An Early Ad

An ad from the Frankel era--"Lost Cinemas" fans will recall that Abe Frankel and Abe Blank also owned and operated a number of early movie theatres in the Des Moines area.

Mutoscope Beauty

This is but one of several Mutoscope cards I have that were dispensed at the park--most of them with 'racy' themes or pictures on them. When I say "Mutoscope", this is not the kind that was the coin-operated viewer that showed paper movie rolls or still pictures, but more of a dispenser (similar to those for fortune-telling cards) that was manufactured by the Mutoscope company.

Race for the Roses

Here's what was left of the racecar track in the early 1990's, reincarnated as a garden. (Is the layout still there now?)

Welcome to the Riverview Pavilion!

Welcome to the Riverview Pavilion, a place to look back on what once was Riverview Amusement Park, before it was bought and shut down by those powers-that-be. As you probably already know, Riverview began as a lovely riverside fixture early in the 20th century, funded by Abe Frankle, who you'll recall partnered with that other Abe, A.H. Blank, in numerous other entertainment ventures around town, including some of the earliest movie theater chains. (Central States survives to this day--Myron "Mike" Blank is said to have frequented the office nearly up to the end.)

As the years went by, Riverview got a bit worse for wear, but was still a summertime staple for nearly everyone in town until the mid-1970s, when it was closed forever. As some sort of "consolation prize", a couple of the lesser rides were moved to a small section of Adventureland in Altoona and framed under a "Riverview" entry sign. But that ain't Riverview, of course.

I don't have a huge collection of Riverview materials, and I don't have a film project in the works (yet)--for now, I just want to post what I have in the hopes that there are others who'd like to remember Riverview as it was. So send in your stories, scans of snapshots, postcards, digitized home movies, ticket stubs, Mutoscope cards, railroad spikes, whatever--and I'll put 'em up.

The photos above are the old carousel pavilion around 1991 or so, shortly before it was torn down. (Floppy fans will recall seeing footage of one of the female hostesses riding the carousel circa 1965 or so in the retrospective "Floppy: 30 Years of Fun".) Spooky, eh? As if silently waiting for Mr. Dark to materialize and offer us free carousel rides, in reverse. Which would of course make us younger, take us back in time.

If only.