Volume 3, No. 18. September 26,2003
Not so funereal
Death is at the heart of Halloween, with facsimiles of the dead scaring the
living. Still, most haunters avoid staging an actual funeral.
Not
Kennywood. The West Miflin, Pennsylvania, amusement park opened its second annual
Phantom Fright Nights on September 12 with a mock funeral. “We were looking
for something different,” said John Rodgers, Kennywood’s director
of promotions. “Obviously, this is different.”
The
park teamed up with one of Pittsburgh’s top rock ’n’ roll radio
stations to promote a contest inviting people to apply for the chance to attend
their own funeral and hear their own eulogy with six friends serving as pall
bearers. The only stipulation set by the radio station was that the dearly not-so-departed
could not stand over 6-foot-5 or weigh more than 300 pounds. Good thing; the
winner from among 73 applicants weighed 250 pounds, “and that was a challenge,”
Rodgers said. “His friends were complaining as they picked him up and put
him into the hearse. Next time we’ll ask for somebody 5-foot-5.”
The
centerpiece to the whole promotion in Rodgers’ eyes was the hearse, an
authentic Civil War-era horse-drawn wagon purchased at a Buffalo, New York,
auction a couple of weeks before. “It was just too good to pass up,”
Rodgers said. The Kennywood carpenters and mechanics refurbished the hearse,
Marketing Director Keith Hood provided horses Nell and Bell from a farm in Ligonier,
Pennsylvania, and an appropriately dressed driver and footman completed the
effect.
The
deceased, made up to appear gaunt, was laid out in one of the steel coffins
Kennywood had made for Phantom Fright Nights. “We had to take the top off
because there was not much room in the hearse,” Rodgers said. Besides,
although the man was supposed to be dead, he still needed to breath. “We
didn’t want any bad situations.”
Accompanied
by a 10-piece band playing New Orleans funeral march music, the procession moved
to the park’s main stage where the memorial service was held. The passageway
from hearse to the stage was too narrow for the coffin, so the owner got out
to help his pall bearers pals tilt the box and place it on the stage. Lying
back down, he endured the roasts of a local comedian giving the eulogy and several
friends and family members called on to offer their own remembrances.
“After
the eulogy was done, he once again had to get out of the box to carry it outside,”
Rodger said. “Then he got back in and they put him back in the hearse.”
Transported now to a graveyard set up for Phantom Fright Nights, the pall bearers
placed the coffin in a mausoleum Kennywood carpenters had built, and the deceased
emerged, zombie-like, through a back door to the cheers of the crowd.
Rodgers said the funeral promotion seemed to add to what would have been a typical opening night crowd. The promotion will likely be repeated next year, he said, “now that we’ve purchased this beautiful horse-drawn hearse.”
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.
©2003, Minton Enterprises
LLC
All rights reserved