MORE RARE PHOTOS FROM HISTORY
History is fascinating and it seems like we’re uncovering more of it every day. Here is yet another collection of photos you may have never seen before.
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Mar7
Tag Archives: old
Dec21
50 Hottest Most Grooviest Photos from the Past That Will Redefine Your Style Statement
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2016
50 Hottest Most Grooviest Photos from the Past That Will Redefine Your Style Statement
A pictorial celebration of the coolest kids from the past… From beatniks to bikers, mods to rude boys, hippies to ravers. And everything in between. These are images that will set your soul on fire. Get ready to get a style check.
1. A flirtatious Brigitte Bardot in a white swimsuit.
2. London, 1904.
3. Little hippie girl going dance crazy at Woodstock, 1969.
4. Young boys strike a pose for the camera, Jamaica.
5. Muhammad Ali with his all of his ‘Ginormous’ winnings, 1974.
6. Pretty girl selling flowers on the roadside, Oklahoma, 1973.
7. Bathing beauties in vivid Kodachrome, 1944.
8. Arnold Schwarzenegger swags it up with his glass of cognac.
9. A punk guy rocking a kickass Mohawk, 1970.
10. Ann Margaret totally rocking it out on her bike, 1969.
11. Morgan Freeman sporting a wicked afro in the ’70s.
12. Boys of the future, New York, 1970.
13. Two foxxy couples in Harlem, New York, 1970s.
14. Hugh Hefner with his new bunnies, 1970s.
15. The stylish Greta Garbo.
16. Mick Jagger, Andy Warhol, and Jane Holzer, circa 1965.
17. Candy Cigarette by photographer Sally Man, 1989.
18. A stylish couple enjoying the romantic rain in London, 1963.
19. The Bowdoin College Tug of War Team, 1891.
20. Sean Connery leaves his basement flat in London for a game of golf, 1962.
21. A beautiful girl admiring her reflection in a Rolls Royce while men around her get mesmerized, London, 1968.
22. Woman in the British Royal Army Corps flaunts her new tattoo, 1940.
23. The Beatles arrive in style at the JFK airport, New York, 1964.
24. The Saturday Night Live original cast, 1975.
25. Jimi Hendrix on Carnaby Street in London, 1967.
26. A young and debonair Robin Williams, 1969.
27. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip at the horse races, 1968.
28. A gang of young and vivacious girls, 1930.
29. Actress Joan Bradshaw keeps heads turning as she walks down Hollywood Boulevard, 1957.
30. A group of handsome Southside Boys, Chicago, 1941.
31. A 1970s biker girl cranking up some tunes.
32. Rita Hayworth looking hot on her bicycle, 1940s.
33. A couple dancing in a 1950s “Be Bop” theater as everyone looks on.
34. The amazing Ann-Margret in Bye Bye Birdie, 1963.
35. Bruce Willis living the life, 1989.
36. A woman experiences heaven in the 1961 Buick “Flamingo” equipped with a rotating front seat.
37. Princess Yvonne and Prince Alexander party like rockstars, Germany, 1955.
38. Two girls walking down the street in Cape Town, 1965.
39. Picasso in his studio, 1956.
40. A high school girl setting a groovy fashion statement, 1964.
41. Presenting Diana Rigg, Olenna Tyrell from Game of Thrones, 1967.
42. Too cool for school, Brooklyn teenagers in the ’80s.
43. Pretty roller skating girls humor some boys at an Outdoor Roller Skating Rink, 1970s.
44. A scooter girl, 1969.
45. Nat King Cole enjoys a smoke while he plays his tunes on a piano.
46. Jane Fonda stretches and relaxes in the back of her limo, 1958.
47. Ann Margaret poses with a baby leopard, 1960s.
48. The University of Texas women’s track team practices, 1964.
49. Harrison Ford looking sharp, 1980.
50. Pacific Southwest Airlines stewardesses, 1972.
(via Emlii)
#old#photos#cool#famous_people
Aug26
HIWAY AMERICA – THE GREAT AMERICAN AMUSEMENT PARK
Permanent outdoor recreation areas have been around at least as long as written history. Public areas are among 
the essential amenities any society develops, and their improvement is relatively cheap advertising for the local monarch (large statues make great decorations). But public resort areas with amusement facilities did not appear in Europe until the Renaissance. In England, they were called “pleasure gardens,” and they flourished from about 1550 to 1700. They first appeared in the form of resort grounds operated by inns and taverns. They quickly proved good for business, and became more elaborate. Vauxhall Gardens opened in London in 1661 covering 12 acres, and admission was free. Entertainment was provided: acrobatic acts, fireworks, music — Mozart performed there as an 8-year-old prodigy in 1764. Professional showmen saw the money-making potential of the concept, and began operating them for profit.
In early America, amusement parks began as picnic grounds. Some were built by local breweries (there’s much more profit when you can sell your beer directly, rather than through middlemen). These “beer gardens” offered the working
man an inexpensive day’s relaxation for the family, including plenty of open space, concerts, sometimes bathing, and always beer and food. Attendance was promoted by streetcar companies and local railroad and excursion boat operators. Many parks were developed by trolley companies. They bought their electricity at a flat monthly rate — build amusement parks at the end of the line and you boosted weekend use at little added expense! Before long, hundreds of such parks were built all over the country.
Expositions, particularly the 1893 Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition, provided another model for American amusement parks. The Chicago event was the first to concentrate rides, shows and concessions in a separate “midway.” As discussed in a previous chapter, these expositions attracted teeming crowds with a multitude of lures: entertainment, education, recreation, and trade. Entrepreneurs soon learned that each attraction could boost its attendance by virtue of its proximity to every other popular feature, and that all of them together could turn profits that could never be realized by stand-alone attractions.
The story of amusement parks is largely the story of George C. Tilyou, a masterful entrepreneur whose vision created the amusement park in a form that remained unchanged until Disney created theme parks.
Coney Island
New York City had the money and the crowds: finances to build parks and a huge pool of working-class families looking for close and affordable relief from the grim realities of daily life. Coney Island, a five-mile stretch of beach at the entrance to New York Harbor where Brooklyn meets the sea, was already a popular seaside resort for the city and environs. A pleasant and largely undeveloped spot so close to a huge population in need of close and cheap recreation, it was destined to become home to a succession of wonderful parks.
The first attractions on Coney Island were racetracks built for wealthy vacationers in 1880. A collection of attractions suited to more moderate incomes followed. Amusement rides were popular. In 1884, Lamarcus Thompson built the first amusement railroad in the world, the “Switchback Railroad.” Its two wooden undulating tracks started ran down a 600-foot structure. It cost Thompson $1600 to build, but at 10¢ per ride, it took in $600-700 per day.
Young George Tilyou, owner of an array of single rides scattered around the island, saw the gigantic 250′ Ferris wheel at the 1893 Chicago exposition. Unable to buy it (it had already been sold), he had his own 125-foot version built. It was the most popular single attraction on Coney Island until Captain Paul Boyton came to town.
Hugely famous for daredevil swimming feats performed in an inflatable, rubberized suit of his own invention, Boyton had opened Chutes Park in Chicago the previous year to take advantage of the crowds visiting the World’s Columbian Exposition. On Coney Island, Boyton opened Sea Lion Park in 1895,
enclosed by a fence and featuring a one-price admission that entitled the visitor to enjoy all the attractions, including the spectacular “Shoot-the-Chutes” (a water-flume ride) and the Captain’s own swimming exhibitions.
Once Tilyou understood the idea, he ran with it. He bought and improved an 1100-foot gravity-driven mechanical ride, the “Steeplechase Horses,” and opened Steeplechase Park on 15 ocean-front acres the next year. In 1902 he hired a huge illusion ride, Frederic Thompson’s “A Trip to the Moon,” that he had seen at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo. The next year, Thompson took the ride away to open competing Luna Park with Elmer Dundy.
Boyton’s early success, without significant competition (at first), made him reluctant to tamper with a successful and imperfectly-understood formula. With his “it ain’t broke so don’t fix it” attitude, he failed to add or improve attractions. However, Tilyou’s changing array of attractions at Steeplechase Park, each more spectacular than the last, followed the public taste for the new and different, a taste that turned quickly into a distinct preference, then a demand. What pleased the paying public one year was old-hat the next. Sea Lion Park, hopelessly out of date, fell out of favor and closed. Its 22 acres were purchased by Thompson and Dundy, who retained only the “Chute the Chutes” from Sea Lion and opened Luna Park on the site in 1903.
Luna Park featured hundreds of thousands of electric lights (the technological sensation of the time), including 
nightly displays by huge searchlights mounted in its central tower, illuminating the dozens of other fanciful towers and minarets. The influence of the Chicago fair is reflected in the names of many of Luna’s attractions: “The Canals of Venice,” “Eskimo Village,” “A Trip to the North Pole.” There was a $1.95 one-price admission available, but most visitors opted to pay 10¢ for most attractions, 25¢ for the spectacular ones. Luna Park repaid its entire $700,000 cost in just six weeks.
The next season, Luna was rivaled by Dreamland, whose policy seemed to be to do everything twice as big as its competitors. Attractions included a copy of the “Shoot the Chutes,” “Fighting the Flames,” a show in which firefighters demonstrated rescues from a six-story blazing building (two stories higher than the one premiered by Luna, and later expanded to an entire burning city block). Dreamland affected a higher tone than its competitors, presenting attractions with cultural and even biblical themes. Dr. Martin Couney’s “Infant Incubator” displayed premature infants and the scientific wonders developed to help them live (of the 8,000 babies brought to Dr. Couney during his residence at Dreamland, 7500 survived).
All three parks were built in the same style, white plaster fantasies similar to those already familiar to the public from the World’s Columbian Exposition.
See 1903 Edison film of Luna Park and Steeplechase Park
THESE LINKS DON’T WORK IN THE SAMPLE PAGE,
BUT ON THE DISK THEY LEAD TO 12 MINUTES OF RARE FILM
See a 1940 sound film of Coney Island
Samuel W. Gumpertz came to Dreamland to build “Lilliputia,” a midget city where he housed 300 midgets for the 1904 opening season. The background midi for this page is the sweet waltz “Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland,” written for that inaugural season. Gumpertz scoured the world for freaks, visiting Egypt, Asia and Africa five times each 
(including two trips to Africa’s unexplored center) and dozens of trips to Europe. Besides freaks, he imported exotic humans: Filipino blowgun shooters, Algerian horsemen, Somali warriors, “Wild Men from Borneo” who really were from Borneo and plate-lipped Ubangi women. Never as popular as its competitors, Dreamland burned to the ground in 1911. Gumpertz’s Dreamland Circus Sideshow prospered for years thereafter in another location. Its success brought copiers, like the World Circus Freak Show opened in 1922, followed by Hubert’s Museum, the Palace of Wonders Freak Show and more. All had fat ladies, seal boys, pinheads, electric girls, dog-faced boys and on and on. Gumpertz left Coney Island in 1929 to manage the Barnum & Bailey Circus.
Steeplechase, “The Funny Place,” was every bit as good as its nickname. With rides and attractions updated every year, the public could count on novelty, 
thrills, and the delight of seeing other people have fun. Involvement was the name of the game at Steeplechase. At every turn (beginning with the entrance) customers were tricked into pratfalls and comic indignities, then allowed to recover with a laugh as they viewed others suffering the same treatment. At the “Blowhole Theater,” you could watch as patrons exiting the Steeplechase ride passed a dwarf clown who would control air jets to blow men’s hats off and ladies’ dresses upward. The spills and the thrills were all designed to allow the odd moment of “I couldn’t help it” contact with one’s pretty date … a ride on the double-saddled Steeplechase Horses wasn’t safe without a firm hug, and a tumble on the Human Roulette Wheel often brought a flash of ankle and a friendly pile-up. Especially popular was the El Dorado carousel, restored from the Dreamland fire and restored to its full glory of 42 feet high and lit with 6000 lamps over three platforms in ascending tiers, each revolving at a different speed.
Built of wood and plaster, the grand old parks were like well-laid fires ready to burn. And burn they did, some repeatedly. Things were never quite the same after the beginning of the Great War (WWI). Faced with unprecedented horrors in real life, many patrons lost the taste for freaks, mock battles and burning blocks of buildings. Then the 
subway to the city opened, and paradoxically, it only hastened the decline in “business as usual.” It brought millions of people to the resort, but few of them had much money to spend. They crowded out the beaches, and their lower-class manners made former patrons, people with a little more couth and a little more money, uncomfortable. The people with enough money to go elsewhere went elsewhere and took their money with them. Attractions that had prospered when patronized by the middle class went bankrupt trying to lower prices and deliver the same services to the poor.
The Depression finished the job for most of the parks. The 1939-40 World’s Fair stole away many paying customers. The sideshows were hit hard by a late 1930s ban on outside ballys. New York’s notoriously hard-on-business regulations had not helped businesses weakened by years of falling attendance and neglect, followed by a “clean up the decaying area” campaign that was just a thinly-disguised attempt to make way for profitable redevelopment. Steeplechase, the first to prosper, was the last to close. Tilyou’s grand vision, by then only a shadow of its former grandeur, wheezed to a halt in 1964, a victim of changing times and urban decay. Its few remaining buildings were quickly bulldozed by the land’s new owner before the city could declare it a historic landmark.
Today, the island is still home to beach and boardwalk, but there is nothing as spectacular as the early amusement parks. The New York Aquarium now stands on Dreamland’s site. Steeplechase’s famed 250-foot Parachute Tower is the sole standing reminder of the glorious past. Ironically, the forces that killed the freak shows support one as a curiosity: “Coney Island USA” operates “Sideshows by the Seashore”, partially funded by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
Atlantic City
Atlantic City, New Jersey, was a seaside resort, the eastern terminus of a railroad which helped develop the resort. Its boardwalk dates from 1870. Starting in 1882, a series of piers were built out over the ocean, offering all types of entertainment for a single admission price. In 1898 the 2,000-foot Steel Pier was built, followed in 1902 by the Million Dollar Pier, from which Houdini dove shackled into the ocean, and on which Teddy Roosevelt campaigned for his Bull Moose party. Top bands and entertainers attracted visitors. In the summer, famous acts like Steel Pier’s Diving Horse and a high-wire motorcycle act swelled attendance. H.J. Heinz was so taken with the sheer numbers of people coming to Atlantic City, people on whom advertising impressions could be made, that in 1898 he opened Heinz Pier. The pier’s unusual premise was peace and quiet, a place to get away from the crowds. 
There was a sun parlor with reclining chairs and writing desks, free food samples (Heinz products, of course), and a Heinz pickle pin as a parting gift. Coney Island impresario George Tilyou built a branch of his Steeplechase Park here in Atlantic City in 1908, calling it Steeplechase Pier, where the amusements included the Sugar Bowl Slide, the Mexican Hat Bowl, and Flying Chairs that swung riders out over the ocean. Like Coney Island, Atlantic City enjoyed a sparkling heyday and a long decline, until legalized gambling revitalized at least part of its tourist trade.
Other parks all over the country went through charming beginnings and fantastic developments. Some have prospered continuously, others flickered and died.
Starting in 1915, new diversions (motion pictures) and new mobility (the automobile) made their mark. Many parks closed, and the Depression that began in 1929 forced the closing of many others. 2000 parks had flourished in the U.S. in 1910, but by 1934 there were fewer than 500. The same economic changes that forced circuses to adapt or die caused the park business to decline throughout World War II. Some parks failed because they did not learn what George Tilyou had always understood, and Captain Paul Boyton did not: no matter what wonders you have created, the public demands something better every year. Other parks had no room to change — the automobile would bring a vast influx of customers from greater distances, but only if they could get there on good roads and only if they found room to park. The rising value of real estate demanded more intensely profitable use of every acre in developing areas, a factor that also hit drive-in movie theaters. The postwar prosperity and the “Baby Boom” injected a little new life into a moribund industry, helped by the introduction of children’s areas, “Kiddielands,” spearheaded by Kennywood near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
Disneyland and after
In 1955, Walt Disney, already a wildly successful maker of family movies and television, marshalled his already-considerable resources: universal brand name recognition, an established stable of instantly recognizable characters, a weekly nationwide television audience, and a large parcel of unused land in Anaheim, California. He invented the “theme park,” though the term was not used then: Disneyland, an environment completely under control with every element approved by the family-friendly and trusted Disney, designed for the whole family. And it was designed to be more than just a local attraction; it was meant as a destination for vacationers nationwide.
Disney was always a canny businessman. He had no need to pay for advertising … his hour-long promotional “documentaries” on Disneyland’s opening aired as profitable program material!
Disneyland’s image, like the rest of the Disney image, was squeaky-clean. Everything was guaranteed to be safe, spotless, entertaining and profitable. All was made in the Disney image, owned and operated without middlemen. Gone were the carnival’s tawdry games, the questionable food stands, the itinerant performers. In their place were the very same hard-to-win games run by the company and staffed by earnest teenagers on summer break, and food stands run by the company. The shows were all family-friendly, with well-scrubbed college-age performers working for low wages on the premise that this experience would be good training for their future entertainment careers. The hot-to-trot girl shows remained only as a sanitized pastiche, as fresh-faced college girls performed hourly musical revues in Disney-studio costumes. The sole reminder of the ten-in-one talker was the scripted “hurry, hurry, hurry” of the youthful trained announcer twirling his fake mustache and calling everyone to his attraction — not a “Museum of Oddities” or a “Gallery of Freaks,” but a barbershop quartet or a banjo band. There were no more freaks … well, there was this really big mouse. Disneyland, and later Disney World in Orlando, Florida, still attract families on the strength of an image the rest of the Disney operation seems to have abandoned (that sound you hear is Walt spinning in his grave as the next episode of Disney-distributedEllen or one of its successors airs).
Several companies tried to copy Disneyland’s success, but none had Disney’s pre-sold combination of name recognition and (essentially free) nationwide advertising on the weekly
Disney television show. In 1961, Six Flags Over Texas opened, followed by several other Six Flags parks across the nation, successfully establishing themselves as regional, not national, destination parks.
Walt Disney World, which opened in 1971, is still the largest theme park ever built. The park turned into a multi-attraction complex with the (self-styled) “visionary” EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) Center, recalling the corporate advertising of a world’s fair, in 1982. Subsequent additions to the complex include the world’s biggest water park, interconnecting but still self-contained getaways for grownups, and one more amazing innovation. Taking as a model Universal Studios Hollywood, where studio tours added a new profit center to an existing movie/tv production facility, Disney and MGM created Disney/MGM Studios, a combined theme-park/studio. It was a stroke of show business genius! Florida’s motion picture industry was already well known as the home of low-budget productions, drive-in movies and the like. Some producers, like Ivan Tors of Flipper fame, had made national entertainment careers based in Florida instead of Hollywood. The area had an established craft, technical and talent base, and was a right-to-work haven for producers looking to make shows on budgets uninflated by Hollywood and New York craft unions. The result: two big-money businesses for the price of one!Less than the price of one, if you figure in the development perks and tax breaks local governments often offer to those who bring thousands of jobs to any community.
Parks of all sorts have felt one overwhelming pressure that affects all businesses and all traditions: the public’s easy boredom and demand for change. Some have successfully given the people what they want, others have not tried, or have tried and failed to find an innovation that intrigues the public.
“Things aren’t the way they used to be,” one old-timer has been heard to say; “and, you know what? They never were the way they used to be.”
If Steeplechase and Luna and Dreamland seem to us like wonders that should never have been allowed to fade, recall the plea on the marquee of a run-down pre-renewal Times Square porn theater: “It’s new until you’ve seen it.”
Large theme parks continue to innovate, with bigger (or at least different) shows, newer rides, wilder roller coasters, and ever-higher prices, even though some are operating on a scale not much bigger than the average former local park. Many older, smaller amusement parks, like Pennsylvania’s Kennywood, still find new and different ways to entertain, their charms only enhanced by their modest, comfortable size and careful preservation as reminders of bygone days.
History Section Index
1 – Early Fairs & Carnivals 2 – Expositions 3 – Freak Shows & Museums
4 – Circuses 4a – Circus Acts 4b – Clowns
5a – Wild West Shows 5b – Medicine Shows
6 – Carnivals 7 – Amusement & Theme Parks 8 – Vaudeville
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 Design a Roller CoasterTry your hand at designing your own roller coaster. You will be building a conceptual coaster using the physics concepts that are used to design real coasters. You won’t need to compute any formulas. |
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You will decide the following – the height of the first hill, the shape of the first hill, the exit path, the height of the second hill, and the loop.
When you’re done, your coaster will need to pass an inspection for both safety and fun.
Here we go!
First you need to determine theheight of the first hill. Start building your coaster by clicking on the “Begin” button.
Note: We’ll assume that your coaster is a single-car coaster running on a frictionless track. It has a mass of 800 kg (1760 lbs). The acceleration due to gravity is 32 ft/s/s. Back to Roller Coaster“Amusement Park Physics” is inspired by programs from The Mechanical Universe…and Beyond.
MORE
History of Amusement & Theme Parks
Amusement park is the more generic term for a collection of amusement rides and other entertainment attractions assembled for the purpose of entertaining a fairly large group of people. An amusement park is more elaborate than a simple city park or playground, as an amusement park is meant to cater to adults, teenagers, and small children.
An amusement park may be permanent or temporary, usually periodic, such as a few days or weeks per year. The temporary (often annual) amusement park with mobile rides etc. is called a funfair or carnival.
The original amusement parks were the historical precursors to the modern theme parks as well as the more traditional midway arcades and rides at county and state fairs (in the United States). Today, amusement parks have largely been replaced by theme parks, and the two terms are often used interchangeably.
For a remarkable example of a European park, dating from 1843 and still existing, see Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen. Even older is the Oktoberfest which is not only a beer festival but also provides a lot of amusement park features, dating back to 1810, when the first event was held in Munich, Germany.
History of American amusement parks
The first American amusement park, in the modern sense, was at the 1893 World Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago, Illinois. The 1893 World’s fair was the first to have a Ferris wheel and an arcade midway, as well as various concessions. This conglomeration of attractions was the template used for amusement parks for the next half-century, including those known as trolley parks.
In 1897, Steeplechase Park, the first of three significant amusement parks opened at Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York. Often, it is Steeplechase Park that comes to mind when one generically thinks of the heyday of Coney Island. Steeplechase Park was a huge success and by the late 1910s, there were hundreds of amusement parks in operation around the world. The introduction of the world-famous Cyclone roller coaster at Steeplechase Park in 1927 marked the beginning of the roller coaster as one of the most popular attractions for amusement parks as well as the later modern theme parks of today.
During the peak of the “golden age” of amusement parks from roughly the turn of the 20th century through the late 1920s, Coney Island at one point had three distinct amusement parks: Steeplechase Park, Luna Park (opened in 1903), and Dreamland (opened in 1904). However, the Great Depression of the 1930s and World War II during the 1940s saw the decline of the amusement park industry. Furthermore, fire was a constant threat in those days, as much of the construction within the amusement parks of the era was wooden. In 1911, Dreamland was the first Coney Island amusement park to completely burn down; in 1944, Luna Park also burned to the ground.
By the 1950s, factors such as urban decay, crime, and even desegregation led to changing patterns in how people chose to spend their free time. Many of the older, traditional amusement parks had closed or burned to the ground. Many would be taken out by the wrecking ball to make way for suburban development. In 1964, Steeplechase Park, once the king of all amusement parks, closed down for the last time.
In 1955, Disneyland in Anaheim, California revived the amusement industry with its themed lands and matching attractions instead of using the older formula with traditional rides in one area and a midway, concessions, and sideshow attractions in another. The idea of theme parks caught on and, by the 1980s, became a billion dollar-a-year industry in the United States and around the world.
Jan29
HIWAY AMERICA-ROUTE 66 OKLAHOMA CITY KS. ROUTE 66 PART 3
FUN FACTS ABOUT OKLAHOMA
Fact 1
The city got its name from a kind of yellow grass that grows in the area. Earlier, the city used to be called Oneida.
Fact 2
Amarillo residents call it the Helium capital of the world because most of the world’s supply of this gas can be located within two hundred and fifty miles of this Texas City.
Fact 3
Amarillo is home to the largest canyon within the state of Texas. Palo Duro Canyon is second only to the Grand Canyon.
Fact 4
Amarillo has a long standing record of being America’s cattle shipping capital. This is partly due to the fact that there are some many large cattle ranches located in this area in the center of Texas.
Fact 5
One of the largest nuclear weapons assembly plants in the United States is located in this city.
Fact 6
The city and the surrounding landscape have been used as a filming location in many popular movies like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Fact 7
Amarillo has inspired many country singers to write and sing songs about the city.
Fact 8
When the cattle industry sued actress and television personality Oprah Winfrey the case took place in Amarillo.
Fact 9
Famous country singer Lacey Brown calls this city home.
Fact 10
Amarillo is home to the Big Texan steakhouse. The Big Texan serves a 72 ounce steak and they promise that anyone that can eat the dinner completely in less than one hour can have the dinner for free.
“OKLAHOMA” FROM THE MUSICAL OKLAHOMA
More Fun Facts about Oklahoma
I thought it would be fun to share some interesting facts about our great state. Some of these I knew, but a lot of them I didn’t. I do know that there is nothing to be ashamed about when you say you are an Okie!
- The bread twist tie was invented in Maysville, OK.
- The shopping cart was invented in Ardmore in 1936.
- The nation’s first parking meter was installed in Oklahoma City in 1935.
- The first Girl Scout Cookie was sold in Muskogee in 1917.
- Cimarron County, located in the Oklahoma Panhandle, is the only county in the U.S. bordered by 4 separate states — Texas, New Mexico, Colorado & Kansas . (I’ve actually stood on all those state lines!)
- The Oklahoma State Capital is the only capital in the U.S. with working oil wells on its grounds.
- Boise City , OK, was the only city in the United States to be bombed during World War II. On Monday, July 5, 1943, at 12:30am., a B-17 Bomber based at Dalhart Army Air Base, Texas, dropped six practice bombs on the sleeping town, mistaking the city lights as target lights.
- WKY Radio in Oklahoma City was the first radio station transmitting west of the Mississippi River .
- The nation’s first “tornado warning” was issued March 25, 1948 in Oklahoma City minutes before a devastating tornado. Because of the warning, no lives were lost.
- Oklahoma has the largest Native American population of any state in the U.S.
- The name ‘ Oklahoma ‘ comes from two Choctaw words — okla meaning “people” and homa meaning “red.” So the name means, “Red People.” The name was approved in 1890.
- Oklahoma has produced more astronauts than any other state.
- Oklahoma has more man-made lakes than any other state.
- During the “Land Rush,” Oklahoma City and Guthrie went from vast, open prairie to cities of over 10,000 in a single day.
- The nation’s first “Yield” traffic sign was erected in Tulsa on a trial basis.
- The Pensacola Dam on Grand Lake is the longest multi-arched dam in the world at 6,565 feet.
- The Port of Catoosa (just north of Tulsa ) is the largest inland port in America.
- The aerosol can was invented in Bartlesville.
- Per square mile, Oklahoma has more tornadoes than any other place in the world.
- The highest wind speed ever recorded on earth was in Moore Okla. , on May 3, 1999 during the Oklahoma City F-5 tornado. Wind speed was clocked at 318 mph. (My husband almost lost his cousin and cousin’s two girls in this tornado.)
- The Will Rogers World Airport and the Wiley Post Airport are both named after two famous Oklahomans, both killed in the same airplane crash.
Oklahoma City
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
State Capital
City of Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City is the capital of the U.S. state of Oklahoma and its largest city. The county seat of Oklahoma County,[3] the city ranks 29th among United States cities in population.[4] As of the 2012 census, the population was 599,199.[5] In 2010 the Oklahoma City metropolitan area had a population of 1,252,987,[6] and the Oklahoma City-Shawnee Combined Statistical Area had a population of 1,322,249 residents,[7] making it Oklahoma’s largest metropolitan area. Oklahoma City’s city limits extend into Canadian, Cleveland, and Pottawatomie counties, though much of those areas outside of the core Oklahoma County area are suburban or rural (watershed). The city ranks as the eighth-largest city in the United States by land area (including consolidated city-counties; it is the second-largest city in the United States by land area whose government is not consolidated with that of a county).
Oklahoma City features one of the largest livestock markets in the world.[8] Oil, natural gas, petroleum products and related industries are the largest sector of the local economy. The city is situated in the middle of an active oil field and oil derricks dot the capitol grounds. The federal government employs large numbers of workers at Tinker Air Force Base and the United States Department of Transportation’s Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center (these two sites house several offices of the Federal Aviation Administration and the Transportation Department’s Enterprise Service Center, respectively).
Dec6
Coke commercial 1961
Aug9
FUNNY PICTURE
Jul22
INCREDIBLE PHOTOS FROM HISTORY
Jul21
BEATNIKHIWAY 