Rockaways' Playland Jo Jo Club

An abstract  illustration of a smiling face made of simple red lines and shapes with black and red text below the image. Bot the image and text sits on a white background. 

Rockaway’s Playland was an amusement park that opened in 1901 in Queens, New York and closed around 1986. The park was originally known as Thompson’s Amusement Park after the owner LeMarcus Thompson. Thompson was the inventor of the modern rollercoaster that debuted at Coney Island. Playland’s famous rollercoaster was called the “Atom Smasher.” The New York Times reported in 1987 that the amusement park would be permanently closing due to the high costs of insurance and the lack of clientele. The area of the park was sold to housing developers. The image of a clown has always been associated with the amusement park, but shifted at some point to the more abstract version shown on this button. For additional images of Rockaway Beach and Rockaway Playland from the 1800s until its destruction in the 1980s visit this site.