Essential Roller Coaster History, Episode 4: The Renaissance Years (1971 - 1989)

In episode four of Essential Roller Coaster History, we examine the coaster boom of the 1970’s and 80’s. We’ll look at how the success of Disneyland inspired a wave of theme park construction, as well as how a 1972 coaster catalyzed a wooden coaster comeback. We’ll also look at the reinvention of the inversion, the blossoming steel coaster industry, and the events that set the stage for the Coaster Wars of the 90’s and 2000’s.

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Timestamps:
00:00 Rise of the Theme Park
03:16 The Wooden Coaster Comeback
09:01 The Steel Coaster Boom
10:02 The Return of Upside Down Coastering
12:06 Arrow V Schwarzkopf
15:44 Others Join the Fray
17:23 Pushing the Envelope

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SOCIAL LINKS:

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Music in the video:
First Steps - Lena Raine
Resurrections - Lena Raine
Golden - Lena Raine
Scattered and Lost - Lena Raine
Confronting Myself - Lena Raine
Heart of the Mountain - Lena Raine
Reach for the Summit - Lena Raine

Thumbnail Images:
Lower left (Big Bad Wolf): CoasterBuzz
Upper left (Radar): Gröna Lund
Upper Right (Racer): Kings Island Central

[JNattyBoi]

Hey everyone! I realized during editing that Arrow wasn’t the first to attempt and fail at building a suspended coaster; a German aircraft manufacturer named Messerschmitt did so when they built Alpenflug for the 1975 Oktoberfest fair in Munich. Why Arrow didn’t bank the turns on The Bat after the failure of Alpenflug is beyond me. Check out the reddit link below for a photo.

[IBeforeAExceptAfterK]

It's weird to see a video with production quality this high end off by mentioning you're nearing the 1k subscriber milestone. It feels like you should have 100 times the number of subs that you do.

[TheWellplayed]

Babe wake up, new coaster history video just dropped

[interstateRoadVideos]

In the 1980's it seemed like a lot of small traditional amusement parks closed for good such as Mountain Park in Massachusetts (1987), Paragon Park in MA (1984), Lincoln Park in MA (1987), Pontchartrain Beach in Louisiana (1983), Idora Park in Ohio (1984), Rocky Glen Park in Pennsylvania (1987), and Lakeside Park in Virginia (1986)

[andrewahern]

Great series. What’s shocking is just how quickly they come and go. Having ridden some now defunct rides, I never appreciated their rarity in the moment

[AdamSmith-gsdv]

Such a shame you only have 850 subs, your content is very well done and covers things many don't cover

[TheJFish]

Actually, Carolina Cyclone at Carowinds was the first Roller Coaster to have four inversions. Demon at both Great America parks first opened in 1976 as Turn of the Century and had two airtime hills. The loops were added in 1980.

[fatmazza]

Fantastic series, I’ve been absolutely glued to it.

[notyournormalg]

i REALLY need a coaster wars video now!

[dssamusaran]

Great video like all the others you've made. Well explained and well documented.

I can't wait for the next part.

I hope you'll soon beat this 1k subs mark. You honestly deserve several hundreds of thousands subscribers. When I see the quality of your video you really deserve it!

Keep up the good work ;)

[brianagarrison]

When I seen this video ended at 1989 I knew the next would be about the Coaster Wars! I really hope you get to a part five. I seen it's been a While since you posted the timeline of coasters.
I hope to see Magnum XL as the first featured one in part 5. ❤️🤍

[Happymali]

My local home park here in Germany has "Nessie", which is a Schwarzkopf loop from 1980 and was the first one set up outside the US.
Until they gave it a retheme and new station recently it was rather obvious that they weren't used to permanent installations.

[carlstenger]

Great video! Thanks. I look forward to the next installment.

[kiuxmzl]

I really hope this channel blows up in the near future cause this is content of amazing quality!

[TheHylianBatman]

Another one you knocked out of the park. I don't know all that much about coasters, I've only recently become interested in their history. I had heard of Anton Schwarzkopf, but I had underestimated his importance. I thought the internet was hyping him up.
To know that he, alone, essentially competed with an entire company and reinvigorated the vertical loop is crazy.
All new entertainment needs is one man just crazy enough to try something out-there.
This video just makes me miss Arrow Dynamics.
Speaking of, this video is quite a big step forward. I appreciate the intertitles and the separate sections. The mentioning of Schwarzkopf really harkens back to the earlier videos, where parks and single or double designers worked together to make a coaster, instead of the modern system of manufacturing firms selling models that can be customized.
I also appreciate the use of Spongebob's shoe-squeaking sound, as well as your little funny snippets in the corners. Comedy gold.
One minor tidbit: Dahlonega is a place in Georgia, pronounced Da-LON-ih-ga. Also, Wiener would be pronounced vee-EN-er. It's the German word for Viennese, since the German word for Vienna is Wien. I tried to find out if "Wiener Prater" meant "Viennese Park" or "Park of Vienna", but it seems prater does not mean park. A shame.
You are doing everything right. This is excellent content that loads of people would love to see. Just keep making it, and the subs will come.
Thank you for this video. I'm already excited for the next episode. It's gonna be nuts. Record after record.
Keep up the excellent work!

[shygeist]

Absolutely love these videos and would adore a part 5 detailing the coaster wars post '89 :) 😀

[MickanMansRCTStation]

Wow, amazingly well put together video again, was definitely worth the wait! I never realised new wooden coasters (particularly racing ones) were so prevalent during this era. I'm also a little surprised that no one was waiting in the wings to take over layout creation at PTC after Allen left, I guess maybe they lost a few candidates after he retired, including Cobb. Anyway, great stuff again!

[themuaddib]

I have always found it interesting how some of the major "eras" in coaster history are easily delineated by a particular ride...

The Dark Age ends and the Renaissance begins with "Racer" at Kings Island.

The era of the "Coaster Wars" starts with "Magnum XL-200" at Cedar Point -- where stats were everything to the point they put them in the name of the ride.

The stat-driven "Coaster Wars" ends with "Maverick" at Cedar Point, which proved you do not need some sort of gimmick to deliver a memorable ride experience.

Any others I am missing? Any industry-changing coasters since Maverick? Maybe "New Texas Giant, " the first RMC?

[Damon]

It was cool to see Thunder Road being mentioned in the video, road that ride every summer for years before it was demolished in 2015. I remember thinking how cool it was that one of the trains racing traveled backwards when I was little before they changed it to be forward facing. Really miss those old racing style wooden roller coasters.

[jessicamuffin]

I truly can't comprehend how this video doesn't have more views! I loved seeing coasters represented that I have ridden in the past. Also great to see that in my childhood amusement park(Kennywood) things were still prosperous! The Tri-State area is a wonderful location for amusement parks. Thanks so much for going into such great detail about these timeless inventions.