Hal Schlegel of Seattle remembers listening to the music of the carousel at Playland Amusement Park and the squeal of tires from the Aurora Speedway off of 130th Street and Aurora Avenue when he was only 3-years-old.
As a teenager from 1957 to 1959, he got within closer range of the same sounds and attractions, by working as a break man at the amusement park, making it possible for ride operators to eat meals. Although the race track was closed for good in 1958 after opening in 1938, many race car drivers, including driver Mel Anthony — and Clark Gable — raced along the Aurora Speedway track.
Tomorrow, June 16, race car drivers and enthusiasts can attend “The History of Racing on Aurora” from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the parking lot of the Shoreline Historical Museum, 749 N. 175th Street. The free event is in partnership with The Golden Wheel Fraternity.
“Aurora has a lot to do with the formation of the Golden Wheel Fraternity,” Schlegel, now the vice president of the club said.
The nonprofit organization, organized in 1975 by six original racers and their wives, was formed when member Pike Green noticed the only time the drivers really got together was at someone’s funeral. Members of the club encourage the preservation and sport of auto racing, provide financial assistance to drivers and their families and race and show midget race cars.
Schlegel’s parents were not avid fans of racing, he said, so he rarely got to visit the Aurora Speedway track. That track opened as the Playland dog race track in 1933 but closed in 1935 following pressures from those who were involved in the business of racing horses. Although he said he’s a “newcomer to the sport” who belongs to the fan category of racing, Schlegel owns two 1946 Solar Midget race cars.
“I couldn’t wait to have a car to play with,” Schlegel said. When the restoration of the first car he bought from a former club member was taking too long he got himself a second car. He predicts that next year will be the first time the “basket-case” car he bought five years ago sees a track.
He said finding parts for his classic cars is “virtually impossible” and must go to South Everett to find methanol for his cars to run on.
Schlegel became a member of Golden Wheels Fraternity in 2000 but has been a member of the Shoreline Historical Museum for a dozen years. He met with museum director Vicki Stiles about a Playland Amusement Park exhibit before he knew the museum existed.
“I told Vicki that I am an ex-Playland employee and that I would help with the exhibit,” Schlegel said. “I told her about my passion for reconstructing that era.”
Stiles told Schlegel about a woman who first approached her about building a Playland exhibit at the museum. Schlegel and his wife, Kay, the woman Stiles referred to, were married at the Shoreline Historical Museum.
The annual event will include the screening of a film about Playland and Aurora Speedway and one of the first cars from the Red Bug Ride where miniature battery-powered cars drove along a pretend highway. Children will have the opportunity to sit in the exhibit cars and photos are encouraged.
A special Playland reunion in honor of Bonnie Duncan Nelson is scheduled for 3 p.m. directly following the exhibit. Nelson had close ties to Playland as her family lived nearby and worked at the amusement park.
“(Playland) was once a huge part of the local life around here,” Stiles said. “If you didn’t work there you went there for entertainment.”
Racing memorabilia, programs and trophies are part of the Playland exhibit at the Shoreline Historical Museum.
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