Here's an amazing video of the Steeplechase mechanical horse ride at Steeplechase Park, Coney Island, in the early 1900s. I can't imagine a ride like this existing today with modern safety standards.
To ride the Steeplechase, you sit on a mechanical horse and zoom downhill tracks with no seatbelt.
You could ride single or with a partner. To win, all you needed to do was hold on for dear life and be seated on the horse that reached the finish line first. Yeehaw!
UPDATE, 6 Feb 2024: Boing Boing reader Dave shared the following anecdote:
My uncle used to take my brother, his son and me to the park a lot in the 1950's. There was a lot more to the Steeplechase mechanical horse ride. First, it was really a "race". The trick to winning had to do with weight. You could get 2 people on each horse. So, it was good to have someone heavy to ride with. I never thought it was dangerous and it sure was fun. Especially if you could win. There was also a really sleazy part at the end. Once you got off of the horse you went through a "maze" and ended up on a stage with an audience. There were clowns on the stage with electric "prod" rods and the trick was to get get passed them without getting "zapped". There was also "blow" holes in the floor. If a women was wearing a dress and passed over a "hole", she would get a blast straight up and her skirt (dress) which would blow up. Sometimes over her head. The clowns would chase them with the prod rods to try to get them over a hole. One time a women became so disoriented that when her dress blew over her head she panicked and pulled her panties down. This was really traumatic, not only to her, but to me as I was quite young. I later realized my uncle was a real sleaze ball and took us on the ride so he could sit in the audience and watch this. Anyway, I thought you might find this interesting.
