To Mark Barnes -
WOW!! I found this site this morning (was looking up info on Kitirik - I was on the show once), and I am also just blown away by your photos and info - same for jakdad and the others.
Let me put in some of my memories. I was born in Houston in 1951, lived there until 1960. We lived in "South Park" on Malmedy. At that time the 610 loop was a sand and gravel roadbed, and everybody used to gather at the end of the block at sundown in order to watch both screens of the King Center drive-in (the Road Runner cartoons were the best, of course).
57Tbird has the details about the track exactly as I remember them. My dad was a huge racing fan, and we went to Playland every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, without fail. We went into the pits, Billy Wade was my hero, and one night I got to sit in AJ's car, wearing his helmet, after he'd won the final race (was it 36 cars?). On another occasion, at one of the demolition derbys, five cars crashed into each other, all in a straight line. After a few seconds they exploded into a line of flames across the car roofs, and the driver of the car in the middle (a black '40 Ford) dove out of the "passenger" window. I remember being amazed that he, a very big man, had managed to fit through that tiny window. I also remember the loudspeakers playing all those Sousa "Marching" songs.
As for the crash in '59, on that night we were running late. Usually we got there before the first heat, and we would have been standing at the concession stand when that car tore through the fence. Dad heard it reported on the radio, and we immediately dropped to the floor and said a prayer of thanks for our deliverance. The next time we went to the track, we looked at B&W photos of the car after it had come to rest in the parking lot.
I never rode the big coaster, but I do remember one ride: I think it was called "The Rocket." It was a big slanted green platform on which a long, curved, tube-like silver "train" would go around the slanted platform, clock-wise, at high speed. The cars were open, and tilted slightly toward the left. The centrifugal force gave you the sensation that you were being thrown out of the car. The reason I remember it so vividly is because I freaked out on the ride, and screamed bloody murder so loudly that they stopped the ride to let me off! Hey, I was only 7 or 8, gimme a break
On a lighter note, I remember another ride with cars that looked like airplanes. As the ride went in a circle, you could turn your car upside-down, go up and down, etc. That was my favorite.
Anyway, thank you so much for posting these photos. Such wonderful memories.