Riverview park remembered tonight on WGN. 10/04

[Chitown]

Just passing along a quote from someone over at Coasterbuzz with info on the 40th anniversary of Riverview's closing.

"If you are able to receive WGN-TV Channel 9 in Chicago, make sure you tune in to the 9pm newscast tonight. They are going to do a tribute to the old Riverview Amusement Park's 40th Anniversary of the closing of the park. Couldn't find a web link on their site talking about it, but there have been ads on t.v. about it."

[Galvan]

Sorry, I cant watch that.... other important Things on TV during that time frame.

[frightfestkid]

^If its the cubs game. I thought the game was at 10.

[SFGAmfreak4life]

I was just at the old Riverview site again on saturday looking at the remains. This should be a nice segment, thanks for sharing.

[Galvan]

^If its the cubs game. I thought the game was at 10.

The Cubs game is on at 10 eastern 9 Central

[frightfestkid]

Ok, Ive been fallowing the cubs all year.
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO CUBS.

[Chitown]

Wow Mike.

I thought you were a die-hard Cubs fan. You had a Cubs Avatar in your profile yesterday and now you have a Bulls avatar.

I guess losing that second game just pissed you off.

A true fan would keep the Cubs avatar until the end. They aren't out of it yet (even though we all know they aren't going to win 3 in a row).

[Chitown]

The video clip is now up on WGN's website.

http://wgntv.trb.com/

Once there, click on WGN NEWS and then look for the Riverview icon to the right of the vid screen.

[[jonrev]]

Thanks for posting that... my grandparents and my aunt used to live about a block away from Riverview until about the 1950s. One of these days i do want to go to the former site and see what's left...

Oh, and whatever this thing is, it looks awesome as hell...

[RBull4life]

^ I beleive it was called a Top Hat. Basically, the track wobbled, while the train went around the track. If you YouTube, or Google Video Luna Park at Coney Island, you will probably find a video of it in action.

[cycamps]

I think it is one of those. They look pretty neat...

[cycamps]

Why did Riverview close?

[FParker185]

rising land value

[[jonrev]]

My aunt who used to live a few blocks from the park said the neighborhood was also going bad.

[RBull4life]

I don't think it had anything to do with the area. FParker is right on the money, because it was all about greed. The Schmidts were not the majority holders anymore of Riverview. I beleive, if I remember correctly, only held 40% or so interest in the park. Even though the park was bringing in around $65,000.00 a day, the value of the land was worth more than the park itself, so the majority holders got an offer from Lasalle Street Investment for an estimated 6.5 million dollars, and ran with it.

Until he died ( sorry, I can't remember who the first name of the Schmidt) he only commented once about the closing, in which he said something like, " There was nothing I could do to stop it."

The carousel is at Six Flags over Georgia, and there are rumours that the mirrors from Aladdin's Castle are at a dance club in Palatine.

[FParker185]

Just a head up to everyone at the Harold Washington Library downtown though Sept 14, there is a exhibit called Fun For All, Chicago's Amusement Park, a big portion of the exhibit is about Riverview with some awesome pics. It's on the 9'th floor, and I'd highly reccomend that anyone interested in Riverview history go check it out.