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Historic Houston Amusement Parks & Places


belmontdrew

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  • 2 weeks later...
I went somewere near downtown, i can't remember where exactly though. I'm only 21!

The only Globe I knew of was on the corner of Hillcroft and Bellaire Blvd. in Sharpstown, across from the Sharpstown Drive-In Theatre and a Chinese Restaurant. Nothing much more was built up in that area during the 70's.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Back to Playland Park Racing. I am so impressed with your memory, 57Tbird! Your description fits to a T my remembrance of the track and surrounds. As West U. kids our hero was A.J., our neighbor, but I remember well Stormin' Norman and a few others. Not I have a question to tax your memories, all of you who kept up with such things.

Around 1955-56, I met a guy named Phillip______? He raced stock cars at Playland. He was older than I, me being 14-15 at the time. He was very slender, dark hair, nice guy, but was not considered fit company for me by my family. No romantics envolved, just friends, but he taught me how to take high speed curves and turns, pre-power steering. One night, he brought around his highly newly souped up 1955 Chevy and invited me to go for a trial spin. We headed out to South Main, past any signs of civilization and took off, reaching 155mph! It was the scariest, most thrilling thing I'd ever experienced.

I don't think he ever got famous or anything, but I have wracked my brain for years trying to remember his last name. If any of you have a clue or an old roster of stock car drivers, I'd love to hear from you.

Thanks.

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I would love to post a photo of a famous old Houston race car, but since I just joined this forum, I haven't yet quite figured out how to attach a photo. The car was built by Tony Foyt in the late 50's and was run at Playland and Meyer Speedway by Billy Wade. It is a white #2 T-bucket super-modified. Anybody remember this car? I have a photo of it.

In the mean time, I invite those of you on this forum who have an interest in local Texas racing, past and present to join us on TEXAS SPEEDZONE (TXSZ.Com) Forums Section. I have the photo posted at the top of the "Texas Racing History Section" right now. Regards.

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I would love to post a photo of a famous old Houston race car, but since I just joined this forum, I haven't yet quite figured out how to attach a photo. The car was built by Tony Foyt in the late 50's and was run at Playland and Meyer Speedway by Billy Wade. It is a white #2 T-bucket super-modified. Anybody remember this car? I have a photo of it.

In the mean time, I invite those of you on this forum who have an interest in local Texas racing, past and present to join us on TEXAS SPEEDZONE (TXSZ.Com) Forums Section. I have the photo posted at the top of the "Texas Racing History Section" right now. Regards.

''Photobucket''

Edited by Marty
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Surely the statue of limitations has long passed on speeding tickets!

I will reassure you there were no other cars or people around and the road was flitter flat, like all of Big H. Don't forget he was a professional race car driver -- oops, I see what you mean. There were a lot of crashes at the track.

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Back to Playland Park Racing. I am so impressed with your memory, 57Tbird! Your description fits to a T my remembrance of the track and surrounds. As West U. kids our hero was A.J., our neighbor, but I remember well Stormin' Norman and a few others. Not I have a question to tax your memories, all of you who kept up with such things.

Around 1955-56, I met a guy named Phillip______? He raced stock cars at Playland. He was older than I, me being 14-15 at the time. He was very slender, dark hair, nice guy, but was not considered fit company for me by my family. No romantics envolved, just friends, but he taught me how to take high speed curves and turns, pre-power steering. One night, he brought around his highly newly souped up 1955 Chevy and invited me to go for a trial spin. We headed out to South Main, past any signs of civilization and took off, reaching 155mph! It was the scariest, most thrilling thing I'd ever experienced.

I don't think he ever got famous or anything, but I have wracked my brain for years trying to remember his last name. If any of you have a clue or an old roster of stock car drivers, I'd love to hear from you.

Thanks.

West U,

Is there any possibility he was Marvin Fillip? He was simply known as Fillip, a lot of people didn't really know him as anything but Fillip. I have one old photo of Marvin Fillip in his super modified @ Meyerland Speedway. I will post it, and see if it rings any bells.

MarvinFillip.jpg

Edited by Mark F. Barnes
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  • 2 weeks later...
Here is a site that might interest you:

http://www.sixflagshouston.com/maps/

There is a forum there as well, but I like this one better!

Below is the Astroworld Park map from 1980, when my best friend and I used to get the season passes! $10 for the pass if I'm not mistaken. ;-)

sfaw1980.jpg

1980 in my opinion was the best year for Astroworld. The Dolphin show, the Sleigh snow ride, the sports car ride, the River of No Return were all still there plus the addition of Thunder River made 1980 a great family year.

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MEYERSPEEDWAY62COVERFRONT_op_470x600.jpg

MJBurton5-2.jpg

Believe it or not this is the Track Record Holder, M J Burton!!!!!!

MEYERSPEEDWAY62PROGRAM6_op_467x600.jpg

Track stats for 1962

MeyerSpeedwayPitCrew21.jpg

Scary bunch of thugs here!!!!

Great icuture,(l-r) Richard Forster,Leon Luskia,Alan Luskia(driver),EJ Weeks,Marcos Tovar

TerryLaBonte.jpg

Anybody recognize this cat????

None other than "Texas Terry" Labonte!!!! Has to be in 1975

EdHamblinGeorgeNash.jpg

Ole Money Bags Himself.....Big Ed Hamblen and George Nash @ the awards banquet in 1968

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Guest Sebastian De La Ghetto
1980 in my opinion was the best year for Astroworld. The Dolphin show, the Sleigh snow ride, the sports car ride, the River of No Return were all still there plus the addition of Thunder River made 1980 a great family year.

River of no return, was that the safari ride with the big king kong at the end? man i'd forgotten all about that. good times.

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Sea-arama - 1970

Buy dead fish and feed the sea lions from the bridge!

The outreached arm dropping the fish is mine. In front of me, squatting down is my 3 year old daughter. Prophetically she grew up to be the Sea Lion Zookeeper and Trainer at Houston Zoo and a pinneped expert for many years.

Seaworld1970.jpg

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A friend of mine mentioned a kiddie place called Wee Wild West. I went there as a kid (60's) but have no idea where it was. Anybody remember that one?

The Wee Wild West was on Westheimer, about where West Alabama branches off it--just a stone's throw from the Galleria. I attended and/or had a couple of birthday parties there in the early 1960s.

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  • 3 months later...
I would love to post a photo of a famous old Houston race car, but since I just joined this forum, I haven't yet quite figured out how to attach a photo. The car was built by Tony Foyt in the late 50's and was run at Playland and Meyer Speedway by Billy Wade. It is a white #2 T-bucket super-modified. Anybody remember this car? I have a photo of it.

In the mean time, I invite those of you on this forum who have an interest in local Texas racing, past and present to join us on TEXAS SPEEDZONE (TXSZ.Com) Forums Section. I have the photo posted at the top of the "Texas Racing History Section" right now. Regards.

Hey Budman, where was that photo taken? I remember the car and Wade but the track doesn't look familiar.

Thanks,

Jim

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Here is a site that might interest you:

http://www.sixflagshouston.com/maps/

There is a forum there as well, but I like this one better!

Below is the Astroworld Park map from 1980, when my best friend and I used to get the season passes! $10 for the pass if I'm not mistaken. ;-)

sfaw1980.jpg

What a trip. I had that map hanging in my closet. That definitely was one of their best years.

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My parents took us to Hanah Barberra Land around 1984 when I was 6-7 years old. They had a place where you could stand in front of a blue screen and have a VHS made of you with different characters in it. Me, my younger sister, and my dad did one where we were in a haunted mansion with Scooby Doo and Shaggy. One of the park workers would be off camera telling you what motions you had to do at different times and then you got to see the film at the end. My parents still have that tape, it's hilarious.

I also have some of the same memories of Games People play on 1960. It's hard to believe that nothing has been done with that property. GPP closed around 1990-ish, and the place still has many remnants of the old park.

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11222.jpg

Yes, that is definately Playland Park!

The main entrance was to the left of that photo. As you entered, the first ride on the left was the booth for the train which ran along side the roller coaster (behind it in the photo). Just beyond that is where Murworth is now. The round ride in the photo is the Tilt-a-Whirl.

Is there any one that can pin-point the exact DATES of existance of PlayLand Park? My mom spoke of it often and if I think correctly she said it was near where there were these tired old little ponies we used to ride in the early 60's. She could be mistaken but it had to be there or near these ponies? I know when we went to ride these horses/donkeys there were still some rusted small little cars styled like the 1940's (cool) wish I had one now! There were other cool dated toys for kids around us but don't tell me its gone too? ....more tears.....probably some of those hideous condos on top of it now. They look just like tall tin/aluminum out houses like the ones in Freedmans town, YUGLY.

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I scanned through the three pages and I don't think I saw a mention of Busch Gardens on the corner of I10 and the East Loop at the Budweiser brewery.

I Hanna Barbara the same as the now Splashtown or is that a different park.

joe

I remember Busch Gardens! It was created quickly and why they put it in that part of town I will never know? Thas probably why it met an untimely demise. Who in the heck wanted to take their kids to an industrial area?

We would drive by it everytime we picked up my dad at work at nearby Roadway Express terminal. B Gardens looked so cool from far away because the rides looked very exciting, we were just glued to the car windows as we passed! Was very colorful and seemed like it was expanding. I bet it only lasted about 4-5 years at most? Anyone else know? I just recall it there until about 1975???

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