For decades, children and teenagers have loved the Luna Park face, and its promise of laughs, thrills and a whiff of danger.

Helen Pitt has uncovered Australia's intriguing Luna Park story. It's filled with con men and criminals, crooked cops, failed politicians and movie moguls. Like the circuses, from which amusement parks evolved, this is a tale with elephants, performing snakes and many ringmasters.

The story starts in late 19th century America, and follows the fun parks which opened-and closed-across Australia. The most famous of them all, Sydney's Luna Park, has a history that's truly a roller-coaster ride like its trademark Big Dipper, that was shipped piece by piece from South Australia for its 1935 opening.

From the engineering feats of its construction in the dark days of the Depression to the tragic deaths of six boys and a father in the 1979 Ghost Train fire, one of the most heartbreaking unsolved mysteries of this city; despite financial disasters, legal battles and closures; Luna Park still survives, glittering by the water.