Sam Johnston will tell you he never intended to get into the carnival business.

His father joined the industry in the mid-1940s after taking Johnston and his brother to a small amusement park in California. Seeing it as a profitable business, Sam Johnston Sr. decided to start a live pony ride and travel with larger carnivals.

He eventually purchased and built other rides to create a small carnival called Johnston’s Rides, later renamed Johnston’s Amusements. Johnston said he and his brother were cheap help for his father’s business. One of Johnston’s first jobs was operating a children’s car ride at the grand opening of a McDonald’s when he was 8 years old.

“I hated it,” Johnston said. “I’m sitting there having to pull this lever to get it to start and then pull this lever to stop. I di

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