Action Park: Fast Times, Wild Rides, and the Untold Story of America's Most Dangerous Amusement Park Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Andy Mulvihill (Author), Jake Rossen (Author), Michael Satow (Narrator),

4.7 1,242 ratings

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"Citizen Kane does Adventureland." (The Washington Post)

The outlandish, hilarious, terrifying, and almost impossible-to-believe story of the legendary, dangerous amusement park where millions were entertained and almost as many bruises were sustained, told through the eyes of the founder's son

Often called "Accident Park", "Class Action Park", or "Traction Park", Action Park was an American icon. Entertaining more than a million people a year in the 1980s, the New Jersey-based amusement playland placed no limits on danger or fun, a monument to the anything-goes spirit of the era that left guests in control of their own adventures - sometimes with tragic results. Though it closed its doors in 1996 after nearly 20 years, it has remained a subject of constant fascination ever since, an establishment completely anathema to our modern culture of rules and safety.

Action Park is the first-ever unvarnished look at the history of this DIY Disneyland, as seen through the eyes of Andy Mulvihill, the son of the park's idiosyncratic founder, Gene Mulvihill. From his early days testing precarious rides to working his way up to chief lifeguard of the infamous Wave Pool to later helping run the whole park, Andy's story is equal parts hilarious and moving, chronicling the life and death of a uniquely American attraction, a wet and wild 1980s adolescence, and a son's struggle to understand his father's quixotic quest to become the Walt Disney of New Jersey. Packing in all of the excitement of a day at Action Park, this is destined to be one of the most unforgettable memoirs of the year.

Listening Length

9 hours and 41 minutes
Author

Andy Mulvihill, see all
Narrator

Michael Satow
Audible release date

June 30 2020
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin Audio
ASIN

B081584BHY
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	9 hours and 41 minutes
Author	Andy Mulvihill, Jake Rossen
Narrator	Michael Satow
Audible.ca Release Date	June 30 2020
Publisher	Penguin Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B081584BHY
Best Sellers Rank	#69,051 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #239 in Popular Culture Studies (Audible Books & Originals) #1,261 in United States History (Audible Books & Originals) #1,444 in Popular Culture in Social Sciences

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5

1,242 global ratings

5 star		77%
4 star		18%
3 star		4%
2 star		1%
1 star 0% (0%)		0%

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Top reviews from Canada

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DetRedWingsGirl

WOW!

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on September 14, 2020

Verified Purchase

This book had me hooked from the first picture on the inside, even before the text started! Each chapter holds a "holy crap!" episode and you'll think, "This is the craziest stuff I ever heard," but then there's MORE. I would've been too scared to go to Action Park if I had known about it back then, so this book let me live it vicariously. Awesome story!

Helpful

heidi.s.

Escape 2020 with this LOL memoir. One word.. Hilarious

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on December 19, 2020

Verified Purchase

Laugh out loud fun! If you want to escape this world right now I highly recommend a trip to Action Park. A brilliant memoir in a different time.

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Bobtedd-0811

Good read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 10, 2021

Verified Purchase

A good book to read.

However, we can tell from the start that the very casual attitude about Health and Safety from the park owner will turn into some serious issues later on. Highly predictable outcome.

I think the writer (the park owner's son) is quite casual about reporting accidents too, despite some quite serious and fatal. Doesn't seem to understand how serious the situations were, as per his father.

Jack Savage

Hilarious. if you like Jackass, you'll love this.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 4, 2020

Verified Purchase

It's so funny, it's hard to believe it really happened. It's brilliant, I couldn't put it down. Wish I could go back in time to New Jersey 1986 and experience this insanity for real.

CDM

Hilarious

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 15, 2020

Verified Purchase

Such a hilarious book - written with clear affection for the subject. It’s clearly an account of a long-gone era and shows how much things have changed in one or two generations.

Megachulo

They sure don’t make ‘em like they used to!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 5, 2020

Verified Purchase

I miss action park. The planets all lined up once in the history of mankind for the this icon of the 1980’s to happen. This book brought me back and made me laugh out loud multiple times. For every photo I call my wife and kids over like an actor proud of his past and show them- “I did this one! I survived that one- twice!” I bough the book a bit skeptical about the quality, but now that I’m nearly done, I can say it is well written, very funny, and highly nostalgic. I had kept up with the action park lore over the years online and thought I knew every story there was to tell- who knew those tales were the tip of the iceberg. This book brought back so many new memories. The bees, the garbage juice, the gang fights, the lifeguards uniforms. The Tanks with the tennis balls! The boats that splashed u with toxic fuel! Epic road rash from the alpine slide! On a more serious side, I am impressed that the author (the owners son) did not shy away from the subject of the deaths, and noticeably changed the tone of the book to discuss them.
All in all, one of the best books I’ve read in a while. If u are a child of the 80’s, had poofy hair and owned a members only jacket, and lived in the northeast with experience in “traction park”, u will read this book in one sitting.

24 people found this helpful

Jeremiah W. Daly

Everything Looks Better Through the Lens of Nostalgia

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 29, 2020

Verified Purchase

This book is a fun read and the stories the author tells are truly entertaining. I’d heard rumors about some of the tales presented here but seeing them all in one place is a great way to remember a part of my childhood that is thankfully long gone. Having grown up in northern NJ in the 70s and 80s, a stone’s throw from Vernon, I recall visiting Action Park and having a great time on the water rides, the Alpine Slide, and in the maze. (I wasn’t old enough for the mini-race cars and felt the tennis ball shooting tanks were absurd.)

But while I always enjoyed my time there, I and all my friends knew that the park (which we endearingly referred to as “Accident Park”) was as dangerous as it was fun. Six people died as a result of injuries sustained in the park. Many thousands were injured in less than fatal ways. While the author does not gloss over this fact, he also does not seem to really “get” this on a deep level. The story he weaves in a glowing “aww shucks” tone is of his seemingly ADHD entrepreneurial father, a man who built the park out of sheer will (and dubious business practices) as a place where customers could indulge their sense of adventure and danger, skirting the boundaries of safety to achieve a rush of adrenaline. But there is never any real acceptance of their responsibility to keep their patrons safe. Even in the book’s most somber moments (after some ticketholder drowns or is electrocuted) the most we get is a bit of reflection that is only on the surface. “Respect this,” the author’s father says to him after one such tragedy. But then they pivot to the next poorly designed, hastily erected deathtrap without a second thought. There is little sense that any of his family accept any responsibility for the deaths, and certainly not the more routine injuries. In their weirdly libertarian weltanschauung it seems all the responsibility rests on the victim. After all, they knew the rides were dangerous, didn’t they? Whose fault was it really if they went ahead and got themselves hurt? Didn’t the park provide lots of jobs for the locals? If the town of Vernon and state of New Jersey really disapproved, wouldn’t they have done everything they could to shut the park down (sooner)? Oh, and don’t worry about the fact that none of the rides were adequately designed or tested to ANY accepted engineering and safety standards, or that the park was “insured” by a shell company created by the owner. It all makes for a great story now. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Move along!

All told, it’s amazing that more people weren’t killed at Action Park. It was a relic of another time that could only exist in the brief window when it did. Thankfully we can revisit it now, from a truly safe distance, with this book. Like I said, it’s a fun and entertaining read. But that’s only because everything looks better when viewed through the lens of nostalgia. There are at least six families who would see things quite differently.

25 people found this helpful

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Action Park: Fast Times, Wild Rides, and the Untold Story of America's Most Dangerous Amusement Park Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

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