Bounce Land Trampoline Parks in Northern Illinois. (late 1950s - early 1960s)

Bounce Land Trampoline Parks were around from the late 50s to the early 60s. The Lincoln-Devon Bounce Land was in Chicago, Illinois. 

 

Many people associate this Bounce Land with Hollywood Kiddieland Amusement Park in Chicago. Still, as you can see from the map I created, they are different businesses and a few blocks from each other.

Martin Brunderman opened the park as Americans were swept from one fad to another: miniature golf, hula hoops, and trampoline parks.

Several centers were opened around the Chicago area and in communities around America. Visitors paid 50¢ for one half-hour on one of the trampolines, according to Chicago Tribune archives from the early 1960s.

1960 Chicago Yellow Pages.

I personally frequently went to the one on Lincoln Avenue. The trampolines were leg-less and laid inches above ground level, over an open pit about 3 feet deep.

Tons of fun, Right?

But then things turn sour. In November 1960, a father and daughter sued Bounce Land for $50,000 in damages, claiming that a 6-year-old girl suffered a sprained right foot when she fell from a trampoline. The article said that when her father, James Jennings, bounced on the trampoline to see what was wrong with it, he came down on steel supports, suffering a back injury that forced him to be hospitalized for six weeks.

Another story from June 1964 said an Oak Park man was granted $150,000 by a Circuit Court jury after being paralyzed from the waist down in a trampoline accident.

John L. Shea was 18 when he paid 50¢ to use a trampoline at Bounce Land in Melrose Park, Illinois, for 30 minutes. He was thrown off balance by defective springs and hospitalized for one year.

Bounce Land and other trampoline park companies closed.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.