --> 01:02:04.023
unless the ride
catastrophically fails,
1536
01:02:05.001 --> 01:02:07.011
no matter how scared you feel,
you're not gonna get hurt.
1537
01:02:07.013 --> 01:02:09.004
Action Park was not like that.
1538
01:02:09.006 --> 01:02:10.023
If you wanted
to push the boundaries,
1539
01:02:11.001 --> 01:02:14.015
you could get hurt, and,
you know, it certainly became
1540
01:02:14.017 --> 01:02:17.013
a competition between friends
to see who could push it
1541
01:02:17.015 --> 01:02:19.006
a little bit more,
a little bit more.
1542
01:02:19.008 --> 01:02:21.018
And then if you got hurt,
you know, if it wasn't serious,
1543
01:02:21.020 --> 01:02:23.013
it was almost like
a battle scar.
1544
01:02:23.015 --> 01:02:25.023
[no audible dialogue]
1545
01:02:26.001 --> 01:02:29.011
- The magic and the horror
of Action Park
1546
01:02:29.013 --> 01:02:33.011
is that you can go there
expecting a great time,
1547
01:02:33.013 --> 01:02:35.022
expecting fantastic memories,
1548
01:02:36.000 --> 01:02:40.002
and you can leave
with those exact things,
1549
01:02:40.004 --> 01:02:43.011
or you can leave
in a body bag.
1550
01:02:43.013 --> 01:02:47.010
And you didn't know
which it was going to be.
1551
01:02:47.012 --> 01:02:50.015
[dramatic music]
1552
01:02:50.017 --> 01:02:53.019
- I would say probably
the most pleasant named ride
1553
01:02:53.021 --> 01:02:56.002
at Action Park,
the Kayak Experience.
1554
01:02:56.004 --> 01:02:57.019
But I later came to learn that
1555
01:02:57.021 --> 01:03:01.004
that is the one where someone
was electrocuted to death.
1556
01:03:02.006 --> 01:03:05.016
- There were underwater fans
that would help push the water
1557
01:03:05.018 --> 01:03:08.022
and created rapids,
like you were kayaking.
1558
01:03:09.000 --> 01:03:11.008
And somebody flipped
out of one of their kayaks,
1559
01:03:11.010 --> 01:03:13.013
and one of these fans
short-circuited,
1560
01:03:13.015 --> 01:03:16.014
and they either touched it
or were close enough to it,
1561
01:03:16.016 --> 01:03:19.021
and they got electrocuted.
1562
01:03:19.023 --> 01:03:23.019
- Negligence doesn't begin
to even capture
1563
01:03:23.021 --> 01:03:25.007
that particular death.
1564
01:03:25.009 --> 01:03:27.006
Ungrounded electricity
in a water park,
1565
01:03:27.008 --> 01:03:29.005
that's the Kayak Experience.
1566
01:03:29.007 --> 01:03:31.018
[chuckles]
The Kayak Experience.
1567
01:03:31.020 --> 01:03:38.005
♪ ♪
1568
01:03:39.012 --> 01:03:41.016
- I knew better than to go
on any rides at Action Park.
1569
01:03:41.018 --> 01:03:44.006
I saw people get hurt
on every ride in the park,
1570
01:03:44.008 --> 01:03:47.001
and I was like, "I don't
want any part of this."
1571
01:03:47.003 --> 01:03:49.013
I had a stack of comp passes
to give out to people
1572
01:03:49.015 --> 01:03:51.001
that was probably
six inches thick.
1573
01:03:51.003 --> 01:03:52.019
There were hundreds of them.
1574
01:03:52.021 --> 01:03:54.010
So if something went wrong,
somebody got something stolen,
1575
01:03:54.012 --> 01:03:56.002
I would give them
complimentary passes.
1576
01:03:56.004 --> 01:03:59.018
I never gave one to a friend.
People got hurt there.
1577
01:03:59.020 --> 01:04:02.011
- When shit got real
at Action Park,
1578
01:04:02.013 --> 01:04:05.023
the, like, golf cart,
Cushman first aid thing
1579
01:04:06.001 --> 01:04:08.004
would roll by,
and there'd be somebody,
1580
01:04:08.006 --> 01:04:11.006
like, completely immobilized
on that thing,
1581
01:04:11.008 --> 01:04:13.022
you know, with the backboard
and the neck brace
1582
01:04:14.000 --> 01:04:16.002
and the pads on the sides
of their head.
1583
01:04:16.004 --> 01:04:17.022
And you'd talk
to the first aid guys,
1584
01:04:18.000 --> 01:04:20.015
they'd be like, "Oh, yeah,
he got medevaced to Morristown.
1585
01:04:20.017 --> 01:04:22.023
"He had a fractured vertebrae
1586
01:04:23.001 --> 01:04:24.023
in his neck
from hitting his head."
1587
01:04:25.001 --> 01:04:27.007
I'm like, "Holy shit.
Are you kidding?"
1588
01:04:27.009 --> 01:04:30.011
And that's when I started
to realize, it's like,
1589
01:04:30.013 --> 01:04:32.002
this place is dangerous.
1590
01:04:32.004 --> 01:04:34.002
[indistinct chatter]
1591
01:04:34.004 --> 01:04:36.020
[serious music]
1592
01:04:36.022 --> 01:04:38.009
- When I think back
to the Wave Pool,
1593
01:04:38.011 --> 01:04:40.011
I remember being excited
to go in it
1594
01:04:40.013 --> 01:04:42.022
and, even as a young kid,
walking up and going, like,
1595
01:04:43.000 --> 01:04:45.019
"Oh, no fucking way.
This is nuts. This is"--
1596
01:04:45.021 --> 01:04:48.011
I mean, shoulder-to-shoulder
human beings
1597
01:04:48.013 --> 01:04:52.017
in a wave pool that was
far too violent and powerful.
1598
01:04:52.019 --> 01:04:55.007
- If you go to the beach,
that water is buoyant.
1599
01:04:55.009 --> 01:04:57.014
So when the waves come in,
you go up,
1600
01:04:57.016 --> 01:04:59.018
and when the waves go down,
you go down.
1601
01:04:59.020 --> 01:05:02.017
But a freshwater pool
doesn't do that.
1602
01:05:02.019 --> 01:05:05.009
- We'd often have people
that would jump into the water
1603
01:05:05.011 --> 01:05:06.020
that didn't know how to swim.
1604
01:05:06.022 --> 01:05:08.015
I can't tell you
how many times someone
1605
01:05:08.017 --> 01:05:11.000
would come up to me and say,
"Sir, how deep is that water?"
1606
01:05:11.002 --> 01:05:12.013
And I wouldn't even tell them
how many feet.
1607
01:05:12.015 --> 01:05:13.022
I'd say, "It's over your head."
1608
01:05:14.000 --> 01:05:15.015
I'd turn around,
and they would jump in.
1609
01:05:15.017 --> 01:05:17.022
- When people got
to shoulder-height depth,
1610
01:05:18.000 --> 01:05:20.021
we called that area
"the death zone."
1611
01:05:21.000 --> 01:05:22.013
Panic would set in,
1612
01:05:22.015 --> 01:05:25.008
and they'd grab everybody
and anybody around them.
1613
01:05:25.010 --> 01:05:27.011
And I've seen
literally families
1614
01:05:27.013 --> 01:05:32.003
of 8, 10, or 12 people
taking each other down.
1615
01:05:32.005 --> 01:05:34.013
- The guards at--we used
to call it "the grave pool."
1616
01:05:34.015 --> 01:05:36.000
The guards at the grave pool,
1617
01:05:36.002 --> 01:05:38.005
they couldn't relax
for a second.
1618
01:05:38.007 --> 01:05:39.020
- To break a new lifeguard in,
1619
01:05:39.022 --> 01:05:42.008
they'd be assigned to
the death chair, and that was
1620
01:05:42.010 --> 01:05:45.014
the lifeguard stand
that overlooked the death zone
1621
01:05:45.016 --> 01:05:47.005
on the Wave Pool.
1622
01:05:47.007 --> 01:05:49.006
And literally their first
30 minutes to 45 minutes
1623
01:05:49.008 --> 01:05:52.023
sitting in the death chair,
that new lifeguard would save
1624
01:05:53.001 --> 01:05:55.000
three to four to five people.
1625
01:05:55.002 --> 01:05:57.022
People thought that drowning
at the Action Park Wave Pool
1626
01:05:58.000 --> 01:05:59.007
was part of the ride.
1627
01:05:59.009 --> 01:06:01.003
They thought it was part
of the experience.
1628
01:06:01.005 --> 01:06:04.014
They expected to drown
at the Action Park Wave Pool.
1629
01:06:05.021 --> 01:06:07.005
narrator:
Lifeguards at the Wave Pool
1630
01:06:07.007 --> 01:06:08.022
had their hands full.
1631
01:06:09.000 --> 01:06:10.017
The water was murky enough
that bodies often
1632
01:06:10.019 --> 01:06:13.004
couldn't be spotted
below the surface.
1633
01:06:13.006 --> 01:06:14.018
The culprit?
1634
01:06:14.020 --> 01:06:17.013
A mixture of muddy runoff
from a nearby hill,
1635
01:06:17.015 --> 01:06:20.007
human waste, suntan lotion,
1636
01:06:20.009 --> 01:06:23.001
and gore from open wounds.
1637
01:06:23.003 --> 01:06:25.000
- That was one of the reasons
they used to stop the thing
1638
01:06:25.002 --> 01:06:27.003
every so many minutes,
so they could scan the bottom
1639
01:06:27.005 --> 01:06:28.016
and make sure there wasn't
any bodies there
1640
01:06:28.018 --> 01:06:30.012
that they had missed.
1641
01:06:30.014 --> 01:06:33.002
Those guys did a great job,
but it's hard to see.
1642
01:06:33.004 --> 01:06:35.001
And this guy went down,
1643
01:06:35.003 --> 01:06:38.004
and by the time they found him,
it was too late.
1644
01:06:41.011 --> 01:06:42.022
- When you're a kid,
1645
01:06:43.000 --> 01:06:45.007
I think you can separate
yourself from it,
1646
01:06:45.009 --> 01:06:47.011
because I didn't work
in that department.
1647
01:06:47.013 --> 01:06:48.019
[laughs] I thought,
1648
01:06:48.021 --> 01:06:52.012
"That's somebody else's
responsibility."
1649
01:06:52.014 --> 01:06:54.009
But it was a common occurrence.
1650
01:06:54.011 --> 01:06:56.018
I don't know how many people
died at Action Park,
1651
01:06:56.020 --> 01:06:59.010
but it wasn't just one person.
1652
01:06:59.012 --> 01:07:01.013
- The fact
that more than one person
1653
01:07:01.015 --> 01:07:03.011
died in your Wave Pool--
1654
01:07:03.013 --> 01:07:05.006
who's that second
son of a bitch?
1655
01:07:05.008 --> 01:07:07.022
That's who your heart
really bleeds for.
1656
01:07:08.000 --> 01:07:09.018
Nobody should ever be
1657
01:07:09.020 --> 01:07:11.018
the second person to die
in a wave pool.
1658
01:07:11.020 --> 01:07:13.010
You know why?
'Cause after the first person
1659
01:07:13.012 --> 01:07:17.005
dies in a wave pool,
close the fucking wave pool.
1660
01:07:17.007 --> 01:07:20.015
Put up a fucking sign
or something, man.
1661
01:07:20.017 --> 01:07:24.002
- It was a place
where death was tolerated,
1662
01:07:24.004 --> 01:07:28.002
where death was put right into
the number situation.
1663
01:07:28.004 --> 01:07:31.003
"Oh, we've only had
this many die."
1664
01:07:31.005 --> 01:07:33.009
One is too many.
1665
01:07:33.011 --> 01:07:36.009
[ambient music]
1666
01:07:36.011 --> 01:07:38.011
♪ ♪
1667
01:07:38.013 --> 01:07:42.002
My firstborn was Georgie.
1668
01:07:42.004 --> 01:07:45.017
He was actually born
on Christmas night
1669
01:07:45.019 --> 01:07:47.007
in 1960,
1670
01:07:47.009 --> 01:07:50.016
but he was delivered
right after midnight,
1671
01:07:50.018 --> 01:07:53.014
so he wasn't
the Christmas baby.
1672
01:07:53.016 --> 01:07:56.019
We were just so thrilled
to have him.
1673
01:07:56.021 --> 01:08:00.013
Just to look at his little
face, it was wonderful.
1674
01:08:00.015 --> 01:08:02.003
And then 11 months later,
1675
01:08:02.005 --> 01:08:04.016
we had our second child,
Brian.
1676
01:08:04.018 --> 01:08:07.014
- My brother and I were
basically raised as twins.
1677
01:08:07.016 --> 01:08:10.013
My dad would actually say
that we were twins
1678
01:08:10.015 --> 01:08:12.014
so we could play
on the same football team.
1679
01:08:12.016 --> 01:08:15.023
We did everything together.
It didn't matter what we did.
1680
01:08:16.001 --> 01:08:18.019
We were like the kids
on "The Sandlot."
1681
01:08:18.021 --> 01:08:21.005
- Georgie was
very, very popular.
1682
01:08:21.007 --> 01:08:24.004
He had many, many friends.
1683
01:08:24.006 --> 01:08:26.000
- My brother George
was a handsome guy.
1684
01:08:26.002 --> 01:08:28.017
My brother George felt
like he was invincible.
1685
01:08:28.019 --> 01:08:31.005
And our whole family thought
my brother was invincible
1686
01:08:31.007 --> 01:08:34.019
because of how strong we were.
1687
01:08:34.021 --> 01:08:37.016
On July 8, 1980,
my brother George
1688
01:08:37.018 --> 01:08:40.015
was supposed to be working
with my dad and I.
1689
01:08:40.017 --> 01:08:43.020
- He wanted to go
to Action Park,
1690
01:08:43.022 --> 01:08:46.012
so I loaned him the money
in the afternoon,
1691
01:08:46.014 --> 01:08:49.018
and a friend of his
went over there to meet him.
1692
01:08:49.020 --> 01:08:53.017
And they were just going
to have fun that day.
1693
01:08:53.019 --> 01:08:56.022
- He goes
onto the Alpine Slide,
1694
01:08:57.000 --> 01:08:59.007
and he's going
down the hillside,
1695
01:08:59.009 --> 01:09:03.008
and the cart brake,
I don't believe, was working.
1696
01:09:03.010 --> 01:09:05.004
And he went off the track
1697
01:09:05.006 --> 01:09:09.010
and flipping down the hillside
and into some rocks
1698
01:09:09.012 --> 01:09:11.021
and hit his head on rocks.
1699
01:09:11.023 --> 01:09:13.013
- And I had a phone call.
1700
01:09:13.015 --> 01:09:15.017
I'll never forget it.
I was sitting at home.
1701
01:09:15.019 --> 01:09:18.000
I was looking forward
to watching a movie.
1702
01:09:18.002 --> 01:09:20.001
They said,
"Your son has been injured.
1703
01:09:20.003 --> 01:09:21.018
He's in the trauma center."
1704
01:09:21.020 --> 01:09:24.007
And they told me
that what I had to do
1705
01:09:24.009 --> 01:09:26.023
was get a neighbor
or somebody to bring me,
1706
01:09:27.001 --> 01:09:30.020
because my husband was
on a sales call that night.
1707
01:09:30.022 --> 01:09:33.018
- My dad got the phone call
while we're working
1708
01:09:33.020 --> 01:09:35.014
about my brother being hurt.
1709
01:09:35.016 --> 01:09:38.018
Stopped working immediately
1710
01:09:38.020 --> 01:09:40.015
and went to go see my brother.
1711
01:09:40.017 --> 01:09:43.007
- I just didn't think
it was any big deal
1712
01:09:43.009 --> 01:09:46.014
because he was so athletic.
1713
01:09:46.016 --> 01:09:50.006
And I thought scrapes
or bumps or something,
1714
01:09:50.008 --> 01:09:51.017
maybe a cut,
1715
01:09:51.019 --> 01:09:55.010
but I had no idea
how awful it was.
1716
01:09:55.012 --> 01:09:57.012
When we got to that hospital,
1717
01:09:57.014 --> 01:10:01.009
he had been moved
to another hospital,
1718
01:10:01.011 --> 01:10:03.014
and I saw the bed
that he had been in.
1719
01:10:03.016 --> 01:10:06.002
There was blood
all over the pillowcase,
1720
01:10:06.004 --> 01:10:07.023
all over everything.
1721
01:10:08.001 --> 01:10:11.000
- When I first saw my brother,
I knew he was hurt bad.
1722
01:10:11.002 --> 01:10:13.003
I just knew real bad.
[cries softly]
1723
01:10:13.005 --> 01:10:15.011
They were checking
for brain waves
1724
01:10:15.013 --> 01:10:19.015
to make--to see
if he still had brain waves.
1725
01:10:19.017 --> 01:10:23.002
And not only once, obviously
two times or three times--
1726
01:10:23.004 --> 01:10:25.011
multiple times to make sure,
1727
01:10:25.013 --> 01:10:29.001
to see if he's with it
or not with it.
1728
01:10:29.003 --> 01:10:31.015
- There was no sign
that he was going to wake up,
1729
01:10:31.017 --> 01:10:33.021
and we just kept
talking to him.
1730
01:10:33.023 --> 01:10:38.017
Dr. Houser, who was
my brother-in-law's brother,
1731
01:10:38.019 --> 01:10:41.006
came in from Connecticut
just to be with us.
1732
01:10:41.008 --> 01:10:43.022
And he checked him out
thoroughly too,
1733
01:10:44.000 --> 01:10:46.005
and he said, "No."
1734
01:10:47.009 --> 01:10:52.007
- On July 16, 1980,
he passed away.
1735
01:10:52.009 --> 01:10:54.015
- I remember that moment
very, very well.
1736
01:10:54.017 --> 01:10:56.015
I went out
to the waiting room,
1737
01:10:56.017 --> 01:10:58.004
and my husband was with me,
1738
01:10:58.006 --> 01:11:01.000
and we told our other children
that he had died.
1739
01:11:01.002 --> 01:11:04.016
My daughter ran down
the hallway screaming,
1740
01:11:04.018 --> 01:11:06.006
and everybody was crying,
1741
01:11:06.008 --> 01:11:09.018
and it was, like,
not believable.
1742
01:11:09.020 --> 01:11:12.020
So we went to the rectory
that night,
1743
01:11:12.022 --> 01:11:15.010
and then on the way--
I hate to say this--
1744
01:11:15.012 --> 01:11:20.005
but on the way back
to the hospital...
1745
01:11:20.007 --> 01:11:22.012
we were--walked
across the street,
1746
01:11:22.014 --> 01:11:26.006
and I deliberately walked out
in front of a truck.
1747
01:11:26.008 --> 01:11:29.020
And at that point,
my husband pulled me back,
1748
01:11:29.022 --> 01:11:33.001
and he just screamed at me,
"What are you thinking?"
1749
01:11:33.003 --> 01:11:36.013
I was thinking I couldn't live
with that kind of pain.
1750
01:11:36.015 --> 01:11:39.003
It just hurt so much.
1751
01:11:39.005 --> 01:11:41.014
And here, 39 years later,
1752
01:11:41.016 --> 01:11:45.003
I can still feel that pain.
1753
01:11:45.005 --> 01:11:46.015
- My brother George
1754
01:11:46.017 --> 01:11:49.015
was supposed to be
best man at my wedding.
1755
01:11:49.017 --> 01:11:53.001
My wedding was gonna be
July 20, 1980.
1756
01:11:53.003 --> 01:11:54.022
He died on the 16th.
1757
01:11:55.000 --> 01:11:58.017
And I had to have
my other brother as best man,
1758
01:11:58.019 --> 01:12:02.003
and everything was in a cloud.
1759
01:12:02.005 --> 01:12:05.000
- Gene Mulvihill
never called us
1760
01:12:05.002 --> 01:12:07.009
and never called the hospital.
1761
01:12:07.011 --> 01:12:08.018
He had no heart.
1762
01:12:08.020 --> 01:12:13.000
He cared about himself
and the almighty dollar.
1763
01:12:13.002 --> 01:12:17.001
- In the investigation
of George Larsson's death,
1764
01:12:17.003 --> 01:12:21.002
the spokesperson for the park
claims that
1765
01:12:21.004 --> 01:12:24.000
the alpine ride
didn't kill him,
1766
01:12:24.002 --> 01:12:27.002
that the rock his head hit
killed him,
1767
01:12:27.004 --> 01:12:28.013
and therefore,
1768
01:12:28.015 --> 01:12:31.014
the Alpine ride was safe.
1769
01:12:31.016 --> 01:12:36.006
The newspapers were told that
George Larsson was an employee,
1770
01:12:36.008 --> 01:12:39.003
that this happened at night,
and that it was raining.
1771
01:12:39.005 --> 01:12:42.020
He wasn't an employee,
it wasn't at night,
1772
01:12:42.022 --> 01:12:45.007
and it wasn't raining.
1773
01:12:46.015 --> 01:12:48.002
narrator:
The truth was,
1774
01:12:48.004 --> 01:12:49.015
while Larsson worked
as a lift operator
1775
01:12:49.017 --> 01:12:51.008
at the park's
sister ski resort
1776
01:12:51.010 --> 01:12:52.021
during a prior season,
1777
01:12:52.023 --> 01:12:54.019
he never worked at Action Park
1778
01:12:54.021 --> 01:12:58.018
and indeed entered the park
during normal business hours.
1779
01:12:58.020 --> 01:13:00.023
One likely reason
for the lie:
1780
01:13:01.001 --> 01:13:04.005
the park never reported
his death to the state,
1781
01:13:04.007 --> 01:13:06.015
dubiously claiming
they didn't need to
1782
01:13:06.017 --> 01:13:10.021
because he wasn't part
of the general public.
1783
01:13:10.023 --> 01:13:12.019
- The state of New Jersey
1784
01:13:12.021 --> 01:13:15.006
had told them
that they could not open
1785
01:13:15.008 --> 01:13:17.015
for the Fourth of July.
1786
01:13:17.017 --> 01:13:20.003
And they wanted to open
for the Fourth of July,
1787
01:13:20.005 --> 01:13:22.003
but they never
removed the rocks
1788
01:13:22.005 --> 01:13:24.004
that they were told to remove.
1789
01:13:24.006 --> 01:13:26.018
And when my son
went on that ride,
1790
01:13:26.020 --> 01:13:31.009
the car flipped him off,
and his head hit the rocks.
1791
01:13:31.011 --> 01:13:34.015
The newspapers were taking
Gene Mulvihill's side.
1792
01:13:34.017 --> 01:13:38.010
They believed his story,
and they printed it.
1793
01:13:38.012 --> 01:13:40.019
Gene lied about my son's death
1794
01:13:40.021 --> 01:13:44.000
because he had
fake liability insurance
1795
01:13:44.002 --> 01:13:45.008
in the Cayman Islands.
1796
01:13:45.010 --> 01:13:47.020
Fake.
It was fake.
1797
01:13:47.022 --> 01:13:49.020
- Anyone that sues the park,
1798
01:13:49.022 --> 01:13:51.014
if there's not
proper insurance,
1799
01:13:51.016 --> 01:13:54.012
is gonna walk away
with not a whole lot of money.
1800
01:13:54.014 --> 01:13:57.004
That's the bottom line.
1801
01:13:57.006 --> 01:13:59.019
- We never even got
to go to court
1802
01:13:59.021 --> 01:14:03.002
because we were told
by our attorney
1803
01:14:03.004 --> 01:14:05.020
that a teenager
isn't worth much money.
1804
01:14:05.022 --> 01:14:08.001
He's a liability
to the family,
1805
01:14:08.003 --> 01:14:12.001
and you can't expect to settle
for very much money.
1806
01:14:12.003 --> 01:14:16.001
We eventually settled
for $100,000.
1807
01:14:21.020 --> 01:14:24.019
[solemn music]
1808
01:14:24.021 --> 01:14:26.012
♪ ♪
1809
01:14:26.014 --> 01:14:30.002
narrator: George Larsson's
death happened in 1980.
1810
01:14:30.004 --> 01:14:33.002
He was the first person
to lose his life at the park,
1811
01:14:33.004 --> 01:14:35.015
but he would not be the last.
1812
01:14:37.003 --> 01:14:38.018
In July 1982,
1813
01:14:38.020 --> 01:14:42.009
a 15-year-old from Brooklyn
drowned in the Wave Pool.
1814
01:14:42.011 --> 01:14:45.021
A week later, a 27-year-old
man from Long Island
1815
01:14:45.023 --> 01:14:48.017
was electrocuted
on the kayak simulator.
1816
01:14:48.019 --> 01:14:53.014
In 1984, a guest drowned
in the Roaring Springs area.
1817
01:14:54.020 --> 01:14:59.009
And in 1987, the Wave Pool
claimed yet another life.
1818
01:14:59.011 --> 01:15:03.004
♪ ♪
1819
01:15:03.006 --> 01:15:07.004
- The thing about Action Park
is, Action Park becomes
1820
01:15:07.006 --> 01:15:10.001
a huge part
of the local economy.
1821
01:15:10.003 --> 01:15:15.001
And if Action Park
creates revenue taxwise,
1822
01:15:15.003 --> 01:15:19.004
creates revenue for other
stores when people come in,
1823
01:15:19.006 --> 01:15:22.005
the city and the folks there
1824
01:15:22.007 --> 01:15:25.005
are gonna take
a much more friendly look
1825
01:15:25.007 --> 01:15:27.017
at that operation
if it's making money.
1826
01:15:27.019 --> 01:15:30.003
- How many hundreds of people
had jobs, you know,
1827
01:15:30.005 --> 01:15:33.012
between, like, those lifeguards
and the concession stands
1828
01:15:33.014 --> 01:15:35.016
and the ticket takers
and the janitors
1829
01:15:35.018 --> 01:15:37.007
and the support staff?
1830
01:15:37.009 --> 01:15:40.004
Like, that's a few hundred
jobs for your town.
1831
01:15:40.006 --> 01:15:43.006
I would think there might have
been a town councilman or two
1832
01:15:43.008 --> 01:15:45.002
who was willing
to look the other way
1833
01:15:45.004 --> 01:15:47.006
to keep the money faucet
turned on.
1834
01:15:47.008 --> 01:15:48.017
- Some of the town officials
1835
01:15:48.019 --> 01:15:50.020
were clearly on Gene's payroll,
absolutely.
1836
01:15:50.022 --> 01:15:53.022
They worked in his restaurants,
in his bars.
1837
01:15:54.000 --> 01:15:55.014
They worked in Action Park.
1838
01:15:55.016 --> 01:15:58.002
Their children worked
for the resort.
1839
01:15:58.004 --> 01:16:02.017
There were elected officials
that he bought homes for.
1840
01:16:02.019 --> 01:16:05.022
That there are
local town officials,
1841
01:16:06.000 --> 01:16:07.022
chairpersons
of our planning boards,
1842
01:16:08.000 --> 01:16:12.012
our zoning boards who had
free memberships to the spa,
1843
01:16:12.014 --> 01:16:15.017
free season passes
and that type of thing.
1844
01:16:15.019 --> 01:16:18.009
It's not always about being
on the payroll.
1845
01:16:18.011 --> 01:16:22.007
I think it was always about,
"What could I get from Gene?"
1846
01:16:22.009 --> 01:16:25.005
And Gene knew that,
and he played that.
1847
01:16:25.007 --> 01:16:27.020
And that's
why Gene Mulvihill got away
1848
01:16:27.022 --> 01:16:30.012
with as much
as he got away with.
1849
01:16:32.003 --> 01:16:35.001
- Gene was so much larger
than life than you can imagine,
1850
01:16:35.003 --> 01:16:38.016
and there's things about Gene
that I will not tell anybody,
1851
01:16:38.018 --> 01:16:40.008
and we'll just leave it
at that.
1852
01:16:40.010 --> 01:16:42.008
- When I went back
to work for Gene again,
1853
01:16:42.010 --> 01:16:43.021
after years away,
1854
01:16:43.023 --> 01:16:45.019
the first thing he said to me
when I saw him was...
1855
01:16:45.021 --> 01:16:47.011
[as Gene]
"It's great to have you back.
1856
01:16:47.013 --> 01:16:51.007
I mean, you know where
all the bodies are buried."
1857
01:16:51.009 --> 01:16:54.017
- I believe
that the people in Vernon
1858
01:16:54.019 --> 01:16:56.013
turned a blind eye to it.
1859
01:16:56.015 --> 01:16:59.012
They didn't want to know
anything negative about it.
1860
01:16:59.014 --> 01:17:02.008
I think they thought
that there would be
1861
01:17:02.010 --> 01:17:05.007
repercussions
from Gene Mulvihill
1862
01:17:05.009 --> 01:17:08.012
or that Gene Mulvihill
was telling the truth.
1863
01:17:08.014 --> 01:17:10.012
He's a very good liar.
1864
01:17:10.014 --> 01:17:12.008
- I think he made that
very clear,
1865
01:17:12.010 --> 01:17:15.021
especially when he started
into a business relationship,
1866
01:17:15.023 --> 01:17:19.002
that crossing him
was not a good idea.
1867
01:17:19.004 --> 01:17:21.010
- Let me put it this way:
when I got fired
1868
01:17:21.012 --> 01:17:24.002
from the local newspaper
as its editor
1869
01:17:24.004 --> 01:17:27.001
because of Gene contacting
1870
01:17:27.003 --> 01:17:29.009
my boss, my publisher,
1871
01:17:29.011 --> 01:17:33.013
he told me point-blank
in a phone conversation
1872
01:17:33.015 --> 01:17:36.020
that he was threatened
by the local officials
1873
01:17:36.022 --> 01:17:40.014
that if he didn't go to my boss
and get me fired,
1874
01:17:40.016 --> 01:17:44.016
they were not going to approve
his projects anymore.
1875
01:18:37.016 --> 01:18:40.006
- I have heard a lot of stories
1876
01:18:40.008 --> 01:18:43.015
that Gene was involved
with mob associates.
1877
01:18:43.017 --> 01:18:46.001
[somber music]
1878
01:18:46.003 --> 01:18:50.005
Around 1993, I filed a lawsuit
1879
01:18:50.007 --> 01:18:54.006
for defamation
and wrongful discharge.
1880
01:18:54.008 --> 01:18:56.012
And I deposed him.
1881
01:18:56.014 --> 01:18:59.015
And he came to the deposition,
1882
01:18:59.017 --> 01:19:02.019
and every answer
to every question was,
1883
01:19:02.021 --> 01:19:05.019
"I don't recall.
I don't remember."
1884
01:19:05.021 --> 01:19:09.003
He didn't answer
one single question.
1885
01:19:09.005 --> 01:19:10.020
And I was so upset with him
1886
01:19:10.022 --> 01:19:14.018
that as we were leaving
that deposition,
1887
01:19:14.020 --> 01:19:17.010
I'll never forget
what I said to him.
1888
01:19:17.012 --> 01:19:20.018
I said,
"You, Gene, are a lowlife."
1889
01:19:20.020 --> 01:19:23.011
I said, "I don't care
how much money you have
1890
01:19:23.013 --> 01:19:25.000
"in this lifetime.
1891
01:19:25.002 --> 01:19:29.003
You are a lowlife for what
you did to me here today."
1892
01:19:29.005 --> 01:19:30.022
♪ ♪
1893
01:19:31.000 --> 01:19:34.014
narrator: By the mid-1990s,
things began to change.
1894
01:19:34.016 --> 01:19:36.023
As the bad press
and lawsuits mounted,
1895
01:19:37.001 --> 01:19:39.012
attendance dropped,
and Gene found it harder
1896
01:19:39.014 --> 01:19:42.001
to move money around
and cover the bills.
1897
01:19:42.003 --> 01:19:44.005
The park hit
another turning point
1898
01:19:44.007 --> 01:19:46.002
when Gene's friend Bob Brennan
1899
01:19:46.004 --> 01:19:48.016
finally faced a reckoning
with the SEC
1900
01:19:48.018 --> 01:19:50.021
after years
of committing fraud.
1901
01:19:50.023 --> 01:19:53.017
Soon after that,
Brennan was found guilty
1902
01:19:53.019 --> 01:19:56.017
of money laundering
and bankruptcy fraud,
1903
01:19:56.019 --> 01:19:59.017
landing him in prison
for almost ten years,
1904
01:19:59.019 --> 01:20:02.014
meaning Gene's
never-ending spigot of cash
1905
01:20:02.016 --> 01:20:04.021
dried up as well.
1906
01:20:04.023 --> 01:20:08.001
Before long, Action Park's
parent company
1907
01:20:08.003 --> 01:20:09.021
had to declare bankruptcy.
1908
01:20:09.023 --> 01:20:11.019
And when the park
shut its gates
1909
01:20:11.021 --> 01:20:14.016
at the end of the 1996
summer season,
1910
01:20:14.018 --> 01:20:18.013
it soon became clear
that it would be its last.
1911
01:20:18.015 --> 01:20:20.005
- I think it ran its course.
1912
01:20:20.007 --> 01:20:23.016
I think, like anything else,
people grew wise to it
1913
01:20:23.018 --> 01:20:26.006
and people grew weary of it
and people moved on from it.
1914
01:20:26.008 --> 01:20:28.022
Plus, the whole
legal environment did a 180.
1915
01:20:29.000 --> 01:20:30.013
And New Jersey
was the Wild West
1916
01:20:30.015 --> 01:20:32.005
when Action Park opened,
1917
01:20:32.007 --> 01:20:33.016
and by the time it closed,
1918
01:20:33.018 --> 01:20:35.018
it was not
the Wild West anymore.
1919
01:20:35.020 --> 01:20:37.012
- The people's mindset
changed.
1920
01:20:37.014 --> 01:20:41.008
They weren't willing
to take the unbridled risks
1921
01:20:41.010 --> 01:20:45.002
associated with the way it was
in the '80s.
1922
01:20:45.004 --> 01:20:47.009
That just wasn't
acceptable anymore.
1923
01:20:47.011 --> 01:20:50.007
Its time came and went.
1924
01:20:52.005 --> 01:20:55.004
[soft dramatic music]
1925
01:20:55.006 --> 01:21:01.016
♪ ♪
1926
01:21:01.018 --> 01:21:04.018
narrator: In 1998,
Action Park was purchased
1927
01:21:04.020 --> 01:21:06.015
by resort giant Intrawest,
1928
01:21:06.017 --> 01:21:10.005
the multinational corporation
behind Whistler Mountain.
1929
01:21:10.007 --> 01:21:14.003
The new owners stripped out
most of the park's attractions
1930
01:21:14.005 --> 01:21:16.011
and renamed it Mountain Creek.
1931
01:21:16.013 --> 01:21:21.004
Gone were the looping tubes
and fireball-shooting tanks.
1932
01:21:21.006 --> 01:21:23.005
Without Gene's vision
leading the way,
1933
01:21:23.007 --> 01:21:26.021
it became a generic
regional water park.
1934
01:21:26.023 --> 01:21:30.005
Action Park as we knew it
was gone.
1935
01:21:30.007 --> 01:21:32.015
♪ ♪
1936
01:21:32.017 --> 01:21:35.013
- One day
after I came home from work,
1937
01:21:35.015 --> 01:21:37.002
I walked into the house,
1938
01:21:37.004 --> 01:21:39.003
and my husband, George,
said to me,
1939
01:21:39.005 --> 01:21:42.013
"Esther, get out the best
bottle of red wine you have.
1940
01:21:42.015 --> 01:21:44.000
We're gonna celebrate."
1941
01:21:44.002 --> 01:21:45.023
And I said, "What are we going
to celebrate?"
1942
01:21:46.001 --> 01:21:48.023
And he said,
"Gene Mulvihill died."
1943
01:21:49.001 --> 01:21:50.011
And we did.
1944
01:21:50.013 --> 01:21:53.006
He's the only person
that we celebrated his death.
1945
01:21:53.008 --> 01:21:54.013
He deserved to be gone.
1946
01:21:54.015 --> 01:21:56.018
He didn't care
about any of the riders,
1947
01:21:56.020 --> 01:21:59.004
any of the people.
1948
01:21:59.006 --> 01:22:03.020
- I would say in the last four
or five years of his life,
1949
01:22:03.022 --> 01:22:05.016
we became very close,
1950
01:22:05.018 --> 01:22:08.005
and I talked to him
all the time.
1951
01:22:08.007 --> 01:22:11.013
And I learned
about a different Gene,
1952
01:22:11.015 --> 01:22:15.022
a very generous,
a very benevolent Gene.
1953
01:22:16.000 --> 01:22:19.005
I am not glorifying
Gene Mulvihill.
1954
01:22:19.007 --> 01:22:21.004
I am not telling you
1955
01:22:21.006 --> 01:22:25.010
that he was a good,
decent, honorable man.
1956
01:22:25.012 --> 01:22:28.011
But I did see a side
to Gene Mulvihill
1957
01:22:28.013 --> 01:22:33.004
that was different from what I
had always thought about him.
1958
01:22:33.006 --> 01:22:36.005
Was he a villain or a victor?
1959
01:22:36.007 --> 01:22:38.016
I think he was both,
1960
01:22:38.018 --> 01:22:41.012
depending on the circumstances,
1961
01:22:41.014 --> 01:22:43.008
depending on what he could do
1962
01:22:43.010 --> 01:22:45.021
and what
he could get away with.
1963
01:22:45.023 --> 01:22:48.021
[soft upbeat music]
1964
01:22:48.023 --> 01:22:52.011
[indistinct chatter]
1965
01:22:52.013 --> 01:22:56.003
- It was so easy
to romanticize him
1966
01:22:56.005 --> 01:22:59.000
because he does what a lot
of people wish they could do.
1967
01:22:59.002 --> 01:23:01.004
A lot of people wish
they could ignore the law.
1968
01:23:01.006 --> 01:23:03.014
A lot of people wish
they could ignore rules.
1969
01:23:03.016 --> 01:23:05.010
Gene actually did that.
1970
01:23:05.012 --> 01:23:07.013
- The spirit of Action Park
lives on today
1971
01:23:07.015 --> 01:23:09.018
in the Fyre Festival,
in Theranos,
1972
01:23:09.020 --> 01:23:11.008
and all these other schemes.
1973
01:23:11.010 --> 01:23:12.023
- The Fyre Festival's
bullshit, man.
1974
01:23:13.001 --> 01:23:14.009
He gave them a cheese sandwich.
1975
01:23:14.011 --> 01:23:16.000
Gene gave you everything
he fucking promised you.
1976
01:23:16.002 --> 01:23:17.013
He said,
"Come to my amusement park.
1977
01:23:17.015 --> 01:23:19.005
"Do whatever the fuck
you feel like.
1978
01:23:19.007 --> 01:23:20.017
"You might get hurt,
but you're probably
1979
01:23:20.019 --> 01:23:21.022
gonna have
a shit ton of fun."
1980
01:23:22.000 --> 01:23:23.000
It was what it said it was.
1981
01:23:23.002 --> 01:23:24.011
But it was fucked up.
1982
01:23:24.013 --> 01:23:27.019
- Even though I was scared
to do those rides,
1983
01:23:27.021 --> 01:23:29.011
I fucking did them.
1984
01:23:29.013 --> 01:23:31.013
There's also a part of me
that's like,
1985
01:23:31.015 --> 01:23:33.011
"If you can't do them,
1986
01:23:33.013 --> 01:23:35.009
then fucking get out
of Jersey."
1987
01:23:35.011 --> 01:23:37.021
♪ ♪
1988
01:23:37.023 --> 01:23:41.013
narrator: In 2010, just
two years before his death,
1989
01:23:41.015 --> 01:23:43.013
Gene Mulvihill led
a group of investors
1990
01:23:43.015 --> 01:23:45.012
to take back control
of the park
1991
01:23:45.014 --> 01:23:47.017
he had founded
decades earlier.
1992
01:23:47.019 --> 01:23:52.018
In 2014, Gene's son Andy
revived the Action Park name
1993
01:23:52.020 --> 01:23:55.004
to cash in on a growing sense
of nostalgia
1994
01:23:55.006 --> 01:23:57.001
for the original park.
1995
01:23:57.003 --> 01:24:00.007
The following year, the park
announced its intention
1996
01:24:00.009 --> 01:24:03.006
to build an updated version
of the Cannonball Loop
1997
01:24:03.008 --> 01:24:05.018
called the Sky Caliber.
1998
01:24:05.020 --> 01:24:08.008
That ride was never built.
1999
01:24:09.023 --> 01:24:11.015
In 2018, the resort,
2000
01:24:11.017 --> 01:24:13.019
once again called
Mountain Creek,
2001
01:24:13.021 --> 01:24:16.016
was acquired by Vernon native
and onetime teenage
2002
01:24:16.018 --> 01:24:19.021
Action Park employee
Joe Hession.
2003
01:24:19.023 --> 01:24:27.003
♪ ♪
2004
01:24:30.000 --> 01:24:32.019
- When you look back
at Action Park these days,
2005
01:24:32.021 --> 01:24:36.017
I think everybody romanticizes
a little bit.
2006
01:24:36.019 --> 01:24:39.003
I remember enough
about working at Action Park
2007
01:24:39.005 --> 01:24:41.010
to remember that everybody
that worked there hated it
2008
01:24:41.012 --> 01:24:43.022
when they were there,
but they always came back,
2009
01:24:44.000 --> 01:24:45.009
and we always kept the friends
2010
01:24:45.011 --> 01:24:47.011
that we made
while we were there.
2011
01:24:47.013 --> 01:24:50.003
It's an '80s movie
that was real life,
2012
01:24:50.005 --> 01:24:53.006
and it's something
that'll never happen again.
2013
01:24:53.008 --> 01:24:56.012
- I hold it so near and dear
to my heart.
2014
01:24:56.014 --> 01:24:59.008
I'm so glad
that I got to go there.
2015
01:24:59.010 --> 01:25:01.008
I wear it as a point of pride.
2016
01:25:01.010 --> 01:25:03.007
That being said,
I think back to the fact
2017
01:25:03.009 --> 01:25:06.015
that I was a child, and I think
about the things that I saw
2018
01:25:06.017 --> 01:25:08.019
and that I participated in.
2019
01:25:08.021 --> 01:25:11.016
And even at the age of 39,
2020
01:25:11.018 --> 01:25:13.020
to no small degree,
it does scare me
2021
01:25:13.022 --> 01:25:15.009
that that was happening,
2022
01:25:15.011 --> 01:25:17.001
that that was allowed
to happen,
2023
01:25:17.003 --> 01:25:20.008
that--that life
could be that way.
2024
01:25:20.010 --> 01:25:22.013
- I look back as it was
a positive thing.
2025
01:25:22.015 --> 01:25:24.017
You know, be able to,
I don't know,
2026
01:25:24.019 --> 01:25:26.023
make your own decisions
on how ambitious
2027
01:25:27.001 --> 01:25:29.004
or how adventurous
you want to be
2028
01:25:29.006 --> 01:25:31.009
and living
with the consequences.
2029
01:25:31.011 --> 01:25:33.013
I think it teaches something.
2030
01:25:33.015 --> 01:25:36.006
- Everything's
in your face today,
2031
01:25:36.008 --> 01:25:39.001
and I think we're
more fearful, rightfully so.
2032
01:25:39.003 --> 01:25:41.005
I think our parents should've
been more afraid, right?
2033
01:25:41.007 --> 01:25:43.021
I think everybody in this room
would say...
2034
01:25:43.023 --> 01:25:46.006
[laughs] "My parents should've
known what I was doing
2035
01:25:46.008 --> 01:25:47.023
on this day or that day."
2036
01:25:48.001 --> 01:25:49.011
- We live in an era
when kids
2037
01:25:49.013 --> 01:25:51.000
don't really go outside
as much.
2038
01:25:51.002 --> 01:25:52.012
When they do go outside,
2039
01:25:52.014 --> 01:25:54.006
people are scared
they're gonna get hurt.
2040
01:25:54.008 --> 01:25:56.010
In the '80s,
kids were running free.
2041
01:25:56.012 --> 01:25:59.005
They were running outdoors.
They were scraping their knees.
2042
01:25:59.007 --> 01:26:01.008
They were going to Action Park.
2043
01:26:01.010 --> 01:26:04.005
We look back
at our childhoods.
2044
01:26:04.007 --> 01:26:06.001
It's carefree.
2045
01:26:06.003 --> 01:26:07.010
We didn't have jobs.
2046
01:26:07.012 --> 01:26:08.021
We didn't have to answer
to anybody.
2047
01:26:08.023 --> 01:26:10.009
We could do what
we wanted, right?
2048
01:26:10.011 --> 01:26:13.000
We look at Action Park,
and we remember
2049
01:26:13.002 --> 01:26:14.015
this heightened version
of this.
2050
01:26:14.017 --> 01:26:16.011
We could do whatever we wanted.
2051
01:26:16.013 --> 01:26:19.003
So when you're nostalgic
for Action Park,
2052
01:26:19.005 --> 01:26:20.016
you're nostalgic
for childhood.
2053
01:26:20.018 --> 01:26:22.010
You're nostalgic for freedom.
2054
01:26:22.012 --> 01:26:24.010
You're not nostalgic
for being hurt.
2055
01:26:24.012 --> 01:26:27.006
You're nostalgic
for everything else.
2056
01:26:27.008 --> 01:26:30.002
- When you talk to other people
who went there,
2057
01:26:30.004 --> 01:26:33.014
there's a certain
shared level of...
2058
01:26:33.016 --> 01:26:36.008
sort of survivor's respect.
2059
01:26:36.010 --> 01:26:39.022
Many of the people you talk to
who grew up in New Jersey
2060
01:26:40.000 --> 01:26:41.010
laughing about Action Park,
2061
01:26:41.012 --> 01:26:43.018
if you ask them
on a basic level,
2062
01:26:43.020 --> 01:26:45.003
"Do you think the way
you grew up
2063
01:26:45.005 --> 01:26:46.013
was healthy for a kid?"
2064
01:26:46.015 --> 01:26:48.016
they'll say, "No."
2065
01:26:48.018 --> 01:26:51.018
We laugh about it, 'cause
what else are we gonna do?
2066
01:26:51.020 --> 01:26:54.005
But we don't think
it was healthy.
2067
01:26:54.007 --> 01:26:56.016
And those people understand,
like, no, it was really--
2068
01:26:56.018 --> 01:26:58.010
You were swimming in pools
2069
01:26:58.012 --> 01:27:00.005
where the lifeguards
weren't paying attention.
2070
01:27:00.007 --> 01:27:02.009
You were going on rides
that were poorly designed
2071
01:27:02.011 --> 01:27:04.011
that people got hurt on
all the time.
2072
01:27:04.013 --> 01:27:06.010
And we felt like
we were on our own.
2073
01:27:06.012 --> 01:27:09.015
We felt like the world
was an unsafe place.
2074
01:27:09.017 --> 01:27:13.003
But it's what we got,
so fuck you.
2075
01:27:13.005 --> 01:27:15.000
[David Bowie's
"All the Madmen"]
2076
01:27:15.002 --> 01:27:18.000
- ♪ Day after day ♪
2077
01:27:18.002 --> 01:27:21.014
♪ They send my friends away ♪
2078
01:27:21.016 --> 01:27:26.015
- We are extraordinarily happy
2079
01:27:26.017 --> 01:27:28.016
that we were able to grow up
the way we did
2080
01:27:28.018 --> 01:27:30.020
and, simultaneously,
2081
01:27:30.022 --> 01:27:34.019
so furious that we had
to grow up that way.
2082
01:27:34.021 --> 01:27:38.010
♪ ♪
2083
01:27:38.012 --> 01:27:41.016
- ♪ Day after day ♪
2084
01:27:41.018 --> 01:27:43.020
♪ They tell me I can go ♪
2085
01:27:43.022 --> 01:27:45.023
- A lot of kids
who grew up in the '80s,
2086
01:27:46.001 --> 01:27:48.003
they like to talk shit
and tell stories,
2087
01:27:48.005 --> 01:27:49.018
and when they got
a couple drinks in them,
2088
01:27:49.020 --> 01:27:52.012
it's about how fucked up
and funny it was.
2089
01:27:52.014 --> 01:27:54.012
But when they're
with their shrink,
2090
01:27:54.014 --> 01:27:57.010
it's just about
how fucked up it was.
2091
01:27:57.012 --> 01:27:59.015
But a lot of things were.
2092
01:27:59.017 --> 01:28:01.013
A lot of things were
back then.
2093
01:28:01.015 --> 01:28:05.002
- ♪ I can fly, I will scream ♪
2094
01:28:05.004 --> 01:28:08.015
♪ I will break my arm ♪
2095
01:28:08.017 --> 01:28:11.009
♪ I will do me harm ♪
2096
01:28:11.011 --> 01:28:13.020
♪ ♪
2097
01:28:13.022 --> 01:28:16.014
♪ Don't set me free ♪
2098
01:28:16.016 --> 01:28:20.008
♪ I'm as heavy as can be ♪
2099
01:28:20.010 --> 01:28:23.018
♪ Just my Librium and me ♪
2100
01:28:23.020 --> 01:28:27.007
♪ And my EST makes three ♪
2101
01:28:27.009 --> 01:28:31.003
♪ 'Cause I'd rather
stay here ♪
2102
01:28:31.005 --> 01:28:34.016
♪ With all the madmen ♪
2103
01:28:34.018 --> 01:28:37.023
♪ Than perish
with the sad men ♪
2104
01:28:38.001 --> 01:28:41.008
♪ Roaming free ♪
2105
01:28:41.010 --> 01:28:45.013
♪ And I'd rather play here ♪
2106
01:28:45.015 --> 01:28:48.011
♪ With all the madmen ♪
2107
01:28:48.013 --> 01:28:51.005
♪ For I'm quite content ♪
2108
01:28:51.007 --> 01:28:54.003
♪ They're all as sane as me ♪
2109
01:28:54.005 --> 01:29:01.010
♪ ♪