Great Old Amusement Parks (1999)

Prater

Vienna’s Prater is an amusement park and a desire machine. No mechanical invention, no novel idea or sensational innovation could escape incorporation into the Prater. The diverse story-telling in Ulrike Ottinger’s film “Prater” transforms this place of sensations into a modern cinema of attractions. The Prater’s history from the beginning to the present is told by its protagonists and those who have documented it, including contemporary cinematic images of the Prater, interviews with carnies, commentary by Austrians and visitors from abroad, film quotes, and photographic and written documentary materials. The meaning of the Prater, its status as a place of technological innovation, and its role as a cultural medium are reflected in texts by Elfriede Jelinek, Josef von Sternberg, Erich Kästner and Elias Canetti, as well as in music devoted to this amusement venue throughout the course of its history.

Tivoli

In the 1970s, the Spanish dictatorship opened up to the outside world and allowed a group of Danes to build Tivoli World, the first amusement park on the Costa del Sol, a copy of Tivoli Garden in Copenhagen.

Class Action Park

Class Action Park explores the legend, legacy, and truth behind the 1980s water park in Vernon, New Jersey that long ago entered the realm of myth. Known for its dangerous, unsupervised rides and lack of regulation, guests of Action Park expected to walk away with injuries and were lucky if they made it out alive. Shirking the trappings of nostalgia, the film uses investigative journalism, original animations, recordings, and interviews with the people who lived it to reveal the true story of Action Park.

Lagoon: Rock and Rollercoasters

A fun, nostalgic look at the rich history of Lagoon Amusement Park, which has enchanted visitors for generations with its rides, rock concerts, and family fun for more than a century.

Coney Island

Before there was Disneyland, there was Coney Island. By the turn of the century, this tiny piece of New York real estate was internationally famous. On summer Sundays, three great pleasure domes--Steeplechase, Luna Park and Dreamland--competed for the patronage of a half-million people. By day it was the world's most amazing amusement park, by night, an electric "Eden".

Treasure Island

A summer on an island of leisure in the Paris region. Land of Adventures, dredge and transgression for some, place of refuge and escape for the other. Its pay range to its hidden nooks, the exploration of a Kingdom of childhood, in resonance with the bustle of the world.

A Flea Market Documentary

A Flea Market Documentary is a new PBS special and an all-American celebration of open-air shopping across the country. On any weekend, there may be no better place to find out what makes America great than at a flea market. A Flea Market Documentary is an unabashed celebration of the unusual people and the enticing things that can be found in parking lots, fairgrounds, drive-ins, sidewalks, and wherever else someone has posted a sign saying "Flea Market." It's capitalism mixed with craziness. It's amazing old stuff, great salespeople, the ancient tradition of the open-air market, and the possibility of finding a bargain, all uniting shoppers across the nation. Produced by WQED Pittsburgh, A Flea Market Documentary travels from the gigantic Rose Bowl Market in Pasadena, California, to the busy but modest- sized Eastern Market in Washington, DC, talking with organizers, vendors, food merchants and shoppers.

A Hot Dog Program

Enjoy an all-American celebration of what may be the country's most popular fast food. From Connecticut to South Carolina to California, Rick Sebak visits some of the nation's coolest hot dog places, taking viewers inside a giant hot dog-shaped building, stopping at some crazy late-night stands, and looking at how hot dogs are made. Wonder how and when hot dogs became so popular-or what toppings are tops these days? Tune in and find out.

Tough Guys

10 years before the debut of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. In 1979, Bill Viola and Frank Caliguri dreamed up a contest pitting barroom bigmouths against wrestlers, martial artists, boxers, bouncers and brawlers, billed as no-holds-barred new type of competitive fighting. When the fights succeeded beyond their wildest expectations, they were swept up in a chain of events that ended in the first mixed-martial arts ban in the nation. “Tough Guys” chronicles the inception of Caliguri and Viola’s first bouts and the colorful, crazy cast of fighters who made them a hit as well as the politicians who brought it all crashing down. The film brings to life a moment when the national martial arts craze was building to a crescendo as the economies of Pennsylvania steel towns were plummeting to levels of unemployment never seen, breeding desperate men looking for a chance to prove their worth and make some money in the ring.

Kennywood Memories

It’s roller coasters! French fries! And lots of good times! It’s a high-flying, double dipped, screeching, squealing, scream-your-eyes-out documentary about one of America’s greatest amusement parks, Kennywood!

Special When Lit

What made more money than the entire American movie industry through the 50s and 60s? Pinball. Special When Lit rediscovers the lure of a lost pop icon. A product of the mechanical and electrical age, the American invention swept the world and defined cool. Now it is relegated to a nostalgic footnote deserving a better fate. Joining the fans, collectors, designers and champion players from across the globe who share a world many of us didn't know still existed.

Joyland: Reliving the Memories

If you grew up in Wichita, Joyland was an important part of your childhood. This documentary tells the epic story of the rise and fall of Wichita’s most famous amusement park, Joyland. Viewers will see historic, never-before-broadcast film clips of the park in its heyday. And learn the story behind the story of this once-great destination that helped define childhood for generations of Kansans. You’re sure to experience a roller coaster of emotions as you watch this dramatic, fun, and heartfelt ode to one of the most-fondly remembered places in Wichita history.

Boblo Boats: A Detroit Ferry Tale

For over 85 years, steamship Ste. Claire transported generations of Detroiters to Boblo Island, an amusement park nestled in the waters between the US and Canada. When the vessel comes under threat of ruin, a doctor, psychic and amusement park fanatic unite to save their beloved steamship from the scrapyard. Interweaving local lore and mythology, "Boblo Boats" explores the whitewashed history of amusement parks and one crew's crusade to bring back the memories.

Things That Aren't There Anymore

Remember when Forbes Field was the world’s greatest ballpark? When the Dips roller coaster at West View Park came out to Route 19? When everyone went to the Allegheny County Fair? When streetcars ran all over town? They’re all parts of this warm and winsome program about Pittsburgh’s past, this heartfelt tribute to great and old places where people used to go to have fun.

Pittsburgh A to Z

Here are twenty-six Amazing, Beautiful, Captivating and Delicious pieces of a great medium-sized city! This unusual video includes everything from Fish sandwiches to Grant Street, from the History Center to our Interesting Islands. Pittsburgh A to Z is a delightful documentary that celebrates (in alphabetical order!) a wide variety of topics from Amateur Archaeologists (looking for arrowheads and other ancient American artifacts) to the zinging zaps of the Zambelli’s. It’s an amusing adventure, a tantalizing tour, a homey history lesson led by popular producer Rick Sebak. All that and much more!

Il était une fois Disney & la France

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Downtown Pittsburgh

This documentary explores the wonders of downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Rick Sebak narrates while you are taken on a nostalgic journey through downtown Pittsburgh's rich history as a bustling American urban center. The film explores downtown Pittsburgh's culture, history, architecture, and secrets. With new and archival footage.

The Strip Show

The Strip District is a delicious old neighborhood in Pittsburgh. On most Saturday mornings, its one of the best places on earth, full of hungry people, crunchy fruits, snappy vegetables, world-class street food, cool characters and tasty surprises of all sorts. This 1996 documentary is a tour of the Strip including big breakfasts, shopping along Penn Avenue and Smallman Street, warehouses, churches and nightclubs, along with some amazing history. Producer Rick Sebak says, "It ends up being a big commercial for the Strip, but the neighborhood deserves lots of loving attention. Its a great, great place."

Closed for Storm

The story of Six Flags New Orleans, a theme park devastated by Hurricane Katrina that has become a holy grail of sorts for urban exploration and the efforts to restore the park to its former glory.

Douce France

Amina, Sami and Jennyfer are high school students in the Paris suburbs, in 93. At the initiative of 3 of their teachers, they embark on an unexpected investigation into a gigantic leisure park project which involves concreting agricultural land near their homes. But can we have the power to act on a territory when we are 17 years old? Funny and intrepid, these new citizens take us to meet residents of their neighborhood, property developers, farmers and even elected officials of the National Assembly. A joyful quest that challenges conventional wisdom and revives our connection to the land!

A Few Good Pie Places

There's something tasty, often sweet, fruity and all-American about a really good piece of pie. In this delicious documentary, travel across the country to visit shops, restaurants, cafes, and even a few homes in search of some excellent crusts, crimping, fillings and flavors.

Zipper: Coney Island's Last Wild Ride

When his rented lot is snatched up by an opportunistic real estate mogul, Eddie Miranda and his Coney Island ride the Zipper become casualties of a power struggle between the developer and the City of New York over the future of the world-famous destination.

A Few Great Bakeries

Bakeries are popular places. They smell great. They are full of wonderful things to eat, from crusty breads to gooey and sweet treats. And they often become neighborhood meeting places, where bakers work hard and where people often leave with good feelings as well as fresh baked goods. In this documentary, we celebrate A Few Great Bakeries across America, never claiming that this is a list of "Best Bakeries" but rather just a few warm ones worth checking out. All of these places seem connected by early mornings, long hours of hard work, delicious products and customers who love them. We happily celebrate these few bakeries and hope that everyone will be inspired to look for more great ones all across America.

Knees Up, Mother Brown

70 is definitely the new 20 in this heart-warming 1960s documentary portrait of the Darby and Joan Club for elderly Cockneys.

Debt Begins at 20

With music by The Cardboards, The Shakes, Hans Brinker and The Dykes. By combining semi-fictionalized and documentary material, this film is as definitive a record of the Pittsburgh punk scene during its nascent underground as anyone could hope for. Beroes' band footage is radical departure from the gimmickry of stereotyped rock band documentary in its use of pans and slow dollys, capturing small glimpses of the musicians at work that a 'PR' film would have avoided at all costs. The cinematography demands a reconsideration of the rock band documentary's hoary technical vocabulary. From the time this film was made changes have already taken place in Pittsburgh punk-dom as the bands have moved from an insular salon society to more 'legitimate' venues. Some say things are better than ever, others mourn the passing of Pittsburgh punk's innocence. Beroes in Debt Begins at 20 has produced not only entertainment, but also a small and very precious time capsule.

A Legacy Of Memories: Silver Beach Amusement Park

The Silver Beach Amusement Park operated from 1891 to 1971. For a small price, visitors could go for a swim in Lake Michigan, play games of chance, take in the organ music playing on the midway, or get a bite to eat. Revisit the midway roller coaster, Shadowland Ballroom, the carousel, the Ferris wheel, the waterslide, the penny arcade, visits by Hollywood movie stars, and more. It’s all part of the history of St. Joseph and southwest Michigan.

Come and dance with me.

An abridged history of motion pictures: In 1888 George Eastman registered the made up word “Kodak” as a trademark. In 1894 Jean Aimé “Acme” Le Roy presented the first film screening in New York City. In 1895 Auguste and Louis Lumière filmed workers leaving their factory in Lyon. In 1903 Thomas Alva Edison orchestrated and captured on film the electrocution of an elephant in Coney Island. In 2011 Anja Dornieden and Juan David González Monroy filmed dwarfs dancing on a stage at an amusement park in China. In 2012 Eastman Kodak filed for bankruptcy.

The Three Investigators and The Secret Of Skeleton Island

In "The Three Investigators and The Secret of Skeleton Island" the cult detective trio from Rocky Beach, California, fall into a breath-taking mixture of adventure, thriller and mystery. Only by a hairs-breadth did they escape with their lives after the successful completion of their last case.

Sudden Death

When a man's daughter is suddenly taken during a championship hockey game – with the captors demanding a billion dollars by game's end – he frantically sets a plan in motion to rescue her and abort an impending explosion before the final buzzer.

Feuer, Eis & Dosenbier

Two friends who are doing civil service flee to the Austrian Alps to escape being forced into the army. While there, one of them rediscovers his past and they realise that it's going to be more fun than they thought.

Bean

Childlike Englishman, Mr. Bean, is an incompetent watchman at the Royal National Gallery. After the museum's board of directors' attempt to have him fired is blocked by the chairman, who has taken a liking to Bean, they send him to Los Angeles to act as their ambassador for the unveiling of a historic painting to humiliate him. Fooled, Mr. Bean must now successfully unveil the painting or risk his and a hapless Los Angeles curator's termination.

Dangerous Minds

Former Marine Louanne Johnson lands a gig teaching in a pilot program for bright but underachieving teens at a notorious inner-city high school. After having a terrible first day, she decides she must throw decorum to the wind. When Johnson returns to the classroom, she does so armed with a no-nonsense attitude informed by her military training and a fearless determination to better the lives of her students -- no matter what the cost.

Escape

A scientist's experiment could lead to the first man-made, functioning, living organism. An elite escape artist-private investigator is working to stop him.

Don't Cry for Me, Mama

Little Ilker's father has died when he was very small. His mother Selma is a famous singer who is always on tour. Ilker goes to boarding-school, and he misses his mother a lot. He gets disappointed when his mother doesn't come to pick him up on weekends. One day, he follows his mom to Izmir, where she is on tour...

Edge of Seventeen

1984, Sandusky, Ohio. A naive 17-year-old navigates heartbreak and self-expression as he explores his sexuality.

Woman Temptation

The erotic mishaps of a family: the voyeur pervert father spies and harasses all the maids in the mansion and watch them have sex. The wife is a sex starved woman, who has sex with a young boy working in the house, then steals her daughter's boyfriend and the daughter finds a new one in the park immediately. And father watches all three group have sex in different rooms in the mansion.

Rollercoaster

A young terrorist kills and injures patrons of a Norfolk amusement park by placing homemade explosives on the track of one of its roller coasters. After staging a similar incident in Pittsburgh, he sends a tape to a meeting of major amusement park executives in Chicago, demanding $1 million to make him stop.

Wonder Boys

Grady is a 50-ish English professor who hasn't had a thing published in years—not since he wrote his award winning 'Great American Novel' 7 years ago. This weekend proves even worse than he could imagine as he finds himself reeling from one misadventure to another in the company of a new wonder boy author.

Delicious Party♡Precure Movie: Dreaming♡Children's Lunch!

Set in Delicious Town, a wonderful town where delicious food from all over the world gathers, the story depicts the PreCures who work to protect people's "delicious smiles." One day, "Dreamia", a "children's lunch theme park" where you can play and eat as much as you want, opens in a delicious town. Komekome and the others had fun playing together, including having Cait Sith, the school principal, treat the children to lunch, but Rosemary turned into a stuffed animal...

The Fury

When a devious plot separates CIA agent Peter Sandza from his son, Robin, the distraught father manages to see through the ruse. Taken because of his psychic abilities, Robin is being held by Ben Childress, who is studying people with supernatural powers in hopes of developing their talents as weapons. Soon Peter pairs up with Gillian, a teen who has telekinesis, to find and rescue Robin.

National Lampoon's Vacation

Clark Griswold is on a quest to take his family to the Walley World theme park for a vacation, but things don't go exactly as planned.

Tatu and Patu: An Oddsville Christmas

A young girl and her two friends from the exceptionally strange land of Oddsville make plans to celebrate Christmas together, but when she is late to pick them up from the train station, the pair wander out on their own leading to a delightful series of hilarious mishaps, inventions, and flights of fancy - until they find their little friend, who finally shows them the true meaning of Christmas.