Growing Up Jersey

Do these places mean anything to you: The Land of Make Believe, Wild West City, Palisades Amusement Park?

How about these names: Soupy Sales, Sandy Becker, Sonny Fox?

No?  Yes?  If you were a child growing up in the metropolitan New York area that extends into central New Jersey, they might mean the world to you.

The Land of Make Believe is an amusement park in Hope, NJ.  It is filled with kiddie rides and attractions and has added a water park since I was a child.  This place was magical for a young child, and I would guess that it still is.

Wild West City is “a western city smack dab in the East.”  With a circa 1880 Main Street,  22 live-action shows spaced throughout the day, a stagecoach, a train ride, a pony ride,  and a barnyard zoo,  what red-blooded boy wouldn’t love Wild West City in Netcong, NJ?

Palisades Amusement Park closed on September 12, 1971.  I still remember the ads that they ran all summer.  Tuesdays and Thursdays were bargains days, with “many rides 5 and 10 cents.” 

Our family visited Palisades Amusement Park during the last week of operation there.  There was a bit of a surreal character to the experience.  There was something in the atmosphere that was detectable, even to a child. 

The employees were grieving, the long-time patrons of the park were grieving, and yet, we were all still there for fun.  Palisades had a long run, but its location resulted meant that its run would be terminated by local officials who saw the potential for high-rise condominiums that would normalize traffic on the roads and bring greater income to the municipalities. 

Soupy Sales was on WNEW-TV during my childhood.  He brought “The Soupy Sales Show to New York City in September 1964 and his show ran until September 1966.  Soupy had a zany wit, an engaging smile, and an energetic act.  He sang, danced, mugged, and laughed, and of course, he brought his pie-throwing shtick with him.  Puppets and regular characters were a significant part of the show and the characters that Soupy and his crew came up with are legendary: White Fang, Pookie the Lion, Black Tooth,  and Hippy the Hippo were just some of the puppet characters.

Sandy Becker was an elegant man and a mainstay at WNEW-TV.  He did morning shows, afternoon shows, evening shows, weekend shows –s there any time when Becker wasn’t on camera?  Becker also employed puppets and created characters like Hambone, Big Professor and Norton Nork.  Becker was the first host for Wonderama, and then his own weekday afternoon program, The Sandy Becker Show, from March 27, 1961 to September 4, 1968.  Becker’s run on Wonderama included six hour shows on Sundays from noon to 6 pm.

Sonny Fox took over for Becker on Wonderama and hosted the show from 1959 to 1967.  Fox brought his own personality to the production that included slapstick comedy, audience participation games and impromptu interviews, and cartoons.  I still remember the tongue twisters like unique New York.  Say that five times fast.  How about ten times.

Those were special days, never to be duplicated, and always to be remembered.