Riding the Roller Coaster
Riding the Roller Coaster

Author: Charles K. Hyde

Publisher: Wayne State University Press

Published: 2003-02-01

Total Pages: 410

ISBN-13: 0814337813

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The first comprehensive history of the Chrysler Corporation, this book is intended for readers interested in the history of automobiles and of American business, and for fans and critics of Chrysler’s products. From the Chrysler Six of 1924 to the front-wheel-drive vehicles of the 70s and 80s to the minivan, Chrysler boasts an impressive list of technological "firsts." But even though the company has catered well to a variety of consumers, it has come to the brink of financial ruin more than once in its seventy-five-year history. How Chrysler has achieved monumental success and then managed colossal failure and sharp recovery is explained in Riding the Roller Coaster, a lively, unprecedented look at a major force in the American automobile industry since 1925. Charles Hyde tells the intriguing story behind Chrysler-its products, people, and performance over time-with particular focus on the company's management. He offers a lens through which the reader can view the U.S. auto industry from the perspective of the smallest of the automakers who, along with Ford and General Motors, make up the "Big Three." The book covers Walter P. Chrysler's life and automotive career before 1925, when he founded the Chrysler Corporation, to 1998, when it merged with Daimler-Benz. Chrysler made a late entrance into the industry in 1925 when it emerged from Chalmers and Maxwell, and further grew when it absorbed Dodge Brothers and American Motors Corporation. The author traces this journey, explaining the company's leadership in automotive engineering, its styling successes and failures, its changing management, and its activities from auto racing to defense production to real estate. Throughout, the colorful personalities of its leaders-including Chrysler himself and Lee Iacocca-emerge as strong forces in the company's development, imparting a risk-taking mentality that gave the company its verve.

Rhode Island Amusement Parks
Rhode Island Amusement Parks

Author: Rob Lewis

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13: 9780738564159

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Rhode Islanders were once able to enjoy amusement parks without traveling far; the state was home to several ocean front parks as early as the mid-18th century, with some of them surviving into the late 19th century. Photographers Rob Lewis and Ryan Young have embarked on a journey to discover the amusement parks of the past in this delightful and unprecedented collection of images. Rhode Island Amusement Parks brings back the memories of a time less complicated than the present, when a sense of family held communities together. View the parks that provided a recreational outlet for so many Rhode Island families and the visitors who frequented them. Scenes from several neighboring Massachusetts amusement parks are also pictured. The images in this collection are from two large private archives as well as treasured family collections. Special highlights include photographs of hand-operated rides of the 1800s and views of President Taft's plane, which landed at Sandy Beach in 1911. Also featured is Vanity Fair, an amusement park that lasted only five years during the first decade of this century. Residents of these communities will enjoy seeing Rhode Island as it once was and will witness the changes it has endured over the years.

Lost Wonderland
Lost Wonderland

Author: Stephen R. Wilk

Publisher: Bright Leaf

Published: 2020-10-15

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 9781625345578

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If you take Boston's Blue Line to its northern end, you'll reach the Wonderland stop. Few realize that a twenty-three-acre amusement park once sat nearby -- the largest in New England, and grander than any of the Coney Island parks that inspired it. Opened in Revere on Memorial Day in 1906 to great fanfare, Wonderland offered hundreds of thousands of visitors recreation by the sea, just a short distance from downtown Boston. The story of the park's creation and wild, but brief, success is full of larger-than-life characters who hoped to thrill attendees and rake in profits. Stephen R. Wilk describes the planning and history of the park, which featured early roller coasters, a scenic railway, a central lagoon in which a Shoot-the-Chutes boat plunged, an aerial swing, a funhouse, and more. Performances ran throughout the day, including a daring Fires and Flames show; a Wild West show; a children's theater; and numerous circus acts. While nothing remains of what was once called "Boston's Regal Home of Pleasure" and the park would close in 1910, this book resurrects Wonderland by transporting readers through its magical gates.

Riverside Park
Riverside Park

Author: David Cecchi

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13: 9780738575049

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From its earliest days as a picnic grove to its subsequent evolution into a major amusement park, Riverside Park was synonymous with summer for generations of New Englanders. Situated on the banks of the Connecticut River at Agawam, Massachusetts, Riverside was enjoyed by area residents for more than a century. Thousands swam in Lake Takadip, danced to the most popular musical groups of the day in Cook's Dancing Pavilion, spent Saturday nights at the Riverside Park Speedway, roller skated at the Rollaway, and thrilled to the Cyclone roller coaster and countless other attractions. Riverside's status as the epicenter of summer recreation in the Northeast continues to this day with the park's current identity as Six Flags New England.

A Chronicle of the Last Pagans
A Chronicle of the Last Pagans

Author: Pierre Chuvin

Publisher:

Published: 1990

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13:

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A Chronicle of the Last Pagans is a history of the triumph of Christianity in the Roman Empire as told from the perspective of the defeated: the adherents of the mysteries, cults, and philosophies that dominated Greco-Roman culture. With a sovereign command of the diverse evidence, Pierre Chuvin portrays the complex spiritual, intellectual, and political lives of professing pagans after Christianity became the state religion. While recreating the unfolding drama of their fate--their gradual loss of power, exclusion from political, military, and civic positions, their assimilation, and finally their persecution--he records a remarkable persistence of pagan religiosity and illustrates the fruitful interaction between Christianity and paganism. The author points to the implications of this late paganism for subsequent developments in the Byzantine Empire and the West. Chuvin's compelling account of an often forgotten world of pagan culture rescues an important aspect of our spiritual heritage and provides new understanding of Late Antiquity.

Zoom!
Zoom!

Author: Diane Adams

Publisher: National Geographic Books

Published: 2013-02-05

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 1561456837

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Anticipation and anxiety lead to gleeful exhilaration in this story of a father-son roller-coaster ride. A timid young boy is just barely tall enough to ride the DinoCoaster, so he joins his father for a fast-paced journey that takes them climbing, zooming, sailing, and lurching upside down, round and round, past a colorful cast of amusement park creations. When the roller coaster finally comes to a stop, the boy is ready for another ride...but his queasy father isn't quite as enthusiastic. Diane Adams' action-packed propulsive rhyme carries the reader along on a journey from fear to delight, accompanied by Kevin Luthardt's appealing, friendly amusement park dinosaurs.