Word: themes
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Social critics tend to scoff at theme-park patrons as passive non-participants in plastic fantasy. Obviously, such critics have never been tugged by tireless children through seven-plus hours (the average time spent per park per family) of short rides and long lines, mini-zoos and maxi-queues, live shows, deadly lines, fast food, slow lines, indigestion, blurred vision and pedialgia (sore feet). In fact, the vast majority of the 80 million people who will visit theme parks this year are involved, tireless and eclectic in their pursuit of pleasure...
...will spend hours playing with small animals; other young visitors may take a dozen consecutive gut-wrenching rides or spend rapt hours trailing wandering minstrels. Many TV-age adults see live shows and big-name concerts for the first time-and possibly the last, until their return to a theme park. Notes California Sociologist Jim Dunnivan: "In contrast to the conspicuous consumption of the '50s and early '60s, the emphasis of the '70s is on experience. Today's adult isn't content to sit back and be a spectator. Instead, he wants to get actively...
...Most theme parks are a mirror image of the puritan work ethic. The idea here is to play, hustle and use the last cent's worth of the $30 plus it may take a family of four to get in. At most parks (major exceptions: Disneyland and Disney World), there is a flat admission fee that enables parents and offspring to sample and resample every major attraction without charge. Remembering the rapacious playlands of the past, where gambling, boozing and whoring were as rife as popcorn and pizza, most theme parks promote soft drinks and fast foods. They dispense...
Closer, cheaper and safer than the sleazy Mexican border town are three of the best theme parks in the West. When Walt Disney opened Disneyland at Anaheim in 1955, the idea was that his fantasyland would be "a travel destination" at which visitors would spend whole weekends or vacations. Many families still do, but Disneyland, like Florida's Disney World, has become a focal point from which holidaymakers can radiate out to other parks, beaches, authentic historical scenes and myriad recreations ranging from surfing and sailing to deep-sea fishing and ballooning. Thus a family with a week...
TEXAS. Six Flags Over Texas, a 20-min. drive from the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, was founded in 1961 as the first regional theme park celebrating local history. It has been expanding ever since, will welcome its 30 millionth visitor this week, and is big on thrill rides, puppet-people-picture shows, musical revues and top-name concerts. From Dallas (an amusement park in itself), visitors can go on to Houston's Astroworld, which specializes in thrill rides...