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 Not
many people buy a Ferris wheel upon learning a fourth child is on the
way. But in 1949, Lewis Newton, already trying to make ends meet by
supplying prizes and stuffed animals to church bazaars, took the chance
when a Brooklyn priest suggested he "get some rides."
So Newton invested his savings of $9,300
and his future was delivered in mounds of steel and moving parts.
"I couldn't tell what I was looking at," Newton said. "So
I drove over to Palisades Amusement Park in New Jersey and asked the guy
who ran the wheel there if he could help me... He saved my life."
That Ferris wheel in Post-War Flatbush
was, according to Newton, the first amusement ride to make the rounds of
the Catholic parishes in Queens and Brooklyn. With his initial success,
Newton expanded in 1953. He quit his day job installing insulation
for Western Electric and added four rides from a Levittown kiddie park
that was forced to close because it was too near a cocktail lounge.
During the winter, he stored the amusements in the "boonies,"
on 20 acres at Elwood Road and Route 25A in Northport, which he leased
for $10 a month.
Now, with 26 rides in tow, Lewis J. Newton & Sons
is the biggest carnival operator in Queens, Nassau and
Suffolk. Headquartered a few miles away from their original
storage site, in East Northport, it is one of an estimated 500 such
traveling carnivals in North America, all family owned.
Of his seven children, only two, John and
Mike, joined the business. But it wasn't until his health failed in 1990
that he really turned over the reins. Now, John, 48 and Mike, 43, are
hoping their four children will want to continue.
"I don't know how they do so well
without me," Newton said. "I ask them every day what is
happening." Almost half of the company's contracts, such as a
24-year association with St. Rose of Lima in Massapequa, are with
organizations Newton himself signed up.
"My mother never suggested I be a
carnie," Newton said. "But it turned out pretty good."
Article written by Ciolli at Newsday
August 6, 1997
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