When the park’s famous replica Eiffel Tower was originally painted, in 1971, it took 1,000 gallons of paint to cover it. On a clear day, guests can see 18 miles out onto the region from the top observation deck of the Eiffel Tower.
The Fountain
The Fountain on International Street is 320 feet long — more than the length of a football field. The fountain shoots up more than 10,000 gallons of water at a given time.
The Grand Carousel
The Grand Carousel — the oldest ride at Kings Island — celebrated its 85th anniversary in 2011. It was purchased by Cincinnati’s Coney Island in 1926 for $201,000 from the Philadelphia Toboggan Company. A popular family attraction, it features a 1918 Wurlitzer Duplex No. 165 organ with 28 jumping horses, 20 stationary horses and is painted with more than 20,000 sheets of 23-karat gold and 1,000 sheets of sterling silver. During a 1937 flood, when it was in operation at Coney Island, some of the horses were swept down the river. A reward was offered for them, or pieces of them, and parts were returned from as far away as Memphis, Tenn. In 1968, the carousel was completely restored and it took one man, Bill Tull, seven months to hand paint the horses.
Kings Island on screen
Many things have been filmed at Kings Island over the years, including “Fresh Horses,” starring Molly Ringwald, the 1972 “Partridge Family” episode “I Left My Heart in Cincinnati” and the 1973 “Brady Bunch” episode “The Cincinnati Kids.” The Racer is notable for its appearance in “The Brady Bunch” episode and is credited with re-igniting the roller-coaster building boom of the ’70s. Daredevil Evel Knievel successfully jumped over 14 Greyhound buses on his motorcycle in the Kings Island parking lot on Oct. 25, 1975, to set a new world’s record. The jump was nationally televised by ABC-TV’s “Wide World of Sports” and held the highest rating in the show’s history.
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