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The History of Kings Island


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I grew up in Kings Mills and I used to hike though out that area that is now Kings Island. Kings Island was my very first job when I was going to high school back in 1972. I remember those years very well, and all that opening sequences from that year really brings back the memories. I was hired on as a "litter getter" back then and I thought that it was the best job in the entire park. Where else did you have the entire park as your work area. We were not confined to one small area and we could roam and interact with all the guests. As that song goes, "Those were the days my friend, we thought they would never end..." and the fun continues to this very day.

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I really enjoyed this video. I watched the whole thing and found it to be very informative and entertaining. The only thing I didn't really care for was the script/dialogue of the host. Some of the wording was pretty hokey and made those parts feel amateur-ish. Other than that, a really great documentary with great footage!

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I know I've mentioned this before, but I wish I'd seen this, or at least paid close attention to the people in the video before the day I ran media for a business meeting at the Garfield Suites a couple years ago! By chance I stopped for a moment in between setting up the meeting rooms to look at a picture of the Island Queen, which was on the wall outside this gentleman's office on the second floor.

He came out and struck up a conversation about it with me. In my narcissistic, "know-it-all" way I spent about 20 minutes of the gentleman's time spewing how much I knew about that boat, and Coney Island, and even about Cincinnati. I don't think I said a word about my freakin' favorite place on the planet, Kings Island. Oh, no, not once did I say anything about it. I just had to try and sound like a Coney historian to this guy, who was all the while smiling in a way that seemed to conceal something.

Turns out he was the second man you see in the video. Gary Wachs. THE flippin' CREATOR of Kings Island :wacko: . Oh, the conversation I coulda had! Oy.

:lol:

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Even though I've watched it a few times before, I sat and watched the whole thing again (seems like there's some new clips in the above video).

In the video, Gary says that when they put in The Racer, the new theme parks were getting away from coasters at that time. What were they putting in??

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  • 3 months later...

Now as for rides that were opened under one owner but planned under another, I believe Flight Deck fits the bill. There are probably others. To my knowledge, The current owner (Cedar Fair Entertainment Company) did not complete any attractions planned by the previous owner (Paramount, kinda. I believe it was technically Viacom)

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The original owner was Taft Broadcasting. The second owner was Kings Entertainment Company (KECO). The third was Carl Londner/Great American Financial.

Paramount Communications, fourth, certainly did not build or complete any Taft rides.

I suspected you would respond with that but I went with it anyways. Ha

So what was the last ride planned pre Paramount?

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Now as for rides that were opened under one owner but planned under another, I believe Flight Deck fits the bill. There are probably others. To my knowledge, The current owner (Cedar Fair Entertainment Company) did not complete any attractions planned by the previous owner (Paramount, kinda. I believe it was technically Viacom)

I saw someone on here during the Banshee decoding thread mention that but then they said the original name was to be "Swoop". I found an old newspaper article that had the original name and it wasn't "Swoop" so I wasn't sure the validity of any of their information after that.

Interesting though.

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Some newspaper accounts claim it was to be named Thunder Road. The project was to be named Swoop, though.

And Paramount Communications was acquired by VIACOM after the former had acquired Kings Island. VIACOM had Paramount Parks under various business units, including Blockbuster, before VIACOM split. At that point, CBS ended up with Paramount Parks, cost cut like crazy, and sold the parks to Cedar Fair.

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I remember a rumor that B&M execs were spotted in Rivertown, back in 2004-2005 (pre CF) and later there was a rumor that Paramount rejected a design from B&M at that time. I also remember speaking with Jeff Seibert during the rebirth (and eventual death) of Winterfest, about the Swan Lake and he said that it would never be touched. Adding all of this up kind of leads me to believe that the rumors might have been true, considering what did happen between 2008 and 2009....just saying...

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  • 9 years later...

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