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Volume 1, No. 13. July 27, 2001
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Set
in Stone
Now
that Silver Dollar City, Inc. has obtained solid backing for its capital
improvement plans at Stone Mountain State Park near Atlanta, Georgia,
the management company is moving forward with development of new attractions,
including a 4-D film and a prototype interactive play area.
Last week the company announced the selection of Renaissance Entertainment
to produce "Tall Tales of the South," a 12-minute 3-D film. This is the
same firm that created the film "Pirates" starring Leslie Neilson and
Eric Idle that has played at several Busch Entertainment parks. "Tall
Tales of the South" is currently in production at a soundstage at Universal
Studios Orlando, the first 3-D film produced there, and will play in a
special-effects equipped theater in the newly created 1870s-era town of
Crossroads at Stone Mountain.
The Crossroads development will also feature The Great Barn, a prototype
SCS Interactive attraction which combines that company's soft play and
Foam Factory products with new interactive elements and theming. The 13,000-square-foot
barn (3,939 square meters), with 65 activity stations, seeks to portray
what clever kids of the 1800s might have created for fun after their chores
were done on the farm. Foam balls will look like peaches, apples, oranges
and plums, players can either compete for the day's top score or engage
in free play, making their way up bouncing floors and nets to the top
level to take the 40-foot-long slide back down to the ground. The partnership
between SCS and Silver Dollar City is a storied one in itself for the
Atlanta area: both SCS's prototype Treehouse and Foam Factories debuted
at, respectively, what were then Silver Dollar City's White Water Waterpark
and American Adventures amusement park in nearby Marietta.
However, attempts to install anything new at Stone Mountain are bound
to get bogged down in stubborn opposition by local traditionalists. Even
the most traditional of theme park operators, Silver Dollar City, who
took over management of the 3,200-acre state park in 1998, hit heated
opposition with its initial capital expansion plans, which included a
rapid river ride among other attractions. Last year the Stone Mountain
Memorial Association, the park's legal landlord, halted all developments
for further review, even though Silver Dollar City had already invested
$9.5 million in improving infrastructure.
This past spring that same board gave unanimous approval to the new plan
that, while abandoning some of the first ideas, including the water ride,
is no less envelope-pushing, albeit camouflaging the wow-factor offerings
in a way that better suits the venerable shrine to Southern heritage that
is Stone Mountain. With the park already containing an ante-bellum plantation,
and with nearby Stone Mountain village preserving its 1910 appearance,
the new six-acre Crossroads will present an era seldom explored in the
South but one equally important in the region's evolution. "Basically
we are recapturing a Southern town lost in time," said Sonny Horton, the
park's vice president of sales and marketing. "We are creating the heritage
and life of the culture of that time and immersing guests in that experience.
They will see, feel, taste, smell and hear that culture."
Much of that will rely on the same successful formula the company employs
at its flagship park in Branson, Missouri, and at Dollywood in Pigeon
Forge, Tennessee. Crossroads will have a grist mill, bakery and craft
shops tended by staff in period costumes, plus a large restaurant featuring
Southern cooking. The development also returns green space to the park,
its site carved out of an asphalt parking lot that will now feature more
than 1,000 newly planted trees and shrubs.
"It's been over 30 years since anything new has been offered at the park,"
Horton said. "The guests, particularly local guests, are in the mentality
of 'we've been there, done that.'"
By this time next year, those guests will be able to see and do things
they've never done anywhere. The Great Barn is scheduled to open this
November around the Thanksgiving holiday, the rest of Crossroads should
open by the end of May 2002. For more information on the expansion, visit
the Stone Mountain web
site by clicking here.
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Call
of the wild
After
receiving several phone calls one night last week and hearing nothing
but heavy breathing and sniffing, David Booth, assistant chief game warden
at Blair Drummond Safari Park in Stirling, Scotland, finally got fed up.
Figuring it was a friend playing a prank that had grown old, Booth yelled
angrily into the phone. "He heard a shriek and realized then it wasn't
human," said Gary Gilmour, the park's chief game warden.
No, it was a chimpanzee, the park's own 11-year-old Chippy, and he was
using Gilmour's recently purchased cell phone. Gilmour had the phone in
his jacket pocket while tending to the chimpanzee community. When he took
his jacket off, Chippy apparently rummaged through the pocket looking
for candy and found instead the cell phone. Gilmour said he later realized
his phone was missing, but never thought the thief was a zoo resident.
Chippy, meanwhile, began playing with his new toy. Though he may have
been emulating the actions of guests and staff using mobile phones, he
most likely became intrigued by the fact that when he pushed a button,
the phone lit up and made noises, including, ultimately, human speech.
He repeatedly called Booth and other staff members by pressing the fast-dial
numbers Gilmour had programmed into the phone.
The tone of Booth's angry yell sufficiently scared Chippy, who dropped
the phone in his den, where Gilmour found it. Despite Chippy's obvious
enrichment experience with the phone, Gilmour doesn't plan to institute
cell phone interaction for the animals at the Safari park. "Not at the
moment, at least. It would be quite expensive because you would have to
have a phone for each animal." As for his own phone, he now keeps it attached
on a belt clip.
On the other hand, Chippy wasn't the only one with an enriching experience
from this episode. The park has reaped huge public relations value from
the incident. All of the United Kingdom's national papers and radio stations
picked up the story, which also ran in newspapers in Australia, Belgium
and Iceland. Yesterday Gilmour was interviewed by phone for a Japanese
newspaper. "Any publicity can help us," he said, and that might inspire
him to replicate Chippy's experience among other animals. "The elephants
can make trunk calls or something."
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The elder Muscato got the first degree from DeLoria and approval from daughter Kathy. Photo by Joe Muscato
Honor graduate
About the time Thomas Muscato should have been graduating from high school,
he was a member of the U.S. Army's 9th Infantry Division invading Italy
in World War II. Two weeks ago the father of Knoebels Grove Amusement
Resort's marketing director received an honorary high school diploma as
part of his 80th birthday celebration.
Joe Muscato and his family drove up from the Elysburg, Pennsylvania, amusement
park to his father's home in Livonia, New York, for the July 14 event.
The diploma was supposed to be awarded back in June during the high school's
regular graduation ceremony, but Thomas fell ill and couldn't make it.
So, the family plotted to surprise him with the award on his birthday.
Livonia Central School District Superintendent David DeLoria arrived at
the Muscato home in cap and gown and bearing an American flag. While he
hid, Joe and his sister, Kathy, put a cap and gown on their father and
guided him out to the backyard patio for the ceremony. "Once the cap and
gown was on he pretty much caught on to what we were doing and started
saying that it was too much fuss," Joe said. But the "beautiful little
ceremony," which included a prayer, poem and congratulatory remarks from
DeLoria and applause from the gathered family, touched the elder Muscato.
"Once it happened it wasn't too much fuss. He was really excited about
it. I think it was a combination of the diploma, the ceremony, and especially
the recognition for his efforts in World War II."
Thomas had dropped out of high school to help support his Italian immigrant
family and wound up in the Army. "Dad never talked about the war; a lot
of nasty things happened to him," Joe said. "Later in the day I started
hearing stories about the war I had never heard before. He opened up about
it. The diploma was like a cathartic thing." Upon returning from his war
duty, Thomas married and "the way things went, (finishing school) never
happened for him," Joe said. Now at least he has a valuable document of
his efforts in high school and beyond.
"We caught him a few times during the day reading his diploma" Joe said.
"He was really proud."
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'Sopranos'
Siren Song
David
Bertolino is well-known among his haunted attraction colleagues for the
celebrity horror legends he secures to appear at his Spookyworld Themepark,
which he runs in partnership with the New England Patriots American football
team at Foxboro Stadium. He's also known, and somewhat vilified by those
same colleagues, for his success at obtaining high-up the-ladder mainstream
celebrities, too.
Now Bertolino has snared stars off the top rung. His Halloween season
theme park, which runs Thursdays through Sundays October 4-28 and October
31, will feature an appearance by three cast members of The Sopranos
television show on opening weekend. Which Sopranos actors Bertolino
doesn't know yet, but even minor-role players on the 14-Emmy-nomination
show, arguably America's hottest TV commodity today, will be a huge draw.
The Sopranos trio this year joins such stalwart Spookyworld celebrities
as "Incredible Hulk" Lou Ferrigno, Exorcist star Linda Blair, Sci-Fi
star Traci Lords and Kung-Fu mainstay David Carradine, along with
weekly appearances by championship belt-holders of the World Wrestling
Federation. Over the theme park's 11-year installments, Bertolino has
landed celebrities ranging from horror mainstays Alice Cooper and Elvira
to pop icons Today Show weatherman Willard Scott and the Dawson's
Creek cast, as well as celebrities who fall somewhere between the
horror and mainstream realms, like talk show host Jerry Springer.
Bertolino has widened his casting net as his audience has widened. His
60-acre theme park this year will feature, in addition to six haunted
attractions and three horror-related museums, 10 amusement rides and a
midway with games and food concessions. "We've had just about every living
horror celebrity over the past 11 years," he said. "We've exhausted that
genre, and it's good timing to do so because the last couple of years
we've taken in a huge general audience."
The key to his success is a personal visit to Hollywood in January and
a follow-up visit in June. "I'll go out, solicit the agents and talk to
the talent directly. Half of my lineup is set in stone in January." He
also does his homework. For instance, while securing members of TV's Buffy
the Vampire Slayer cast would seem a natural fit for Spookyworld,
he knows they are shooting episodes in autumn. "It's good to know the
battles worth fighting before you start."
He also has the advantage of reputation. "If (a star) doesn't know Spookyworld,
name dropping somebody they know who has played Spookyworld makes it work."
Therefore, he has made sure his park is a good gig to work. "There's some
babying required. Some TLC needs to be extended to celebrities. We do
that; it's part of our job." Such tender loving care includes providing
limousine service to and from the airport, a courtesy car during visits,
per diem for food and incidentals, a hotel suite instead of a room, and
standing with a cup of black coffee and sugar three feet from Willard
Scott when his Today Show segment wraps.
In return, the celebrities provide value-added experiences for guests
visiting the park and often do advance publicity via commercials and media
interviews. Based on exit surveys, Bertolino estimated celebrity exposure
pulls in an additional 2,000 to 3,000 paying customers each night, a significant
haul for the 15,000-capacity park and a solid return-on-investment in
star pampering.
To
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Kentucky Kingdom planted a seed in reporters' brains with its latest mailing. Photo by Eric Minton
A
seedy stunt
Amusement
park weddings are nothing new, including couples who freefall into matrimony
aboard a Skycoaster. Such a wedding is new at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom
in Louisville, which installed a 167-foot-high Skycoaster this year. And
the event allowed Public Relations Manager Amy Ballard to plant the seeds
for a catchy promotion.
Rather, she sent seeds: birdseed, with the 600 press releases her office
mailed to local and national media outlets. She credits her Six Flags
World of Adventures (Aurora, Ohio) counterpart Shannon D'Sidocky for the
germ of the idea, when, to promote the opening of X-Flight this
spring, D'Sidocky threw in some confetti with her media kits.
Ballard also was inspired by a tight deadline. The local WAVE Television
station approached the park on July 12 with idea of broadcasting a Skycoaster
wedding live on its "Sunrise" show August 1. The station wanted to launch
its on-air promotion looking for willing couples July 16, giving Ballard
just four days, including a weekend, to get the news out. "I wanted to
do something more than just a normal press release sheet of paper," she
said. "This was something thrown together at the last minute."
With the popular tradition of rice-throwing at weddings made obsolete
by environmental concerns, Ballard sent her interns out to purchase birdseed.
They came back with parakeet birdseed, a colorful confection of various
shapes and sizes. "I didn't expect to have parakeet birdseed," Ballard
said, but that's what they shoveled into envelopes by the spoonful until
they ran out, then she sent her interns out to get normal birdseed. All
told, they went through 12 pounds of birdseed.
But they didn't beat the deadline. With each envelope metered for 34 cents
postage, the press releases were dropped off at the post office on Friday,
but returned on Monday. "They needed 11 more cents because they didn't
fit the standard configurations of a normal letter," Ballard said. "Probably
because of the birdseed." Re-metered, the releases took flight for good
on July 17.
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Return
visits
Although suffering flood
damage themselves from
Tropical Storm Allison,
Six Flags Astroworld in Houston, Texas (LOOP
June 15), has mounted a season-long fund-raising campaign to help
flood victims. Ironically, their medium of choice is water: the four fountains
on the park. "People routinely throw coins into the fountains, and over
the course of the season it comes out to several hundred dollars," said
the Park's Public Relations Manager Daryl Freedman. Beginning this month
the park posted signs at the fountains announcing that at the end of the
season all tossed coins would be donated to the Salvation Army's flood-relief
fund. Television station KXLN is partnering with Astroworld by providing
promotional spots for the drive. Freedman said the fountains' takes have
definitely increased since the campaign started, and the cumulative total
will be as vital for the Salvation Army in October as a short-term fund
raiser would be. "Flood relief efforts will be on-going around here,"
she said of the city. "So many people were affected it's going to take
quite awhile to recover."
With a significant school calendar victory in Texas on the law books (LOOP June 1), the founding executive director of that movement, Tina Bruno, is now the executive director of Time To Learn, a national school calendar watchdog group. Her first order of business is to redesign the organization's web site to provide a comprehensive guide for similar grassroots campaigns. That web site, www.timetolearn.org, should be updated later this summer. Meanwhile, Billee Bussard, the former executive director of Time To Learn, has launched her own web site devoted to the issue of year-round schools: www.SummerMatters.com.
In
this issue
(To go directly
to a story, click on a blue keyword or phrase below):
Stone Mountain rolls into prototype expansion;
A chimpanzee at Blair Drummond Safari Park goes bananas over a cell phone;
The father of Knoebels Grove's marketing director earns an honorary high school diploma;
Spookyworld nabs a 'hit' family for this season's celebrity lineup;
Kentucky Kingdom let loose some birdseed to promote a Skycoaster wedding;
We return to the scene of a flood and find Six Flags Astroworld raising relief money through fountains;
And we mark the debuts of a swing and its accompanying mural at Pacific Park, a tower drop and its accompanying cliff at Ocean Park, and the Time Elevator Roma.
by Eric Minton
Guests showed a passing fancy for art at Pacific Park. Photo courtesy of Pacific Park.
It's a swing ride!
Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier in
Santa Monica, California, announces the arrival of La Monica Swing
July 26, 2001. Measurements: 40 feet high (12 meters), 24 riders, one
70-foot-by 10-foot mural (21 by 3 meters). Delivered by S.B.F.
In every way it was truly a Santa Monica Pier moment. The mayor, Michael
Feinstein, arrived by roller blade. Members of the Baywatch television
show cast came out. The Hollywood Combo swing band provided the music
(this was, after all, the grand opening of a swing). The weather was beachy
keen, sunny and warm. In what Stacy Glazer, Pacific Park's director of
sales and marketing, described as a "Six degrees of separation moment
where everything intertwined," the park unveiled a re-located mural by
wildlife artist Wyland and officially opened its new, nostalgic-laden
swing ride, which began operations July 3.
"We were saving the grand opening to do a dedication of the Wyland mural,"
Glazer said. The mural, featuring a 700-square-foot gray whale (212 square
meters) swimming through California waters, was first painted in 1996
and put up at the Malibu Baywatch station. During its creation, stars
from the Baywatch television show and participants of A Chance
For Children, a community-run camp focusing on marine life studies, helped
Wyland by painting some of the fish accompanying the whale. When the mural
needed a new home, Pacific Park stepped up and offered a wall behind the
site of its new swing.
The resulting combination creates an interactive ride of sorts. Riders
sail out over the ocean and then pass by the mural. "It looks like you're
swimming with the fish and whale," Glazer said. Thursday that fly-by was
all the more significant as some of the people who had painted fish on
the mural pointed out their artwork as they passed.
Pacific Park used the occasion to announce that 10 percent of all revenue
from the park's 12 rides through this weekend would be donated to A Chance
For Children. "All we wanted to do was show the community we are not just
a vendor on this pier," Glazer said. The mural, the ride, even the ceremony
were all intended to enhance the pier's nostalgic bearing. "We got to
sit out in the sun, ride the swing, listen to great music, and eat good
food," she said of Thursday's event involving about 50 invited guests
and dignitaries. "Not a bad day at work."
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It's a tower drop!
Ocean Park in Hong Kong announces the arrival
of the Abyss Turbo Drop, July 21, 2001. Measurements: 62 meters
tall (205 feet), twin towers with 12 seats each. Delivered by S&S Power.
In a twist, Ocean Park put in its S&S Frog Hopper in the spring before
opening its Turbo Drop; usually the kiddie version is meant to emulate
the adult thrill ride. But park officials had a viable reason for the
reverse order: "We didn't have to put the Frog Hopper on a cliff," said
Lisa Tsang, Ocean Park's entertainment manager. "It's on flatland, so
it's much easier to handle." That could also be said of anyone riding
the two rides. The Abyss is suitably named because, perched on
the cliff overlooking Hong Kong bay, "it looks like you are falling into
the sea," Tsang said of the drop.
No wonder she had trouble booking a celebrity for the ride's grand opening.
She finally got Canton pop star Chi-lam Cheung to do the honors. "He's
the only one who agreed to go on it," Tsang said. "I tried so many people,
and they were too scared to go on it while being shown on TV." The opening
event with about 300 invited guests took place in the evening so that
Tsang could light up the tower and shine a spotlight on Cheung as he ascended
and descended. His whole ride was also filmed live for local television
broadcast.
Once he completed his debut ride he provided the night's biggest shock.
He convinced his 50-year-old mother to accompany him on the next ride.
"It's really new here for a female in her 50s to ride on a thrill ride,"
Tsang said, noting that coasters and other thrill rides are the sole purview
of teen-agers in Hong Kong while anybody 30 and above merely watch. "I
would be interested to see if people in their 30s and 40s will ride Abyss
now," Tsang said.
Not that such a demographic is necessary. On that first night—Ocean
Park stays open all Saturday night during the summer in a promotion call
"Saturday Night Carnival"—Abyss consistently engendered 90-minute-long
lines, Tsang said. "Everybody forgot the other rides. Hong Kong people
like anything that is new."
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It's a
motion theater!
Italian Multimedia Attraction in Rome, Italy, announces the
arrival of Time Elevator Roma June 17, 2001. Measurements: Two
theaters, 60 seats each (50 motion based, 10 stationary), 24-minute film.
Delivered by International Tourist Attractions (ITA).
The world's third Time Elevator installation (after Jerusalem and
Walt Disney World's EPCOT Center) got heady competition in its first month
of operation: the weather, which has been simply postcard Italian this
summer. "People now like to go outside and see sites and see the mountains
and enjoy the sunshine and play. It's summertime," said Francesco Chiocca,
president of Italian Multimedia Attraction. "We foresee very much more
attention for September when we feel we could reach the top level of our
capacity."
Top capacity would be about 2,000 people per day. Currently, the attraction
is pulling in 400 per day, but the most promising figure is the 50-50
ratio of tourists to local residents visiting the Elevator, which
is located in a centuries-old building just off the Via Del Corso, Rome's
main city center shopping district. Guests pass through the ticket lobby
into a pre-show where a statue of the Roman emperor Augusta comes alive
to argue with a portrait of the Renaissance architect Bernini over who
was Rome's greatest builder. Eight guests also take part in a multiple
choice trivia game. The motion theaters themselves feature a film custom-made
for Time Elevator Roma projected on a panoramic screen. Guests
ride in seats that surge, sway, heave, roll, pitch and yaw, all adjustable
in intensity to the individual's comfort.
Though Time Elevator Roma is running at one-fifth capacity in its
first month, Chiocca is encouraged by the "very, very positive" response
in exit interviews. Another key number has to do with the press coverage
for the attraction's opening. Chiocca has a scrapbook containing some
65 newspaper and magazine articles from throughout Italy, and Time
Elevator also has been featured on national television. The attraction
hosted a grand opening party for the developers and technicians the day
Time Elevator opened to the public, and Chiocca plans to throw
another grand opening party for local and national dignitaries in September.
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Back
to top
Eric’s Turn
The write stuff
Even as we post this edition of THE LOOP, my
office is getting prepared to host a film crew from the Travel Channel
today. They will be interviewing me for a program about amusement parks,
waterparks and zoos around the world. Hopefully, they will somehow be
able to mask the rings under my eyes.
While publishing THE LOOP takes up much of my time I also am continuing
a full slate of freelance assignments. I have been a regular contributor
of Amusement Today since March, and starting with the August issue I will
be a contributing editor of Splash magazine, published for the World Waterpark
Association. Also out on newstands now is the September issue of GAMES
Magazine containing my article on Skee-Ball, including an interview with
Santa Claus at Holiday World in Indiana, who provided tips for rolling
high scores (above). I have also done amusement industry related stories
for Psychology Today, Midwest Living, Off Duty, and Veterinary
Economics magazines.
These assignments are indicative of how far-reaching and attractive the
attractions industry has become. As you operators enter the final big
push of the season and you suppliers ready your lineup for the fall trade
shows, remember that in terms of popularity and public perception our
industry is in top form. May the hard work continue.
If you have a news story or a good tale to share with your colleagues
through THE LOOP, contact us by email,
or call me: toll-free in North America at 888-902-LOOP; outside North
America at 937-296-9796, or via my mobile phone, 937-321-8290.
To
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In
The Reading Room
Allen Weitzel takes us into the minds and methods of inspectors. Go directly
to "Inspector general,"
or check out our library of service articles via our Reading
Room index.
We also are constantly adding new links to our Connections page. If you wish to get your amusement park, waterpark, haunted attraction, zoo or family entertainment center linked, send me an email with your web address.
To print this article, click here
THE LOOP promotion
This is your last chance to take advantage of Lynton Harris' $1 million LOOP giveaway. Order your free copy of the FREAKSHOW movie through THE LOOP, and he will waive his license fee. This guy is getting busier by the week (Paramount's Kings Dominion is the latest theme park to book his Mummy's Return and Freezer mazes for this year's Halloween season), so you won't likely get another opportunity like this again. Click here for more details.