New Britain herald., 1930-09-22
Woman Operates One of East's Largest
 Amusement Parks
BY JULIA BLANSHARD

NY iIeSC SIT Wllll loit Cui io eAiu DiG ! blue eyes got put to bed one evening without apy supper because she had broken open her china pig bank and
 extracted money to ride on the forbidden ferris wheel at the
 street fair in her home town, Clin-
 ton, Mo.
 l Today that little girl grown up 1 could ride for nothing all day 1 long on any number of contriv-
 ances built to amuse folks. ifs she
 wanted. For she is Mrs. Beulah
 Hassard Sica, president of the
 Mid-City Amusvnent Park, the
 only woman in the United States,
 so far as is known, to own and
 actively run big, first class
 amusement park.
 I found her on her knees in the zoo, personally administering med
 icine to a sick monkey who had eaten too many peanuts. At her
 trim cream and green bungalow,
 built at the back of the 10 acres
 of park and decorated in the
 parks colors, she had a baby lawn
 which required it's bottle, Of warm ed Grade A milk every four hours.
 A dance marathon was holding forth in her dance hall. A swim- ] ming carnival, completed last month, was the talk of this part
 of the state. Four hundred moth CTS and children were having | picnic in the garden where a l peaceful little brook gurgles under la bridge. A mems organization was scheduled to have d clam bake that evening over in the grove.
 Housekeeping on Big Scale Commotion, crowds, dozens Of decisions to be made. It was all in a days work to Mrs. sica! T have often wondered why more women haven't gone into the business of running amuse- ment parks" she calmly stated.
 Tt is just gigantic piece of | housekeeping and women are sup posed to come by that ability naturally, aren't they? Providing amusement, also, is eminently fitted to women, I have decided. You see men and women who come here in an amusement-mood i are just children wanting to have a good time. It seems to me that women should have an instinct for knowing what will amuse" Mrs. Sica inherited her park from her husband. She had never given 1t or any other kind of busi- ness thought until his sudden death just before the 1925 season started. She knew nothing what soever about the business, for her husband was an oil magnate, run ming the park as his avocation. That first year would have dis couraged any woman made of less determination than Mrs. Sicl. Some concessionaires quit, refus- l ing to work under a woman. Other unpleasantnesses happened. | But she, gritted her teeth and kept on. srVnning the park as it was, with no new additions! By mid summer she was checking patron age of every ride, chute, slide and so on. By fall she knew just what was making money and what she should replace with new attrac- tions.
 The hardest lesson I learned that summer was that woman in any kind of business has to be hard, has to be forceful, but she has got to go the trouble of cov- ering 1t up with feminine wilcs and smiles so that she doesn't seem so. Moreover, I learned that woman cant lose her temper the way a man is entitled to. Folks call it 'nerves."
 In the last four summers, Mrs. Sica has practically made over the park, has had it all painted and each year has added one or two new attractions, such as her min- | iature golf course this season ani a huge open air swimming pool which 45,0oo people have used on, several hot Sundays. For the beach surrounding this she hal three barges of sand hauled up the Hudson from Far Rockaway, reg ulation, clean, white sea sand, Amusements Are Varied Today her park boasts one of every kind of amusement that such places as Coney Island have, from roller coaster to diving horse act A midget in clown costume runs the scales, to the delight of the children. A zoo, most of which animals were given Mrs. Sica by ex-Governor Smith, is one of the chief attractions, and is free, as is entrance to her park. All the attendants are in trim, attractive uniforms Families are encourag- ed to come picnic, not having 10 spend cent if they don't want to. There is a social significance 10 this woman-run park. At the last | convention of amusement park owners, Mrs. Sica was invited as one of the principal speakers to give her view of Female Manage | ment of Amusement Parks" 1He ohiy fedSon ln1nk women might not by and large, De suc- cessful in the business is the great fgamble 1t is,' she said. Instead of gambling in small stakes, we have to gamble with the weather, which is 100 per cent chance. I think women are less adventure some than men. But for women who have imagination and like gambling I advise this as the fin est form of business. Certainly it is I full-time, year-round job, the perfect business for a woman who likes to work hard and see things go."
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