The Story of Rocky Point Park

[Miss_Bella_Hell]

This film documents the long history of Rocky Point Park, an amusement park and shore dinner hall situated along the coast of the Narragansett Bay. For over 150 years, New Englanders flocked to the spot, for a game of Sunday baseball, for a picnic, for a rock-n-roll concert, or to ride on the Tilt-a-Whirl . Then, in 1996, the park closed. With its rides sold off, the park sits as a ghost town, scheduled for demolition and primed for the construction of condominiums.

The story of Rocky Point Park will be told entirely by the people who lived there, who worked there, and who spent every waking moment of every summer at the park. They have collected found footage, family photographs, and memorabilia from the park. Along with a couple of local still photographers, they have shot extensively inside the ruined buildings and on the hallowed grounds of the former amusement park.

From Babe Ruth to George Bush, from the first presidential phone call to a devastating hurricane, You Must Be This Tall hopes to capture all the fond memories left behind at Rocky Point, leaving future generations with a visually-stimulating reminder of the way things were.

http://www.rockypointmovie.com/index.html

Soundtrack by Johnny Carlevale and his Band of All-Stars.
http://johnnycarlevale.tripod.com/id15.html

 

[Zig2k143]

I must see this.... One of the saddest / scariest things are old shut down amusement parks.

 

[erikb02809]

I used to go to that place all the time during summer vacations growing up. The last time I went was actually after it had closed, and they had converted part of it for a Halloween haunted house-type event. I'll definately have to check this documentary out (and in the meantime, try to get the catchy jingle from their old commercials [which is now stuck in my head] out of my head, lol). First roller coast ride, first ferris wheel ride, first date with my old high school sweet heart, all took place at Rocky Point.

 

[Senator Jack]

I didn't know it went under. I was there a few times in the 80s. What a shame.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

I find this amusement park so fascinating! I first became aquainted with it through the opacity.us website!

 

[Miss_Bella_Hell]

To be honest I'd never heard of it...although maybe I have! I might have been there when I was a little girl. I just can't remember.

 

[drafttek]

That was a great park. We'd ride the rides all day then head to the dinner hall for a big bucket of clam cakes. None of that awful red chowder for me though, yuck. Chowder is supposed to be white and creamy or clear broth, not tomato soup. (Not meant to derail this into a chowder thread)

Another park of the same era was Lincoln Park in Dartmouth, MA. I grew up within a mile of the place. It shut down in 1987. My grandmother would tell stories of going there when she was a kid in the twenties. Some of the rides she described were a personal injury lawyer's dream come true!