Americana Celebrates 75th As Park Opens

By Connie Yeager
Cincinnati Post
May 22, 1997

While the ''new kid'' on the amusement-park block, Paramount's Kings Island, celebrates its 25th anniversary this season, Americana boasts 75 years of summer fun this year.

The Middletown amusement park, which opened in 1922 as Lesourdsville Lake, salutes its 75th anniversary with a $7.50 admission deal and ''The Ultimate Elvis Tribute Show'' this weekend only, for its season-opener.

The traditional park, which boasts 50 adult and children's rides and attractions, was renamed Americana in 1978.

It was bought last year by the Coney Island Group Co., which also operates Cincinnati's Coney Island.

Among Americana's classic rides are the Screechin' Eagle, a raucous wooden roller coaster that has been generating screams since 1927; the Sky Ride, billed as the last remaining cable-car lift ride in Ohio; and an antique miniature children's carousel.

Americana will feature six new live shows this season, with the Fabulous Wallenda Family headlining the lineup. The famous acrobatic family dynasty will perform daily high-wire feats beginning June 7.

Other shows, beginning June 14, include ''Celebration,'' ''Club Country,'' ''Rockin' at Hot Rod High,'' ''Toy Tales'' and ''Puppets on Parade.''

A new children's interactive water-play ''wet-deck'' area has been added this year to the park's newly refurbished Olympic-size swimming pool and children's pool area.

Also new this season are sand volleyball courts and a family hayride.

The ''Ultimate Elvis Tribute,'' featuring Elvis impersonators Martin Anthony, Bob McVay and Jim Rankin, will be presented at 3 and 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and 4 p.m. Monday.

Americana's older sister park, Coney Island, also opens this weekend, for its 111th year of operation.
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75 Years of Fun at LeSourdsville

By George Crout
Middletown Journal
May 1997

It was on May 8, 1922, 75 years ago, that LeSourdsville Lake amusement park opened along old Dixie Highway south of Middletown.
Edgar Streifthau and William Rothfuss were the owners and had done much of the work themselves of converting a cornfield and an old 20-acre ice pond along the Miami-Erie Canal into a recreational area. Excess water from the still-flowing but unused canal was used to feed the swimming pool – the major attractions.

Just last year, the opening date found the park, now known as Americana, under new management. It has become a property of the Coney Island Amusement park group of Cincinnati, which in the prior three months had spent $1.5 million in refurbishing it. This year, as the park opens for Memorial Day weekend – May 24-26 – other improvements will be apparent.

After the first year of operation, Rothfuss, the minority shareholder, left the park to work at Armco, so Streifthau persuaded his brother, Ernest, his co-partner in a Middletown hardware store, to join his LeSourdsville Lake enterprise. However, he was so involved in the store that Edgar discovered help was needed.

In 1934, he invited Don Dazey, a popular local businessman to become manager of the park, giving him options to buy into the company, which he did, eventually owning the minority interests. Upon his death in 1959, the park was sold. Two owners of a concession at the Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Howard Berni and Frank Murru, purchased it. After a brief time, Jack Morningstar, the former manager, left.

Berni was the fourth generation of his family to be in the amusement park industry and had many plans for it. He added an international flavor, and transformed the park into a modern facility, making its picnic area the largest such facility in southwestern Ohio. In 1976, Berni built an Olympic-sized swimming pool. A variety of rides, amusements and shows were added. Then in 1977 LeSourdsville Lake itself was renamed Americana Amusement Park.

Berni, the major stockholder, chose the name Americana as part of a marketing effort to bring in visitors from greater distances. A study had shown, according to Berni, that “kids couldn’t remember the old name very well and adults couldn’t spell it.”
Under Berni, about $4 million in improvements were made, bringing with it new features and attractions, which made for a broader appeal as a regional attraction. Also during the nation’s bicentennial celebration in 1976, LeSourdsville had won the designation of the nation’s only official amusement park, making it truly Americana.

In 1991, Berni who had become sole owner, sold Americana to Leisure International Corp., formed by a group of seasoned amusement park veterans including Len Gottstein, Joe Faggionato, Guy Sutton and Don Robison. They made major improvements but continued the policy of providing “traditional family fun at reasonable process.” The group spent $6 million renovating the 100-acre park and its sale was described as “a business decision.” It was sold in January 1996 to the Coney Island group known as Park River West Corp. At the time, Victor Nolting, Coney Island president, stated, “We are already planning for Americana’s future. We intend to take it to the next level, to ensure it offers a quality mix of rides, attractions and live shows affordable at tall families.”
The new owners immediately began to make some changes, although the traditional rides – some seldom seen today such as Tilt-A-Whirl, Rock-o-Plane and Calypso – were kept. On entering the date, the Brass Ring Carousel greets the visitor, who discovers both the rides of childhood and of today, with something for everybody in every aspect for picnics, along with food outlets.

For almost 60 years, hovering over the park has been its popular wooden roller coaster. First known as the Cyclone, it was built in 1927 by John Miller, the father of the American roller coaster, for a Zanesville amusement park. In 1938, it was moved to LeSourdsville where it became a leading attraction. In 1960, it was redesigned as the “Space Rocket” and rebuilt again in 1978 as the “Screechin’ Eagle.” It is now a classic, one of 22 wooden roller coasters still operating in the United States.

On a personal note, my first encounter with it came around 1940. There was a Mayfield School end-of-the-year party at LeSourdsville, and several teachers were looking the Cyclone over. One teacher, Ada Louise Weishaar, asked this writer his opinion of it, and he ventured, “Well, it looks a little dangerous.” To which she changed, “If you’re going in the Army, you’ll find more danger there than that.” So reluctantly, I jumped on.

The entertainment highlight of the season will be an anniversary spectacular featuring musical highlights of the past 75 years.