Action Park

"The lore of the place -- the scars and stitches, the wipeout tales, and the sheer notion of a theme park so slapdash, unregulated and deserving of nicknames like "Traction Park"-- has inspired oral histories, a documentary and a movie helmed by no less a connoisseur of bodily harm than Johnny Knoxville of "Jackass" fame. But the truest version may be the latest ... Beyond painting a compelling portrait of Gene Mulvihill, Action Park captures the frenetic energy of a place very much a function of its time: parental supervision and safety precautions -- low; teen hormones, illusion of infallibility and recklessness -- high." --The Washington Post

"Action Park's ridiculous history... is a compelling, entertaining, albeit horrifying read." --A.V. Club

"Action Park, like Jurassic Park, brims with mortal danger, except Action Park was somehow real. If you ever worked a summer job with guys named Smoke, Puff and Ring-Ding, you'll instantly recognize the time and place. Every page is so redolent of beer, fear, lust and chlorine that it's practically scratch-and-sniff." --Steve Rushin, author of Sting-Ray Afternoons and Nights in White Castle

"Every traditional amusement park exhales a whiff of the sinister, but an afternoon at Action Park was more akin to visiting the Western Front on a busy day than suffering some mild jostling in a bumper car or rattling through the Laff in the Dark. The son of Gene Mulvihill, founder of Action Park's unique--and uniquely dangerous--concoction of violent diversions reveals its almost unbelievable and frequently hilarious history with high-hearted gusto and impressive frankness. Here was an operation founded on a strange application of the old principle that the customer is always right: if you got hurt--and hundreds did--it was your own fault. After all, one had only to look at the rides to see that most of them offered the likelihood of a compound fracture or worse. Fueling Mulvihill's implausible success was his libertarian conviction that people are responsible for their own choices, however reckless. And there is a larger story here: a glimpse--at once chilling, fascinating, and oddly touching--of American entrepreneurial genius at its most audacious." --Richard Snow, author of Disney's Land

"Reading Andy Mulvihill's chronicle of fast times at his father Gene's amusement park resembles an actual visit: fun and hilarity one second, shock and horror the next...Alternately wistful and clear-eyed about the past, Andy's story will be cherished by those who remember their own Coppertone-scented teen summers." --Booklist