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Volume 1, No. 16. September 7, 2001
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New
Glory
Like
most showmen, Brad Schroeder speaks in code. When he tells his stage designers
and technicians that he wants a "Lion King opening number" for
one scene and "Les Miserables barricade scene lighting" for another
set, his crew knows exactly the feel, flow and effect he wants to attain.
Attaining such Broadway-size feats is usually a beyond-reach goal for
Schroeder, now in his 12th year as director of entertainment and events
for Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri.
Yesterday, though, Schroeder got the chance to see his Lion King/Les
Mis ambition realized with the premiere of For the Glory, a
Broadway-style musical in Silver Dollar City's Opera House Theater. Though
the show runs only 40 minutes and, as part of the park's fall Festival
of American Craftsmanship, will play only until October 27, it is the
most elaborately staged show in the park's 41-year history.
"I hope it's well received, or this may be my swan song," Schroeder joked.
Telling the story of families torn apart by the U.S. Civil War and based
on that war's second battle fought at nearby Wilson's Creek, Missouri,
For the Glory features a stage containing two 13-foot-diameter
(4 meters) turntables on which the action takes place, high-resolution
PANI projection for realistic backdrops, fiberoptic curtains, rain effects
and cannons. "It's rather extraordinary for anybody to mount this kind
of production for a two-month run, and even more extraordinary for the
fact that it's in a theme park," Schroeder said.
His 9-year-old son spawned the idea. Two years ago the two were listening
to Civil War music when his son suggested Schroeder write a musical about
the war. "I thought Gettysburg has no bearing on this place, but then
I started thinking about Wilson's Creek." Though the National Battlefield
Park is located just 35 miles from Branson, Schroeder had never visited
the site. When he did, the curators opened their research library to him.
"The more I got into it, the more I learned about the people who actually
lived in the battlefield where the Confederate encampment was," he said.
"Here's a story that has a lot of universal implications about what it
is to be an American but grounded on what happened that morning of August
10, 1861."
And the battlefield is so near the park, too, which is themed on 19th
century Americana. Ancillary to the theater playing For The Glory will
be an exhibit of Civil War artifacts and an information kiosk staffed
by Wilson's Creek officials.
The
show, though, is not so much about war as about community and romance.
It starts with the battle's opening salvo (it's the Lion King-style
opening extravaganza Schroeder is reaching for) as the armies advance
out of the darkness from behind the audience in surroundsound song. Then,
after the cannon fire, the story recedes 48 hours to portray the participants
preparing for the skirmish. Those portrayals are based on actual diaries
and letters from the Civil War. The musical ends with the title number,
a song of hope sung right before the battle, bringing the action back
to the opening sequence. "Either people will leave totally confused or
with a lump in their throat," Schroeder said.
At least they should leave impressed with the multi-sensory effort Schroeder
has put into the production. But with brisk ticket sales and the high
investment Silver Dollar City put into the show, For The Glory
will likely get a repeat run sometime next year, Schroeder said. He would
not put a price tag on the production, though. "It's a lot of money,"
he said. "Less than Les Mis, and a lot less than Lion King."
But no less ambitious.
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Silver Dollar City aimed high with its Civil War musical. Photo courtesy of Silver Dollar City
Visionary
Kingdom
For six years youngsters from throughout Kentucky who were blind or had
severe seeing impairments attended a five-week summer camp at the state's
School for the Blind in Louisville. There they gained valuable job skills
by working at a local employer: Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom.
Both entities benefited from the state-funded program. For the school,
Kentucky Kingdom offered "a multitude of different types of jobs in one
location," said Darlene Middleton, the school's admissions coordinator
and summer program coordinator. "We can go in there and give them training
on a variety of skill levels in a variety of job settings," from food
service to guest services, from groundskeeping to warehouse operations.
Meanwhile, the single location allowed the school to use one bus and fewer
job-coaching staff. For Kentucky Kingdom, the school was providing five
weeks' worth of eager employees at no cost.
However, state funds dried up this year, threatening the end of the program.
As testament, perhaps, to who benefited most from the relationship, Kentucky
Kingdom decided to finance the program themselves by paying the students
regular seasonal employee wages (the school's staff are full-time state
employees).
Consequently, the program became even richer for both parties. The shift
in attitude is subtle but palpable as the park regarded the students as
employees rather than charity. "The students belonged to our team," said
Rebecca Hanslick, the park's human resources manager. "They were involved
with all the activities we do with our employees and incentive programs.
I think our employees were also more receptive of the program working
side by side with a co-worker and not just a student from a school."
The students felt the difference, too, Middleton said. "It said to the
students, 'Hey, you have done a great job and we believe in you, we know
you can do the work, we want to hire you and are willing to pay you. For
them to be accepted as anyone else in the job market is a self-esteem
booster that is as high as you can go."
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Zambonis fed Hyland Hills' coffers with sponsorships. Photos by Eric Minton
Frozen dinner
Imagine, if you can, 12 chefs skating onto an ice rink. The occasion:
to officially welcome a spaghetti and meatballs dinner riding on the hood
of a Zamboni themed to look like a table at a classic Italian restaurant.
When Hyland Hills Park and Recreation District, operators of Water World
in the northern suburbs of Denver, Colorado, opened its three-rink ice
center two years ago, the district sold sponsorships wherever possible
to cover costs: naming rights (the Sun Microsystems Ice Centre), the 50
dash boards surrounding each rink, and the three Zamboni ice resurfacing
machines.
The last is by far the most clever. The Safeway Supermarket Zamboni looks
like a shopping cart filled with packaged foods. Safeway recoups some
of the $5,000-per-year sponsorship fee by selling space to food makers
to show their products, such as Nabisco Oreos, M&M/Mars Snickers candy
bars, Kellogg's Pop Tarts, Minute Maid, Tony's Pizza and Pepsi. A local
Caterpillar dealer painted its Zamboni as an earthmover scooping up hockey
players. Then there's the Johnny Carino's Italian Restaurant Zamboni,
the newest in the fleet with a green-checkered tablecloth and, sitting
atop, a scrumptious-looking pasta dinner complete with tableware, a bottle
of red wine and two wine glasses. Behind the driver's seat the ice resurfacer's
fuel tanks have been painted as bottles of Forest Glen Merlot and White
Merlot.
"I would say we have the three most creative Zambonis anybody has seen,"
said Joann Saitta, Hyland Hills communications manager. "How many times
have you seen a full Italian meal on a Zamboni?" Not ever, said Paula
Jensen, general manager of Zamboni Merchandising. She has seen plenty
of Zambonis dolled up to look like cows, UPS delivery trucks and a trash
haulers. Hyland Hills' Italian dinner takes the cake, though; or, rather,
the spaghetti. "That's absolutely one of my favorites," Jensen said. "It's
clever, it's unique, and with the props on top of the machine, it shows
a lot of thought went into it."
Selling sponsorships throughout the ice centre—as well as for Water
World and the district's golf course complex—fell to Saitta, and
she decided nothing was off limits to any potential advertiser willing
to scrape up the cash. And for something as funny-looking and suitably
named as the Zamboni, she decided to go beyond the standard format of
a logo emblazoned on the sides and top.
"I go out looking for companies that want to have fun with the Zamboni,"
she said. "We told them, 'You can really be as creative as you want.'"
So, when Johnny Carino's suggested outfitting theirs with a meal, Saitta
said, "Why not?" The ingredient of the spaghetti, sauce, wine and tableware
is styrofoam. The only stipulation concerning their placement on the Zamboni's
hood was that they could not obstruct the drivers' view.
As far as Zamboni is concerned, owners may do whatever they like with
their resurfacers, but Jensen did have a note of caution for anyone driving
Hyland Hills' machine. "We don't suggest having any wine while driving
the machine. Or eating the spaghetti. You should wait until you finish
resurfacing the ice." To see other examples of decorated Zambonis, visit
the company's web site at www.zamboni.com
and click on the "history and trivia" button.
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Courting
food
This year's Fun Expo/AMOA International
Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada, October 4-6 will have a noticeable new centerpiece:
food. For the first time, the show's organizers have invited food and
food equipment vendors to place their booths in "Restaurant Village" right
in the middle of the show floor. The concentration of food suppliers will
surround a mini-theater featuring 20-minute demonstrations on food preparation.
"We've always had food people in the show," said Carole Sjolander, executive
director of the International Association for the Leisure and Entertainment
Industry (IALEI). "What prompted us to do (the Restaurant Village format)
was the belief that a lot of fun centers are not doing food as well as
they could for customer satisfaction and their own bottom line." The schedule
of seminars will be posted at the theater, which will have about two dozen
seats. "People can get off their feet for awhile and learn something and
be entertained at the same time and rejuvinated," Sjolander said. "It
also gives exhibitors an extra opportunity to connect with the people
who are attending." The village, too, will get "good smells going on there,"
she said.
Food service gets further focus in the IALEI's seminar program in the
two days preceding Fun Expo. A full-day's worth of four workshops will
be devoted to the topic on October 3, while on the preceding day food
will be integral to an all-day seminar titled the "Birthday University's
One-day Associate Degree Program."
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New arrivals
It's
a theme park!
The Walt Disney Company and the Oriental
Land Company announce the arrival of Tokyo DisneySea, in Maihama, Urayasu-shi,
Chiba, Japan, September 4, 2001. Measurements: 71.4 hectares, seven "Ports
of Call" themed areas, 23 rides and attractions, 33 restaurants, 32 retail
outlets, 8,500 cast members.
When it comes to theme parks, nobody can rain on Disney's parades: not
even Mother Nature herself. On a cloudy morning with occasional sprinkling
rain, some 10,000 people had gathered by 7:30 a.m. at the entrance to
Tokyo Disneyland's second gated park to witness the official opening at
8. The park allowed the guests in so that they would become part of the
opening ceremony, which took place on the central lagoon around which
the thematic Ports of Call cluster.
At 7:45 the ceremony started with Michael Eisner, Roy E. Disney and Oriental
Land Company President Toshio Kagami, and just then "the rain stopped,
the clouds parted and the sun came down," said Greg Albrecht, director
of marketing and sponsor affairs for Walt Disney Attractions, Japan. "Roy
Disney said it was Walt looking down on the new park."
The elder Disney likely would be proud, as the intricately themed park
opened to much anticipation and enthusiastic acclaim. "This is the kind
of park I don't think we'll see again in our lifetime because of the incredible
detail," Albrecht said.The 338 billion yen park (US$2.8 billion) offers
fanciful living portrayals of a Mediterranean Harbor, an American Waterfront,
an Arabian Coast and the Central American jungles of Lost River Delta,
as well as the more fantasy-inclined Mermaid Lagoon, Mysterious Island
(Captain Nemo's haunts) and Port Discovery, a "marina of the future."
However pretty the park may be, rides seemed to carry the day on opening
day. All 23 rides are unique to TokyoSea except Indiana Jones Adventure:
Temple of the Crystal Skull, which uses the same ride system as the
California version but has different theming and surprises. Upon the park
being officially proclaimed operating, the bulk of first-day guests headed
immediately to this Disney territory's icon, Mount Prometheus, where the
park's two most popular rides, a whole new version of 20,000 Leagues
Under The Sea and Journey to the Center of the Earth, are located.
"Because of advance announcements and media coverage and internet reports,
they all went directly for that area," Albrecht said.
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In
this special issue
(To
go directly to a story, click on a blue keyword or phrase below):
We unveil the works of several celebrated artists—non-humans, every one—in THE LOOP's first ever cyber animal art show as part of our special AZA conference issue.
A big touch of Broadway comes to Silver Dollar City.
Hyland Hills ices endorsement deals with the help of its Zamboni fleet.
Blind students move from charity rolls to payroll at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom.
Food becomes the centerpiece at Fun Expo.
And we celebrate the arrival of DisneySea in Japan.
by Eric Minton
Sunset Sam made a splash with his artsy behavior. Photo courtesy of the Clearwater Marine Aquarium
Welcome to the show
With this issue of THE LOOP we take the internet
to a whole new aesthetic level and our industry to a whole new dimension.
Today, we open the doors (actually, the windows) to the first-ever Cyber
Animal Art Show celebrating the works of painting pachyderms, porpoises,
penguins, pigs and a rhinoceros. You may enter the gallery, comprising
five rooms, each showing paintings adhering to certain themes, by clicking
here.
Admission is free.
The art show's opening is timed to coincide with the American Zoo and
Aquarium Association's (AZA) 2001 Annual Conference in St. Louis, Missouri,
which begins today and runs through September 11. At these annual meetings,
officials representing virtually every aspect of zoo and aquarium operations
get together to share ideas in husbandry, fund raising, marketing and
physical plant, discuss issues facing animals both in the wild and in
collections, and celebrate successes, all in an atmosphere of warm collegial
fellowship.
In the same spirit we present our art show, a representation of successful
enrichment and fund-raising programs at zoos throughout North America
(see the three stories that follow). We further encourage these efforts
by linking the contributing zoo's own web sites to each of their artists'
works: when you click your cursor on a painting, we will take you to that
zoo.
This project, however, is much more than a publicity forum for zoos. When
you stroll through our galleries, you likely will develop a sincere admiration
for some of the talent we've put on display. We chose a wide range of
styles and species for this collection, and through that diversity you
will discover that while some animals were obviously playing with a paint-covered
brush, others seemed to use a discerning eye to portray their environments
and moods.
I would like to thank all the zoos that participated in this ground-breaking
project—maybe that should be bandwidth-breaking project—and
the artists themselves for opening our eyes to a greater truth, which
is the prime objective of all art.
Click here to visit the Art Show.
That rich feeling
Animals have been painting in some form since at least the early part
of the 20th century. More often than not these were publicity stunts,
little more than circus-type acts exploiting the animals. In the early
1960s, a keeper at the San Diego Zoo in California, noting an elephant's
natural behavior of drawing in the sand with its trunk, included painting
among one of her charges' behavioral enrichment program. This amounted
to the elephant pushing a large housepainting brush across a canvas much
like a big sweep broom.
At the Phoenix Zoo in Arizona, a precocious elephant named Ruby was beginning
to grow into an unruly adult, and keepers began seeking some way to keep
her mind engaged. Hearing of the San Diego painting pachyderm, Ruby's
keepers decided to introduce her to the hobby. They had not seen the manner
in which the San Diego elephant worked, so the Phoenix keepers went to
an art store to buy supplies for a more aesthetic take on the craft of
painting. But Ruby caught on and soon became a celebrated artist in her
own right.
Though not the first, Ruby is certainly a trail-blazer: you could say
that our gallery—which has a room devoted to Ruby, who died in childbirth
three years ago—celebrates an art movement known as Rubism. Word
of both her effectiveness with an artist's brush and painting's effect
on her behavior spread throughout the zoo community, and soon other zoos
were teaching their elephants and other animals to paint.
Painting is just one part of an overall enrichment program zoos and aquariums
use to build trust between keeper and animal, and to keep the animal from
getting too bored and stressed and consequently engaging in self-destructive
behavior. Mshindi, a black rhino at the Denver Zoo in Colorado, would
need blood samples taken to monitor his health; because rhinos generally
react violently to being stabbed with needles, he would need to be anesthesized
which, for a rhinoceros, is an even greater health risk. So, keepers work
with Mshindi on different commands and responses that ultimately lead
to the rhino presenting his ear on command for bloodwork or presenting
his foot for a nail filing.
"His painting evolved from this role of the keeper as Mshindi's primary
care physician," said Suzanne Balog, the zoo's public relations manager.
"Mshindi's really smart. He'd learn new behaviors quickly, and the keeper
always has to keep up with him." So he doesn't get bored with painting,
they let Mshindi paint only a couple of times a month.
In the case of Ruby, the mission was so focused on her enrichment that
Dick George, then the Phoenix Zoo's public relations manager, kept the
story of her painting from the press for three years. "I remember arguing
that we couldn't send the story out because I thought it would appear
exploitive of the animal," George said. Then a National Geographic photographer
visited Ruby as part of a global trek photographing elephants. "He came
to me and said, 'Don't you know those animals are going extinct? Screw
your ethics. Sell the paintings and get her story out so all elephants
can benefit.'"
Click here to visit the Art Show.
Fame and fortune
Chicago has its cows, Cincinnati its pigs, Toronto its moose, parades
of painted fiberglass sculptures. Tampa, Florida, has the Tour of Turtles,
with local companies and agencies customizing turtles manufactured by
The Resource Factory. One entry in the tour comes from the Clearwater
Marine Aquarium, whose turtle was painted by Sunset Sam, a 22-year-old
Atlantic bottlenose dolphin.
"Sunset likes to be challenged and likes to learn new things," said Coni
Romano, senior marine mammal trainer at the aquarium located in the Tampa
suburbs. "We had heard of other animals that painted, and we thought,
'Why not try it? Maybe he would like it. And he did." Using an illustrator's
paint brush with a rubber tip to fit in his mouth, Sunset Sam raises out
of the water to paint on canvas, T-shirts, hats or fiberglass turtles
on the pool's deck. The aquarium sells some of his wares in its gift shops
while other pieces are auctioned. Guests may also pay to paint with Sunset.
All proceeds go back to the aquarium to carry out its mission of marine
rescue and rehabilitation, some of that paying for Sunset's own care.
Many other zoos have used their resident artists in clever fund-raising
efforts. Mshindi's works are auctioned off to help support a rhino conservation
project in Kenya. The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo in Ohio is selling its
elephant paintings to defray the costs of the 21st annual Elephant Management
Association Conference scheduled at the zoo next September. The fingerpaintings
of Charles, a silverback western lowland gorilla in Toronto, Canada, raised
$40,000 Canadian (US$25,000) in 1995 toward his own new habitat, the world's
largest indoor gorilla enclosure, which opened at the Toronto Zoo this
April. The FortWorth Zoo in Texas is taking part in that city's 23rd annual
Gallery Night tomorrow by putting up a display of paintings by featuring
a collection of Wilhelm Kuhnert paintings, a German wildlife artist at
the turn of last century, and a collection of paintings by Rasha, a 28-year-old
Asian elephant.
"The animal is deriving pleasure from (painting)," Romano said of Sunset
Sam, one of whose paintings was presented to former First Lady Barbara
Bush during a visit in 1999. "It's enriching for them and improves their
environment."
In more ways than one.
Click here to visit the Art Show.
Sedgwick County Zoo patrons got custom-designed shirts from Cinda Elephant and totes from Lucille Pig. Photos courtesy of Sedgwick County Zoo.
Sure realism
So the animal has fun, the zoo's achieve funding and education goals,
and the public lays down big bucks for these novelty paintings. Does it
qualify as true art? A Tamworth pig can rub its paint-covered snout over
a canvas and create a picture that looks strikingly like smudges of paint
across a canvas. But give that painting a name, as Sedgwick County Zoo
in Wichita, Kansas, did for one of Lucille's pieces in our show, and the
painting becomes an expressionistic masterpiece. This, however, is judging
art with no more astuteness than the famous repartee between Hamlet and
Polonius over the shape of a cloud that Hamlet finally declaims is shaped
like a whale. "Very like a whale," sycophant Polonius replies.
But pause and ponder awhile the works in our Reflections gallery. Mshindi's
self-portrait is obvious, but only if he utilized a mirror. Balog saw
one of Mshindi's paintings that "I swear is a warthog," she said; but
the zoo's warthogs are not visible from the rhino's habitat. Still, Mshindi
is particular about his paints. Some days he consistently drops the yellow-dipped
paint brush from his mouth without using it, some days it's the red he
consistently declines. "Some days he just won't use certain colors," Balog
said. "If that's temperamental artist, I don't know."
More intriguing in the Reflections room is Sunset Sam's work "My Cousins."
The trainers could make out the shapes of a horse's head, a polar bear
and a snake or a stingray, all creatures Sunset Sam likely has never seen,
even in his pre-rescue wild days. But in the middle is the unmistakable
image of a whale breaching the water.
Couldn't be, Romano said. Even before Sunset was rescued on a sandbar
17 years ago, Romano said, he wouldn't have delved into the deep domains
of the big whales. "He's never seen a deep-water whale that would jump
out of water." But, truly, it is very like a whale.
Which brings us back to Ruby. George, who has a master of fine arts in
photography and teaches at Arizona State University when he's not working
at the Phoenix Zoo, is certain Ruby knew what she was doing on the canvas.
"She ultimately began to choose which color she wanted from a pallet of
seven different colors and an array of four or five different brushes.
I saw one canvas that was Wagnerian, purple, brown, blue, black; it looked
like a thunderstorm. The very next one was delicate pink and blue and
turquoise in vertical stripes like cattails. I have seen her be interrupted
and go back and finish the gesture she'd been working on. I've seen keepers
turn the canvas 90 degrees, and Ruby went back to the same point she had
been working on. She had a definite sense of what she was doing and where
she was going to go with it."
Ruby in fact prompted several studies concerning elephants' eyesight and
whether they can discern colors, studies which are not yet conclusive.
Certain colors that passed through her environment were often the colors
Ruby chose for her subsequent paintings. In a room of our gallery devoted
to her work, we've included a photo of a little girl holding the painting
Ruby did while the girl was visiting the elephant.
And when you question "Is it art," part of your answer should be "Whose
art?" George tells the story of a certain nationally famous televison
news reporter checking out the Ruby story on a visit to the zoo. After
reviewing the paintings, the star reporter sniffed, "When she takes up
realism, then you let me know." To which George replied, "Who says this
isn't realism to her?"
Click here to visit the Art Show.
Eric’s Turn
Meeting time
I am posting this LOOP and writing this column from St. Louis on the
eve, literally, of trade show season for our industry. Tomorrow the American
Zoo and Aquarium Association's annual conference and exhibit kicks off.
I get back home next Wednesday in just enough time to travel, with Sarah,
to Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, for the annual IAAPA Summer Meeting.
This is a busy time of year for all of us in the industry, but it's also
my favorite time of year. The trade shows and meetings give me a chance
to get together with my colleagues and competitors—dear friends all—catch
up, learn and laugh. This next week is particularly appealing to me because
of the locations of the AZA and IAAPA meetings.
I'm a graduate of the University of Missouri (the number one School of
Journalism in the country, I must boast) and feel a strong affinity for
this state and this city. The AZA's host this year is the St. Louis Zoo,
which I've visited often and always enjoyed. Geographic fealty aside,
I consider it one of the best zoos in the world, and I'm eagerly looking
forward to our "Zoo Day" on Monday when I'll get to see progress on the
zoo's innovative River's Edge multi-use habitat. As for Cedar Point, professionally
I consider it the benchmark park of our industry, but personally I just
love soaking in its atmosphere, the mingling of happy sounds, smells and
sights, and the pervasive friendliness that always seems to settle over
the crowds there. Add all that to the good camaraderie that is the hallmark
of the IAAPA Summer Meetings and I look to stockpile cheeriness that should
last more than a year.
Another reason I'm so eager to get into trade show season is it affords
me the chance to personally thank all the people who have supported and
endorsed THE LOOP in its fledgling first year. I've been writing professionally
more than 27 years, I've published more than 600 articles in 100 different
publications ranging from niche trade magazines to Good Housekeeping.
Nothing has generated the response that THE LOOP has. I average more positive
feedback per issue of this newsletter than I received in long stints with
various magazines, and the comments I've gotten over the course of just
16 issues is far greater than I heard over the previous 27 years combined
as a publishing writer. I know I'm bringing news, reflection and smiles
to many people in an industry I'm particularly enamored of. May we all
continue to do well.
Corrections
In the last issue of THE LOOP (August
24, 2001) we printed the wrong closing date for Mitchell Barutha's
photography show on Kennywood. "Bits and Pieces of Kennywood: Hand Colored
Photographs by Mitchell Barutha" runs through September 27 at John Stobart's
Three Rivers Gallery in Pittsburgh.
Also in that issue, in our report on how Magic Waters Waterpark in Rockford,
Illinois, repaired an accidental release of hypochlorous acid at its wave
pool, while the story correctly named Magic Waters, a headline in the
index misidentified the waterpark. We regret the error.
Both have been corrected on that issue of THE LOOP and the indexes.
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