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In
this issue:
(To
go directly to a story, click on a blue keyword below):
Preservationists
work the political system to save England's Dreamland
Fun Park;
A Bronx
Zoo gorilla gets 441,000 godparents thanks to AOL;
Landry's Restaurant
sets Denver's Ocean Journey on a new course;
SeaWorld
Orlando gives a grandmother a whale of a time for her 100th
birthday;
We welcome new
shows to Old Tucson, a Wild West Waterpark
to Wilderness Resort and Splash Lagoon waterpark
to Erie; and,
We mark a decade
of serving you.
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a printable version of this newsletter,
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For
more information on the facilities and organizations featured in
this newsletter, visit our Connections Page.
click here
For
back issues of THE LOOP,
click here
Dream
on
It might
come down to money, as it usually does. However, the significant
factor in the Save Dreamland Campaign, an effort to preserve the
seaside amusement park in Margate, England, is that the issue of
land value is being presented in a powerful new paradigm. Rather
than looking at the value of said property to one entity, the campaigners
are casting the debate as the value of that property to the entire
community. We’re talking financial value, too, not merely nostalgia
or image.
For one, it helps to have a planning consultant as your campaign
leader. “I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t think
it was worth it,” said Nick Laister, a technical director at
RPS Planning, Transport and Environment, the United Kingdom’s
largest planning consultancy firm. “I’m involved in this
kind of thing all the time. I know when something isn’t worth
fighting for.”
Laister, an amusement historian and editor of www.joylandbooks.com,
was instrumental in getting Dreamland’s Scenic Railway,
Britain’s oldest coaster, listed as a historic structure last
year. When news broke in January that Jimmy Godden was selling his
two parks, Dreamland and Rotunda in Folkestone, to developers who
would turn the sites into retail centers and housing, enthusiasts
naturally recruited Laister to head up the campaign to save the
parks.
Laister determined Rotunda, even with its 1922 side friction Runaway
Coaster, could not be saved, though all of its rides are on
the market, including the Runaway. “Folkestone doesn’t
see themselves as a seaside resort,” Laister said. “There’s
no desire to see an amusement park remaining. That’s what the
local people want, so there’s no point in pushing against that.”
In Margate, Laister said, “We know the people are behind us.”
As are local businesses. “A lot of the major organizations
in town, the civic society, historical societies, the hotel and
bed and breakfast operators support us.” Laister therefore
is using the planning and land use process to press the campaign’s
case that a reinvested amusement park would bring more dollars to
Margate than would “retail boxes and a supermarket.”
As recently as December, Margate's governing body, the Thanet District
Council, endorsed an amusement venue as the best use of the property.
That changed a month later when Godden and the development firm
he intended to sell to presented their redevelopment plan. While
the Council did not accept the plan, it did reverse its position
on the property’s land use, swayed by Godden’s argument
that an amusement park was not viable there. Godden, who purchased
the properties in 1995, has publicly said he is selling the parks
so he can retire; efforts by THE LOOP to reach him for this story
were not successful.
The Save Dreamland Campaign claims that a park would be viable,
if run properly. “We don’t think there has been a real
commitment to keep it running,” Laister said. “It isn’t
a very attractive park anymore. The best rides have been taken out,
there’s been very little promotion, they have no web site.”
Laister does not believe Dreamland Fun Park could operate on a scale
of Blackpool's Pleasure Beach or Thorpe Park, but it would operate
on a scale suitable to Margate, which has considerable pull from
London. “I’ve had numerous e-mails and letters and telephone
calls from London,” said Laister, who said all the metropolitan
newspapers have been covering the fate of Dreamland. “So many
talk about how the Scenic Railway was their first coaster,
and also their mum and dad’s first coaster.”
Dreamland
was even on the mind of Roger Moore of James Bond fame when he attended
the IAAPA Trade Show in November. Pushing his UNICEF agenda, Moore
cited his childhood visits to Dreamland as instigating his lifelong
love of the amusement and entertainment industry (THE
LOOP, November 26, 2002).
The Scenic Railway, particularly its listed status, is the
linchpin to the campaign’s plans. The listing does not prevent
its demolition, but the property owner and governing body must exhaust
efforts to legitimately save the structure. That could mean finding
a buyer willing to keep the structure. No amusement venue operator
could pay what the developers are willing to pay, and Godden naturally
wants to maximize the value of the site. However, if the Council
denies a change in the land use, “then the property becomes
affordable” for an operator, Laister said.
“We see our role as talking to decision makers and planners
to say, ‘This is not best for Margate,’” Laister
said of the redevelopment plans. “National policy and local
policy prefer an amusement park there, and the Council leader has
said the best thing we can do is bring an operator to take it on.”
Laister said “a number of operators” have expressed interest
in taking over the site and investing in rebuilding Dreamland, and
at least one is taking serious steps toward making a bid.
Meanwhile, the Save Dreamland Campaign is marshaling a show of public
support with a Save Dreamland Convention cosponsored by the European
Coaster Club. Originally scheduled for April 19, the event has been
moved to June 1 allowing the organizers to improve the program,
which will include various speakers and films at Margate’s
Theatre Royal and several other events. For more information, visit
the campaign’s web site, www.savedreamland.co.uk.
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Zola
sported the face that launched 441,000 votes. Photo
by D. DeMello/Wildlife Conservation Society.
Naming
rights
So,
you want to name your baby gorilla. You want to get the public involved
in selecting the name. You want to use the naming contest to prompt
inquiries into your conservation and education programs, not to
mention your zoo. Oh, and a major media empire at the same time
wants to launch a new zoo feature for its customers.
Here is an equation for success: The Bronx Zoo plus America On Line
equals 441,000 individual votes. Of that number, 33 percent liked
Zola for the zoo’s newest Congo Gorilla Forest resident. “Zola”
outpaced “Juma” (25 percent), “Kuchimba” (21
percent), “Njoku” (14 percent) and “Matunde”
(7 percent). The most important figure, however, was 12 percent;
that’s the percentage of those 441,000 voters who clicked through
the AOL page to the Bronx Zoo’s own web site, a total of some
54,000 visitors.
Zola is Swahili for “quietness,” but her naming was anything
but quiet, thanks to the Wildlife Conservation Society’s partnership
with AOL. The Society, which owns the Bronx Zoo and other New York
City zoos and aquariums, began working with AOL a year ago to provide
a series of photo essays for the web host’s Research &
Learn Channel. “It was doing fine, but wasn’t having the
breakthrough we wanted,” said Julia Mair, vice president for
TV and media at the Bronx Zoo. “We started talking about ways
we could introduce audiences to the Bronx Zoo, ways suited to AOL,
which has immediacy, fluidity and interactivity. We started talking
about regular features tied to days and dates.”
The first opportunity came when Tuti gave birth on November 1 in
Congo Gorilla Forest (silverback Zuri is the father). AOL posted
pictures of the baby gorilla on its Welcome Screen and on its Research
& Learn Channel with an invitation to vote for her name and
an opportunity to learn more about gorilla conservation and Congo
Gorilla Forest. The campaign started February 28 and concluded Monday.
“To offer this contest was a great opportunity for both parties,
and for AOL members to name an animal was an opportunity usually
reserved for donors,” said Elizabeth Cleary, senior programming
manager for the Research & Learn Channel at AOL. Mair was surprised
at the response, though she immediately pinpointed the reason for
the campaign’s success. “Why did it work? Because we have
a photographer, Dennis DeMello, whose photographs were just fantastic.”
Cleary said she expected the high click-through rate. “I just
know how much AOL members love animals,” she said. “Who
can resist the picture of Zola that we had up? We were certain AOL
members couldn’t.”
That love of animals among its membership has prompted Cleary to
launch a new feature—the Zola vote being the first installment—called
“What’s New @ The Zoo.” Though developed in partnership
with the Wildlife Conservation Society, it will feature other zoos,
Cleary said. “We started this feature to bring the delight
of zoos to AOL members,” she said. “We plan to bring baby
animals and new exhibits that will make you feel like you are walking
through the zoo.” The feature will be regularly promoted on
the Welcome screen “based on the response we’ve seen,”
Cleary said, and will reside on the Research & Learn Channel.
Aside from learning a little gorilla lore through the naming campaign,
AOL members also got a lesson in Swahili, as all the nominated nomenclatures
were translated from Swahili to English: “Juma” is “born
on a Friday,” “Kuchimba” is Doug (the baby’s
caretaker), “Njoku” is yams (the baby’s favorite
food) and “Matunde” means fruit. Zola, therefore, is greatly
indebted to AOL’s membership; had the vote resulted in “Matunde”
Zola would have been hereafter known as Tuti’s Fruit.
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In
three week's time, Landry's Restaurants suddenly had a chain of
aquariums, having built one in Houston (below) and bid for one in
Denver (above). Top photo by Eric Minton; bottom photo courtesy
of Landry's Restaurants Inc.
Landing
a big one
Bob
Masterson, the CEO of Ripley Entertainment Inc., claims he still
ended up paying part of the purchase price of the Ocean Journey
aquarium in Denver, Colorado, even though his company lost out to
a bid by Landry’s Restaurants Inc. “I’m a big fan
of their restaurants," Masterson said after the restaurant
chain’s CEO and president Tilman J. Fertitta outbid him in
a bankruptcy court hearing March 4. "Some of that $13.6 million
they paid came out of my wallet for as much as I’ve eaten at
their restaurants.”
After Ripley announced a bid of $4.5 million for the bankrupt aquarium
(THE LOOP,
February 14, 2003), Fertitta showed up at the March 4 hearing
with a $4.6 million bid. The two CEO’s then fired off competing
numbers in $100,000 increments until the price tag reached $13.6
million, whereupon Masterson bowed out (see story in Extra!
Extra!).
“I think I probably made a mistake going as high as I went,”
Masterson said. “The number we put in was not a low-ball number,
it was a real number. It’s what we thought should be paid for
that facility. We know what makes sense for us from a spending standpoint.”
He questions the wisdom of Landry's bid and its plans to spend another
$15 million in improvements on the troubled Ocean Journey; but he
concedes that Landry's "is a well run company" and would
be one of the few operations capable of recouping so much investment.
However, even Fertitta is questioning his own bid. “We didn’t
want to go as high as we did,” he said. “But we think
we can make it work putting in our restaurant. In Denver there’s
2.5 million people in the metropolitan area. We think we can make
it interesting enough to capture the tourist dollar, the convention
dollar and the local dollar.”
As
it has done with its new Downtown Aquarium in Houston (THE
LOOP, February 28, 2003), Landry’s plans to install an
Aquarium Restaurant on Ocean Journey’s ground floor. “If
we can make it work we’ll try to put the Marina Matinee Cafe
in, too,” Fertitta said, referring to a new concept eatery
his company introduced at the Houston aquarium featuring booths
as boats moored to docks.
In addition to the restaurants, Landry’s plans to expand the
exhibits, build a highly themed retail outlet a la the company’s
Rainforest Cafe concept, and add some amusement rides to the property,
again using the Houston aquarium as its model. A primary difference
between the Houston property and Ocean Journey is location; Houston’s
lies in the theater district, Denver's sits adjacent to Six Flags
Elitch Gardens. “I think the customer that’s coming to
us isn’t necessarily the ones going to Six Flags,” Fertitta
said, adding that the aquarium’s rides would be more “family
oriented” than those next door.
One thing that emerged out of the bidding war for Denver’s
aquarium is the likelihood that this may not be the last time these
two companies square off over existing public aquarium facilities.
“Because we lose one doesn’t mean we lose them all,”
Masterson said. The company already is developing an aquarium as
part of a new, multi-gated property in San Diego, California. It
has had discussions with the New Jersey State Aquarium in Camden
“though that’s a real long shot for us,” Masterson
said, and it is “looking at non-profits that are having some
trouble.” He said Ripley might land an aquarium “before
the end of this season.”
Meanwhile, Fertitta is already looking beyond Denver’s venture.
“Surely we’ll look at any public aquarium that’s
available,” he said. “This thing (in Denver) was run as
a nonprofit, and just being there in the first few days we can already
see a difference in operations.”
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Lacinak
gave his 100-year-old grandmother a very real experience with a
false killer whale on her birthday. Photo courtesy of SeaWorld
Orlando.
A
century of fun
First,
a prelude. Eight years ago, Thad Lacinak, the corporate curator
of animal training for Busch Entertainment, was waiting at the Orlando,
Florida, International Airport for his grandmother, Corrine Luken,
to disembark the airliner from her home in Cincinnati, Ohio. The
plane apparently emptied, she had yet to emerge. Then, here she
came helping another elderly woman walk up the skyway. “Who
is your friend?” Lacinak asked. “I don’t know her,
but, the poor old thing, she could hardly walk,” Luken replied.
Astonished, Lacinak asked his grandmother the age of the other woman,
and she replied “I think around 70.” Which would mean
Luken was 22 years older than the “poor old thing” she
was assisting.
And now Luken is 100, and for her century birthday last Friday she
became the oldest person to participate in SeaWorld Orlando’s
false killer whale interaction program. “The oldest we’ve
had before that was, like, 80, so she beat the record by 20 years,”
Lacinak said. It was his idea to offer the gift to his grandmother.
She proudly has followed his 30-year career with the SeaWorld parks
ever since he was an apprentice trainer back when Luken was just
70. “I think where I got my desire to work with animals was
somehow inherently from her. She’s always loved animals.”
Still, she was a little leery of doing the interactive program at
first, especially when her grandson said it would put her in the
water with a false killer whale. “I’m not getting in with
a killer whale!” she retorted. When Lacinak explained the difference
between the Shamu-famous orca and the pseudorca of the interactive
program, she agreed on one condition: that Lacinak himself accompany
her in the water.
They found an extra extra small wet suit for her, and she wore a
Lycra suit underneath to help slide the wet suit on—not that
she needed any such help. “She was in it in no time; next thing
we know she’s standing out there waiting for us,” Lacinak
said. She waded into the 74-degree-water, the whale swam up with
its mouth open and she fed and petted the creature. She also got
to feed and pose with the real killer whales. The staff of trainers
joined in the occasion by presenting her a booklet containing pictures
from the day, and one trainer, Randy White, modified a poem he had
written for his own grandmother—who died before he was able
to give it to her—and included the verses in Luken’s keepsake
book.
Lacinak said the pseudorca was a perfect animal for the interaction
program with his grandmother because it is so unique and gentle.
“Who knows, for her 101st birthday maybe we’ll do the
dolphins at Discovery Cove.”
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Volume
3, No. 5. MARCH 14, 2003
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Pro
Parks buys SuperSplash
Haunt
Association selects new officers
E.T.
ride closing in Hollywood
Noah's
Ark earns safety award
Owner
says 'No' to Tussauds sale
Landry's
wins bid for Denver aquarium
For
these stories,
click Extra! Extra!
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New
Arrivals
Three
Amigos recollected Old Tucson's glory days, above, while Western
Movie Magic, below, made new memories for two "guest"
stars. Photos
by Eric Minton.
It’s
twin shows!
Old
Tucson Studios in Tucson, Arizona, announces the arrival of The
Three Amigos Ride Again! and Western Movie Magic, March
7, 2003. Measurements: nine professional actors/dancers/singers/stunt
performers, four technicians, three horses and two park guests.
The measurements above tell only two-tenths of the story. The stunt
show Three Amigos Ride Again! and the special effects, live/video,
audience participation show Western Movie Magic are the last
two—and most ambitious—of six new shows to open at Old
Tucson over the past four weeks. Combined with four shows held over
from the winter season, that’s 10 shows a day utilizing the
same nine performers in various guises and talents.
The only stage show repeated twice during the day is Western
Movie Magic in the park’s Grand Palace Saloon, but at least
the cast and crew get a little help from a phantom participant and
two audience members. Old Tucson is a former working studio where
more than 400 movies and television shows were filmed, and as a
theme park it remains famous for its stuntmen in street gunfights
and saloon girls in cancan lines. Western Movie Magic is
revolutionary for the park in weaving Old Tucson’s history
and current acting team into a visual feast for today’s park
guests.
After a video of Old Tucson-set scenes from a dozen Hollywood movies—beginning
with 1940’s Arizona, running through Young Guns II
and ending with 1994’s Lightning Jack—the cowboys
and saloon girls dance into the saloon to a honky-tonk tune. A bartender,
sparring with a piano-playing, door-slamming, gun-shooting ghost,
gives a few quick stories of John Wayne, Michael Landon and other
stars who filmed extensively at the park. The barkeep then turns
the floor over to a 1930’s style Hollywood director who premiers
a new film which uses green-screen technology to fuse two of that
day’s park guests into a film starring Old Tucson’s current
staff. The film, "Dumb Guns," is so full of punning pot
shots at famous movie scenes and lines, one 30-second speech is
comprised almost entirely of 18 famous film titles. The two guest
stars get to keep a copy of their movie after its exclusive showing
in the saloon.
“One of our plans is to do more shows using movies that have
been filmed here,” said David Girton, Old Tucson’s vice
president of operations and general manager. “That’s what
the people want, and it’s going back to our roots.” The
new slate of shows is the first time the park has taken such a tact,
with a stunt show based on characters from TV’s The High
Chaparral filmed at Old Tucson in the 1960s, and another stunt
show, The Great Tucson Bank Robbery that is actually a reprise
of a street show at the park featured in the 1974 Charles Bronson
film Death Wish.
The Three Amigos Ride Again! is the latest example, a stunt
show reprise of the 1986 Steve Martin-Martin Short-Chevy Chase movie
featuring three bandits, three horses, three women and, of course,
the Three Amigos dressed in authentic-looking mariachi-style Three
Amigos wear. “It’s a great comedy we thought we could
use to show off our stunts,” Girton said. And one thing this
stunt show has that few other movie-based stunt shows can claim:
this one is presented at the same location as the movie that inspired
it was shot.
Amigos’ debut last Friday under desert-blue skies had
some misfiring microphones, but the humor, action and acting elicited
a steady string of giggling from an audience representing the whole
demographic gamut. The same day, Western Movie Magic’s
two first-day showings also endured a few technological glitches,
but “Dumb Guns” itself instantly entered the annals of
one of the funniest films ever filmed at Old Tucson Studios, based
on the first audience’s reaction.
In that Girton has accomplished more than he set out to do; he not
only brought Old Tucson lore to the fore of his stage shows, he
made Old Tucson history with the stage shows themselves.
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It’s
a waterpark!
Wilderness Hotel & Golf Resort in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin,
announces the arrival of the Wild West Waterpark, February 28, 2003.
Measurements: 70,000 square feet (6,503 square meters), one 500-foot-long
(152-meter-long) family raft slide with five-person rafts, one six
level play structure with 750-gallon (2,839-liter) tipping bucket
and 100 interactive play devices, and one interactive wave pool
with 20 water blasters and 10 geysers. Delivered by Badger Pools,
National Rock & Sculpture, NBGS International, ProSlide Technology,
Pro Tile, Stevens Construction, WaveTek and Wizard Works.
The resort was sold out for the weekend. All 443 hotel rooms and
the 150 condominiums, cabins and villas had been booked from Friday
evening, February 28, through Sunday, March 2. If that didn’t
convince Joe Eck, director of sales and marketing at Wilderness
Resort, that his new waterpark was going to make a further impact
on the resort’s occupancy, the fact that Thursday night, February
27, sold out, too, was final proof.
“People wanted a pass (to the new waterpark) for the next day,”
Eck said. “There’s no other explanation as to why we would
sell out a Thursday night.” The new waterpark, Wilderness’
third indoor waterpark, had generated about six weeks of publicity
prior to its scheduled opening, but the resort’s waterparks
are available only to resort guests. Wilderness officials had planned
to open Wild West at 4 p.m. (16,00) in conjunction with that Friday
evening’s guest check-in. But with the Thursday night bookings,
the resort moved up the opening time to noon on Friday.
Good thing. Guests waiting to get in lined up from the waterpark’s
door down the hallway, a line estimated at “probably a quarter
of a mile,” Eck said. “We’ve never had a line before.”
They’ve never had a waterpark quite like this one before, either.
The ProSlide five-person raft slide, called The Fantastic Voyage,
drew everybody’s attention as soon as they entered the park.
After taking a spin down Voyage, the guests generally headed
for Ransack Ridge, NBGS’s largest such play structure.
What guests then discovered was the park’s true gem. In the
Wisconsin Dells’ year-round competition of one-upmanship among
the resorts, Wilderness has scored big with The Surge, the
only indoor, interactive wave pool. On each side of the wave pool
stand 10 water blasters that pedestrians use to shoot streams of
water at swimmers. TNT boxes on the deck trigger geysers located
throughout the wave pool. “It’s your chance to squirt
your brother or knock him out of the tube,” Eck said.
Wild West also gives Wilderness the Dells’ total indoor waterpark
square footage title; the new park’s 70,000 square feet combined
with the resort’s two other indoor aquatic centers makes for
a total of 157,000 square feet (13,935 square meters) of indoor
waterplay area.
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The
parade of fish add to the exotic ambiance of Lake Erie's newest
hot spot. Photo courtesy of Splash Lagoon.
It’s
a waterpark!
Scott Enterprises in Erie, Pennsylvania, announces the arrival of
Splash Lagoon, February 28, 2003. Measurements: 77,000 square feet
(7,154 square meters) total containing a 45,000-square-foot (4,181-square-meter)
waterpark featuring five-story, 12 level play structure with 48-foot-tall
(15-meter-tall), 1,000-gallon (3,785-liter) tipping bucket, seven
slides, two 50-person whirlpools, a 300-foot (91-meter) lazy river,
an 80,000 gallon (302,833-liter) activity pool, one grill and one
bar; a 6,500-square-foot (604-square meter) arcade with 110 games;
a 3,000-square-foot (279-square-meter) private party room with a
capacity of up to 250 people; one gift shop and two macaws. Delivered
by Aquatic Pools & Construction, Bob Banks, National Rock &
Sculpture, Neptune-Benson, Optic Nerve Art Corporation, ProSlide
Technology, Pro Tile, Rock Images, SCS Interactive, Water Technology,
Weber Murphy Fox Architects, Wizard Works and Zebec.
The temperature was 14 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 10 Celsius). Snow
was falling. What else is new in this Lake Erie shore city in February?
A place to swim.
“People in Buffalo, Pittsburgh and Cleveland are coming to
Erie in March, and that’s not typical,” said Nick Scott
Jr., who with his brother Chris and their father Nick Scott Sr.
own several hotel and restaurant franchises under the Scott Enterprises
umbrella. “They’re making the trip to Erie, Pennsylvania,
in the dead of winter for the weekend.” They’re making
that trip because of Splash Lagoon, an $18.5 million waterpark the
Scotts built adjoining three of their hotels—a Comfort Inn,
a Residence Inn by Marriott and a Holiday Inn Express, the last
opening 10 months ago in anticipation of the waterpark’s debut.
The Scotts once owned an outdoor waterpark in Erie, but they didn’t
like the four-month season and the vagaries of Erie’s weather.
“When you depend on Mother Nature, it’s a risky endeavor,”
Scott said. “That’s why we decided to take that element
of risk out of the equation and go indoor. We call it vacation insurance.”
The sentiment would have served well in its own right, but the Scotts
went a lot further with their new venture. They placed a lot of
care in the theming, trying to emulate the getaway feel of a South
Pacific desert isle. Of particular note are the wall murals custom
painted for Splash Lagoon by Optic Nerve Art Corporation of Columbus,
Ohio, depicting volcanic landscapes and tropical sealife.
The Scotts supplemented the standard collection of slides with two
ProSlide bowls, the body-slide Hurricane Hole and the tube-slide
Cyclone, the latter proving to be the park’s most popular
attraction among guests in the first two weeks. The Tiki Tree
House has a tipping bucket, but this one alternates the action,
pouring its 1,000 gallons down into the play area then, three minutes
later, tipping backward into The Cyclone. “If you time
it right in The Cyclone, you just might get a little extra
amenity, a little added excitement,” Scott said.
Splash Lagoon even has its own set of costumed mascots, DJ, Lola
and Joey, with DJ the monkey playing a central role in the opening
ceremonies. The Scotts used a VIP party on the eve of the public
opening for the park’s ribbon cutting as 2,000 invited guests
enjoyed a buffet, tropical music, hula dancers, a fire eater and
120 kids demonstrating the various attractions. DJ mingled among
the crowd before heading up the slide structure and riding down
the 350 foot-long (107-meter-long) Big Kahuna tube slide,
breaking through a ribbon at the bottom. Then DJ joined the emcee
and removed his mascot head, revealing himself to be Nick Scott
Sr. (he had switched places with the real DJ at the top of the slide
tower). The Scotts then invited the kids to join them in another
ribbon cutting ceremony at the foot of the tree house. Scissoring
that ribbon triggered the tipping bucket, dousing the crowd and
queuing the band to play “Cheeseburger in Paradise.”
An apropos choice. Here you can get a cheeseburger in paradise,
a paradise in Erie.
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Eric's
Turn
Photo
by Sarah-Janette Smith
Hitting
10
This past week we put the finishing touches on the web site for
Minton Enterprises, www.ericminton.com.
We completed loading the sample articles and we added an index of
every article I’ve had published since my college days, which
currently numbers 1,066 stories.
This index, mind you, has been an ongoing—and growing—list
since I began my full-time freelance writing career about 20 years
ago. But while looking over the list before posting it this week,
I discovered an item that allows us to mark an important anniversary.
That item ran in the “2nd Quarter 1993” issue of Family
Entertainment Center magazine, an article on batting cages titled,
“Who’s On First? A better question may be, ‘Who’s
in first?’ as facilities with batting cages and pitching machines—buoyed
by the increased interest in baseball and softball of the 1980s—are
finding themselves ahead of the competition.” My wife shot
the photo above for the article; you may not be able to make me
out, but I'm the big kid the fourth cage over.
Family Entertainment Center magazine, now defunct, was published
by the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions,
and this article was my first assignment from then publications
vice president Rick Henderson. It was my first ever amusement industry
article. My specialty at the time was the Americans with Disabilities
Act and I had blindly queried Rick about doing an article on that
law for Funworld. Rick replied that the magazine had already
done such an article, but he liked my writing samples and asked,
“What do you know about batting cages?” From disability
law to batting cages? But, hey, I’m a big baseball fan, I frequented
batting cages every chance I could, and I wasn’t going to pass
up being paid to do so.
Within a couple of years I had become a regular contributor to both
Funworld and Family Entertainment Center en route
to an eight-year relationship with IAAPA’s publications that
ultimately led to my creation of THE LOOP. I guess you could say
that 10 years ago I first dabbled in the drug called the amusement
industry and I’ve been addicted ever since.
I’m not the only one, I must add. Also on my article index
is a group of articles published in the late 1980s for a magazine
called Pizza Today. For awhile that publication was one of
my favorite markets, not just because it allowed me to visit various
pizza places—and get paid to do so—but because I liked
the editors at the magazine. One of those editors, Paula Werne,
left Pizza Today to become the public relations director
at Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari in Santa Claus, Indiana.
She’s been there now for more than 10 years.
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Correction
Our New Arrival on the Downtown Aquarium in Houston, Texas, (THE
LOOP, February 28, 2003) failed to mention David L. Manwarren
Corp. as one of the suppliers. We have changed the story in the
archives and the printable version, and wanted to alert you to the
change.
Our
New Arrival on the Rainforest Cafe and River Adventure Ride
in Galveston, Texas, (THE
LOOP, January 10, 2003) misidentified one of the suppliers.
Aquatic Development Group supplied the water system design and ride
trough. We have changed the story in the archive and the printable
version, and wanted to alert you to the change.
THE
LOOP is written and produced by Eric Minton, Minton Enterprises,
LLC. To see more examples of Eric Minton's work and Minton Enterprises
services, visit www.ericminton.com.
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LOOP Classifieds
FOR
SALE—Classified
ads in THE LOOP, just $20 per month (two issues) for up to 30 words,
$1 per additional word. We accept cash, check, VISA and MasterCard.
E-mail lynne@gettheloop.com.
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