I'm taking AP American History this year and we are required to do a project for National History Day. The theme this year is The Individual in History: Actions and Legacies. I'm going to write a paper.

I really want to do Harry Traver, but I'm not sure how much information there is out there (I need at least ten sources - as many primary sources as possible, secondary sources are good,too). I'm wondering if you guys know of anything that might be really good, or, if you don't think there is enough information, what a suitable, coaster-related alternative would be.
(I do already have the Legends of Terror book, so I don't really need fifteen people to tell me to use that.)

Thanks in advance.

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Do Walt Disney, there would be mountains more information on him than Harry Traver.

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ThrillNetwork Moderator
The user formerly known as WildeFyre
UOIT Mechanical Engineering Student

^Or Angus Wynne Jr.
I don't know where any info on Travers would be. Maybe if you try Wikipedia, they list their sources on the bottom of the page. That might help.

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I checked the Wikipedia page on Harry Traver.
It's very short with no sources listed.
Harry Traver - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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ThrillNetwork Moderator
The user formerly known as WildeFyre
UOIT Mechanical Engineering Student

Walt Disney is a good idea. I hadn't thought of that somehow.
The only thing is that Disney is so ridiculously famous. I'd rather do someone less well-known who revolutionized the amusement industry. Maybe Schwartzkopf? I would love, love, LOVE to do Werner Stengel, but we are really supposed to focus more on less recent history (hence, "Actions and LEGACIES").

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If it has to be "Actions and Legacies" than I really do suggest Disney. He pretty much started the whole idea of theme (not amusement) parks, not to mention full length animated features among other things.

Schwartzkopf and Stengel haven't left any legacies for anybody but enthusiasts or ACErs.

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ThrillNetwork Moderator
The user formerly known as WildeFyre
UOIT Mechanical Engineering Student

Yeah, I decided to do Disney. I want to concentrate as much as I can on his influence on the idea of liesure in America and his contributions to the amusement industry as a whole.

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I wouldn't do Disney. Aside from his already popular status, he wasn't known for doing all good. He was like a Mel Gibson of that time. Especially a bad idea if your teacher happens to be Jewish.

However, a very close Walter Knott, if I may suggest, could provide you with a large amount of information, since he and his wie owned the most popular fried chicken restaraunt in the country, he cultivated the boysenberry, and created the first theme park in the country (1955, a few years before Disneyland).

Just my two cents.

He doesn't have to to all good. I know a kid who's doing Stalin. It's not necessarily about a person who's good or bad, it's about a legacy. Disney absolutely left a big legacy.

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