The idea was alluring. "People are only children grown tall," he reasoned. and began to turn the idea over in his mind. At last, he worked out a principle by which a huge top could be constructed with cars on which people could ride, while the top spun merrily. But there was nobody in Portland familiar with the amusement game; getting on the train he went to New York. The men old in the business looked it over; it was a fine idea: passengers would be pleasantly pleased, but—its cost would be prohibitive. He was told it would require about $18,000 to build, and he raised the money himself. It is the way fortunes are made—and lost.
When the first top was completed it had cost $37,000. It was put up at Coney island—the "Giant Top," it was called. The inevitable happened. The people liked the sensations, it had the psychological appeal that amusement devices must have, but too much weight was concentrated in one place. Crash! The point broke, and a woman and child were injured, and two damage suits followed. It cost $3,500 to raise the top again and to start it going once more, to say nothing of the money that went out in the lawsuits. The man with the idea failed; his home was lost and he retired from the amusement field. Seemingly the idea was as good as the seagull idea, but... And that is something the amusement field is full of—buts.
A Baby-Size Whip in the Children's Park at Coney: Trying to Improve on This Device Has Wrecked the Fortunes of No Less Than Eight Different Inventors in Recent Years
Recently there was a storm in Florida and when the storm was over and the first people ventured out, a house was found balanced on the edge of a cliff. Chains and ropes were placed to secure it and curious people starts walking through it to see what whimsies the storm had played. As they walked through the tilting house they had a curious sensation: they complained of being dizzy and when they came out they talked about how creepy it felt. The house became quite a local attraction.
One day an amusement-park man walked through it, and as he walked he wondered. Here was an idea: people liked it; people would pay money to see it. And so he had a house built using the same idea as that of the dislodged dwelling. He had the floors slanting and the windows set so that when a person walked in, the house seemed normal in every way; but after he had walked a few steps he thought that it must be a terrible night at sea. His feet had the curious feeling of stepping on nothing and they stumbled around like children who had been too long at ring around the rosy.
