The Danny's Land Manual of Style: When writing about amusement park rides, put the names of rides in italics, because they are works of art. However, do not italicize names of amusement parks, because those are really just locations. So "Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland" seems proper, given that one would write "Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl at the Tivoli Theater." Therefore, in the previous post: "...Laff in the Dark ride at The Pike..."

Don't italicize generic ride names. Therefore: "bumper cars," not "Bumper Cars."

"Roller coaster," not "rollercoaster." The prefered pronunciation is "rollie-coaster," per Vincent Price.

ELMER McCURDY

Shot by Sheriffs Posse
In Osage Hills
On Oct. 7, 1911
Returned to Guthrie, Okla.
From Los Angeles
County Calif.
For Burial Apr. 22, 1977

Between the day he stepped on a rainbow in 1911 and the day his body was identified in 1977, Elmer had quite a career, appearing in carnival sideshows and B-movies. Why does he come to your attention here at Danny's Land? Because his final role was "The Hanging Man" on the Laff in the Dark ride at the The Pike amusement park in Long Beach. He played the part for four years, until location scouts for The Six Million Dollar Man accidentally broke off his left arm, revealing that he wasn't made of paper mache. When Oklahoma officials finally planted him, they poured a huge concrete slab over the grave to insure he wouldn't embark on a comeback tour.

Snopes writes about it here.

Each June, Coney Island USA hosts the Mermaid Parade. The 2003 Mermaid Parade featured a memorial float for Topsy the Elephant, formerly of Luna Park.

Chiloquin, Oregon hosts the Train Mountain Railroad Museum - the longest miniature railroad in the world. And just south of Tillamook, Oregon, you have the Tillamook Air Museum - the largest wooden structure in the world (a dirigible hanger). But my favorite biggest thing in the world in Oregon might be the biggest hairball in the world at the Mount Angel Abbey.

"You can't make a horror movie with black people. 'Cause the movie starts, you see ------s running down the street, that's the end of the movie."

-- Eddie Murphy, Saturday Night Live, 1982

The Christian Action Network has a videotape called Gay Days at Disney Gone Wild! It depicts people holding hands, kissing and enjoying rides. Sadly, the sample video and photographs have been removed from the Internet.

(DH adds: Here's a related Danny's Land post, a list of Gay Days at different amusement parks.)

It says here, "Children will love the 'Spirit of London' ride that takes them through the sights and sounds of London including the infamous Jack the Ripper." Apparently, one rides in a stylized London taxi past tableaux of Elizabeth I, Shakespeare, the Plague, the Great Fire (including a very Pirates of the Caribbean-type scene of the Lord Mayor escaping the flames with a boatload of booty), Victoria, and on to Twiggy in the Swinging 60s. In the modern era, there's a punk, rocking the Lord Mayor's coach.

Here is the official site.

National Amusement Park Historical Association Donates £1,000 to Margate's Scenic Railway: The American organization NAPHA made a "Heritage Fund" donation this week of £1,000 to England's Scenic Railway Trust. The Scenic Railway Trust has been set up to operate the Grade II listed Scenic Railway for the 2003 season and to secure its long-term preservation, ideally within Dreamland amusement park itself. Bonnie Bonczyk, Director and Heritage Fund Coordinator at NAPHA said: "Our members feel that it is very important to save this historic ride. The last Scenic Railway in the U.S. was torn down in 1981. As your Scenic Railway is the oldest operating roller coaster in Great Britain, we have strong feelings that this coaster should be preserved as an important part of amusement history. If this coaster is lost, future generations of coaster riders will never experience this unique ride."

This is encouraging news, but the current owner of Dreamland, Jim Godden, has no intention of operating the park beyond this year. "The park is far too large for Margate as we know it today..." he says. His plans are to tear down most of the park and replace it with indoor shops.

Anyone who would prefer a shopping mall to a historic roller coaster has no life of the soul.