Eight years after The Legacy of Arrow Development, the documentary team from the American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE) is back with The Legacy of Schwarkopf. The new documentary — which had its world premier last Fall and is set to premier digitally for ACE Members — focuses on the history and impact of legendary roller coaster designer Anton Schwarzkopf (once dubbed Mr. Roller Coaster), his design partner Werner Stengel, and his company, Schwarzkopf Industries GmbH.
If you’re reading Coaster101, you’ve probably ridden a Schwarzkopf roller coaster, whether its Revolution at Six Flags Magic Mountain, Shockwave at Six Flags Over Texas, or SooperDooperLooper at Hershey Park. And if you’ve ridden one, you probably know two things about them: 1) They’re consistently great, and 2) they’re old. If you want to learn the full history of these rides, and how much they’ve influenced modern roller coasters, that’s where The Legacy of Schwarzkopf comes in.
The full length documentary, clocking in right around 90 minutes, takes a pretty straightforward chronological look through Schwarzkopf roller coasters, while touching on his relationship with other roller coaster companies, and designers like his longtime partner Werner Stengel. The history starts with Schwarzkopf’s early development on post-war carnival rides and his first steel traveling roller coaster, The Wildcat.
An article declaring Anton Schwarzkopf to be “Mr. Rollercoaster” (courtesy American Coaster Enthusiasts)
The story progresses year by year through all of the firsts from the company, with segments focusing on the best know and most impactful Schwarzkopf coasters in the U.S., up through his final designs in the 1980s. This makes up the heart of the documentary, with deep looks at specific rides including historic footage, TV ads from openings of rides, and extensive interviews with people who operate, helped install, or just love these coasters.
SooperDooperLooper at Hersheypark (courtesy American Coaster Enthusiasts)
The Highlights
The interviews provide some of the best parts of the documentary. Anton Schwarzkopf passed away in 2001, so hearing from people who met him and worked with him on some of my favorite roller coasters provides a great insight into the man and how much he loved rides. I loved hearing Tim Burkhart, former VP of Magic Mountain, talk about the opening day of Revolution in 1976 as a young ride operator and meeting Schwarzkopf.
Marcus Leshock from WGN-TV interviewed about The Whizzer at Six Flags Great America. Also listen to our interview with him! (Courtesy American Coaster Enthusiasts)
While the segments on our beloved North American coasters might have the most nostalgia for ACE members, as the film progresses into the focus shifts to innovative traveling coasters in Europe. Rivalry between family operators of traveling coasters in Germany and Austria drove Schwarzkopf to innovate new, bigger and better coasters for the market, ultimately climaxing in the five loop Olympia Looping. The history of all of these iconic traveling coasters, some less familiar to me, were fascinating. And interviews with some of the family operators and Schwarzkopf family help illuminate them even more.
Olympia Looping, the five loop Schwarzkopf traveling coaster (courtesy American Coaster Enthusiasts)
That period also marks the financial decline for Schwarzkopf, as the coasters were innovative, but often one off sales. But, here’s where we really start to see the impact on the industry. It’s when Intamin breaks off from Schwarzkopf, and where one of Schwarzkopf’s engineers, Hubert Gerstlauer, goes off to start his own company. And the last act of the documentary focuses on this legacy. It looks at where Schwarzkopf coasters are now, what the lessons from Schwarzkopf are for modern coaster companies, and how modern coasters trace back to the things the Schwarzkopf company designed and built.
Understanding the Legacy of Schwarzkopf
This is definitely not a documentary about Anton Schwarzkopf the man, maybe not surprising since it’s coming from ACE. But as a straight ahead look at the Schwarzkopf company, the roller coasters they built, and their impact on the industry and today’s rides, the documentary does its job well. It’s full of insights into and appreciation of the designs and innovations of the Schwarzkopf company.
Mind Bender at Six Flags Over Georgia (courtesy American Coaster Enthusiasts)
It also gave me confidence that some of these coasters will keep on rolling, with companies like Gerstlauer building new trains for them and parks putting in the effort to preserve them. And, for a roller coaster nerd, especially a new one, it teaches how important the Schwarzkopf company was to the industry and our favorite rides. Maybe most importantly, it made me really want to go ride some of the Schwarzkopf coasters I haven’t. And for that reason alone, Legacy of Schwarzkopf is definitely worth a watch.
So, how do you watch it? Luckily, ACE has a digital premier of the movie on Youtube TONIGHT (March 14) at 5PM Pacific Time! If you’re an ACE member you can sign up for the screening at this link. A wider public release will come sometime in the future, and more in person screenings might be coming as well. You can keep updated on the Legacy of Schwarzkopf website. And a big thanks for the ACE Documentary Team for sharing Legacy of Schwarzkopf!
Lastly, if you want more history on the legacy of important roller coaster companies, you can watch the Legacy of Arrow Development on Youtube, and you should read our article from a few years ago about the Wooden Coaster Family Tree!
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