It’s a thrill when you find a hidden gem deep in the archive — not a thrill like zooming through the Demon roller-coaster’s double corkscrew at 50 mph, but a thrill nonetheless.

A recent trip to The Chronicle’s basement archive turned up articles and negatives from the first years of what was then Marriott’s Great America. The 1976 articles and 1978 photos show the Santa Clara theme park 40 years ago, and though some of the rides are the same as what visitors see today, much of the sprawling 556-acre site is unrecognizable.

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Years before the first coasters started rolling, Marriott Corp. President J.W. Marriott Jr. held a news conference on Oct. 24, 1973, to announce plans for the park. “We don’t object to the Disneyland comparison,” he said. “It’ll be red, white and blue, a bit of nostalgia, a remembrance of things past.”

Not surprisingly, Marriott Corp. had plans to build a 300-room hotel next to the park. The company also bought the rights to several Warner Bros. cartoon characters, such as Porky Pig, Yosemite Sam and, of course, Bugs Bunny. These characters would go on to perform in shows and roam the park, entertaining guests like their Disney counterparts in Anaheim.

In January 1976, the park began hiring employees, and nearly 30,000 young job seekers tied up Highway 101 on their way to apply for the 2,300 open positions. How much could one expect to paid for one of these coveted jobs? How about $2.20 an hour?

More than 20,000 people flocked to Santa Clara for the opening of the park, which featured such rides as Willard’s Whizzer, the Turn of the Century — later rebranded as the Demon — and the double-deck Columbia Carousel, billed as the largest merry-go-round in the world. Adult tickets cost $7.95, while children from 4 to 12 years old got in for $6.95. Kids 3 and younger were allowed in for free.

By 1978, the year these photos were taken, the Pictorium was the hot new attraction. The building was built seven stories high to accommodate what was, at the time, the world’s largest movie screen at 65 feet tall, 89 feet wide.

Forty years later, ticket prices have risen a bit, and roller-coasters and thrill rides such as the Grizzly, Flight Deck and Drop Tower are eliciting smiles and screams. For a few generations of Bay Area residents, however, Great America still provides “a bit of nostalgia, a remembrance of things past.”

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•A salute to a classic: Marine World/Africa U.S.A. may be gone, but the legend grows for a generation of Bay Area residents who spent time at the park as kids and teenagers. Pop culture critic Peter Hartlaub offers a brief history.

•Pah-te time: San Francisco likes to party, of course. But for a time in the 1940s, the city had visions of hosting its own annual Mardi Gras.

•Getting bombed: The year was 1980, and Lake Tahoe was a gambler’s paradise. Then a huge bomb was rolled into Harvey’s Hotel & Casino.

•Looking down on you: A Chronicle archive dig turns up amazing Goodyear Blimp aerial shots of the Bay Area from 1975. Check them out.

From the Archive is a weekly column by Bill Van Niekerken, the library director of The Chronicle, exploring the depths of the newspaper’s archive. It’s part of Chronicle Vault, a twice-weekly newsletter highlighting more than 150 years of San Francisco stories. It is edited by Tim O’Rourke, The Chronicle’s assistant managing editor and executive producer of SFChronicle.com. Sign up for the newsletter here, and follow Chronicle Vault on Instagram. Contact Bill at bvanniekerken@sfchronicle.com and Tim at torourke@sfchronicle.com.