Volume 2, No. 15. August 9, 2002
The
big Event
One unmistakable
trend in the amusement industry is the move among parks to stage multi-day thematic
events; festivals centered on a genre of entertainment, crafts or other activities.
The trend has now attained a key milestone: its own bureaucratic entity.
Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, has just formed a new Special Events department
dedicated solely to improving the park’s current annual events and creating
new ones. Heading the new five-person division is Dave Anderson, who for 15
years served as Dollywood’s Director of Attractions, which had special
events under its purview.
“We see special events as a significant growth opportunity for the company,”
Director of Special Events Anderson said. “It’s grown too big to be
part of another team.” Currently Dollywood hosts the Festival of Nations
in the spring, the Fall Harvest Celebration in October which includes an annual
Woodcarvers Showcase and the Southern Gospel Jubilee, and the Smoky Mountain
Christmas in November and December. “We’ll be able to expand on all
three of those and add new events,” Anderson said.
One of Anderson’s Special Events Managers, Jane Groff, moved over from
the Attractions Department where she was in charge of coordinating the show
elements of special events. That is the only position transferred into the new
department; the other three—a second special events manager (Cyndi Padgett),
an administrative/production assistant (Carol White) and a special events production
coordinator (Rolando Camacho)—are newly created positions. The new department
answers directly to Dollywood General Manager Ken Bell.
“Our job is to define what events we want and help develop the initial
concepts,” Anderson said. “Then we will facilitate the park management
team to bring all elements of the park together to support the event and hopefully
deliver an entertaining product that contains a wide range of elements including
shows, food, merchandise and street entertainers.”
Dollywood has capably staged festivals because its disparate departments and
talent pools willingly contribute themselves to the event. Given the sense of
teamwork that already exists, creating a Special Events team might seem redundant,
but Anderson credits that existing cooperation for spawning the team. “On
the surface special events look like they just appear; in reality, we’re
working events well in advance, and it’s an intense type of business. Just
getting the lead time is an issue. We need to book events further in advance
and give the marketing folks time to build the marketing plan and create awareness
for something that lasts for just a limited time.”
Looking to grow its events is in part an answer to another development at Dollywood;
or, rather, a restriction on development. “We’re in a position where
we can’t add a new ride or attraction or area to the park every year,”
Anderson said. “For the in-between years we can add what we call software
elements. It’s another motivation for our season pass holders and would
give the local market a reason to come back to the park.” Furthermore,
in those years when the park makes a major capital investment, the events team
can appease the non-riders with smaller-scale new events, he said. “Our
audience is pretty evenly divided. It’s hard to please them all every year.”
Evil
twinned
Here is a trivia
question for you Austin Powers fans who helped boost the film Goldmember
sequel to a record box office take the past two weeks: Who played Dr. Evil and
has a son named Scott? One answer would be Philip Morris, owner of Morris Costumes
in Charlotte, North Carolina. Morris, who got his start in the haunt industry
in 1959 when he created a character he called Dr. Evil, filed a trademark claim
last year against the producers of the Austin Powers franchise.
The movie producers argue that Mike Meyers' creation, the bald, pinkie-sucking,
gray suited Austin Powers arch-nemeses, could not be confused with Morris’
long-ago magic and horror-show act. Morris counters that his character is very
much in the cultural conscience. Among haunters, at least, who competitively
bid for his show posters at annual International Association of Haunted Attractions
auctions, Morris is a revered pioneer (not to mention one of the industry’s
leading suppliers of costumes and props).
Morris toured his stage show, “Dr. Evil and his Terrors of the Unknown,”
nationally for 22 years, performing by his estimates almost 5,000 shows throughout
the United States and Canada. A Charlotte television station hired him in 1962
to host Horror Theater as Dr. Evil, a show which outdrew NBC’s The
Tonight Show in its market and ran until 1969 when Morris decided to return
to full-time touring. The show played on the Turner Broadcasting Company for
one year in the mid-80s, too. His company subsequently currently sells Dr. Evil
merchandise, and his Charlotte haunted house uses the name. “The creation
and use of the title for over 43 years gives me common-law rights to the character,”
Morris said.
Granted, Powers’ Dr. Evil looks or acts nothing like Morris’
Dr. Evil, who wore a dark, single breasted suit with a long, black tie and a
red fez with a black tassel. However, one of the henchmen in the first two Austin
Powers was a character named Mustafa dressed similarly to the original Dr. Evil.
“It is interesting that Mustafa does not appear in this current film following
our complaint,” Morris said. Scenes featuring Mustafa were cut from Goldmember
to trim the movie down from three hours, Entertainment Weekly reported. Morris
has also pointed to another strange connection: the movie’s Dr. Evil has
a son named Scott. In real life, Scott Morris is now his father’s business
partner at Morris Costumes.
The elder Morris/Dr. Evil said the legal wrangling has been going on for more
than a year, and the lawyer’s fees have been mounting. But he said he sees
a mutual agreement in sight. “We’ll probably end up jointly taking
the trademark,” he said.
“I wish New Line Cinema all the success in the world with their new film,”
Morris said. “And I only hope that the audience will remember that the
original Dr. Evil is that hometown Charlotte boy, yours truly.”
Powerful
play
This world has two places where you can be the veterinarian, zoo director, keeper
and lemur all at once: in your imagination, and in the Hamill Family Play Zoo,
a free play complex at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago, Illinois. Opened in June,
2001, the Play Zoo takes the successful free play models of children's museums
and gives it a zoo setting. Brookfield’s is the zoo industry’s first
such Play complex; surely, more will follow.
Few community outreach programs can accomplish what the Play Zoo has. It engages
children in wildlife conservation by tapping into children's’ most abundant
resource: imagination. “At first glance you go, ‘Oh! It’s like
a children’s museum,’” said Dave Becker, manager of play programming
who came to the Hamill Family Play Zoo staff in December after working at the
DuPage Children’s Museum. “But it’s very different. It’s
not about the relationship of a child with an exhibit; this is more about a
caring relationship between the child and the natural world around them. Here
visitors interact with real things." They growing real food in the greenhouse.
They dig sod used in the armadillo enrichment program. They interact with real
animals.”
The Play Zoo has 80 species in all, mostly birds, reptiles and amphibians, animals
that kids can have relationships with outside the zoo. One corner is devoted
to a ring-tailed lemur exhibit, where children can either dress up as keepers
or as lemurs themselves alongside a glass wall through which the lemurs watch
with equal interest.
The veterinary clinic offers a balance of real (X-rays of a frog, a rattlesnake,
a penguin with an egg, an owl with a splint) and pretend (shelves of stuffed
animals). “Some kids spend all their time in the hospital,” Becker
said. “One kid, Zachary, brings his stuffed alligator from home for his
weekly check up. And some kids won’t get out of the greenhouse.” No
wonder: on “Spritzing Day,” face-painted kids are spraying the plants,
while one girl trowels out a hole for a new plant.
When Keith Winsten arrived at Brookfield 4 1/2 years ago as curator of education,
planning for the project had already begun. “Driving the mission was, what
can we do for kids to help them grow up to be adults who care about animals,”
he said. “Can we promote nature plus provide experiences for the kids and
a model for parents, showing them the importance of nature in children’s
lives?”
Fundamental to carrying out the play zoo’s message is that none of the
play is organized, outside the storytelling sessions and crafts workshops. The
Play Zoo’s workers—five full-time, three part-time, eight seasonal
employees and about 60 volunteers—are on hand to play with children, not
lecture. Along those lines, the two-acre outdoor area includes faux animal pens
and a little stream cascading down a rocky bed that children can walk through.
“There’s a whole generation of kids who don’t play outside,”
Winsten said. “I’ve heard parents say ‘I’ve got to set up
an animal hospital at home,’ and that’s letting the child practice
care.”
Winsten and the Brookfield Zoo planners drew on the appropriate experts: child
psychologists, landscape architects, play structure builders and, perhaps most
important of all, the Kids Council, a dozen children between 5 and 10 years
old. “They give you ideas, and they give you a gut check on ideas,”
Winsten said. Like the idea to turn one of the Play Zoo’s rooms into a
zoo director’s office, complete with desk, fake computer, phone and a table
where children can design their own zoo. “We thought it would be a real
failure,” Winsten said. The Kids Council backed it, though, and the Play
Zoo has not lacked for candidates wishing to be zoo director.
Perhaps Brookfield has stumbled onto a great recruiting tool, too.
Confectionery consternation
The residents
of Hershey, Pennsylvania, could use a bit of amusement of late. That, at least,
is one thing they are guaranteed of keeping, for the present.
The town built on the back of the Hershey chocolates empire was rocked a couple
weeks ago by the news that the Milton Hershey School Trust was looking at putting
the Hershey Foods Co. up for sale. The Trust, which owns 77 percent of Hershey
Foods, said the sale was the “most prudent course of action consistent
with its diversification objectives and its fiduciary obligation to the Milton
Hershey School.” The school was founded in 1909 by Milton Hershey, the
chocolate factory’s founder, to serve disadvantaged students. Analysts
say that if a deal goes through, it would be huge: Hershey has $4.6 billion
in annual sales and controls 31 percent of the U.S. candy market.
Hershey Entertainment and Resorts Co., which owns and operates Hersheypark and
Dutch Wonderland, is not part of the proposed sale. “We have received word
from Robert C. Vowler, the Trust CEO, that he has no intention of selling the
company,” said Garrett Gallia, director of corporate relations for Hershey
Entertainment and Resorts. The park, Gallia said, is part of the diversification
the trustees are seeking. While Hershey Foods makes up 52 percent of the Trust’s
portfolio, the Entertainment and Resorts company accounts for less than 3 percent.
Also safe are the park’s mascots, the oversized Hershey’s bar, Reese’s
Cups and Kisses greeting guests at the park. Hersheypark established a trademark
license agreement with the food company in 1985, and the park may use the characters
royalty-free “for as long as we choose to use them,” Gallia said.
“That licensing agreement would be binding for any potential purchaser.”
Hershey’s Chocolate World next to the park’s front gate is owned by
the food company and would be part of the transaction. “We’ve always
considered Chocolate World a retail outlet with an informational element,”
Gallia said, an element which has included an edutainment dark ride and this
year added a 3D movie.
Weighty matters
Liz Pensler Rottner
is a self-admitted loudmouth. It was the trait that made her an effective weight
guesser on the Cedar Point midway in the mid-1980s, and she discovered old skills
never die as she and 17 of her colleagues gathered for a reunion at the Sandusky,
Ohio, park last weekend.
As a Michigan State University student from 1984 through 1987, Rottner spent
her summers working at Cedar Point, and all four summers she guessed guest’s
weights for prizes. “I didn’t want to give the same spiel over and
over again; that’s why I didn’t want to be on a ride.” She was
good, she said, regularly recording the “high hours” among an intensely
competitive crew.
An intensely friendly group, too, as it turned out. Inspired by last summer’s
Discovery Channel “behind-the-scenes” profile of Cedar Point, Rottner
decided to take a vacation to her old haunts so her three daughters could see
where she once worked. Upon logging on to the park’s web site she discovered
Alumni Alley where she registered as a former employee and found two of her
fellow weight guessers already registered. Upon contacting them, the idea formed
of putting together a reunion, and a year later the erstwhile midway barkers
descended on the park from as far away as New Jersey.
The park jumped aboard the program, offering free admission to the alum’s
families and a discounted Friday night dinner at The BoatHouse Restaurant, courtesy
of Assistant Director of Foods David Hensley, a former weight guesser himself
who was games manager over Rottner and her friends. The next day, the alumni
joined current guessers at the weigh stations for a day of guessing, with all
proceeds going to the VFW National Home for Children in Eaton Rapids, Michigan.
Meanwhile, the park videotaped the alums guessing. “We were either a lesson
on what not to do or what to do, I’m not certain,” Rottner said. Probably
the latter as Rottner and her friends discovered. “It felt like no time
had gone by. I felt as young as I ever had. It was fun, the style was there,
the money was there. We still had it.” In fact, she turned in the day’s
high hour. Afterward, the whole group went to Louie’s Bar at the end of
the Cedar Point Causeway “just like old times.”
“The only letdown was reality bites; we had to go back to the real world
on Sunday,” Rottner said. “It was nice to be 20 again."
Rottner said the alums did not come on as old-experts to their 2002 counterparts,
but she feels they did impart a valuable lesson. “”Even though it’s
August and it’s hard to come to work every day, it’s the best job
you’ll ever have, and you won’t know it for 15 years.”
Return
visit
Dragging out public interest in its capital investment this year, Six Flags
Darien Lake in Darien Center, New York, on July 25 announced the winner of a
contest naming a piece of theming in the center of the Shipwreck Falls
shoot-the-chute ride (“New Arrivals,” THE
LOOP June 14, 2002). The boat, an actual wreck pulled from the Niagara River,
initially had been christened “Lucky” in the ride’s schematics,
but Darien Lake Public Relations Manager Jill Storms convinced the Six Flags
corporate folks to leave the name off the boat, allowing her an opportunity
to use it as the centerpiece of a publicity campaign for the ride.
Storms said she received almost 500 entries, about 400 of those turned in during
a special Shipwrecked weekend early in June. The remainder came via e-mail through
the park’s web site. She narrowed the suggestions down to five and asked
the park’s managers to rank the finalists. That resulted in a tie between
“All Washed Up” and “On The Rocks.” Storm then appealed
to the park’s marketing team for a favorite, and “On The Rocks”
was resoundingly chosen.
Ironically, 14-year-old Don Meyers Jr. from Lackawanna, New York, submitted
both entries. Ironically, too, the longtime season pass holder won the contest’s
grand prize: a season pass. “So, we gave him one for next year,” Storms
said. “Not only does he love coming to the park, he wants to work at the
park as soon as he’s able.”
Meyers, along with Storms, park General Manager Bradley Paul, Bugs Bunny and
Daffy Duck took part in the official unveiling ceremony at the boat. With the
boat located across the ride’s channel from the midway, the ceremony required
all the participants to clamber through one of Shipwreck’s boats and negotiate
an 8-inch-wide ledge, no easy task for big-footed costumed characters. Indeed,
Daffy in his pirate outfit nearly slipped into the water, but the character
remained in character, acting as if he wanted to get his tail feathers wet.
This was the ride’s third ceremony, following a Memorial Day weekend ribbon
cutting and the Shipwrecked Weekend two weeks later. “We sort of re-dedicated
our new ride of this year and gave our winner his 15 seconds of fame,”
Storms said. Plus, she pushed the ride’s publicity into the season’s
last month. And beyond? “People are asking if we’re going to do more
name-the contests,” she said.
New Arrivals
It’s
a play & spray area!
Davis Farmland in Sterling, Massachusetts, announces the arrival of Adventure
Play & Spray, July 24, 2002. Measurements: eight acres (3.2 hectares), two
spraypads 722 square feet (67 square meters) and 6,100 square feet (567 square
meters), 125 spraying elements, 24 controllers, 3,000 feet (909 meters) of piping,
three climbing units, six themed play areas, one 800-foot-long (242 meters)
pedal go-cart track and a guest services building with food concession, toilets
and a changing area for the wet play. Delivered by Grounds For Play, Kompan,
Playworld Structures, Vortex and White-Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group.
Larry Davis described his family's Farmland as "the surrogate uncle, taking
the place of that uncle with the farm people used to visit from the city."
With its herds of endangered animals and annual field mazes covering eight acres
and winding 3 1/2 miles (5.6 kilometers), the Davis Farmland owned by John and
his sons Doug and Larry has specialized in nature-themed, imagination-sparking
play for children up to the age of 8.
Well, no uncle down on the farm we ever knew had a play place like Adventure
Play & Spray. The Play side has such features as boulders and logs for climbing,
wicker hiding huts, a peddle go-kart track winding through a pine forest, Moo
Moo's sand play area which looks like a Guernsey cow, a dinosaur dig site next
to it and a 2-D tile maze shaped as a dinosaur. Three playground units cater
to three different age groups: toddlers, 2- to 4-year-olds, and 5- to 8-year
olds. The Spray side comprises two zero-depth concrete areas with water spraying
from all sorts of contraptions, like fire hydrants, giant sunflowers, gas pumps,
horse-themed cannons and a water tower. The spraypads collect the water and
recycle it, filtered and sanitized, back to the sprayers.
Adventure Play & Spray didn't make its planned July 1 opening date because
of construction delays, so when Davis Farmland was ready to unveil the addition
a large crowd was on hand for first crack at the newfangled fun. A fife and
drum corps was on hand to play the National Anthem and Yankee Doodle, and political
and community dignitaries officially opened the addition by touching one of
the activators that set the water systems in motion.
That was all the enticement guests needed. "(The temperature) was a little
bit cool for water play, but, boy, that didn't stop the kids," Larry Davis
said. "As soon as it opened up they jumped in there."
It’s
a waterpark!
Joliet Park District in Joliet, Illinois, announces the arrival of Joliet's
Splash Station, August 7, 2002. Measurements: 13 acres (5.2 hectares), one zero-edge
pool with interactive waterplay elements, a six-person racing slide, two body
slides, two tube slides (all slides 235 feet/71 meters long), a 865-foot-long
(262-meter) lazy river, an 80-foot diameter (24-meter) sand play area, one retail
outlet, one food concession, 54 employees. Delivered by SCS Interactive and
Whitewater West.
Three weeks ago, this former rock quarry had shells of buildings at the front
gate, two slide structures, the completed-but-empty zero-depth-entry pool and
a trench creating an island, with dirt dams crossing through what would be the
lazy river instead of bridges crossing overhead. The rest was dirt and consternation.
The Chicago-area's newest waterpark had already missed its July 1 opening target,
and the park district was determined to make an August 9 grand opening.
The District's Aquatic Coordinator Mike Landers never wavered from his optimism
that it could get done, though his projections were laced with "ifs."
The day before today's festivities—and, most importantly, the day after
the park hosted its first public customers—Landers admitted his fears.
"I'm surprised we got it open," he said. "We were really getting
frustrated toward the end there. All of a sudden the contractors got together,
and the city council authorized overtime."
With that, the contractors worked seven days a week, 10 hours a day. The district
hired a landscaping firm that laid all the sod and planted trees for the berms
in two days. Construction concluded on Sunday when the perimeter fence was erected.
State inspectors did their tour Monday, and Splash Station, lightly themed in
a railroad motif, was ready for its first guests.
About 500 people showed up to play on the first day, and soon the media descended
(and hovered overhead in helicopters). The publicity lit up the phone lines
and Landers is looking forward to a big weekend.
The district was facing something of a fait accompli. The pools would have to
be filled anyway to get their plumping working properly, and Landers already
had his staff hired since the beginning of the summer and working at pools around
the district. "Since we've got to fill these pools anyway, we're going
to operate as long as we can," he said. Splash Station will remain open
until September 8, cutting back to a 3-to-8 p.m. (15,00 to 20,00) schedule on
weekdays after next weekend.
Splash Station has the Midwest's first six-person racing slide. However, its
the region's largest sandbox that has drawn the most attention. "The sand
play area has been a huge hit," Landers said. "I knew it would be
popular, but I didn't know it was going to be used this much. It's the first
thing that gets filled when the gates open."
In hindsight, then, when the park was almost 90 percent dirt three weeks ago,
maybe the Station should have opened anyway.
Eric's Turn
The
great pretender
Yes, I visit so
many parks and zoos that some of their individual attributes run together. I
will often recall and almost accurately picture in my mind a good lay of the
land, a clever customer service ploy, a useful operations procedure. But who
did it and where was it? Ah, my recollections of those vital details fail me.
So when certain things do make indelible impressions on me, they are more than
singular: they are exceptional. The potato salad and baked beans at Del Grosso's
in Tipton, Pennsylvania. The cleanliness and friendliness at Holiday World &
Splashin' Safari in Santa Claus, Indiana. The coziness of Knoebels in Elysburg,
Pennsylvania. The efficient loading and unloading of rides at Cedar Point in
Sandusky, Ohio. The wind gently rustling the trees of Dutch Wonderland in Lancaster,
Pennsylvania, mingling with children's laughter. The daylong enthusiasm and
friendliness of Universal Studios Florida's castmembers in Orlando. The melding
of amusements with nature at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. The Amazon
exhibit at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, Illinois, so enthralling I rate its
educational effectiveness at 100 percent. The happy employees greeting me, a
stranger, as they walked through SeaWorld Orlando's security gate at the end
of their shifts. Polar Bears in Toledo, San Diego and Brookfield.
When I visited Brookfield Zoo near Chicago, Illinois, for the first time recently,
as part of my get acquainted tour I checked out their latest capital improvement,
the Hamill Family Play Zoo. What started as a formality turned into a three-hour
dalliance in that facility and led to our featuring it above
in this issue of THE LOOP. Simply put, I have never been to a zoo where kids
can be lemurs alongside real lemurs (photo above), or pretend to be the lemurs'
keepers. I consider the concept brilliant, and wanted to share it with all the
other zoos who read THE LOOP (though some of you already have visited the Play
Zoo looking to emulate it at your institution). And for a bit there I was wishing
I was 7 again, back when I pretended I was a school bus. I could only envy the
7-year-olds today who get to be zoo veterinarians and keepers and horticulturists
and directors and the animals themselves. Envy them, and share with you.
I write about this here in this space as an advance to the next issue of THE
LOOP, posting August 23. That issue will include our preview to the American
Zoo and Aquarium Association's annual conference in Fort Worth, Texas, where
we will share more such success stories.
That issue also will give you the key to the whole list of 2002 Amusement
Today Golden Ticket Award winners, when we honor the industry's most exceptional
operations and attractions.
How do we measure success? They are the indelible moments.
Reading matter
With this issue
we rejuvenate a department of THE LOOP that has lain dormant for too long: the
Reading Room. We welcome back Allen
Weitzel, who felt his Safety Manager article needed a sequel. Part
Two is now posted in the Reading Room, and we will continue to build that
library of service articles and profiles over the coming months. To read Allen's
newest contribution, click here.
212.265.0043
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LLC
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