Story and photos by JF Grodeska
New Jersey is the home of the first boardwalk in the United States. Built in 1870, the Atlantic City boardwalk spans approximately five miles along the Atlantic Ocean and today offers tourists many options for fun in the sun.
Most people assume the boardwalk was named for the material used in its construction – boards – but that isn’t the case.
A conductor on a train that brought tourists to Atlantic City beaches was fed up with constantly having to clean sand from his train cars. It made a long day infinitely longer. Hotel owners also didn’t love having sand tracked into their establishments, so they were on board when the Atlantic City Council approved the train conductor’s idea of a wooden walkway separating the beach from the town. The train conductor’s name? Alexander Boardman. And so, the Boardwalk was born.
Amusements, Food and A Carnival Atmosphere
It was inevitable that carnival purveyors would find a home on the new boardwalk. They had a captive audience at the beach. By 1898 children, upon seeing the “Wonder Wheel” or the roller coaster, would beg their parents to take them to the Steel Pier. However, the first true boardwalk amusement venue was Howard’s Pier at the foot of Kentucky Ave. Built in 1882, Howard’s Pier was the first amusement pier in American history to be built over the ocean. The venue featured vaudeville acts and concerts, including Lilly Langtree, and Harry Houdini. Howard’s Pier closed in 1889.
A well-dressed man – a barker – cried to those on the midway: “Roll Right up, Ladies and Gents! Roll right up!
Don’t be shy!” hoping to bring patrons in for a ten-in-one, a type of sideshow where, for a small fee, you could see 10 different “acts,” from the Sword Swallower to the Magician, the tattooed lady who eats fire and the mermaid corpse floating in formaldehyde.
To insiders, that man drawing people in to view the oddities was called a talker, not a barker, because he didn’t bark, he talked – eloquently.
And then he cajoled the crowd into staying for one last peculiarity.
“We hope you enjoyed our performers brought here to entertain you from the far corners of the globe. The exit is to the right, but… Behind this curtain, this very curtain, is the most blood-chilling site of all! For a mere $2, you will behold a giant man eating chicken! That’s right, girls and boys, I said a giant, man eating chicken!” extolled the barker, blocking the exit from the midway in an attempt to get the audience to hand over the extra cash to see the 11th act in the show, often referred to as “The Blow-Off.”
Sideshows are a dying art, as is “barking,” as audiences find more technology-based forms of entertainment and new generations do not understand the premise behind these shows, which seemed to exploit those with unusual features, making them into grotesque spectacles. But the sideshows were never about exploitation; they were about work and wages.
Soon after the Steel Pier was launched in Atlantic City, boardwalk amusements and midways sprung up all along the coast. Most are gone now, like the Long Branch Amusement Pier and its Haunted Mansion (first opened in the 1950s with final renovations in 1979 and burned in a 1987 fire) and the Atlantic Beach Amusement Park (1915) on the boardwalk in Atlantic Highlands. The amusement park on the Asbury Park boardwalk is gone. But one old-time boardwalk amusement park remains.
Keansburg – Stepping Back In Time
Opening in June 1903, parts of the Keansburg Amusement Park perched on the beach overlooking Raritan Bay. A lot has remained much the same as it has been for the past 50 years. Children still thrill over rides like Tea Cups, Tilt-A-Whirl, the Spook House, and a new version of the airplane ride called The Red Baron. There are games of chance like the Can Smash and Football Toss, The Water Gun Race, The Frog Pond, and many more. And don’t forget the delicious boardwalk foods from your own childhood – sausage and peppers, zeppole, ice cream and sticky cotton candy, among others.
In addition to the original boardwalk amusements, Keansburg Amusement Park has expanded. Across the street from the boardwalk is a water park called Runaway Rapids and at one end of the boardwalk is a Go-Cart track and at the other end are batting cages. In addition, there is a 2,000-foot fishing pier overlooking Raritan Bay and at Keansburg, a day at the beach is free.
Alexander Boardman, who invented the boardwalk because he was tired of cleaning sand out of his train, could never have dreamt of what his invention would become. A place for fun. A place where adults become children again, even if it is only for a short while.
The Keansburg Amusement Park is open weekends through September. For more information visit keansburgamusementpark.com.
The article originally appeared in the September 7 – 13, 2023 print edition of The Two River Times.
