It’s 1980, the end of the Newhall Land era. Six Flags, the theme park arm of Bally Manufacturing (yeah, the casino and arcade guys) just purchased Magic Mountain. First on the chopping block: El Bumpo and The Galaxy. The former was quickly replaced by another water attraction, the high dive and dolphin shows. The latter was replaced by two carnival rides, the Buccanneer and the Swashbuckler.

This is the first wall map of the new era, or the end of the previous era (whichever way you want to look at it). From here on out, it’s more cement and steel girders, less greenery. And no more beer sales, not that a 13 year old like me could’ve cared about that.

Anyway, enjoy. This is like a trip through time.

During the summer of 1982, Six Flags rolled out a chain-wide show. The Great Rock N Roll Time Machine was a music, laser and light show sponsored by the Thom McAn shoe store chain.

At Magic Mountain, the show was presented in the Showcase Theatre and played every summer night. I remember this being a fun show, with a medley of classic and contemporary rock tunes. I have the brochure from the show, with a complete list of the songs, artists and years for every track in the massive medley. Here is a scan of the brochure. Some enterprising person with lots of MP3’s could recreate the show, although the musical cues for each part of the medley are unknown. There was a souvenir album sold for this, but it only contained 12 songs from the show, not the entire medley.

Check out this recent article in the L.A. Times where Six Flags head Mark Shapiro talks about the future of Magic Mountain in light of the bankruptcy rumors for parent Six Flags.

I’ve always believed in Magic Mountain and in a lot of ways I would be happy to see it revert back to a stand-alone enterprise. Although in this day and age, there really aren’t many stand-alone parks. Still, it is good to hear about the investment plans that will take the park past its own 40th birthday (wow, 40) and up to Six Flags corporate 50th.

My friend Thomas took some recent pictures of classic Magic Mountain rides that are now only boarded up memories. This one, in particular, of a boarded up Metro Tunnel Station, almost brings me to tears:

Check them out in the gallery beginning here.

Thanks Thomas!

There are more screen shots from my Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 Magic Mountain project posted in the Magic Mountain gallery beginning here.

Enjoy!

I have been tinkering with Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 for some time and completed a project that has taken several months: a recreation of Magic Mountain roughly circa 1980 in as much detail as possible.

Naturally, there are lots of concessions that need to be made when working within the limits of a video game. For example, everything is pretty much on a square grid (e.g. paths and buildings are generally not set up diagonally and Eagle’s Flight to El Dorado station could not go diagonally either.) Also, the sizing of certain rides (e.g. Colossus) helped establish the overall proportions of the layout. Finally, while RCT3 does have an impressive line-up of similar rides, there is no matching Metro train style or Jet Stream boat. Nor is there my beloved Galaxy, which required me to take a little license by trading the space out for post Six Flags’ additions of the Buccanneer and Swashbuckler.

Here are six side-by-side shots of original photos and my RCT3 “reenactments.”

For starters, here’s me riding solo on Circus Wheel and the RCT version:

Get the idea? Ok, how about this reenactment of the very colorful Electric Rainbow post card:

The Persian fountains at night (sadly, no Galaxy):

The Log Jammer and Metro “beauty” shot:

The Metro Whitewater Lake station:

And my favorite, so far, a reenactment of a very early 1970’s view of the East side of the park, as seen from the Japanese Gardens:

All told, however, I am quite satisfied with how this turned out. If you want to see larger versions of these, along with some other full size shots of the park overall (including a kick ass shot of Colossus at night and the famed Showcase Theatre) you’ll find them beginning here in the Magic Mountain photo gallery.

Enjoy!

Here, from around 1977 (possibly 1978) is a fun foldout booklet of postcard snapshots.

Sorry that a couple of them are a little fuzzy. I don’t have a scanner right now and just took digital pics of each page.

You can begin scrolling through the booklet here.

Enjoy!

Check out this link found by my friend Matt to some outstanding classic Southern California park pics. Apart from Disneyland, there are lots of fantastic Magic Mountain shots and post card scans.

My friend Matt sent me this link to Outside The Berm, a blog with tons of flashback theme park memories. It’s nice to see additional pictures of some long lost attractions. Plus, check out the 1972 Busch Gardens park map and compare it to the late ’70’s aerial photo in my gallery. Puts it all in perspective.

Thanks to reader Thomas O’Sullivan, I have added eight more pictures to the Magic Mountain section. Included are three “now” pictures taken from the point of view of vintage shots of

as well as a picture of the Metro Contempo Pavilion station and some vintage ticket stubs from the Sky Tower museum.

Thanks Thomas!