Volume 1, No. 21. November 16, 2001
Here we are
Charlton
Heston said it best. In a video message to the annual gathering of the International
Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions in Orlando, Florida, the actor
encouraged the audience of the What's New Theater to rededicate themselves to
the spirit behind their brand of commerce, "the commodity of fun." He inventoried
the often wearying tasks and challenges of building and maintaining amusement
parks, waterparks, zoos and attractions, and compared these day-to-day hassles
of the job to their day-to-day impact on the lives of families around the world.
"No place on earth provides more smiles per square foot than your amusement
parks," Heston said. And, he noted, "This is a world that needs you more than
ever."
The message was an inspiring moment as IAAPA opened under unusually cloudy skies,
both literally as cold drizzling weather displaced days of sunshine Tuesday,
and figuratively as the industry struggles through an economic malaise and works
out the impact of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the latter uncertainty
further compounded by Monday's American Airlines crash in New York City. If
a predominate theme is emerging from this week's convention, it's the international
language of laughter, from the trio of clowns who performed at Give Kids The
World's village on Sunday evening (see story below) to the
What's New Theater's comedy heavy program with Martin Short as emcee and Mr.
Doubletalk giving the keynote speech. "When I asked Jane Cooper (Paramount Parks
CEO and newly elected third vice chairwoman of the IAAPA Board of Directors)
about her strategic vision, she said, 'Wherever we go, there we are,'" Mr. Doubletalk
said.
That is a truism that seems to be governing the industry right now. The most
anticipated element of this particular show among the people attending was learning
just how many people would be attending. The number of exhibitors declined,
but preregistration for overall attendance was at record levels, and by Wednesday
the association was anticipating a total turnout of 31,000. The seminars were
seeing good crowds, with the sessions for zoo and aquarium members overflowing
their rooms. In a most encouraging note the participation of non-U.S. attendees
was strong, reaching almost half of audiences in some sessions and escalating
the International Reception Wednesday night into a multilingual babble of collegial
partying.
As we post this issue, it is too early to tell how strong the trade show will
be for vendors or whether the activity here bodes an industry recovery sooner
than later. If nothing else the convention is proving just how resilient this
industry is, summed up in another inspirational message from the What's New
Theater; before presenting a series of hilarious interviews he taped with industry
leaders the night before, Mr. Doubletalk said of his audience, "You all can
solve problems that don't even exist."
Top secret
When outgoing IAAPA Chairman Bill
Sims thanked John Graff for his 22 years serving as the association's CEO and
president, the What's New Theater audience joined in with a spontaneous standing
ovation. If only they knew what was still to come.
Graff certainly didn't. After the inductions of Bill Koch (Holiday World and
Splashin' Safari in Santa Claus, Indiana), Wilbert Morey (Morey's Pier in Wildwood,
New Jersey) and J. Henk Bemboom (Pony Park Slagharen in The Netherlands), the
Hall of Fame Committee announced John Graff as the newest recipient of IAAPA's
most exalted honor. "I counted the ballots, so you may think I rigged this,"
Graff told the audience, who once again were on their feet and remained standing
throughout the presentation. "But I had no idea."
The secret was kept from him so well—despite all the IAAPA staff and committee
members who knew—that John questioned the wisdom of his children, Andrea
and Chris, coming to the show's opening day. They, along with his wife, Kay,
joined him on stage as he received the honor. "I don't usually cry, but I teared
up," Chris said of the video chronicling his father's life and career, culminating
in a series of photographs of John fellowshipping with industry players from
a wide range of nations. "This whole thing meant so much to him, we're so proud,"
Chris said.
"It's a job someone should pay a fortune to have," John said of his tenure.
"I've been so fortunate to have the opportunity."
A case of ideas
Bridget Donato arrived at her first
IAAPA Tuesday morning as Andretti Thrill Park's director of sales and marketing
in Melbourne, Florida. By noon, she headed "the largest marketing firm in the
country," the tag Mark Nichols of ITEC laid on her after Donato volunteered
to serve as a case study in the "Successful Shoulder Season Marketing" seminar.
With Donato and her go-kart park in the spotlight, moderator Nichols guided
the audience of about 150 people through a spirited half hour of brainstormed
marketing ideas and far-flung experiences.
"I saw it as an opportunity to get people's opinion and advice," Donato said
of sticking her hand up immediately when Nichols asked for a volunteer. It worked.
"I got more marketing ideas than I can use. There's enough meat in the sandwich
to make a sub." She has been at Andretti Thrill Park for just over a year, but
she has a long experience of public speaking, all the way back to her student
council days in grade school. "I always stood up there speaking to the other
kids while they threw stuff at me."
The only thing thrown at her Tuesday were suggestions and, afterward, business
cards. "Thank you for letting us have an idea fest," said Todd Hansen, director
of sales and marketing at Ripley's Believe It or Not Odditorium in Orlando.
"Hey, you can lay an idea on me anytime," Donato replied.
The impromptu case study resurrected a session that seemed snakebit before it
started. One of the scheduled presenters, Robert Owen of Blackpool Pleasure
Beach in England, had to remain home when his son was hospitalized with a sudden
illness. "He phoned yesterday morning and said, 'I'm not in America,'" seminar
organizer Joanne Taminiau-Cook, marketing director of Het Land van Ooit in Drunen,
The Netherlands, said Tuesday. She and her husband, Tobias Taminiau, director
of the park's licensing and publishing company, recruited Sarah Dornford-May,
Blackpool Pleasure Beach's head of public relations, to fill in. Then they counted
on the case study segment to fill out the program.
"The interactive type of workshops are most effective," Tobias said. "The problem
is not so much the important thing. The process of solving the problem is what
it's all about. That's what we saw here."
Called to order
Rudi Rasschaert and five of his staff
from Mini Europe in Brussels, Belgium, were driving to the airport Monday when
they heard about the American Airlines crash in New York City. By consensus,
the group decided to cancel their trip to IAAPA. Rasschaert as president of
the newly formed International Association of Miniature Parks was expected to
formally present to IAAPA the organization, formed in September (LOOP,
October 5, 2001). He also had scheduled a meeting of his fellow miniature
park operators for Wednesday at 8 p.m. (20,00).
So, the group had gathered in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel and were talking
business when they decided to call on their president for a little direction.
With impish encouragement from the others, E.M. Bierens of Madurodam in The
Hague, The Netherlands, called his colleague back in Brussels, where the time
was 2:45 in the morning (0245). "Hrrmphpmrhm," Bierens quoted Rasschaert who
then hung up. "I don't think he appreciated that," Bierens said. But he should
appreciate being titular head of a fledgling association that so gleefully teams
up to accomplish a goal of delivering fun.
Clownish behavior
For Michael Getlan of Amusement Consultants,
this was old hat: a really tall, funny looking, red top hat. In his guise as
Max the Clown he set out for Give Kids The World Sunday evening with two new-to-clowning
accomplices in tow: Ben Jones of Recreation, Inc. in Rochester Hills, Michigan,
and Kelven Tan, deputy director of events at Sentosa Development Corporation
in Singapore. Jones had been a juggler in his younger days and had plenty of
experience clowning around—just never before an audience gathered expressly
to see a clown performance. For Tan, this was his first-ever experience as a
clown. "This was my first time feeling the nose," Tan said. "I never knew it
was so prosthetic."
The trio performed for about 40 kids and adults at the village where families
of children with terminal illnesses stay during trips to the Orlando attractions.
The seeds for the show were planted a year ago when Getlan and Pam Landwirth,
president of Give Kids the World, were comparing notes on their side careers
as clowns. She suggested he perform at her village during this year's IAAPA,
Getlan had a ready partner with Jones, and they pulled in Tan. They scheduled
the show for Sunday because, said Jones, "We decided to do it early before all
our friends showed up to see us."
Along with "bad magic, bad juggling, and singing a capella like you've never
heard before," as Getlan himself described their act, the show started with
he and Jones, as Bones the Clown, turning a business suit-wearing Tan into a
clown, with help from the audience. The outer transition from Tan to Ouch the
Clown (a stage name that came about when the last audience volunteer shoved
Tan's hat down too far and smashed his prosthetic nose onto his real nose) brought
out the inner personality of the IAAPA International Representative for the
Southeast Asia region. Tan, a true clown, worked the audience to gales of laughter
and hero worship at the end, among both the kids and Tan's colleagues. "He's
on a roll," Getlan said admiringly, watching Tan interact with children from
across the room. "Kelven is a natural. That's why I asked him."
Tan was not thinking so much a career change as he was caught up in an epiphanic
moment making the children at Give Kids the World laugh and shout "Ouch!" "It's
rewarding. I mean, wow! I got it right here," he said patting his chest. "If
there is an international language, clowning is it. Kids are kids, magic is
magic, clowns are clowns. This was great. Let's do it again."
No inFamous women
In light of our coverage of a womens'
movement in the World Waterpark Association (LOOP,
October 19, 2001), a story which mentioned that the WWA's Hall of Fame had
inducted only one woman in its first two years, we decided to count the number
of women in IAAPA's Hall of Fame. Since it's inception in 1990, IAAPA has inducted
a total of 62 historic figures: 0 are women.
Rising to the challenge
Amusement parks have long been a
breeding ground for performers on their way to celebrity status, from Backstreeters
at Disney World to N'Syncers at Universal Studios, and of course a couple of
celebrities turned their fame into amusement park attractions, like Bobbejaan
Schoepen in Belgium and Dolly Parton in Tennessee.
Move over Dolly. A new star has emerged from Dollywood and currently is rising
well above all other celebrities. His name is Challenger, a 13-year-old bald
eagle who soars on cue from some seemingly ethereal existence into stadiums
and arenas during the playing of the U.S. National Anthem. As the only bald
eagle in the United States trained to free-fly into arenas during the national
anthem, he has performed at outdoor stadiums since the 1997 opening of Ted Turner
(baseball) Field in Atlanta, Georgia, and is a longtime favorite for special
occasions with the New York Yankees baseball team. In the wake of the September
11 terrorist attacks, Challenger has been in greater demand than ever.
"We've had calls from all over the United States, from NASCAR, hockey teams,
basketball, football, soccer, corporate-type conventions and a whole host of
other events," said Al Cecere, founder and president of the American Eagle Foundation,
a non-profit protection group headquartered at Dollywood, who is the foundation's
primary corporate sponsor. "Right now I'm his agent and personal manager, but
sometimes I wish he had his own agent."
Challenger came to the Foundation as a 1-year-old eaglet, blown from his nest
and hand raised by his human rescuers. With too much human imprinting, Challenger
could not survive in the wild, so Cecere, noting the eagle's good temperament
with people, trained it for anthemic free-flight. A performer he is not. "Challenger
is not there to entertain, he's there to educate," said Cecere, who keeps this
and all his other rehabilitating eagles by permit of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Administration. At Challenger's appearances the host is required to say or publish
an account of his ambassadorship for his endangered species, and he usually
follows his National Anthem flights with meet-and-greets.
While carrying out this mission, Cecere makes sure Challenger puts on a sensational
show. The two arrive at a stadium two days before the event and rehearse with
up to 25 flights to get an average time of flight. They meet with the anthem
singer, record the song's ending, then select a word on which Challenger begins
his flight so that he lands on Cecere's outstretched arm exactly on the last
note. That moment, which Cecere rightly describes as "a spiritual experience
for most people," has ensured the bird's celebrity status. Cecere took Challenger
on visits to the New York fire and police stations, and people knew him by name.
"You walk him into a room full of grim people and faces light up," Cecere said.
He also took Challenger to the star-studded Concert for New York, and many of
the performers seeing him stepped over to meet the eagle. Paul McCartney, emerging
from his limousine, called out "Challenger!" and made a detour to visit with
him. Somebody asked to take a photo of the former Beatle, and McCartney said,
"Sure, but we've got to get Challenger in this!"
Bigger than Dolly? Right now, Challenger is bigger than The Beatles.
Return Visit
Whalom Amusement Park in Lunenburg,
Massachusetts, which has been shuttered throughout the 2001 season (LOOP
October 5, 2001), is heading for a December 6 foreclosure auction. One
of the shareholders, Joseph O'Donnell, owner of Boston Concessions Group that
ran the park's food concessions, had extended a loan to Whalom in return for
the mortgage. He's alleging a breach of conditions in the mortgage and is foreclosing.
At stake is the real estate: 30 acres of land, the buildings and other permanent
structures. The fate of the rides are undecided. The Bowen family, longtime
operators of the park who own 41 percent of the Whalom Park Amusement Company,
plan to bid for the park with a group of other investors. If they are successful,
they hope to reopen for the 2002 season, said Allyson Bowen. For more information
on the auction, email allysonbowen@earthlink.net.
New Arrivals
It's an edutainment
center
Johnny's Toys in Covington, Kentucky, announces the arrival of Totter's Otterville,
November 7, 2001. Measurements: 10,000 square feet (3,030 square meters), 15
play rooms, two party rooms, one cafe, 35 full- and part-time employees. Delivered
by White Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group.
The amusement industry has penetrated a new dimension with this full-fledged
union of retail and entertainment. Fittingly—and perhaps unavoidably—the
venue is a toy store, Johnny's Toys, a 66-year-old Cincinnati-area chain, that
installed a family entertainment center within its new store in Covington, Kentucky.
Billing itself as an edutainment center the FEC, taking up one-fifth of the
whole toy store, contains rooms for creative play, including a pretend grocery
store and restaurant, a water-play area, a play-acting area with costumes, face
painting, an arts and crafts studio, reading room and an infant toddler section
with padded floor and age-appropriate toys. Totter's Otterville also has a cafe
with point of sales on both the play center and retail side, and some 150 seats
located throughout the center with clear views of all the play areas. The center,
set off from the retail area by counters, requires an admission charge for children.
By next spring the center should have it's outdoor area completed, with a raceway
for kid-powered vehicles, dinosaur dig, fishing hole, another toddler play area
and more party spaces. Adjoining the center is the Latonia Trolley Company,
a kids-scale street trolley that courses over a figure-8 track.
Though Totter's Otterville will have some of Johnny's inventory available to
play with, such as the Brio Train table and Thomas the Tank Engine, the center
is not meant as a demonstration forum for the store's products. Part of that
decision is a matter of practicality. "In these types of environments, you have
to have things in industrial strength," said Randy White, CEO of White Hutchinson
Leisure & Learning Group, the center's designer.
A greater part of that decision, however, is philosophical. Johnny's Toys wants
Totter's Otterville to succeed as an FEC in its own right, and so it focused
on providing edutainment in a high quality environment. "If it wasn't going
to be established in this image, it was not going to be done," said Tim Czirr,
the center's manager. The staff includes a child education specialist doing
arts and crafts lessons, and a calendar of scheduled lessons will be posted.
"The center is going to promote the value of play to children and why it's important
for young children's development," said White. "In some sense that will bring
added value to parents coming to the store. A lot of parents don't understand
the value of play." Boosting retail traffic, though, is the center's stated
purpose. "We capitalize on both ends," Czirr said. "If we have a family come
in and pick up a couple of toys while they are here, we've won on the retail
side. And the fact they participated in the family entertainment center, we've
won there."
Trend in the making? Restaurants and sporting goods stores have in the past
incorporated entertainment elements into their sales space, and a toy store
seems a logical place to test the concept of installing an FEC in a retail enterprise.
Before we start targeting shoe stores, boutiques or even department stores for
similar ventures, keep in mind that even Johnny's Toys considers Totter's Otterville
a risk, albeit one that, should it fail, the store can fill the space with its
regular inventory. "It's a major undertaking. It's very, very costly," said
Czirr, though he wouldn't reveal the project's price tag. "We scaled it way
back to something proportionate with the rest of the store that we could buy
into, something we could be comfortable with." Johnny's Toys, in fact, already
is planning similar installations at its three other stores.
The official grand opening is still a couple weeks away, but on the first day
Totter's opened to the public, a total of 47 kids played there, including a
mom's club. The initial reaction and party booking has more than stoked Czirr's
optimism. "The receptive nature of the people who have come and talked to us
has made us feel comfortable with the decision we made, that this is a great
concept, a great idea."
Eric’s
Turn
A
good laugh
When we in this industry reminisce about our IAAPA trade show experiences, the
first words out of our mouths usually have something to do with aching legs
or sore feet. We talk of days of excessive eating of park food and nights of
excessive drinking of, well, night drinks. We talk of attendance, we talk of
business, we talk of the neat toys we saw, we talk of the good tips we picked
up in the seminars. We talk of the hassles of traveling.
We seldom talk about the fun we have, on the floor, in the evenings, even on
the buses heading to this party or that reception. That, we know, is a given.
Fun is our business.
Having said that, in the six years attending this show, I don't ever recall
laughing so much as I have this week. Nor do I remember hearing so much laughter.
For me it started with the three clowns, Michael Getlan, Ben Jones and Kelven
Tan, at Give Kids the World on Sunday evening. It continued through days of
seminars, and Tuesday night's Amusement Today dinner at Lulu's Bait Shack. The
What's New Theater was the best in years, where people were moved to tears by
both John Graff's induction into the IAAPA Hall of Fame and by the tape of Mr.
Doubletalk's interview of a puzzled Dick Knoebel.
I am writing this on the trade show floor, at 2:41 (14,41) Thursday afternoon.
Around me are the huzzah of amusement and attraction business. From my perspective,
the show floor is as loud, as hyperactive and as happy as ever. We're hearing
mixed reports from vendors on how heavy the traffic and how productive the business
has been at their booths, but everybody seems happy. Now, half way through the
show, sore legs and all, I can honestly tell all of you reading this that if
you didn't come, you missed a good show.
Thanks and kudos
I would like to formally thank Amusement Today for letting us share their booth.
Gary, Randy, Paul, Bill and Tim have been warm, welcoming and fun hosts for
me and my team, Stacey Copeland and Lynne Mosman (above).
During the General Managers Luncheon Thursday, IAAPA presented its Service Awards,
and this year, for me, there were some special winners. The IAAPA International
Reps won the meritorious award, a group I've had the pleasure of featuring in
several stories. I have never seen a more compatable group of people in my 27
years of professional journalism. Jerry Aldrich won the public affairs award,
and aside from being a good friend and strong supporter, Aldrich as president
of AIC is one of our advertisers in the current LOOP. Sylvie Faujanet, with
whom I had dinner in Barcelona, Spain, last year, also won the public affairs
award. Larry Cochran, one of my favorite people in the industry, won the outstanding
service award. The Phoenix award went to Leap the Dips in Lakemont Park
in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where I took my sons last summer specifically to ride
that historic coaster. Congratulations to the foundation, ACE and Barry Kumpf.
Finally, the lifetime service award went to my main nemesis, Tim O'Brien of
Amusement Business. Well deserved.