Legends in the Industry: George Long, Jr.- by Jim Futrell This year Seabreeze Amusement Park will celebrate a milestone achieved by fewer than half a dozen amusement parks—its 125th anniversary. And while an anniversary of this magnitude is an event to be commemorated by the industry as a whole, the credit for its success, of course, goes to the people who have cared for the park over the years—George W. Long Jr. and his family. Long was destined to spend his life in the amusement industry. By the time he was born in 1892, his family was a well-established manufacturer and operator of carousels. When he came to Seabreeze in 1904 at the age of 12 with his father, he stayed and never left. Now, a century later, the park is thriving under the guidance of his five grandchildren. In 1858, George’s grandfather Edward F. Long and his brother Fielding immigrated to Philadelphia from England with their sons Robert Arthur and Uriah. While they initially worked in the wool and velvet business, the miniature carousels carved by Uriah intrigued his brothers. In 1876, they changed the family’s destiny by constructing a full-size carousel, which they operated in Philadelphia’s Fairmont Park. The ride was a success, and throughout the next 27 years, the family built seven more carousels. Edward’s children took responsibility for the carousels, providing them with an entry into the amusement park business. Edward Jr. and his descendants ended up at Eldridge Park in Elmira, N.Y. Robert Arthur’s family eventually took over Bushkill Park in Easton, Pa. Their sister Lois followed a family carousel to Blackpool, U.K., where she married John Outhwaite, an early partner at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. George Long Sr., Arthur’s brother, ended up as a concessionaire at Seabreeze. George Long Sr. took a roundabout route to the shores of Irondequoit Bay. In the mid-1890’s, he operated one of the family’s carousels at Ontario Beach, an early competitor of Seabreeze, but in 1899, he set out to find a home for the family’s newest carousel. For four years, he operated it at two locations in New Jersey. In 1903, he decided to introduce his 11-year-old son, George Jr. to the family business and took him to Norfolk, Va., to operate the carousel at a new amusement park, Pine Island. But the park’s opening was delayed, and George and his father spent the summer living in a shack on the beach. In later years, George Jr. would recall that year being the only bad one he had working in the industry. Things soon improved when the Longs found an opportunity at Seabreeze, located along the shores of Irondequoit Bay, near Rochester, N.Y., and moved the carousel there. Unlike the park in Norfolk, Seabreeze was a well-established facility, having opened in 1879. Those were active years for the family. During the summer, they lived in the back room of the carousel building, and during the winter they lived in Philadelphia. In high school, George took a woodworking course, setting off a lifelong love affair with wood carving. “His medium was wood,” recalls grandson George Norris. “He taught in wood and created in wood.” In 1909, George Jr. began studying electrical engineering at the Drexel Institute. He took a brief detour, laying telephone cable for AT&T, but the industry kept calling him and he eventually returned to Seabreeze. His father told him that the carousel could not support two families, so George took on other jobs in the park. He took to the business with a true passion, erecting a new structure for the family’s carousel in 1915. In 1916, he spent several months working at the Philadelphia Toboggan Company, supervising construction of the carousel and roller coaster at Shellpot Park in Delaware. This experience, combined with his engineering training, allowed him to modernize the Seabreeze carousel in 1917. In 1921, he built the Virginia Reel, the first of several rides he would construct at Seabreeze. Long’s energetic nature sometimes unnerved his father. A family story handed down recounts when George Sr. was sitting in front of the carousel when a roller coaster operator strolled by. The elder Long said, “Jack, come over and sit down, take it easy. Don’t be like my son jumping around, running here and there, doing this and that. He doesn’t enjoy life. You should sit down and enjoy yourself.” But George Jr. did enjoy his active life. Matt Caulfield, who worked for Long from 1954 to 1962 and now runs the park’s classic Philadelphia Toboggan Company carousel—which quickly became George’s favorite ride after it was purchased in 1926—recalls one evening in a concession stand with him. Standing in the crisp autumn air, looking out across Irondequoit Bay at the full moon, Caulfield remembers Long smiling and telling him, “This is the life ... [there’s] nothing like the outdoor life, nothing like it at all.” Even today, his work ethic is legendary among the family. Grandson John Norris remembers, “He was always going non-stop. He had a desk in his house he never sat at.” “He believed in the value of hard work,” says George Norris. And, Norris adds, George expected the same from everyone who worked for him. “It was an education for every youngster who went through the George Long School of Close Supervision,” according to Caulfield. But while he was demanding, he was always willing to share his knowledge with others. Not finding enough at the park to keep him busy, in 1925 he teamed up with Eastman Kodak Savings and Loan to develop houses in Rochester. As a self-taught architect, he would not only build them, but he was also responsible for their design. By 1940 he had built more than 700 homes throughout the city. During the 1930s, Long had bricks shipped from Philadelphia, where shuttered factories were being demolished for use in construction. He would also fabricate components such as mantles and doorjambs at a central location, further saving on construction costs. Today, the houses are still sought after because of their workmanship. As elsewhere, tough times came to Seabreeze in the 1930s. But George Jr. found himself becoming increasingly involved in the park, and by 1937 the facility’s owner, the Rochester Traction Company, wanted out of the business, and it rented Seabreeze to Long. In 1946, Long purchased the park for $85,000. With Long in full control, the 1950s were a prosperous decade for the park. Aided by his sons-in-law, Merrick Price and Bob Norris, and daughters Lois and Betty, he spent much of the decade building new attractions for the park, including the Junior Coaster, a fun house, a dark ride, a train, and several riverboat rides. It was the 1959 construction of Over the Falls, a shoot the chutes ride, that demonstrated Long’s attention to detail. The park purchased plans for the ride from Euclid Beach Park in Cleveland, and during construction Long sensed that something was not right about the dimensions for the boats. He built them a few inches narrower than the plans specified. While Seabreeze’s boats made it through the channel without problems, Euclid Beach’s got stuck and had to be reworked. In the 1960s, Seabreeze struggled in the face of urban unrest and changing consumer tastes. But Long did what he could to hold on, and he continued to make improvements. One of his major projects was to convert the Junior Coaster into the Bobsleds. Inspired by a visit to Disneyland, where he was enamored with the Matterhorn mountain, Long replaced the wooden tracks with tubular steel, developing one of the first such roller coasters to be featured in a traditional amusement park. At about this time, Long’s son-in-law, Merrick Price, purchased one of the Philadelphia Toboggan Company’s old carousel-carving machines. It was the same machine Long remembered using a half century earlier when he worked at the company. As a hobby, Long carved approximately 40 full-size replicas of carousel horses, selling them for $500 each. As one of the few people still proficient in this lost art, George Long was profiled in 1969 by CBS’s “On the Road with Charles Kurault.” In 1981, he was invited to display his carving skills at the Smithsonian Institution. In 1973, Long briefly considered selling the park for a condominium development. But his family, who had helped him care for the park for years, stepped up to take over the operation. Long’s five grandchildren, Anne, George, John and Rob Norris, and Suzy Price Hoffsass, who all grew up at the park, were ready to step in and revitalize Seabreeze. Even today, they remember how he nurtured their love for the industry. “He taught us to love this business,” remembers Anne Norris. “We were planning other careers, but in the end, we were meant to be here.” Anne credits her grandfather with giving her an opportunity to succeed in the amusement industry. When she was deciding on a career path after graduating college, Long asked Anne if she would like to learn the business side of the park. “He took me under his wing and taught me how to run the office. It was a challenge for him to have someone else involved in the record keeping, but he was very gracious about it. He ran the finance side of his business by his favorite saying, ‘A penny saved is a penny earned.’” Rob Norris, who started doing odd jobs around the park at the age of seven, fondly recalls the summers Long would take him and his brother George to visit parks around the country. “It solidified my interest in the industry,” he says. For many years, Suzy Hoffsass worked side by side with her grandfather restoring the park’s carousel. She recalls how he liked to work quickly, “factory style,” while Hoffsass was more a museum-quality restorer. “He tended to get frustrated with me,” she laughs. With a new generation in control, Seabreeze was revitalized. Buildings were renovated, new rides were added, a waterpark was built, and, over the objections of George, the park was fenced and an admission charged for the first time. Seabreeze entered a new era of prosperity. “It pleased him to see all of his grandkids working together,” says Anne. But while George Long, in his 80s at this point, had stepped back from the day-to-day operations of the park, he by no means was slowing down. He set up a workshop in the basement of the carousel building and carved replacement parts for the carousel. His advanced age made it difficult to carve full-size horses, so he began creating detailed 13-inch-long miniatures. During the next several years, he produced more than 600 horses and two complete miniature carousels that were each eight feet in diameter. The first, finished in 1977, was an exact replica of the park’s Philadelphia Toboggan Company machine. The second, completed in 1986, combined different carving styles. In all, Long devoted more than 5,000 hours to building the miniature carousels. George Long passed away on September 27, 1988, at the age of 96. He led a full life and left behind the legacy of Seabreeze Amusement Park, which is now in the midst of a full renaissance under the guidance of his five grandchildren. Running Seabreeze afforded each of them a chance to develop his or her own unique set of skills while continuing Long’s tradition of hands-on management. All the grandchildren participate in managing the park, as well as having their individual departmental responsibilities. Rob Norris is president and oversees growth and development of the park. In addition, he handles site work, building design, and waterpark operations. George is responsible for the park’s systems and controls and manages the rides and security operations. Anne is the financial director and oversees food and front gate operations. John handles advertising and promotion, and entertainment, and manages the games department. Suzy Hoffsass oversees bookkeeping. Like their grandfather, the grandchildren are also involved with IAAPA. One of the first things George Long and his sons-in-law did after taking management of the park was join IAAPA in 1937, then known as the National Association of Amusement Parks, Pools and Beaches. This makes Seabreeze one of the oldest members of the association. Today Anne Norris is active on IAAPA committees while Rob is currently second vice chair of the IAAPA Board of Directors. Unfortunately, Long’s beloved Philadelphia Toboggan Company carousel was destroyed by fire on March 31, 1994. Both miniature carousels and Long’s carving machine were also lost. While this would have been a devastating blow to the park two decades earlier, Seabreeze was able to re-emerge stronger than ever. The sad loss of George Long’s beloved carousel afforded a unique opportunity for the grandchildren to carry on the family’s legacy. Remembering the attractions their grandfather built for the park and the family’s carousel-building history, they could not bring themselves to replace George Long’s favorite ride with a factory-made fiberglass model. The family acquired an antique carousel frame and repopulated it with 38 newly carved horses. Four horses from the original Seabreeze carousel and two more carved by George Long joined them, creating the ninth carousel built by the family. “Grandpa would have been proud,” says Anne.