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Roller Coaster
Playland is the proud owner of a wooden roller coaster built by Robert
Bollinger and his staff. Burrard Amusement hired Carl Phare to design a
coaster for this park. Carl had designed many roller coasters including
the Giant Dipper at Jantzen Beach, Portland, Oregon, and Playland Park,
Washington.
Playland (British Columbia) was the last (and
greatest) one that he designed. Carl drew the plans for the
coaster that were submitted to the Building Department, Vancouver,
British Columbia.
Before permission was granted, the board
requested the plans be changed to require a ring with each bolt at
every junction of the structure. Burrard Lumber Company (no relation to
Burrard Amusement) sold the #1 Douglas fir. The fir was given a
pressure treatment covering the life of the wood.
BOYS TO FACE FIRE CHARGE article on fire that damaged the "Giant Dipper."
Carousel
There
was a 1912 Parker Toboggan carousel at Playland. Robert acting
for Burrard Amusements, Ltd. purchased it from Happyland. He had
it refurbished at his shop located at The Oaks in Portland, Oregon and
a large building in the shape of a Mexican hat constructed to protect
it.
When Playland was sold, this building was torn down
exposing the carousel to the weather which caused a lot of damage in
the following years. Today this carousel resides in a museum at the
Burnaby Village. Restoration was done with a lot of talent and
love. If you have an opportunity, visit this carousel. It has been
restored to its original beauty.
Carousel Fans Get Fresh Hand -
an article found with negatives of photos taken by Robert dated 1989
The 36 horses of the PNE Playland carousel may be on their way to greener pastures - if the Vancouver park board has anything to say about it.
The horses, are part of a 1912 Parker gem owned by York-Hanover of Toronto, are headed for a New York auction block unless enough money is raised to buy the carousel and donate it to Vancouver.
The park board has voted "unanimously, enthusiastically and warm-heartedly" to help the Friends of the Vancouver Carousel Society find a suitable home for the carousel, under certain conditions.
For the Society has to raise the $10,000 per horse it will cost to buy the carousel. Then it has to guarantee that restoration, estimated at $250,000, will be carried out. Finally, it has to ensure that the ride will be operated efficiently and the board won't be left holding the feedbag.
Although the board agreed to help with a location, Johnson and other society members only have until September to raise the initial $360,000 for the carousel.
Carousel Story
Mrs.
Mackey was around the Playland office and grounds more than Robert or
Mrs. Burtenshaw and had a habit of making major partnership decisions
with consulting the other partners. Her final one was ordering,
Mr. Crawshaw, Manager of Playland, to dip the carousel horses in a vat
of paint thinner to ready them for repainting.
What she didn’t
know was that Mr. Parker would walk along the beach, pick up pieces of
driftwood, carve them into pieces and fit them together to make an
animal. Each of his animals are distinctive as they are 3-D puzzles. It
cost Burrard Amusements a lot of money to get all of the pieces glued
back into carousel animals again.
Money Story
Robert
would count the money with the help of one other person then take it to
the PNE who recounted and did the banking. Well, every now and then
there would be a discrepancy. A bag of coin would be missing.
It
was apparent there was a thief but difficult to figure out how the bag
was disappearing (these were the big bags like used in the bank for
holding coin). One night Robert happened to see an employee walk into
the men’s room. This was unusual as no one was supposed to be in the
area. After he left, Robert looked around and found a bag of
half-dollars had been placed out of sight behind the toilet bowl.
As Robert is a very low key person, he replaced the bag he found with a
bag of pennies. They were never short coin from that time forward.
Prize Complaints
One
of the concessionaires was very skilled at getting prizes for a good
price. During a season, electric toasters were offered. Before
long Management started getting complaints that there were crumbs in
the toaster.
An investigation was launched. It was discovered
that the toaster manufacturer would randomly pick out a toaster from
the production line and test it by toasting a piece of bread.
These were the toasters the concessionaire was purchasing for prizes. |
