Wow, what a monster thread of coaster history!
I just went through all 28 pages of it, so cool.
As an american coaster nerd, I have a fairly decent working knowledge (though by no means encyclopedic) of coaster history on this side of the pond, but in typical navel-gazing yank fashion, europe and elsewhere are a pretty big blind spot for me, so this thread was an extra special treat. A big giant thanks to all of the contributors!
Bringing it back to my hometown of chicago, being born in '76, I never got to experience the magic of chicago's legendary Riverview Park which closed in '67, but I've heard all of the stories from my parents, grandparents and other relatives. In fact, my maternal grandparents both grew up within spitting distance of riverview in roscoe village and went there all the time as children back in the 20s/30s. What a damn shame that we lost it forever.
From the 50s through its closing in '67, Riverview was home to 7 roller coasters, which many publications that I've come across claim was the highest number of rollercoasters at any park in the world at the time. Obviously, that's not a terribly large number by today's standards, but 7 roller coasters in one park was a pretty big deal back in that era.
Does anyone know if there's any veracity to the claim that Riverview had the most roller coasters at the time? How would one even go about trying to prove if it was true or not?