Today, I present to you an amusement park that was so fun, it killed people.
(through laughter) Let's talk about that.
♪ (theme music) ♪
- Good Mythical Morning. - Spring is just around the corner,
- and you know what that means, Link… - Flowers.
Amusement park time! And flowers. There's gonna be flowers, too.
People are gonna be going to amusement parks. Maybe you go during the winter.
- I don't know what kinda people you are. - If you wanna avoid the lines!
A lot of people start going in the spring. But chances are you're gonna go to
a place that you're gonna walk out of uninjured, right? It's gonna be unlikely
- that you will be injured or killed. - Boo!
But that wasn't the case back in the '70s, '80, and '90s...
- Of course. - …at the little place called Action Park.
♪ (There's nothing in the world like Action Park!) ♪
Now, some of you may have heard of this, because there's quite a few web videos
about this, and there's a really good short documentary...
- Okay. - …all about Action Park, back from
- 2013, link in the description. - In the description?
- In the description! - All right.
You can go watch that. You can also watch this. This was an amusement park
located in Vernon, New Jersey, opened up in 1978.
Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but Noah -- who's not here today, but that's where
- he'd be if he was here. - Yep.
I'm pointing to Stevie, who is here. He went to this park, and he knew
- about it, and hipped us to the scene. - Yes.
- Right? Or you. - Thank you, Noah, for alerting
us to the existence of Action Park. And Link...
- He went to this place! - Here's a little taste of what
Action Park was like, from the commercial.
♪ (Baby, let's take you to the Action Park) ♪
♪ (Action, Action Park!) ♪
♪ (You can ride the excitement and feel the [inaudible]) ♪
♪ (Action, Action Park!) ♪
♪ (The action never stops at Action Park!) ♪
- I love that song! - First observation: catchy song.
- Second observation:... - Yeah.
- No one died in the promotional video. - Yeah, it looks like just a good, old fun
- time! I bring my kids out there, right? - I didn't see anyone bleeding or dying.
Well, it looks like fun. And you know what? It's really fun. But it's also
the most dangerous amusement park in the world.
- (laughing) Officially. - Or, meh, you know. One of them.
- Okay. - Okay, this all started
back in '78 with the owner, Gene Mulvihill. Now, it was his philosophy
of what amusement parks should be that led to what Action Park was.
- What's his philosophy? - He thought that you should be
in control. You know how, like, when you go to Disney World, it's just like...
- You're drivin' a car… - You and the guy next to you,
you're both gonna experience the same thing, right?
Like, you're driving a car, but the steering wheel...
- (Rhett) You're not really driving it! - (Link) Like you just, hey, take your...
...hand off the wheel, and it's just like, "Thunk...
- In Action Park, you control the speed. - …thunk, thunk."
You controlled whether or not you stayed on the ride or not.
(Both Rhett & Link) Okay.
- (laughing) Whoa, okay! - (laughing) Okay!
And his philosophy was he would hire you if you had a good idea for a ride.
You didn't have to have a physics background, engineering background.
- He's like, "Good idea, son!" - "Build it!"
That led to things like this.
♪ (jungle music) ♪
- Whaaaat?! (laughing) - (laughing)
Dude, there's somebody coming out of that!
- How… - It's not Photoshopped, man!
What do you mean Photoshopped? It's a video.
Or, it's not effects! They made that thing!
How fast do you have to be going to do an actual loop de loop on a water...
- …slide. There's no water, that... - Water slide!
It's not about the water pressure. It's about you, and your weight.
But hold on. You might think, "Hold on. That looks dangerous! I've been on
some of those water slides that are just real steep, and…"
I think -- no, here's what's happening in that. I want a clear tube, because
what's happening is there's dead bodies piling up inside of this thing,
and then they're just… puttin' other people coming out the other end.
(Rhett) Just droppin' one out. Here's what happened.
- It's an illusion. - They opened this up in the summer of
1985, and before the ride was opened, Gene paid employees $100 each to
- volunteer to go down it. - (through laughter) To test it.
Now, after a lot of head injuries and nosebleeds later, they decided,
"Hey, let's open this thing up to the public!"
- (laughing) Really. - And that's exactly what they did.
A couple of things of things happen. There were more bloody noses, more head
injuries, and then one rider reportedly got stuck at the top of the loop.
- Yeah. - And so they had to build a hatch to
rescue people, if you got stuck at the top of the loop. I'm not making this up.
- Wooop! - It was open for one month, (stammering)
Just send someone else through a little heavier to like...
- (spits) Just kinda push 'em out? - … push 'em on through.
- It's like Drano: human Drano. - The advisory board on
carnival amusement ride safety -- which I'm glad that exists --...
- (laughing) - …shut this thing down after one month.
- Oh, wow. Good. - But there was more.
How many people are still in there today?
Uh, well, just hold on for the end. Okay, another ride was the alpine slide.
Now, I've actually seen a ride like this before. Never been on one.
But this is essentially this concrete track, and you're…
- (Link) Oh, yeah. - …in this sled, and you've
got this brake, right? You can slow yourself down a little bit, but you're
- in a concrete, like, luge thing, right? - (Link) A ditch. Concrete ditch.
- (Link) Oh, wow. - (Rhett) So you may have seen one of
these before. They actually have these… They have one of these in California.
The problem in Action Park was the carts didn't work right. And so they had
two speeds: really, really slow, or no brakes.
And what would happen is, they would put somebody on the track who was going
- really, really slow, and then they would - Get frustrated.
- let somebody with no brakes go. - (Link) Oh, after 'em.
(Rhett laughing) Yes, and (slap) just run into the back of 'em.
- (laughing) - Not to mention the fact that it
- was impossible to control yourself... - They call it the rear ender?
…you can't steer! And so people would come off of this with huge burns
- all over their bodies. - Ugh!
And this actually led to the first death at Action Park.
- Oh. - A 19-year-old employee and his cart
flew off the tracks and he suffered a head injury and died.
And then, according to state records, in 1984 and 1985, the alpine slide
produced 14 fractures 26 head injuries.
Sounds like fun to me. But it gets more fun in the tidal wave pool,
- otherwise known as the grave pool. - Oooh...
Now, this is -- you've been in one of those wave pools at like,
Emerald Point, you know, (southern accent) Emerald Point, Greensboro, North Carolina?
Oh, yeah. There's like a (foghorn sound) and then the wave starts coming.
- Stevie knows about that. Yeah. - (foghorn sound)
- "They're send a wave!" - These were some of the first guys
to do a wave pool, and they hadn't really figured it out yet.
And they were a little too intense. And so there's two things that happen in a
wave pool. Number one is waves.
- Check. - Number two is it's not salt water,
so you're not a buoyant as you typically would be out in the ocean.
- Ah. - And people don't estimate things right,
- and the waves were too big. - Hm.
And so what ended up happening was people would be over there holding onto
the ladders for their dear lives. Like 30, 40 people crowded around these ladders.
- Three people died on this ride. - Oh, goodness.
Three people died on the wave pool.
- And they just left 'em in there? - (clearing throat)
No, they got 'em out. They had 12 lifeguards -- all teenagers, by the way --
They had people working there at the park as young as 14 years old.
Ride operators as young as 14 years old.
"Can you sign your name? You can work here."
Here's some of the things that stacked up here, okay?
(Rhett) There were more rides that led to more injuries, including fractured femurs,
collarbones, and noses, dislocated knees and shoulders.
So many people were taken to the emergency room from Action Park, that the
actual park bought extra ambulances for the township of Vernon to keep
up with the volume.
Okay, so there'd been a total of six deaths, which is a lot of deaths...
- Oh, dude. - For operating for about 20 years, okay?
Yeah, I mean, they better be cuttin' their annual pass if...
In 1982, two people died a week apart.
Who's going the week after that, you know? Who's going the third week?
Thousands of people went, continued to go. It was incredibly popular.
They had to set up their own insurance company in the Cayman Islands...
- (laughing) - …in order to insure themselves,
- because nobody would! - Gene's a business man, man!
(Rhett) And then things got so crazy that they lost the insurance policy that they
had made for themselves and they operated a year without insurance.
Then they went bankrupt, because there was just too much to handle.
- Too many legal problems. - Mhm.
And they closed in 1996. But when you watch the documentary that
- we'll link to, you'll see: people… - Wow.
…LOVED this thing. And you gotta think about it.
- (Link stammering) You're in charge. - (Rhett) Chances are, you're not gonna die.
Chances are, you're not gonna die, and that's what makes it super fun.
Chances are SOMEONE is. And I'm gonna be here for that.
People absolutely loved this. If given the chance to go in the loop de loop,
wouldn't you do it?
If I could go right now now and do it, would you do it?
Give me some time to really think about this. No.
What if I give you until 2016 when they're bringing it back?
- What? - That's right, Link!
In 2014, Action Park reopened. The owner's son is in charge now,
- and he says… - Gene, Junior?
…he's bringing it all back -- "Bringing all of the thrills back and none
of the spills." So it probably won't be as fun as the original Action Park,
but they just announced in March 2015. They're bringing back the Cannonball
Loop successor. They're calling it the "Sky Caliber," and it will be open
in the summer of 2016. And you've got to promise me that you're gonna
go there with me.
- Oh my goodness. What? - It's a...
- Forty-five foot fall. - …forty-five foot free fall.
- And then a loop? - A thirty foot loop.
- What? - But it's a little bit different.
- You've gotta ride in this thing. - A coffin.
They put you… (laughing) They put you in a water coffin.
- That guy looks scared. - And they strap you in.
- Oh, wow. - Are you ready?
Buy the plane tickets. I'll drive up there.
(raspy voice) I'll give ya $100 to go down first.
- We can take a scooter to New Jersey. - Yeah, I'll be on the front of the
scooter, and you be on the front of the…
I think modern-day water parks and theme parks could learn something from
- Action Park: how to have more fun. - Speaking of learning, thanks to our
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- 10-day trial. - Thanks for liking and commenting.
You know what time it is.
- (splash) - Hi, I'm Lily.
- And I'm Brianna. - (unison) And we're from...
…Perth, Western Australia. And it's time to spin
The Wheel of Mythicality! (splash)
Don't let us have all the fun drinking outta these Good Mythical Morning
mugs. Get your own at rhettandlink.com/store!
Oh, I just drank out of it. Oh, you should, too! A different one.
- Or mine, if you're here. - It makes stuff taste better.
- Click through to Good Mythical More… - Not really.
I didn't go to Action Park, but I did something action-packed off-roading
I gotta tell you guys about, including you. I might need to apologize.
"Forced analogy: riding a bike is like...
schhh-wimming in the ocean!"
Uh, you know, um… riding a bike is a lot like schwiiiimming
- in the ocean. - Right, because of the wheels.
You got two wheels, and you gotta keep it balanced, and you gotta
- oil your chain. Just like the ocean. - And then...
And don't forget about the moon factoring in.
And your horn. Don't forget about horns. (horn sound with mouth)
[Captioned by Kevin: GMM Captioning Team]