Book Review: Always Cedar Point by H. John Hildebrandt

© H. John Hildebrandt

Looking for a short review?  If you're a fan of Cedar Fair and especially Cedar Point, this book is an absolute must-have.

Now, for a bit more detail.  I actually finished up reading Always Cedar Point, A memoir Of The Midway by H. John Hildebrandt some time ago, after tearing through it rather quickly.  The book deserves a brief review here, so that others are aware of it.

Mr. Hildebrandt worked at Cedar Point for 40 season, rising through the Marketing department and eventually being the park's General Manager for 9 seasons.  That, to say the least, gives him a ton of interesting facts about Cedar Point, gathered (and documented rather well) into this book.  Really, if you're a fan of Cedar Point and are always looking for interesting stories of the park's history as well as little known facts, this will be a gold mine for you.

Granted, as a memoir this book is not only about Cedar Point, but also quite a bit about Mr. Hildebrandt's career at Cedar Fair.  That includes a lot of personal history as he started at the park never thinking he would eventually run it for nine years.  There's also a lot to glean about the company during the Dick Kinzel years.

Once you get into the parts of the memoir that cover his time at the park, you won't be able to put it down.  I purchased the book right after it came out and after it arrived had it done within days.  All sorts of details are hidden throughout the book, and it's fascinating to see things such as park attendance, alternate ride names and which rides were a success, and which a flop.  I'd share some of the details but that feels inappropriate as clearly Mr. Hilldebrandt put in a lot of time and effort into this book (it clocks in a 430 pages!)

As a Dorney Park local it's also interesting to note that Mr. Hildebrandt was the General Manager of the park for a year before he went back to Cedar Point, so I even got a taste of those details in the chapter about his time at Dorney.  Cool stuff, indeed.

To learn more about the book and its author, check out it's website, and to make it easy here is a link to the book on Amazon.