I went on this coaster in 1966. As you can tell by the film, the corners were deliberately under-banked and if your riding partner was bigger than you it was a bruising experience. After fifty years of riding coasters, including the Cyclone at Coney Island and all the great ones at Cedar Point, I would say the Bobs is still my all-time favorite.
Not that many, probably less than fifty. I'll never forget my first one, "The Wild Beast" at Edgewater Park in Detroit. A relatively small one, but the first drop was one of the best. At least I didn't cry like my buddy! I can remember his screaming almost word for word, "Let me off this thing!!" A couple years later I almost died on it when the lap bar didn't lock and we rode the whole thing hanging on for dear life. When Edgwater closed they bragged about the perfect safety record of the coaster, and I thought, 'Well, almost perfect." BTW, check out on RU-vid the real seat POV of the new Cedar Point hybrid, "Steel Vengeance." Can't wait to ride it.
This brings back so many wonderful memories of my visits to Riverview as a kid. I was 11 when the park closed in 1967 but it is where I fell in love with rollercoasters; a love affair that continues to this day. The Bobs was particularly fierce and fearsome. Honestly, I rode every rollercoaster at Riverview multiple times. For me, the Bobs and the Fireball were the two most exciting coasters in the park.
From 1956 through 1964 we lived in Chicago and my dad would take me and my friends to Riverview every summer! What great memories of a one-of-a-kind park!
I was very young during my years visiting Riverview, and the Bobs was "the" challenge. The very first time I rode it, I was small enough that I ended up laying sideways on the seat and screaming my head off. When you went on that first lift, it was terrifying, and it flew so fast it always felt like it was going to fall off the tracks. Best roller coaster, ever! Thanks for the chance to relive it.
My brother and I went to Riverview when we were small. We loved the Bob's and the Wild Mouse and would go on those rides over and over..that was late '50s early '60s.
The video has clearly been sped up a great deal. It takes only 15 seconds to get up the chain lift. By contrast, the Giant Dipper at Belmont Park, a shorter Prior & Church from the same period, takes 25 seconds to get up the lift. So I would say playing the video at 0.5 speed would give you a more accurate idea of the actual speed of the coaster. It still looks fairly intense at that speed.
Sounds like famous Chicago radio personality, Mal Bellairs, doing the narrating of this film of a ride on the iconic Riverview "Bobs." Thanks for sharing!
One of the most interesting parts of a coaster is how creative the construction is, before the hill lift. This coaster has one of the most interesting and fun layouts before the hill lift of any coaster I have ever seen!
I'm from Chicago and spent a lot of fun days at Riverview on Western Ave. Those were always fun days. The bobs was always my favorite coaster and, coasters are the best parts of any park. It was also always fun to watch people on the parachutes hanging up there for a long time while it was stuck.lol I was going to say I grew up in Chicago butt, I haven't yet done that.
My mother in HS would go to Riverside with her friends. Admission was free, just the rides etc cost money. She said her and ger friends would pair up with sailors who would pay for the rides. She remembers the main roller coaster was a huge, fun, but very rough ride.
I rode The Bobs for the first time on my twelvth birthday... I clearly remember the meandering line at the entrance and leaning out to try to see the top of the first hill... partially obscured by the Greek columns. I also remember the clacking as I was pointed skyward on the first hill for what seemed like an eternity. After that... just a lot of screaming, lights flying by, and the G forces. (That was almost 50 years ago, so I guess it made quite an impression.)
Perhaps the best roller coaster ever made. My mom was actually able to Riverview before it closed. I am so jealous. Here's hoping some park someday wants a replica.
My grandfather told me about this amazing park. I wish it could have lasted. I was born in 1991 so I wasn't even close. My grandmother lost her shoe on the parachute ride!
To answer the question, the Riverview Bobs was NEVER shortened to make way for other rides. There actually were some sections where bracing was added, not removed. The land it sat on was once a swimming pool, so that maybe where the story about land reclaimation came from, but that was when it was built, not expansion after WW2. The Blue Streak coaster was reworked into the Fireball, and this may be a possible origin to the story of track removed as well.
I was just waxing nostalgic about my first coaster (Raging Wolf Bobs, the younger, gentler cousin) and got the idea to see if there even *was* a POV for The Bobs. Well, here it is and it looks _wild!_ I wish I could have given it a go. Or ten. :D
I used to ride this when I was a little gilr. My friends and I actually still talk about Riverview all of the time. There is nothing to compare t o this amusement park and I've been to a lot of them.
Thank You, Thank You, THANK YOU!!! I finally got a pov of the Riverview Bobs!! Geauga Lake's Raging Wolf Bobs a comparison? HARDLY!!! Nowhere near as good. I don't think anything topped Riverview when it comes to a "Bobs" coaster!! Love it.. Thanks, again!!! I just went back and watched again. Did you count them??? 18 hills!! EIGHTEEN.. That's unheard of!!! A lot packed into that beauty of a coaster that Geauga Lake TRIED to duplicate!! HaHaaHaa GL. No dice!!!
It wasn't "West Side real estate"- Riverview was on the Northwest Side-Western & Belmont. And it may have seemed like 75 MPH- but 35 is more realistic. The park closed in 1967.And along with enjoying White Castle sliders, growing up on Bozo's Circus, and knowing whose phone # was "HUdson 3-2700", having ridden the Bobs is a litmus test of a real Chicagoan.
Yes, the Tornado is another one I'd have liked to have ridden :( Swampfoxer had a POV video of the Tornado up recently, but he's deleted it . Church also built a Bobs coaster in England, but the owners demolished it in 1970. It held the record as the world's fastest rollercoaster at the time. There's a video of that here on youtube, too, including full POV footage.
One more thing Kerma17: What was it like to ride? Is there a ride today which compares? I'd have loved to have ridden this coaster myself but unfortunately I was born nearly 20 years after it's destruction :(
Not necessarily and I’m an RMC fanboy. People like rides that are out of control and this was ahead of its time for being one of the first to do more than just a bunch of floater hills going out and back.
What was the Greyhound Coaster Layout ? Some says it was a long ... long ride . The record lenght for The Riverview Roller Coasters . Existing pictures ? or something ?
2nd rides 15 cents..remember the trunkful of single earrings siting on the deck? the flying turns waz my fav though even though near the end you'd often get stuck on the tube in the middle of the ride....
Greaet video! But if the coaster went that fast in real life, everybody would be dead when they returned to the station. This film depicts the total ride time at 1 minute and 25 seconds. Anybody know the real total run time of the ride?
@@bobsquires4521 I learned that in Protools you can increase the speed of the audio clip, but not the pitch. Not saying they did this, but food for thought. I would love to have ridden this.
My mother told me when she rode he Bobs, that it forced you to stand at some point in the ride,because of the force and how fast it was going as I got older I never wanted to ride those scary coasters at Riverview, love this Park though
I m telling you what she and others told me I couldn't ride I was too young,it was kinda like the iRon Bob's at Great America, that what was told yo me I believe them, to unimportant for them to lie, we went three often but as I got a little bigger I was yo scared to ride just view the riding, if you didn't ride or never been there don't try to make it out like I'm losing or the ones that rode this fide are lieing
+Helen Adair , Thanks for your contribution, Helen. Allow me to say here that in his time, my father rode the Bobs a great deal. It was his opinion that you had to hang on to the safety bar with your hands or you would get flung out of the roller coaster car. I have no doubt that the Bobs banged you around quite a bit as it snaked through the track and took those quick, nasty curves. Perhaps a smaller person could have been thrown out of it. But, as the safety record overall at Riverview Park was quite good (only two people killed on the stratoplanes as a result of the chains breaking; four others were killed by disregarding safety rules), I sort of doubt that the Bobs could have thrown the average-sized person out of the car or a lot more such accidents would have occurred. However, I do recall hearing about 1966 or so that someone had been killed as a result of standing up on a rollercoaster at Riverview. I want to say that this was the Bobs but it could have also been the Fireball or the Greyhound/Jestream as those roller coasters also had open cars like the Bobs (the Silver Flash and the Comet ahd enclosed cars). But I will have to try and verify that this really happened.
+John Uscian , OK, Helen, I looked this one up on a website about "urban legends" of Riverview. Here is what I found: "In the early 1950's, a young man stood up in his seat to joke with his friends in the seat behind him just as the coaster train was leaving the lift chain. Sadly he was unaware that a light pole rose from the side of the track and hung a lamp over the track. Normally, well above a seated rider, the light was not a hazard, but for someone standing in a train it did pose a threat. Since he was turned away and facing the back of the train he didn't see it and it swept him out of the train and he fell 65 feet from the top curve to the ground. This terrible tragedy did in fact happen." Note that the particular roller coaster in this incident is not specieifed. As the Bobs did not have any light (referred to in the above) like this on the ascending track, my guess is that it was NOT the Bobs on which the individual was killed. So, I guess nobody ever got killed on the Bobs. Riverview is suppsoed to have had a remarkably good safety record. Probably the accounts of the Bobs' dangers were a bit exaggerated.
Helen Adair Just chiming in here over the discussion of being forced to stand. Yes, today coaster enthusiasts call this standing airtime, or powerful ejector airtime. If there is only a bar, one that gives the rider a lot of room, and if the positive G-forces are powerful enough, it can throw the rider up out of the seat until they are essentially standing. I’ve experienced this on several coasters. Coasters like Phoenix at Knoebels and Coaster at PNE Playland and others are famous for this, and the Bobs looks like a very similar coaster in layout and forces.
This would be without much doubt the #1 roller coaster in the world had it survived. Watching it I can tell that this Prior & Church masterpiece had ejector air and strong air on probably every hill...EVERY, and every turn...EVERY...possessed intense laterals. Most of the hills & turns were combos which meant stand-up airtime followed by rib-crushing laterals, except the thick, sofa-like padding on the most incredible trains ever created prevented actual broken bones!
Wow! This is the first time I seen a full POV of the Riverview Bobs. Was this the actual pacing of the coaster? Was it really this fast? Regardless, thanx for the upload. This definitely looks like it was a great coaster. Add to double shame is that the only 'somewhat' recreation of this coaster, The Raging Wolf Bobs at Geauga Lake is now also sitting dormant. It would be a shame to loose that one too.
I NEVER got the Courage Up To Ride the Bobs But I Did Ride the Silver Flash, The Comet, the Greyhound and the Jet Stream Rollercoasters! They All Scared the S**t Out of Me! I Wish I Could Have Gotton the Courage Up to Ride The Bob's and the Fire Ball Rollercoasters! Memories!
If you do have a concrete source for the claim it's layout was changed, I'd be very interested in seeing it since I'm doing a bit of research into Fred Church's Bobs coasters. I've also ordered a copy of "Laugh Your Troubles away: the complete history of Riverview Park" by Derek Gee and Ralph Lopez - hopefully that book will confirm whether the layout was ever changed or not.
5 minute lines??? haha Wow, this seems like the true ultimate roller coaster! Too bad they tore the damn park down... I'd do anything to have this thing rebuilt. But perhaps that would taint its legend... Who knows, all we're left with now are the memories, thank god we've got a great POV of it though!
What is interesting to me after seeing this footage is that the lift hill doesn't seem that tall. The train reaches the top of the hill so quickly, so either the hill was not very tall or that chain lift was extremely fast. It does seem to climb the hill at a very fast clip. I'm going to do some research on the statistics of this ride, which is indeed a legendary coaster.
+Joseph Hicks Okay, after looking at the footage again it's obvious that the film is speeded up, that's why the lift hill seems short. The train is climbing the hill faster than normal.
If the Bobs were still open today, and not modified from it's original profile & layout, it would be hands down, without compare, the #1 most thrilling and severe wooden coaster in existence. A large part of the reason would be it's non-banked turns, which slam riders into the sides of the heavily-padded & comfortable seats, or your riding partner!
If you change the layout of a ride, for whatever reason, you risk making it worse. From the day it opened, the Bobs consistently made 3 times as much money as all the other rides - a significant achievment. Personally I doubt that Riverview management would risk damaging the phenomenal popularity of the Bobs just for a little bit more land to build on. Do you have a source for the claim it's layout was changed? I'd be interested in seeing it. :)
That's not true, kerma17. The Bobs was Riverview's premier ride - in opening year (1924) it out-grossed all the other coasters in the park by 3 to 1, and apparently continued to do so until the park closed. It was one of the best rollercoasters the world has ever seen. Why would they change it?
No! Prior & Church banked *some* corners, and left others un-banked. Why? Unbanked turns result in strong lateral G forces for riders, which is wonderful after being thrown out of your seat (called "airtime"). Banked turns result in positive Gs, which are more comfortable for many, but not as thrilling, either.
Raging Wolf Bobs was complete trash. I'm a wood coaster enthusiast & have been on the majority of America's woodies & there's only a few that I would not mind if they were torn down. RWB is one of those & I will not miss it one bit. As you said, it had nothing in common with Riverview's Bobs. RWB was a miserable, rough, dull, poorly designed & built collection of firewood. If Riverview's Bobs was rebuilt per it's original drawing specs it would be the best as I described below.
You are so right! While staying at Cedar Point, I drove to Geaga Lake the year Wolf Bob's opened up and I was like dam! I drove all the way for that? I'm glad over all I did go to Geaga Lake because it would close in the near future!
@PHAEDRIDER Geauga's Raging Wolf Bobs was nowhere near as intense or exciting as Riverview's Bobs, and had a different layout as well. The only thing the two rides had in common was the waterwing footprint.
www.flickr.com/photos/37416464@N04/6782319864/, this is the place that the Tornado POV that was mentioned is now, you can still enjoy it with a POV of Thunderbolt (really want to punch the person in the face who abandoned it), but this is brilliant footage of a ride that had no reason to be torn down (Riverview Park closed because of the land value being more than what they made for those of you who didn't know that), I'd wager that Riverview Park would still be around to this day if they didn't close even with Great America and be the Blackpool of the US.
i loved Riverview. Now it's a police station. Fun turns into fascism. Riverview.....I still remember the smell of puke and cotton candy. I have been on several contemporary roller coasters even as an old man. They have one big drop and basically move in a very boring linear way. The Bobs was a thousand times better. It had a little less MPH on the first drop but the average speed was much higher. Also it relentlessly twisted through hairpin turns at high speed and was a very convoluted ride. Since it was old school it felt highly unsafe and rickety as it wracked around and through its wooden pretzel structure. The fastest coaster at the park was the fireball but that was more modern, it really only had one good drop. The Bobs was the beast coaster I ever rode. Also, like the man says, a long wait was 5 minutes and these days you can wait 2 hours for a ride that's over in 30 seconds. The bobs cost 25 cents when I was a kid and you got your bones jolted. It was wonderful and worth every penny. these $20 dollar things today are just another evil corporate joke
