Tell-all book on Action Park is out and the owner’s son wrote it

This should be interesting. Anyone could write a book about the craziest amusement park to ever exist in the United States. Some could even write a tell-all book about said park. But when the very son of the guy who ran it tells all, you can bet there will be some terrific Action Park stories.

Eugene Mulvihill was the proud owner of what’s been nicknamed Traction Park, Class Action Park and even Accident Park. (Am I missing any?) His son Andy Mulvihill has now written Action Park: Fast Times, Wild Rides, and the Untold Story of America’s Most Dangerous Amusement Park.

How dangerous and crazy was this place? The book’s cover art features a skeleton with fire as hair doing a wheelie with a beach buggy if that gives you any indication. How they stayed open for 18 years with the track record they had is beyond me. NJ.com reports 5 people died there. Countless more had injuries. In fact it was so bad the town of Vernon did not have enough ambulances to keep up with the injuries so Mulvihill purchased more for them. You can’t make this stuff up.

How much dirt does Andy know? He definitely was positioned to know a ton of inside stories. As the as from the publisher reads, “From his early days testing precarious rides to working his way up to chief lifeguard of the infamous Wave Pool to later helping run the whole park, Andy’s story is equal parts hilarious and moving, chronicling the life and death of a uniquely American attraction, a wet and wild 1980s adolescence, and a son’s struggle to understand his father’s quixotic quest to become the Walt Disney of New Jersey.”

Funny thing is for a guy like me who was still a kid in the 1980’s and growing up in New Jersey, I never once was there. I was aware of it through ads, but my dad never brought us. I had no idea what I was missing!

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski. Any opinions expressed are Jeff Deminski's own.