Sabrina's Brochure Spotlight: Idlewild 1983

Some say that the way to a girl's heart is jewelry. Others say flowers. Perhaps even gourmet cooking. But I'm here to tell you that they're all wrong: It's old amusement park brochures!! (Or does that only apply to me? Hmm...)

Anyway, yes I am well aware of the fact that I just featured an Idlewild brochure a little over a month ago. But during NPN's visit to park last week, our friend Ed in the Marketing Department generously gave us a whole stack of old brochures and I couldn't resist the urge to dig right in! So I hope you'll appreciate this treasure as much as I do.

(By the way, you won't find a year on this one so don't even bother trying. Ed has assured us that it's from 1983. Gotta love a park with good archives!)

The year 1983 marked a major milestone in Idlewild's history, as it was during this year that Kennywood Park Corporation purchased the park from the Macdonald family. The Macdonalds had been involved with Idlewild since the 1930s and had served as sole owners of the park since 1951. For Kennywood, the decision to buy Idlewild was a strategic move more than anything else. As a friendly competitor, they apparently became alarmed when another entity began pursuing the park in the hopes of turning it into a full-fledged theme park.

Fortunately, the folks at Kennywood Park Corporation were able to look past the competitive aspects of their purchase and recognize that Idlewild truly was something unique and special. They immediately began investing in the park, adding the Jumpin' Jungle children's play area for the 1983 season.

In the early days, Idlewild and Story Book Forest were operated as two separate attractions. This all changed after Kennywood took over. Beginning with the 1983 season, Story Book Forest officially became part of the overall Idlewild experience. The Jumpin' Jungle area served to bridge the physical gap between them, literally bringing the whole complex together. But as you can see from the prices listed here, both Story Book Forest and Jumpin' Jungle were still "upcharge" attractions in the beginning.

This "brochure" may go down in history as the shortest one ever to be featured in SBS! But its whimsical nature, with all the artwork, fits Idlewild perfectly. It is a land where imagination runs free, so why shouldn't that concept extend to the park's marketing materials?

Many thanks to Ed for this wonderful contribution to NPN! If I continue blogging for the rest of my life, perhaps someday we will get through them all...