Dates

• Existence: c1892 - 1972

Biography

John Norman Bartlett was born in England in 1892 and moved to the USA after serving during the First World War as an aircraft pilot.

During service he used to perform dangerous stunts and upon being released from service he became involved with racing cars. A trained engineer, Bartlett developed an interest in building fairground rides. He built rides for the carnivals in north America and also worked with British firms such as Orton & Spooner.

He is credited with patenting the first type of Bobsled Coaster in 1926, known as the Flying Turns, a trackless wooden chute simulating a bobsled course. Bartlett met John Miller in 1928, and they commenced building the new ride.

The first Flying Turns was built in Lakeside Park in Ohio in 1929. Bartlett opened seven further wooden Bobsled Coasters in the USA between 1930 and 1941, including at Euclid Beach Park, Cleveland in 1930, Rocky Point Amusement Park, Rhode Island in 1931 and the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933, which was moved to Chicago’s Riverside Park after the fair closed in 1935.

In 1935 a Flying Turns was also built at Fyns Tivoli, Odense, Denmark, which was moved and rebuilt at the Brussels International Exposition in 1935, Berlin Olympics in 1936, Bakken near Copenhagen in the late 1930s, and finally back to Fyns Tivoli in 1951. Bartlett’s last Flying Turns was built for the 1939 New York World’s Fair, and moved to Coney Island when the event closed in 1940.

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