Volume 1, No. 17. September 21, 2001
Reverberations
"I'm a modern-day immigrant," said
Lynton Harris, a native Australian and chairman and CEO of The Sudden Impact
Entertainment Company. "I moved to America and moved to New York for all the
right reasons. The Statue of Liberty and New York are extremely symbolic and
important to me." Watching the events of September 11, 2001, unfold from his
mid-town New York office not only shook Harris to his moral core, it undermined
his very profession: building and marketing horror-theme attractions, including
one of his biggest projects ever, Fright House at the D.C. Armory in Washington,
D.C. Scheduled to open in two weeks, Harris and Armory CEO Bobby Goldwater canceled
the show for this year.
The fallout from the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York
and the Pentagon in Washington rippled throughout the entire amusement industry
in many ways. Several theme parks in Florida and California closed for the day.
The American Zoo and Aquarium Association cut short its annual conference in
St. Louis, Missouri, (see story below), and IAAPA canceled
its summer meeting at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, which was to start the
next day (Fun Expo in Las Vegas and the WWA Convention and Trade Show in Orlando
next month, and the IAAPA Trade Show in Orlando in November will continue as
planned, organizers said).
Parks on weekend schedules responded with various acts of support. Holiday World
in Santa Claus, Indiana, gave away admission tickets to every person donating
blood at area Red Cross blood drives. Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier
replaced the green and purple lights on its 130-foot high (39 meters) Pacific
Wheel with red, white and blue bulbs in a show of patriotism, and 50 percent
of revenues from the wheel will be donated to relief efforts.
In an example of how far the terrorist attacks reached across the nation, SeaWorld
in San Diego, California, canceled its Skytower evacuation drill scheduled
for September 13. The technical rescue team from the San Diego Fire and Life
Services Department that was supposed to conduct the drill had been sent to
New York to fill in for rescuers lost in the collapse of the World Trade Center
towers.
Harris didn't think twice about canceling his pet D.C. project, for which he
had built scenery that included such Washington icons as the White House, the
U.S. Capitol and the Washington Monument. "I made the decision from a personal
perspective on the Tuesday it happened. Anybody who lives in this city has been
impacted quite emotionally," he said, counting himself among those deeply distraught.
"To be in the right spirit to go to Washington that suffered a similar situation
on the same day would be inappropriate." What he called a "moral decision" he
later rationalized from the pragmatic viewpoint of a marketer. "I've sold half
a million tickets to scary shows in my career using adjectives like 'horror'
and 'scary' and 'experience the terror.' Those words took on a whole new meaning
last week."
He is, however, continuing to work with Paramount's Kings Dominion in Virginia
and Kings Island in Ohio on their Halloween festivals. "I think in the context
of a theme park, an existing leisure product, the public will feel comfortable
and familiar with those properties." He also thinks the public will be, by next
month, looking for entertainment opportunities again, including haunted attractions,
and he is working with the International Association of Haunted Attractions
in a fund-raising project.
Harris clearly laments the temporary loss of his new show, a project he had
been planning for a couple of years with "magnificent" sets that included all
43 U.S. presidents carved as jack o-lanterns. "From a creative point of view,
I'm definitely disappointed people won't see it this year. It's clearly a shame,
but a small, small price to pay in this context." The weary voice on the phone,
however, was not one of a crestfallen artist or disappointed marketer; it was
one of a numbed New Yorker and shocked immigrant. "People should be allowed
to grieve and move forward," he said. "And we'll look for new initiatives to
be part of that get-back-to-work process."
'We don't have the heart to
continue'
The celebratory mood had vanished.
In its place, the delegates at the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA)
milled about the foyers, lounges and rooms of the Adams Mark Hotel in St. Louis,
Missouri, sharing disbelief, anguish and uncertainty arising from the events
that had occurred that morning when hijacked U.S. airliners crashed into the
World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Within
minutes of the conference's activities being suspended, however, the activity
turned to a hubbub of cooperation and caring.
The convention still had a day of meetings, the closing banquet, and a week's
worth of specialized symposia on the schedule. However, with concerns among
attendees for family members and now-disrupted travel plans, on top of the general
state of shock that had settled over the whole country, AZA officials decided
to cancel the remaining activities.
"This is a time of shock and extreme sorrow," Charlie Hoessle, director of the
St. Louis Zoo, told the assemblage in a specially called business meeting. "There
is no right or wrong decision. We don't feel we have the heart to continue with
our normal meetings and sessions." Recognizing the need to care for the now-stranded
delegates, that evening's banquet went forward as a non-celebratory dinner.
Care was the operative word for the rest of the day. The blue-shirted volunteers
and staff of the St. Louis Zoo serving as hospitality hosts—400 in all—were
now crisis managers, contacting coach companies, coordinating car pools, finding
lodging, setting up grief counseling and locating Red Cross centers so delegates
could donate blood. In the ballroom serving as the main meeting hall, the two
giant screens that would normally show speakers at the podium ran CNN's broadcast
of the day's unfolding events. That evening, those screens were used to show
President George W. Bush's speech to the nation.
Though the conference was irrevocably disrupted, its purpose became magnified.
Amusement industry colleagues worked together for moral support and physical
accommodation, and the host zoo took whatever steps necessary to make its guests
comfortable. When at the banquet outgoing AZA president Ted Beattie, president
and CEO of the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, Illinois, introduced Hoessle, the
St. Louis Zoo director received a spontaneous and prolonged standing ovation.
"I'm sure that outpouring of appreciation was directed not at me but to all
the dedicated workers of the St. Louis Zoo," he told the audience. He was right;
Hoessle and his staff had accomplished what that morning had seemed impossible:
while September 11, 2001, would be remembered by all the AZA participants for
the events in New York City and Washington, the experiences and accomplishments
of the annual conference preceding that date would be fondly remembered, too.
(Photo of Robert Ramin of the African Wildlife Foundation and Jo Ann Keirsey of the Oklahoma Zoo board a yellow school bus at the AZA Conference. Photo by Eric Minton)
Properly
schooled
The scene caused drivers of cars to do a double-take. A long line of yellow
school buses headed for the St. Louis Zoo, carrying not children but some 1,600
AZA delegates, the youngest of whom last rode such a vehicle probably 10 years
ago. The host zoo's choice of using school buses instead of tour coaches was
in part thematic, an attempt to remind the zoo executives, keepers, curators,
managers and marketers of the excitement of taking a school field trip to the
local zoo.
The choice also saved $7,500. In announcing the mode of transportation during
the conference's opening session, Hoessle granted that the school buses would
have small seats and no air conditioning. "We wanted you to know that though
we aren't using big, comfortable, air conditioned coaches, we aren't cheap,"
he said, and he pulled out a $7,500 check made out to AZA's Conservation Endowment
Fund (CEF). In addition to donating the money saved by using school buses, the
St. Louis Zoo also gave AZA members a 10 percent discount at its gift shops
and turned those savings over to the fund, too. Along with the annual auction
and donations gathered at the annual CEF reception, the fund received $109,000
during the St. Louis meeting.
(Photo of former St. Louis Zoo employees celebrating their homecoming with a group photo. Photo by Eric Minton)
Returning
favors
For several AZA members the trip to the St. Louis Zoo was something of a homecoming.
Twenty-nine delegates who started their zoo careers there gathered at the R.
Marlin Perkins Plaza to pose for a group photo. The gathering ranged from Kym
Folkemer (children's zoo keeper 1988-91), who now is a keeper at SeaWorld's
Discovery Cove in Orlando, Florida, to Bill Conway, recently retired president
and general director of the Wildlife Conservation Society headquartered at the
Bronx Zoo in New York. Conway started at St. Louis as a volunteer in 1945, became
bird curator in 1951 and moved on in 1956.
"Marlin Perkins always encouraged keepers to learn and do papers," Hoessle said.
"We had always opted to be a training zoo. We thought we were training them
for leadership positions in our zoo, but our senior staff didn't turn over."
"Starting here was one of the better foundations you can get in the zoo business,"
said Bruce Reed, now director of the Birmingham Zoo in Alabama. He worked at
St. Louis from 1971 to 1993, when he was recruited by Walt Disney World for
Animal Kingdom. "Charlie taught us the tradition of mentoring people for leadership.
I see that as my responsibility at Birmingham." Starting with Tim Snyder, his
assistant director at Birmingham, whom Reed recently hired away from the St.
Louis Zoo.
Team competition
At the opening session, John Chapo's job as chair of the AZA's honors and awards
committee was to read off first the nominees, then the winners of the various
annual AZA awards. The International Conservation Award nomination for the Betampona
Ruffed Lemur Release and Conservation Program listed the work of 35 different
institutions, all duly mentioned by Chapo. Upon announcing that project winning
Significant Achievement Honors, Chapo started repeating the list of participating
institutions, eliciting a groan from the assemblage. It was physical discomfort
they felt in the overly air-conditioned room as the meeting moved into the latter
half of its second hour that led to the groans, and Chapo obligingly cut it
short. Still, the importance of the list was no less appreciated by this crowd.
Since 1993, AZA had bestowed 12 such conservation awards upon a total of 25
institutions. "In one fell swoop we doubled that number," Chapo said. "It was
the largest collaborative submission ever." Chapo thought the submission, let
alone its being honored, indicated a trend of cooperation among zoos that has
flourished in the past 10 years. "Historically, zoos are like any institution:
'I'm good by myself.' Zoos have been collaborating much more in the last decade.
It shows we're all in this together, working hard to save wildlife and habitats."
Award winners at the AZA conference
follow:
International Conservation top honors to the Cleveland, Ohio, Metroparks Zoo
for conserving High Andes habitat in Venezuela; significant achievement to John
G. Shedd Aquarium in Chicago for Project Seahorse and to the Betampona Ruffed
Lemur Release and Conservation Program by the following 35 institutions: Baltimore
Zoo in Maryland; Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines, Iowa; Brookfield Zoo in Chicago,
Illinois; Caribbean Gardens in Naples, Florida; Charles Paddock Zoo in Atascadero,
California; Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden in Ohio; Cleveland Metroparks
Zoo in Ohio; Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Ohio; Dallas Zoo in Texas; Denver
Zoo in Colorado; Detroit Zoological Institute in Michigan; Fort Worth Zoo in
Texas; Happy Hollow Zoo in San Jose, California;
Knoxville Zoo in Tennessee; Los Angeles Zoo in California; Louisville Zoo in
Kentucky; Micke Grove Zoo in Lodi, California; Oklahoma City Zoo in Oklahoma;
Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo in Nebraska; Philadelphia Zoo in Pennsylvania; Point
Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma, Washington; Racine Zoo in Wisconsin; Roger
Williams Park Zoo in Providence, Rhode Island; Sacramento Zoo in California;
St. Louis Zoo in Missouri; San Antonio Zoological Society in Texas; San Diego
Zoo in California; San Francisco Zoo in California; Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita,
Kansas; Seneca Park Zoo in Rochester, New York; Tulsa Zoo and Living Museum
in Oklahoma; Utah's Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City; the Wildlife Conservation Society
of New York City; Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, Washington; and Zoo Atlanta
in Georgia.
North American Conservation top honors to the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Zoo
for its diamondback terrapin program;
Exhibit Awards top honors to Shedd Aquarium for Amazon Rising and to
Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley for The Wells Fargo Family Farm; significant
achievement to Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek, Michigan for Wild Africa
and Alexandria, Louisiana, Zoological Park for Louisiana Habitat Exhibit;
Education Award top honors to the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York
City for SPARKS (Supporting Parents in Advocacy, Reform and Knowledge in Science);
significant achievement to Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, Washington, for "Wild
Wise."
Edward H. Bean Award top honors to the Indianapolis, Indiana, Zoo for its African
elephant breeding program, and to the Cincinnati, Ohio, Zoo for its Peruvian
fire stick long-term propagation project.
(Photo of A young Bill and Pat Koch with Will and Krist in the winter of 1964i. Photo courtesy of Holiday World & Splashin' Safari)
William Albert Koch, 1915-2001
Visiting the home of Bill and Pat
Koch in Santa Claus, Indiana, one can't help noticing the hallway lined with
family photographs on the wall. It's a gallery like that in so many other houses
around the world, a home-grown hall of fame. This one, however, is especially
notable for the quintet of success obviously emanating from the frames: the
youngest, Natalie, earning her Masters of Business Administration degree at
Purdue University; Kristi, a neurologist in Indianapolis; Daniel, a lawyer in
Miami, Florida; Philip, general manager of the Koch's Lake Rudolph Campground
and R.V. Resort; and Will, president and CEO of Holiday World and Splashin'
Safari, the theme park founded as Santa Claus Land by Bill's father, Louis Koch,
and developed into one of the industry's most lionized operations by Bill himself.
Of all the achievements that crowd his résumé—ranging from
Holiday World to his success at routing interstates through his beloved southern
Indiana homeland—it is the family that emerges as the true legacy of Bill
Koch, who died Monday of complications stemming from an apparent stroke. He
was 86.
"I think what Bill, along with the whole Koch family, has brought to the amusement
industry more than anything else is a sense of integrity," said Janice Witherow,
public relations manager at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. She grew up in Santa
Claus and started her own amusement park career with six summers working at
Holiday World during her high school and college years. "I couldn't be more
proud to say that's where I first got interested in this wonderful industry
of ours. It's a small family-owned park; that is what defines Holiday World.
Once you walk through that gate, you can feel that sense of family."
Witherow remembers Bill Koch walking the midways of the park. He always wore
a suit with a tie, always looked distinguished, always exuded an air of respect.
He also was always approachable, always friendly. Almost to the end he was taking
these midway strolls, still immaculately dressed, still greeting guests and
employees, and usually accompanied by Pat. "I once asked him why he doesn't
say 'I love you' to me anymore," his wife of 40 years recalled. "He said, 'What
I told you when I married you still stands until I say otherwise.'" That so
succinctly sums up the man who personified equal parts humor, dignity, warmth,
loyalty, and humility.
Last night for Mr. Koch's visitation, Holiday World's Marketing Director Paula
Werne put together four posterboards containing photographs, articles and memorabilia
of Bill Koch's life. One was devoted to Santa Claus Land, one to Holiday World,
one to his civic achievements and one to his family life. Will, seeing the posterboards,
suggested they be placed so that people would have something to peruse while
waiting in line to pay their last respects to his father. Even at a moment like
this, Will was thinking of queue theming. Bill Koch would be proud.
Local anglers
The media taketh away, and the media
gives.
When civil disturbances erupted in Cincinnati, Ohio, last spring (LOOP,
May 4), the media's coverage went national and subsequently dampened
the summer tourism industry for the whole Cincinnati area, including the Newport
Aquarium across the Ohio River in Newport, Kentucky. The aquarium saw a significant
drop in attendance, which was a unfortunate for an attraction that had just
mounted one of the most unique water exhibits in North America, "Guardians of
the Deep" featuring rare South African species of sharks (LOOP,
May 18).
Um, sharks? When later in the summer shark attacks around Florida and up the
U.S. east coast became the sensational news du jour, Newport Aquarium suddenly
became the must-cover entity for journalists from Cleveland, Ohio, to Louisville,
Kentucky, seeking local angles on a big national story. Throughout the summer
the aquarium received frequent press visits, said Genine Drozd, the aquarium's
public relations assistant.
Then came the Virginia Beach attacks over Labor Day holiday weekend. Within
15 minutes of returning to work the day after Labor Day, Drozd said she received
seven calls from television stations wanting to shoot footage at the aquarium.
"I had them scheduled from 10 a.m. to 4 and a live shot at 4:30, and wouldn't
you know six of the seven stations came at 12:30," she said.
Overall, she said the coverage was balanced. Many reporters arrived apparently
intent on doing "dangerous shark" stories, but Drozd had them walk through the
"Guardians of the Deep" exhibit, which clearly dispels many common myths about
sharks, and then lined up interviews with curatorial staff and Newport Aquarium
General Manager John Tighe. "We could tell them the true natural history of
the animals and that they are not the human-hunting creatures of legend," he
said. "In one interview I said I had been diving most of my life, and I've never
seen a shark in the wild." Consequently, the broadcasted stories ended up focusing
on the exhibit and offering tips on how to avoid injury from sharks.
The aquarium then started seeing an upswing in visitation. August attendance,
in fact, exceeded projections, Drozd said. "I think (the media frenzy over sharks)
had something to do with it." Tighe said he couldn't verify how much impact
the shark stories had on attendance because the aquarium was still recovering
from the fallout of the riots' coverage. "More people are hearing your name
on the radio and TV," he said; "It has to help attendance."
SeaWorld San Antonio in Texas was also affected by the Florida shark attacks
as the theme park launched its new Shark Interaction Program. See that New Arrival
in this issue by clicking here.
Return visit
Bonfante Gardens and Theme Park
in Gilroy, California,
which opened June 15 (LOOP, June 29, 2001),
closed this week because of a cash shortage. The park originally had planned
to continue through the year on a weekend-only schedule but had to close because
owners had not been able to complete the financing package for the park, according
to published reports. President and founder Michael Bonfante had invested $70
million of his own money in the 28-acre park, part of a total of $100 million
raised. However, $32 million in bond financing fell through in January and the
park was not able to make up for that shortfall, according to an article in
the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Most of the 150 full-time and 500 seasonal employees
have been laid off.
The horticulture-themed park received more than 280,000 visitors in the truncated
summer season, and season pass sales were ahead of expectations, officials said.
But cash shortage and the softening economy doomed continuing into winter. "Instead,
we have elected to conserve capital (and) concentrate on our future funding
requirements and the completion of additional attractions in anticipation of
enjoying a full season next year," Michael Bonfante said in a statement. The
park is scheduled to reopen in the spring of 2002.
New Arrivals
(Photo of a stuffed tiger in the operating room San Diego Wild Animal Park's new hospital. Photo courtesy of the San Diego Zoological Society)
It's a
medical center!
The San Diego Wild Animal Park in California announces
the arrival of the Paul Harter Veterinary Medical Center, September 18, 2001.
Measurements: 64,000 square feet (19,394 square meters) on a 10-acre site, 34,000
square feet (10,303 square meters) devoted to laboratories, offices and treatment
rooms, and 29,000 square feet (8,788 square meters) devoted to outside pens,
aviaries and sun rooms for patients. Delivered by Tucker-Sadler and Associates
(architects) and ED2 International (scientific advisors).
Yes, the Zoological Society of San Diego is proud of its new veterinary hospital,
named for philanthropist Paul Harter, one of the center's primary donors. David
Rice, director of architecture and planning for the Society (which also runs
the San Diego Zoo) boasts that the $20 million Harter Center is "the most sophisticated
facility in the world," unequaled in size and cost among wild animal hospitals.
Contributors were given behind-the-scenes tours back in March (the zoo broke
ground on the structure October 29, 1998), and similar tours were offered the
public on August 27.
But how does anyone celebrate the opening of their new office space? That's
right: by moving in. Rather than bother over ceremony, the hospital staff spent
Tuesday, the day the center officially opened, moving in and unpacking boxes.
The first patients will be treated there in the next couple of weeks.
We can imagine that those patients will appreciate, as best any patient can,
the new hospital. The Harter Center replaces a 1969 hospital that had only two
treatment rooms and "beds" for 100 animals. The Harter can serve 3,200 animals,
treat animals as large as a 2,000 pound (900-kilogram) giant eland and X-ray
a 550-pound (248-kilogram) gorilla. The hospital also has a mechanical overhead
hoist to off-load anesthetized patients and move them from surgery to recovery
rooms, a freezer that can store serum and tissue samples at minus-85 Celsius
(minus-121 Fahrenheit) and built-in video cameras to monitor procedures and
patients in their recovery rooms. The hospital will also become the site of
University of California-Davis' three year veterinarian residency program.
(Photo of GM John Odom riding Georgia's Deja Vu. Photo courtesy of Six Flags Over Georgia)
It's a roller
coaster!
Six Flags Over Georgia in Atlanta
announces the arrival of Déjà Vu September 1, 2001. Measurements:
196 feet high (59 meters), 1,204 feet of track (365 meters), 90 degree first
drop. Delivered by Vekoma.
Working out the kinks and getting the ride ready for public consumption may
have taken all season, and the park may have ached that a ride scheduled for
a late spring opening lay enticingly dormant throughout the summer. Still, in
the end the new-generation boomerang's opening gave Six Flags a big publicity
boost heading into the weekends-only fall season.
"We were very pleased with the media coverage," said Marcie Tanner, the park's
public relations manager. Some 120 members of the media from as far afield as
Alabama, Tennessee and southern Georgia and broadcasting even further afield
through Fox News and CNN Radio International joined about 50 members of American
Coaster Enthusiasts for the August 30 media preview. The news signaled for the
general public, which had eagerly anticipated the ride, a reason to get out
to the park early on Saturday two days later.
"There were quite a lot of people waiting in line to ride it when it first opened
up," Tanner said of the rush from the front gate to the coaster. "And it continues
to be that way. We were very open with the fact it wasn't opening when we hoped
it would. We had been building up to this ride for so long and people wanted
to come out and try it."
And try it again and again and again. The first riders, Sam and Robert Ulrich,
the father/son coaster gurus, spent every possible minute of media day riding
Déjà Vu, and Robert proclaimed it one of the best of some
300 different coasters he's ridden around the world. In Tanner's own estimation,
Déjà Vu immediately earned status as best ride in the park.
"It over delivered. You look at this ride from the ground, and you think it's
a good ride. You get on it and you realize how intense it is. It is so much
different than any other boomerang: that 90 degrees straight down at almost
200 feet in the air is one of the most unique and intense ride experiences ever."
Aside from its intensity, Vekoma introduces a clever seating arrangement with
the inverted coaster, wherein the four-abreast seats are arranged in a V-shape
with the two interior seats positioned forward of the two outer seats. It thus
gives every rider an unrestricted side view and open-air feeling.
(Photo of guests enjoying the Shark Interaction Program at SeaWorld San Antonio. Photo courtesy of SeaWorld San Antonio)
It's
a Shark Interaction Program!
SeaWorld San Antonio in Texas announces the arrival of SIP, the Shark Interaction
Program, August 28, 2001. Measurements: Two-hour program, up to four participants
and 12 observers, countless sharks and stingrays.
A year in the planning, and following on the marine mammal theme park's successful
interaction programs with beluga whales and sea lions (BIP and SLIP, respectively),
the debut of SeaWorld's program to get guests up close and personal with sharks
had to be delayed when, out in the wild, people and shark encounters ended in
highly publicized, sometimes fatal attacks on humans.
"We just elected to wait because we didn't want to look like we were just diving
into this," said Paige Newman, supervisor of the park's aquarium department,
which runs SIP. "We put so much time into this, we didn't want to blow it."
So, the park did another month's worth of beta testing with staff, then, beginning
in early August, invited members of the media to try out the program. Finally,
late in August SIP went public. (See story on the attack's impact on Newport
Aquarium in Cincinnati by clicking here.)
Similar to the format used by SeaWorld's existing marine mammal interaction
programs, participants, paying $100 on days that the park is open (price includes
a full-day's admission) or $75 on days when the park is dark, start with a half-hour
of classroom instruction on sharks and their habitats. Then guests dress in
wet suits, receive snorkels and masks (which they may keep as souvenirs), and
head for the park's shark exhibit. In a holding area—where the water only
gets four feet deep (just over a meter)—adjoining the main exhibit, the
park installed a stainless steel fence with handles. Participants, accompanied
by an aquarist, learn how to snorkel, then submerge as the aquarist chums the
water, releasing chopped fish to entice the scalloped hammerhead, sand tiger,
bonnethead, zebra, wobbegong and nurse sharks closer to the cage.
Then comes what, according to guest response, is the program's true highlight
as the group visits the stingray pool and, bearing food, interact with those
animals. "It's one thing to be outside the pool and reaching down to pet the
stingrays," Newman said of the standard stingray exhibit at this is and other
SeaWorlds. "But to be down with the animals, eye level, and them accepting you
in the school and swimming with them, that's special. So many people have that
teary-eyed reaction."
Newman recounts several instances of people frightened to enter water near sharks,
but once in the guests almost refuse to emerge. "That's what I love about this
job, is getting them over their fear," she said. Initial post-program surveys,
meanwhile, yield the most promising results of SIP, especially in light of the
hysteria generated over this summer's shark attacks on the Eastern Seaboard.
On the question "Has your perception of sharks and stringrays changed for the
worse or for the better?" 100 hundred percent marked that their perception had
changed for the better.
It's
a Deja Vu again!
Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California, announces the arrival of
Déjà Vu August 25, 2001. Measurements: 196 feet high (59
meters), 1,204 feet of track (365 meters), 90-degree first drop. Delivered by
Vekoma.
Del Holland, vice president and general manager of Six Flags Magic Mountain,
was giving his opening remarks at the media day press conference August 24 when,
on cue, the Déjà Vu train was let loose from its upright
tower and sent tearing through a banner, sending large pieces of confetti floating
down on Holland's head. It was a most pleasing paper rain after on-again, off
again media events had been scheduled since spring. The first of Vekoma's new
generation of boomerang—the tallest boasting a 102-foot vertical loop (31
meters) and fastest with the V seating inverted trains reaching 65 mph (104
k/h)—was finally open.
For the occasion the park invited twins to be among the first riders. About
50 sets showed up, said Publicist Amy Means, ranging in age from pre-teens to
twins in their 60s. Members of the American Coaster Enthusiasts accepted the
media day invitation, too, many impersonating twins by wearing matching Hawaiian
shirts or park paraphernalia.
As it would in Georgia a week later, Déjà Vu opened to
immediate acclaim. Public guests got their first chance at the ride the next
morning, and the rush from the gate to the ride's queue has been repeated every
weekend since, Means said. "It's right next to the Cyclone at the back
of the park," she said of Déjà Vu. "People used to run
the front way toward Goliath. Now they all run the back way." For her
part, the ride exceeded expectations. "The most thrilling part is when you are
pulled out of the station backward 23 stories up, and you are hanging there,
and then you instantly start to free fall. When you look at it from the ground
you think, 'Oh yeah, that's going to be fun.' But when you get on it, it takes
your breath away."
Have we heard this before, or is this Déjà Vu?
Eric’s
Turn
(Photo of Suzanne Melas with Egyptian work crew. Photo courtesy of WaterWorld Waterpark)
We ARE the world
"I would like you to meet my good friend, Oktay Orhon," said Suzanne Melas,
introducing me to the - vice president of the Dedeman group which owns several
waterparks in Turkey. Suzanne is the director of WaterWorld Waterpark in Ayia
Napa, a resort on the south coast of Cyprus, and we were gathering for an international
waterparks roundtable session at last year's World Waterpark Association Symposium
and Trade Show in San Antonio, Texas. That's Suzanne above posing with the Egyptian
construction crew who built her latest ride.
For those of you with knowledge of history or geography, the significance of
Suzanne introducing Oktay as her "good friend" should not be lost on you. This
was the third time the two had worked a symposium together, yet the two cannot
visit each other's waterparks or homes. Their countries are, effectively, in
a state of war with each other, and have been since 1974 when a Turkish invasion
of Cyprus divided the island nation into Turkish Cypriot (northern) and Greek
Cypriot (southern) zones. The hatred between these two ethnicities runs deep
and long (some 12 centuries, in fact), and the political animosity is such that
travel between Turkey and the nation of Cyprus is virtually prohibited.
Yet here were Suzanne and Oktay conversing like old pals. Having lived in Turkey
as a child, and having visited Cyprus two years ago, I was deeply moved by their
obvious respect and regard for each other. I knew at that moment, too, this
was not just a tribute to two exceptional people, but to our whole amusement
and attractions industry. Our mission is to provide fun and smiles to all people,
any people, a mission which transcends national borders and political boundaries.
Wherever you live in this world you were probably shocked and even overwhelmed
by the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. last week. Several
of you may have been personally impacted by the events. It is typical in the
aftermath of those tragedies and at the start of the uncertain times to come
to "put our jobs in perspective," which is to say denigrate the importance of
our work as amusement operators, suppliers and promoters. I beg to disagree.
Never has our industry played a more significant role than it does in the present
environment, if only for the example we provide. We bring pleasure, enlightenment
and a regard for life in all its richness and excitement through our products.
And through our camaraderie, we engender respect, trade and friendships on a
global scale.
That global aspect is what originally inspired us to publish THE LOOP through
such an international medium as the aptly named World Wide Web rather than using
a print publication. The internet is the quickest and most convenient way to
share industry news and insights around the world. At the same time you are
reading this, people on five other continents are reading it, too. All those
readers living in dozens of different countries and representing scores of different
cultures are, hopefully, learning and smiling and prospering as they read THE
LOOP. For us, the most rewarding aspect of publishing THE LOOP is how frequently
we converse by phone or email with readers—friends—in countries far
afield from our Dayton, Ohio, operations.
To that furtherance of world understanding, respect and cooperation, we dedicate
this issue of THE LOOP to the victims, hailing from 63 different nations, of
last week's terrorist attacks, to the rescue workers and to the members of the
armed forces in all the countries who will risk their lives to remove terror
as a political option the globe over.
Thank you
I was covering the American Zoo and Aquarium Association conference in St. Louis,
Missouri, when the terrorist attacks occurred in New York and Washington (see
story above by clicking here). Needless to say, my flight home was canceled.
I want to thank the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, especially Patty Peters, associate
zoo director/marketing, for offering me a ride in one of their vans, which the
zoo sent down to St. Louis to fetch its people home. Not only did I make it
home only a few hours after my flight was scheduled to get in, but I enjoyed
pleasant company on the five-hour drive; and company was what we all needed
at that time.
IAAPA Show issue
One place where the international nature of this business is most in evidence
is the annual IAAPA Trade Show and Convention in Orlando, Florida, November
10-17. THE LOOP will post a special show issue November 2, plus one at the show
November 16. With these and all THE LOOP issues leading up to November we have
put together special advertising packages.
Suppliers, this is your best chance to tell your international clientele about
your new products, your show specials and where to find you on that huge trade
show floor, because our publication, delivered at the speed of email, will be
the one that reaches your potential customers before they reach Orlando. And
knowing the tight budgets most of you currently are working with, we have made
our prices extremely low in our attempt to get every exhibitor on board and
make this a true show special—and special show.
For information, click here or email Lynne
Mosman, our advertising manager, at lynne@gettheloop.com.