Park Update
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Atlantic survivor I
n previous issues of Park World, Gary Kyriazi examined the three beachside amusement parks that survived and/or were resurrected, along America's Pacific Coast:
the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, Santa Monica's Pacific Pier, and San Diego's Belmont Park. On America's southeastern coast, from Ocean City, Maryland, southward way to the tip of Florida, Family Kingdom is the only seaside amusement park left. Gary recently visited this lone and brave oceanside survivor and talked with general manager Donald Sipes about Family Kingdom's survival story, and how he fell in love with the amusement industry, and with his own park in particular.
Theme Parks were germinating “I was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, and moved to the Carolinas when I was three years old,” says Sipes, who describes himself as 66-years-young. “I came down to Myrtle Beach as a teenager, looking for a summer job. I got hired with what was then called Grand Strand Amusement Park, as a ride operator. The amusement industry got in my blood right away. I was attracted to it because I enjoyed seeing people having fun, and I had the opportunity to operate different rides, which was fascinating to me.” Grand Strand Amusement Park had begun in 1966 by Mr.
William M. Parker. It was a peculiar time to start a new traditional amusement park given the shift in the industry towards theme parks. The first post-Disney theme park, Six Flags Over Texas, had opened in 1961 to great acclaim (Six Flags Over Georgia would follow in 1967), and major theme parks were germinating in the board rooms of corporations who thought that a new theme park would bring in easy millions. Were they ever wrong, as the Marriott, Bally, and Taft Corporations would admit by the late 1970s. Further odds against Grand Strand Amusement Park was
that there was already a successful amusement park in Myrtle Beach called Myrtle Beach Pavilion, which stood on 11 acres (4,5 hectares) just a few blocks from Grand Strand
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Amusement Park. It had begun in 1948 when a traveling carnival parked itself across the street from the latest in a succession of the pavilions that stood on the beach since 1908. The carnival decided to stay, eventually adding more rides and attractions, including a 1912 Herschell-Spillman carousel, a log flume, a river rafting ride, and several roller coasters including one of the early Corkscrews from Arrow Development Company.
Nature intervened But the owners of the upstart Grand Strand Amusement Park opened a simple, well-defined and -appointed park, which besides the standard flat rides, included an original wood coaster, Swamp Fox, by the venerable John Allen (whom the theme park industry of the early 1970s would soon discover and use repeatedly), as well as a 1930 Philadelphia Toboggan Company (PTC #87) carousel from the legendary Asbury Park in New Jersey. “From ride operator,” Sipes continues, “I worked many jobs
at the park such as a Maintenance Man, Food Supervisor, Arcade and Games Supervisor, eventually becoming Assistant Park Manager, while studying electronics at school.” In 1985 Sipes left Grand Strand to run his own electronics business until 1989, when he accepted a job as an Electronic Technician at a Myrtle Beach resort owned and run by the Ammons Family. Then nature intervened. “In September of 1989, Grand Strand Amusement Park
was damaged beyond repair by Hurricane Hugo. The Ammons Family purchased the ruins of the park from Mr. Parker in 1990 and the park remained closed until June of 1992. During the two years the park was closed the Ammons made major renovations to the park. The Swamp Fox Roller Coaster was totally rebuilt from the ground up and they added 17 rides. In the fall of 1993, they hired me as general manager of the newly named 'Family Kingdom Amusement Park.'” Donnie Sipes found himself back where he belonged.
SEPTEMBER 2019
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