On this day (August 16) in 1898, the U.S. Patent Office granted Massachusetts inventor Edwin Prescott a patent for a “railway chiefly for pleasure” that he called a “Roller-Coaster.” Though he was hardly the first to design or build such a device, he seems to have been the first to register the name. And that’s why scream machine fans around the world celebrate this date as Rollercoaster Day. Sixty years later in Vancouver, a crew of some 300 craftsmen built The Coaster on the grounds of the city’s Pacific National Exhibition. Designed by Seattle-based Carl Phare and assembled under the supervision of Walker LeRoy using lumber milled from local Douglas Fir trees, it opened in 1958. Canada’s oldest roller-coaster still in service, it stands 23 metres tall (75 feet), and the 865-metre (2,840-foot) ride takes about 90 seconds. Since it opened, some 25 million Playland visitor have taken the plunge without a single recorded fatality or serious injury. In 2009, our wooden roller coaster became one among only 38 rides in the world to receive a Coaster Landmark Award from the non-profit American Coaster Enthusiasts organization. Coming up on its diamond jubilee year, it is considered by many to be among the top 10 of its kind on the planet. Understandably, today’s Reeling Back movie has to be director James Goldstone’s 1977 thriller Rollercoaster.