1930s brought more growth. The casino was expanded with a dance floor. On Easter, Glenn Gray and the Casa Loma Band opened the Starlight Ballroom. The all-time attendance record of 5,000 was set in the spring of 1941, when Tommy Dorsey's reorganized band featured Frank Sinatra, who had yet to reach the height of his career. The effects of the Great Depression and the popularity of the automobile brought trolleys in the United States into a decline, which negatively impacted attendance at Lake Compounce. These same factors had similar effects on other parks in the New England region, such as Canobie Lake Park and Riverside Park. In 1944, Lake Compounce opened a steam railroad. It was designed and built by Connecticut actor William Gillette, the original portrayer of Sherlock Holmes in silent films. New ownership The park's success was steady until the late 1960s, when the park's attendance was decreasing. Lake Compounce remained under the ownership of the Pierce and Norton Corporation until 1966, when Edward G. Pierce sold his share to the Norton family. The Nortons owned and operated the park through 1985 and were able to restore some profitability and raise attendance. No major attractions were added during this time, and the Nortons listed the park for sale in 1984. In 1985, Lake Compounce was sold to the Hershey Entertainment and Resorts Company, owners of Hersheypark in Hershey, Pennsylvania, who briefly renamed the park to "Hershey's Lake Compounce". Factors such as poor marketing, low attendance, and repeated ride outages caused Hershey to sell the park after two seasons in 1987, a decision that upset local representatives. In the spring of 1987, Joseph Entertainment Group, owned by Joseph Balestieri, bought the park and renamed it "Lake Compounce Festival Park". The park received renovations and in 1988 a 20,000-seat outdoor amphitheater. One of the first notable musical acts to perform at the new venue was the group Milli Vanilli, and their live performance was broadcast on MTV in what became the first public sign that they were lip-synching, when a recording of the song "Girl You Know It's True" began to skip. JEG focused on concert promotion and neglected the amusement park portion of the property. The Wildcat roller coaster and other rides became nonoperational by 1991. That year, JEG's financial troubles were exposed when a check the company wrote to Guns N' Roses bounced, and the performance was cancelled.