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Amusement Parks

In 1938, Patty Conklin encouraged Jack Ray to do some design work for the Rosenthal Brothers at Palisades Park, New Jersey. Little did he know, the opportunities that would come from it.

For the next 25 years, Jack would redesign some of the attractions at the Palisades Park annually. In 1954, he revamped the park with a new modern colour scheme of greens, yellows and oranges. Yellow was not a colour traditionally used in carnivals and midways due to a superstition that began in early theatre days

where the devil was portrayed as wearing yellow. In 1956, Palisades Park received licensing from DC comics and opened a Superman Village. Jack with his modernistic style was asked to the design the village for the man of steel.



Other amusement parks took notice of Jack's work and soon his skills were in high demand.


In 1944, Rex Billings of Belmont Park, Montreal hired Jack Ray to modernize a number of their show fronts and rides. Patty Conklin operated rides at Belmont and had Jack re-frame them at the same time.

"From a fun spot with mud walks and poorly co-ordinated attractions, Belmont has developed year by year until today it justifies its title, 'Beautiful Belmont Park. 'The midway has attractive, modernistic fronts; the grounds are tastefully landscaped, and buildings are painted in brilliant colors" (Billboard Magazine June 23,

1945, p. 47).



The next year, Ray designed and built four modernistic entrance towers, a 60 x 100 foot arcade, a refreshment building and other improvements. By 1946 Belmont had transformed into the largest amusement park in Canada.



Back in 1938, the Rocky Point Amusement Park in Rhode Island was destroyed by a hurricane. In the mid 1940s Jack was hired to redesign the entire fair grounds as part of the Rocky Point revival. The work included new fronts for a pool, a beach house, a roller coaster, a waterslide, a dinner hall and 70 individual

concession stands. 35,000 people swarmed the park on its opening day of June 6th, 1948.



In 1954, Jack moved to La Jolla, California and leased Mission Beach Amusement Park in San Diego with James T. Mitchell. He renamed the park Belmont as a tribute to his early design work in Canada. He treated the park as experimental workshop where new ideas could be tried. It became a progressive park; a

trend setter among amusement parks.



Jack began creating designs for Kennywood Park in Pittsburgh in 1954 as well.. He did the fronts of the Zoomerang and Tornado dark ride which took passengers through a simulated twister on Kansas farmland. He added architectural elements like the Doodad-ed Bridge, an overpass constructed of colourful and

ostentatious shapes which gave Kennywood a unique feel.



From 1938 to 1963, Jack Ray worked as an architect and designer for 14 separate amusement parks in North America. The other parks he worked for include: Crystal Beach, Ontario, Kennywood in Pittsburgh, Pontchartrain Beach, Whalom Park, Nu-pike, Glen Echo Park, Belmont Park in New York, Riverside Park in

Massachusetts, Chicago's Riverview Park and City of Spectacles, Mexico City.

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Front gate entrance to Belmont Park.
Circa 1940
Belmont Park, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
TEXT ATTACHMENT


Credits:
Archives de la Ville de Montréal, VM105,SY,SS2,D11,P18.

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Painting of a proposed building for Belmont Park by midway designer Jack Ray.
1945
Belmont Park, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
TEXT ATTACHMENT


Credits:
North American Carnival Museum and Archives (NACMA)
John C. (Jack) Ray
Jennifer Walker

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Proposed "Hall of Science" show for Belmont Park by midway designer Jack Ray.
1945
Belmont Park, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
TEXT ATTACHMENT


Credits:
North American Carnival Museum and Archives (NACMA)
John C. (Jack) Ray
Jennifer Walker

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"Spectacular Science" show front designed by Jack Ray.
1945
Belmont Park, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Credits:
North American Carnival Museum and Archives (NACMA)

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Painting of a proposed "Laff in The Dark" ride for Belmont Park by Jack Ray.
1945
Belmont Park, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
TEXT ATTACHMENT


Credits:
North American Carnival Museum and Archives (NACMA)
John C. (Jack) Ray
Jennifer Walker

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Painting of a proposed "Bingo" building for Belmontt Park in Montreal by midway designer Jack Ray.
1945
Belmont Park, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
TEXT ATTACHMENT


Credits:
North American Carnival Museum and Archives (NACMA)
John C. (Jack) Ray
Jennifer Walker

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Painting of some proposed buildings for Belmont Park by midway designer Jack Ray.
1945
Belmont Park, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
TEXT ATTACHMENT


Credits:
North American Carnival Museum and Archives (NACMA)
John C. (Jack) Ray
Jennifer Walker

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Painting of a proposed show at Belmont Park by midway designer Jack Ray.
1945
Belmont Park, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
TEXT ATTACHMENT


Credits:
North American Carnival Museum and Archives (NACMA)
John C. (Jack) Ray
Jennifer Walker

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Painting of a proposed "Penny Arcade" for Belmont park by midway designer Jack Ray.
1945
Belmont Park, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
TEXT ATTACHMENT


Credits:
North American Carnival Museum and Archives (NACMA)
John C. (Jack) Ray
Jennifer Walker

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Painting of a proposed "Scooter Boats" for Belmont Park by midway designer Jack Ray.
1945
Belmont Park, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
TEXT ATTACHMENT


Credits:
North American Carnival Museum and Archives (NACMA)
John C. (Jack) Ray
Jennifer Walker

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Painting of a proposed "aqua" show probably for Belmont Park by midway designer Jack Ray.
1945
Belmont Park, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
TEXT ATTACHMENT


Credits:
North American Carnival Museum and Archives (NACMA)
John C. (Jack) Ray
Jennifer Walker

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Painting of a proposed refreshment building for Belmont Park by midway designer Jack Ray.
1945
Belmont Park, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
TEXT ATTACHMENT


Credits:
North American Carnival Museum and Archives (NACMA)
John C. (Jack) Ray
Jennifer Walker

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One of Jack Ray's "Laff in the Dark" rides.
1949-1959
Nu-Pike Amusement Park, Long Beach, California, United States of America
TEXT ATTACHMENT


Credits:
North American Carnival Museum and Archives (NACMA)