Is It True???

[Captain Phil]

Does the Wildwood boardwalk boast more rides/ attractions then Disney World? I heard it before. Is it true??

[MMM]

I'd guess Disney would have sued by now, or at least issued some sort of cease and desist if it weren't true...

[wildwood4life]

I believe that they boast they have more rides/attractions than Disney Land not Disney World.

[Captain Phil]

wildwood4life said:

I believe that they boast they have more rides/attractions than Disney Land not Disney World.

That sounds more possible.

[FlyinGN]

I've heard it for many years.. I guess they are counting every stand and store in all the piers?? I dunno.. It seems plausable..

[Crippled_Visions]

The Disney Haunted Mansion probably cost more to build than all the rides on Morey's Pier put together.

[JerseyDigger29]

captphil said:

Does the Wildwood boardwalk boast more rides/ attractions then Disney World? I heard it before. Is it true??

As long as I've been alive, the Wildwoods have always seemed to claim a lot of things that no one could ever really prove and no one wanted to challenge. After all, how can you prove it, who's going to go to each place and actually count?

The truth is, anyone can claim anything they want UNTIL someone else wants to challenge the claim.

1 - More rides than Disney World: From 93 to 94, I was Public Information Officer for the City of Wildwood. Several reporters during that time asked me if the claim was true. All I could tell them was that I, too, had heard the claim for a long time. But I had no way of actually knowing since resorts add or subtract attractions on a continual basis. Numbers change every year and I didn't know what year the claim was supposed to have been for. I also had heard that the claim was for actual "rides." I told them Disney World had more "resorts" and "theme parks" but the Wildwoods definitely had more rides. Luckily, no one ever wanted me to prove it. "I ain't doing no counting for no one!!"

2 - The Wildwoods is the birthplace of rock and roll: Another "urban legend." Everyone in Wildwood seems to think the birth took place with Bill Haley and the Comets first performance of "Rock Around the Clock" at the Hof Brau in 1955. Wrong! There are about 12 cities around the country all claiming the same thing. They can't all be corrrect.

FACT: the "term" rock and roll first became widely used in music during the early 1800's in negro spirituals. But the first performance of a song that all historians generally agree had all the recognizable characteristics of a musical form different from anything that came before it, (Swing, bebop, blues, etc), took place in 1948 with the original version of "Shake, Rattle, and Roll."

The Treniers, who played Wildwood's Riptide Club, had been rocking since about 1950. They said that Bill Haley used to come in and watch them perform. When he asked them what that great sound was "they told him" it was rock and roll. Bill Haley just had the first nationwide #1 hit of the rock era, he didn't invent it, he was about seven years too late. (He and the Comets were also white, the Treniers and everyone else who came before him were black and at the time didn't get the credit they truly deserved).

Source: www.hoyhoy.com

I believe we can legitimately claim to be the "launching pad" or "showcase" for every major artist and every hit of the era, but not the birthplace - YET! We need to make it our mision in life to prove that the Wildwoods really gave birth to rock and roll. If we can prove that the original version of "Shake, rattle, and roll" was performed here by the original artist in 1948, then we can back up the claim with actual proof.

Thom

TheWildwoodsReporter.com

P.S. Here is a great picture I got from the George Boyer Museum of a group that played the Surf Club. Guess who the white guitar player is -- BEFORE he became famous).

[homer]

jerseydigger29 said:

Guess who the white guitar player is -- BEFORE he became famous).

Umm...is it...Thom Fontannaz?

Seriously, good question, Thom...google has thus far let me down (in finding a complete list of Doodletown Pipers members)...but I'm not giving up yet.

[writhinganacondo]

You're right Thom. I spoke with some of the remaining Treniers about 5 years ago in Wildwood (they were a large family). They didn't want to hear about Bill Haley.
The Wildwoods ride wise still have more rides than anyone. Many parks have more actual rides than Disney. As for rides at a single park, I believe Cedar Point still has that honor.
Is that the Rocky Mt. high man in that photo?

[ContessaAnisha]

That's not John Denver...he was not in the group Doodletown Pipers. He WAS in the Chad Mitchell Trio..and I don't think they ever appered in Wildwood.

[crazyaboutwildwood]

Is that paul kanter from the jefferson airplane? It kind of looks like him when he was young.

[JerseyDigger29]

contessaanisha said:

That's not John Denver...he was not in the group Doodletown Pipers. He WAS in the Chad Mitchell Trio..and I don't think they ever appered in Wildwood.

You got me, Countess. I should have checked his bio first instead of just looking at the picture. You were right about the Chad Mitchell Trio, I found it on Wikipedia.

The guy looks so much like John Denver when he was young and I knew he performed earlier on in a folk group - It just wasn't Doodletown.

I think the young lady in the middle of the back row, however, might be Theresa Graves, who later performed on "Laugh-In." Several sites mention that she sang in the Doodletown Pipers before moving on to TV

Thanks for clearing things up - Thom