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Comment by RcouF1uZ4gsC | Hacker News Reader

When I visited the park a few years ago and rode the elevated car that crosses the park, the thought came to me that this was super valuable real estate and I wondered how much they could make just by selling the land.

The other thing is that “Great America” felt so out of place in the Bay Area. For whatever reason, the Bay Area felt like one of the least “patriotic” places I had ever visited in the US. And having a theme park with that vibe seemed so out of place.

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I don't necessarily disagree with your assessment of the Bay Area. But as somebody who remembers Great America from its beginning, things were different all around compared to today. Also, 1976 being the US bicentennial, doesn't stretch the imagination that the park developers (Marriott back then) wanted to leverage the event and overall positive sentiment.

But ignoring the patriotism angle, back then, to the best of my recollection, Marriott actually made a legitimate effort sticking to the park theming to try to give you a sense you were walking into another world (similar to the Disney approach). Each "land" (e.g. Hometown Square, Yankee Harbor, Yukon Territory, Orleans Place), was themed to a different US historical period, and the buildings, rides, decorations, and even the restaurants/food made a stronger effort to adhere to the historical themes in each land than they do today. You didn't need to feel patriotism in order to enjoy the immersion of being in a fantasy historical period/place.

In contrast, the last time I strolled through Great America, I got no sense of any theme, nor feeling that I have walked into another world. Ironically, the thing I remember most is the Claw Crane Machines were touting you could win iPhones. So instead of being able to escape into a fantasy reality, this really kept me stuck in the reality of our normal world.

Sounds like the Cedar Fair effect. They bought the theme park I grew up near (Kings Dominion) from paramount and within the following years, all the great paramount themed goodies (Hannah Barbara, etc) were gone and rebranded generically. Cedar Fair sure knows how to partner with Intamin to get some great coasters built, but can’t really build much character into parks. I used to work on an incredible drop coaster there and they themed it after a race car driver?

This Great America actually changed hands a bunch of times, including to Santa Clara a couple of times. Each change of ownership seemed have that kind of effect.

Paramount also bought this Great America for a period. Klingons walking around definitely didn't fit with the US historical theming.

Marriott (the original owners) had licensed the Looney Tunes characters for their run. Those were the most fun. One of the last rides built under Marriott was The Edge (drop tower ride). While it didn't really fit the US historical themes, they tied in the Road Runner & Wile E. Coyote to market the ride, which was perfect. The ride was painted orange (drawing on the yellows & oranges used in the desert background paintings of the cartoons). I don't remember if the ride itself had any Road Runner & Wile E. Coyote depictions anywhere, but I remember the cafe next door to it had a Road Runner analog clock with the Road Runner's feet pointing to the hour and minute.

The Klingons were hella cool! Wish I could have appreciated it more as a kid, but at the time (early 90s) I didn't even know what I was looking at or how special it was :D

Cedar Fair must be the Westfield Corporation of theme parks.

It was Paramount that spent a lot of work getting rid of the Hannah Barbara characters, specifically. Those came into Kings Island and Kings Dominion from licenses before Paramount bought them. Hannah Barbara is owned by Paramount rival media empire Warner Brothers these days. Paramount put all the work into replacing that with Nickelodeon characters (that they own). But yeah, when Paramount sold their accumulated parks to Cedar Fair apparently they didn't sell hardly any of the IP licenses (or Cedar Fair didn't want to pay for them). It maybe isn't too surprising that Cedar Fair themselves don't have a media empire for IP synergy and have to budget IP licenses instead.

In high school, I worked a summer and a bit in food service at Kings Island back in the Paramount days.

Yes. This is true. The theming was better than usual.

I distinctly remember the five cent mugs of root beer, an homage to the original Marriott store.

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