In the first of a two-part series, we’re taking a deep look at Joyland. This week, we’re discussing the early years, including the parks that came before Joyland’s main location, all the way through the park’s first change in ownership.
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One thing that I’ve learned even over the short course of this show, is that despite the fascinating images of abandoned places, these parks are really all about people and families and communities. The story of Joyland, in particular, epitomizes that community connection.
The Ottaway Family
Joyland all started with a family: the Ottaway family, of Wichita, Kansas. Our story begins with the patriarch, Lester A. Ottaway.
Lester was a businessman, farmer, and mechanic who arrived in Wichita around the turn of the century, in 1904. He opened and ran the Ottaway Alfalfa Mill from 1909 until 1921. From 1929 to 1945, he opened and ran the L. A. Ottaway Sand Company. During this time, he married Ms. Gladys Woolworth, and they began having children. Lester had ten children: three daughters and seven sons.
Herbert Ottaway, born in 1912, was a mechanical whiz and a bike aficionado. The story goes that he walked home from school each day. One day in the 20s, he spotted a 1913 Indian motorcycle leaning up against the house – the next day he returned, found the owner, and tried to buy it. The owner, a Mr. Laff Glatner, refused. Herb came back the following day with a bag full of change, $12 (“which was all the money I had managed to save in my life”) which would be about $300 in today’s dollars. Glatner took the bag without counting the money and gave Herb the broken-down motorcycle, which Herb pushed all the way home.
This was the start of Herb’s love of racing and motorcycles, and an indicator of his persistance in accomplishing his goals.
Herb Ottaway and Motorcycles
Professionally, Herbert began as a welder in the local Wichita aircraft plants. In the mid-20s, Wichita was already throwing off its image of a “sleepy cow-town”, and was well becoming essential for both agriculture and aviation. Boeing, Beech, Culver, and Cessna were all big names in the area, as the Depression shifted into wartime production.
By the age of 17, Herb had built his own motorcycles from the ground up. He won the biggest race of his career, The Oklahoma State Championship, in the 1930, winning roughly $600 (about $9000 in 2019). He continues to race on tracks throughout Kansas in the 1930s, retiring without injury from the sport.
Population was booming in the formative time period between the world wars. With the huge amount of aviation production booming in Wichita starting in 1927 (Beech, Cessna, and Boeing, among others), the population was growing rapidly as well. Wichita was essential for warcraft production prior to and during the second World War. The city’s population doubled between 1940 and 1943 alone. Against this background arose Joyland: the perfect thing for a population in need of diversion and recreation.
The Early Seeds of Joyland
Motorcycles and Miniature Trains
It was through motorcycle racing that Herb met some friends that would help him along in his future career goals: Gerald Chance and Max Wilson. Gerald Chance was the Indian Motorcycle dealer in Wichita in the 1930s, and Herb and Gerald became good friends. Gerald introduced Herb to his son, Richard “Harold” Chance. R. H. Chance was nine years junior to Herb, and also served as a welder at the local aviation manufacturers in the years prior to the war draft in 1944.
Max Wilson, also a fellow motorcycle rider, was interested in miniature trains. This inspired Herb.
The First Ottaway Train
Here is where stories diverge. If you do a quick search for Joyland, you’ll see the same block of text copied over from nearly every single site: the Wikipedia text. “The park was founded by Lester Ottaway and his sons Herbert and Harold to serve as the home for a miniature 12-inch (300 mm) gauge steam locomotive that Herb Ottaway had purchased in Fort Scott, back in 1933. The train had been part of a defunct amusement park there and was originally built by the Miniature Railway Company of Elgin, Illinois, between 1905 and 1910.”
It’s difficult, given that the relevant articles from the main Kansas paper aren’t available online for these years, but this Wikipedia account doesn’t ring quite true. Fort Scott is a small place that had one amusement park: Fern Lake Park, which later became Gunn Park. This was a fairly typical pleasure garden of the time, which operated movie theaters, vaudeville acts, and even a zoo. The park was purchased by the city somewhere between 1910 and 1912, however, and the amusement aspects were stripped away to become a typical city park. Nowhere in the newspaper sources at the time was there mention of a miniature train, which would’ve been huge news in the papers and magazines of the time.
Another possible source could be nearby Hutchinson, KS, the former home of Riverside Park. This amusement park was known for its miniature train; however it was sold in 1916, also far earlier than the known acquisition date in the mid-1930s.
Other Accounts of the First Train
A more reliable source may be the account of Jerry Ottaway, Herb’s son, on “The Ottaway Steam Train”. Jerry wrote: “About 1932 my Dad, Herb Ottaway, purchased a steam train from a popular recreation area located on South Meridian (Avenue). He rebuilt the engine and coaches the following winter.” Another account states: “Herb had built a miniature live steam locomotive” following advice of his friend Max Wilson.
One final source may hold the ultimate key to tie all these accounts together. In 2004, Ed Kelley wrote a history of the Ottaway Amusement Company. The site is now defunct, but was fortunately saved by the Wayback Machine. Quote: “An important chapter of ‘park train’ history began in 1933, when a Kansas family by the name of Ottaway bought a 12” gauge steam locomotive from an old amusement park at the Kansas/Missouri border in Fort Scott, Kansas. This locomotive was built between 1905 and 1910 by the International Miniature Railway Company of Elgin, Illinois for White City, a Chicago amusement park. Replaced by a larger 15” gauge Cagney locomotive, the little engine passed through amusement parks in Iowa, and Kansas…as well as received many extreme modifications.”
Kelley’s post references a photo of the train taken in Iowa, which unfortunately was not archived.
One way or another, we know that Herb purchased a miniature steam train, after getting into the hobby via his motorcycle friend Max Wilson.
Traveling Carnivals (1933-1946)
So in 1933, Herb Ottaway acquired a miniature steam train. Together with Harold and Lester, he rebuilt and refurbished the little train over the next year. The train was styled as a miniature AT&SF (Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe) railway.
The trio began taking the train around for rides for children in Kansas, which was quite popular. They expanded their reach, setting themselves up with Gerald Chance and his family (remember Gerald, the owner of the local motorcycle shop?). Chance built “four gasoline powered cars and a kiddie auto ride” that was called “the Little Motorcycle”. Together, they spent spring and summer in Manitou, Colorado, providing rides on their small carnival, each summer from 1934-1940. The carnival came to a halt with the onset of war in 1941.
Ottaway Amusement Company
The train was the star of the show, and in 1940, they Ottaways opened Ottaway Amusement Company, a business for building the trains. By 1944, their shop was set up in Wichita and had produced two engines. They hired Harold Chance, Gerald’s son, to work in the train shop, located at that time on North St. Francis St in Wichita.
By 1945, five more locomotives had been built from scratch, and the Ottaways were advertising their locomotives in papers and magazines. It was essentially a complete mail-order miniature railroad setup: an engine, three cars, and 270 feet of track, plus maintenance accessories, for $2500. (In today’s money, about $35k.)
The Ottaway Theme Park in Planeview
Around this time, Herb and Harold opened a small amusement park in Planeview, Kansas, a suburb on the outskirts of Wichita. With the war in full swing, a town called Planeview had sprung up near the Boeing and other aviation plants. Thousands of people were looking for entertainment, and the Ottaways provided.
This park was quite small. It opened in 1942 or 1943, and was called Playland or Playtime, depending on the source. There was a Tilt-A-Whirl, a Ferris wheel, and a merry-go-round.
This was a difficult time to have a leisure business during the war years. It’s said that any non-war business uses, say such as a theme park, were taxed at 20 percent (compare to your current state tax rate that might be somewhere around 5%). But the park was hugely popular with its captive crowds.
Joyland Central (1946-1949)
Perhaps inspired by his sons, patriarch Lester Ottaway purchased the land in the heart of Wichita, between Central and New York streets. Joyland first opened at 1515 E. Central, on the south side of the street, sometime in 1946. Soon afterwards, Herb and Harold closed the small park in Planeview, moving the rides from Planeview to what we’ll call Joyland Central.
Joyland Central is sometimes confused with “Kiddieland” in modern accounts; however, these were separate parks. Kiddieland was another Wichita theme park, owned by the Consolver family. This park opened in 1947. One visitor remembers “The things that made it special for me were the boats and the pony rides, two attractions that Joyland did not have”. Kiddieland in Wichita was closed in 1968 and torn down to build what is now the Wichita Mall. There is, of course, a Facebook group for fans of the Kiddieland park.
More Rides for Joyland
New rides were added to Joyland Central, including a shooting range, a child’s auto ride, a Roll-o-Plane, and the Dodgem bumper cars. The fondly-remembered “Old Woman’s Shoe” attraction (a giant shoe that kids could climb in) also was located at Joyland Central originally.
The city’s electric company also would not provide service to the park – they didn’t think it was “necessary”. The park therefore had to operate on a generator, which had to be turned on by hand each time the park opened.
Success of Joyland Central
Still, the people came to Joyland. After the end of World War II, people were hungry for lightness, entertainment, and leisure. Joyland was a hit with both children and adults, and business was booming.
As the Ottaways eyed the addition of a large roller coaster at Joyland, they needed to look for a new location for their park: the Central location was just too small. The Wichita Eagle wrote about the planning of the park in November of 1948.
Joyland
The Ottaways found the land they were looking for at 2801 South Hillside. Joyland Hillside, or just Joyland, had found its new home.
1949 Opening of Joyland Hillside Opening
Joyland Park opened on June 12, 1949.
At the time, it was considered the biggest amusement park in the area, with the roller coaster being a particularly big deal. “A huge deal. It was amazing,” said Roger Nelson, son of Stanley and Margaret Nelson, who would later own the park.
More than 1200 people attended on the day the mayor cut the ribbon for the roller coaster’s opening ceremony. “The coaster is said to have the steepest drop of any in the country,” they said at the time.
Two Joylands Become One
Joyland Central and Joyland Hillside were open simultaneously for only a short period of time. The land value of the Central location was increasing, so the Ottaways sold Joyland Central and combined the parks at the Hillside location.
Some of the rides moved to Joyland’s Hillside location, but the Joyland Central carousel was sold, and a brand new 1949 carousel made by Allan Herschell, under the Herschell-Spillman name. By the time of its closure, every single one of its original horses was still present and accounted for, primarily because the carousel was completely disassembled every winter beginning in 1951. The horses were hand-carved, with wood bodies and aluminium heads and tails for durability. These can be dated to a specific point in history, as these were only manufactured for a short time before and after World War II.
Joyland opened with several rides right from the start in 1949, including the famous Roller Coaster, the Dodgem bumper cars, the Carousel, and the Ferris Wheel.
Joyland’s Roller Coaster
The park’s coaster, called “Roller Coaster”, was built in 1949 for Joyland by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company, and was ready on open day. The coaster was designed by Herbert Paul Schmeck, whose work has often been listed among the top ten coasters in the world.
“Roller Coaster” was one of the last original wooden coasters, one of the 44 “ACE Coaster Classics”. Not until 2006 was the park given any other name, at which point it was briefly called “Nightmare”.
“They ran that roller coaster from one in the afternoon until one in the morning at 25 cents a ride, and it was full every time,” Roger Nelson said.
A 2001 trip report describes the ride thusly: “The ride, featuring an ‘L’ dog leg and a lift hill that is slightly askew from the “out” run of the coaster, is bigger than you think. Immediately off the lift, riders are shot skyward as the train tumbles down the steep first hill, then slammed down as it bottoms out. The first three hills all have great air time”. The report goes on to say “Rarely do I find a roller coaster that changes in intensity so much over the course of a day. This coaster, tame in its early runs, becomes an airtime machine by late afternoon and a bat out of hell by nighttime.”
Roller Coaster’s Operating Stats
The coaster covered 2,600 feet, with an 80 foot drop and 50mph top speed. The ride was notable as the years went on for being only North American coaster using vintage cars with fixed lap bars, allowing for great “airtime”.
The coaster used what is called “skid brakes” to slow the coaster cars. Sections of the track had manually operated brakes, which were controlled by the ride operator using large, four to five foot tall levers. A barrel underneath the tracks hung, filled with cement, which also tripped the skid brakes.
Ferris Wheel at Joyland
The Ferris wheel was an original Joyland attraction from the park’s opening in 1949, though it wasn’t always bright yellow. Eli Bridge is the country’s oldest maker of Ferris wheels, and they manufactured this wheel in Jacksonville, IL. The company actually still operates in their original production building there, opened in 1919.
In earlier days, the Ferris wheel was silver, with its 16 chairs painted in bright blue, red and yellow. As the years went on, the frame was painted a distinctive sunshine yellow. Bucket seats featured a detailed “JP” on the backs, for Joyland Park.
Joyland’s Mammoth Wurlitzer Organ
As you entered Joyland, you passed a small showbuilding. It was impossible to miss, with the cheerful organ music playing and the strange, grinning clown in front. This was Joyland’s Mammoth Wurlitzer 160 Organ, and Louie the Clown.
The Mammoth was the largest of the early Wurlitzer models, and was built around 1905.
Jess Gibbs and the Joyland Mammoth Wurlitzer
In 1947, the Ottaways were contact by organ man Jess Gibbs, about an old band organ that was sitting at an estate in Coffeyville, the old Brown Mansion, where it had reportedly sat abandoned for the previous twenty years. The Brown Mansion had served as a spa in the heyday of the 1920s known as the Siluran Springs Bath House, where guests whirled in the ballroom to the music of the Mammoth Wurlitzer. When the Brown Mansion closed during the Depression, the organ sat, abandoned and forgotten.
Harold and Herbert went out to take a look, They bought the organ “as is” for somewhere between $350-500 (roughly $4000 to $5500 in 2019 dollars). Gibbs took the organ and repaired it for the Ottaways, a process which took two years. Mice had eaten the glue joints, and there were no brass pipes in the organ, having been reportedly removed for the war effort between 1941-1945. Additionally, the organ was water damaged, which took time and skill to repair. The Joyland Wurlitzer was one of only two Mammoth organs still in existence, and at the time was the only one available for public viewing.
After delivery of the completed organ to Joyland, Gibbs stayed on with the Ottaways, being one of only three people throughout the tenure of Joyland to maintain the organ and its creepy clown player.
Joyland’s Louie the Clown
Perhaps the most memorable part of the park for some, Louie was an essential part of the Joyland Wurlitzer experience. The story goes that the Ottaways acquired Louie at an amusement park tradeshow they were attending sometime in 1949.They purchased Louie for $750, and set him up in front of the organ, where he “pretended to play”, his randomized movements reportedly good enough to fool some guests.
Visitors either loved or hated Louie. He had a white face, painted with blue swirls amongst the classic clown makeup. Each season, he wore a new outfit. One visitor remembers: “I loved Louie. He was the first thing I’d run to see when I entered the park as a little girl, before hopping in line to ride the merry-go-round.”
“Louie was very important to the park and the whole atmosphere of going to Joyland, It just provided excitement instantly as you walked into this park,” said Hal Ottaway, son of Harold. Excitement, or fear, it was always hard to tell which.
Original Darkride at Joyland
During the Joyland Central years, Dodgem (bumper cars) was one of the most popular rides. When the two parks were merged into one, management decided to install both Dodgem rides in the park to double capacity. The idea, of course, being that two must be better than one. This didn’t work in practice, and so one of the buildings was closed.
This closed building was reused, however, as the park’s first dark ride, a one-story fright house common for the era. Some sources say that the Philadelphia Toboggan Company may have been involved. The ride later was updated with a safari theme, including lions, alligators, snakes, and other scares.
Porky the Paper Eater
Not a ride, but memorable still the same, Porky the Paper Eater was also there at Joyland from the beginning. Porky was developed by Harry J. Batt Associates for the Ponchartrain Beach fun center. He is one of several models, which also include Leo the Lion and Pepe the Clown.
Joyland’s Porky was housed in a mushroom, where he waited for visitors to bring him trash to suck up through his open mouth (a vacuum). Slightly menacing from an adult perspective now, kids at the time loved Porky.
“Porky was the best thing because the kids would run all over picking up trash,” Roger Nelson said.
Booming Business at Joyland
Joyland worked with the State Department to help promote their park in the first few years. The Ottaways were cognizant that they wanted to promote the park differently, in order to avoid comparisons with the carnivals of the time, which were seen as “seedy”. They took a number of tacts, including humanizing themselves and tying the welfare of their park to the growth of Wichita.
The Ottaways also took surveys to identify their target audience: most of the Joyland attendees, at least in the first few years, were from rural farms around Kansas. With this in mind, much of the early advertising was directed at the rural audience and not the city audience of the time. Since the Ottaways were all avid collectors of steam and gas engine tractors, they held “Steam Tractor Shows” and tractor-pulling contests at the park through at least 1956. (As an interesting side-bar, Herb Ottaway invented the steam-powered pogo stick!)
Programs were tied in with schools and the local police department. In one, the “School’s Out” party, students got free admission to the park by bringing in school supplies, which were then sent to partner schools in Europe by the state department. (This particular promotion occured in the years after the second World War, remember.) Films were then jointly taken at both Joyland and at the partner school, allowing for cross-promotion of all entities involved.
Other Local Joyland Promotions
Later on, Joyland offered a “good grades” promotion, where students would receive free entrance to the park with good grades on their report card. Wichita resident Erica Davis remembers, “My parents used to take me when report cards came out. It was an excellent motivator.”
Other promotions included days only for employees of local groups and businesses, such as the local aviation industry. Resident Jaqueline DeFever remembers: “My Dad worked at Beech Aircraft and they had nights where if you brought a can of pop you got in free. We would go all the time! Loved the Tilt-A-Whirl, Log Jam and Whacky Shack! Super scary!”
The Sale of Ottaway Amusement Company
In 1948, with the park business booming, the Ottaways had their hands full, and couldn’t devote the attention to their miniature train business, Ottaway Amusement Co. They sold their train business to Harold Chance, who continued to build the miniature steam trains, adding gasoline and electric powered trains to the fleet.
Chance built some new trains for the park in 1951 as part of the transaction: a set of ABA Santa Fe Streamliners, sleek and modern in contrast to the more classic styling of the Ottaway model that had opened the park.
By 1961, Harold Chance had incorporated Chance Rides, which went on to become the largest amusement ride manufacturer in the world.
The Joyland Pool
In the 1950s, after Joyland had been open for several years, it was time for renovations, including the Olympic-sized pool. This pool had a tall slide and high dives, and if you forgot your swimsuit, you could buy a Joyland pair right at the park.
The pool was, unsurprisingly, a huge crowd-pleaser during the hot summers, when air conditioning wasn’t a regular feature in the average home.
Resident Angi Amos remembers: “I remember as a little girl getting to go to the pool that was there for years. That pool seemed so big, and the slide was so tall. The diving boards were really high up. There were always a lot of people in and around the pool.”
Joyland later won an award in 1964 for its “Moonlight Swim” promotion, in conjunction with the local radio station KLEO.
Joyland’s New Frontier Town
Kansas celebrated its centennial as a state in 1961. To celebrate, Joyland added an old West town section, called “Frontier Town”. This old West section had a genuine old Aitchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway caboose, which had originally been built in the 1920s. This new section also had a general store, dry goods, and saloon. Of course, an old West town wouldn’t be complete without “cowboys” who regularly performed shootouts on the town’s main street, much to the delight of Joyland’s visitors.
Passing of the Joyland Torch
Life at Joyland was moving along smoothly, and the atmosphere was thrilling. “I walked through the screams, shots, cries, laughter, music, bells, buzzers, rails, rollers, rides, explosions, flashing lights and grinding gears,” guest John Roe said, describing the atmosphere of the park. Joyland park continued to increase in popularity with guests.
So…
In the mid-1960s, the Ottaways retired from the park business (Lester had passed away in the 1950s).
The original steam train retired with them, moving into their personal collection. A new train joined the park in its place, in 1961, manufactured by Harold Chance and Chance Rides. It was the first-ever C. P. Huntington miniature train from Chance Rides, and it came with serial number 1 from the factory.
“Joyland’s train really launched Chance Rides,” said Larry Breitenstein, National Sales Director at Chance Rides, some time later. The C. P. Huntington miniature train is one of Chance Rides’ most popular offerings.
Joyland would continue in a new chapter under the ownership of Stanley and Margaret Nelson.
We’ll continue next week with the second half of the Joyland story.
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References
I’ve included a complete list of references used while researching this topic. It’s hidden under the link for brevity.