When you saw the parachute drop, you knew you were almost there. We had so much fun there. Schaden says it was a shock to most people when it closed. Riverview was one of those things you thought was always going to be there. The 395-seat Talman theater was packed within 10 minutes of opening, and another crowd waiting outside had to be turned away.
People remember it as a place that was fun, safe and easy to get to.
It was not unthinkable for a family to go four to six times in a summer. Park visitors bought tickets for each ride, and small change went a long way, even in the '60s when Jablonski and her friends were going. Riverview may well have been the happiest product of urban renewal the city has yet seen. The carousel, with its 70 horses handcrafted by Swiss and Italian woodcarvers, was the third largest ever built. It's still called the Riverview Carousel, and they built a completely brand-new building for it that resembles the original building.