It was front page news when E. Pat Hall died in 1978. He was only 57. A former army guy, he made his millions buying, renovating, and selling textile machinery and facilities. He partnered with a few other businessmen and bought the old Naval Ammunition Depot near Charlotte, transforming it into Arrowood, a major industrial center. There was lots more, and when Carowinds started coming together
In the early years, regional theme parks offered souvenir maps for sale. These were beautifully illustrated works of art with lots of fun details to discover. One of the ideas for the park history book was to include excerpts from these opening
One of the chapters in the upcoming park history book focuses on entrepreneurs who took Walt’s concept and found a way to make it happen in their own part of the country. These individuals had the drive, determination, resources, and sheer guts to jump head-first into waters they knew little about. Storms loomed ahead, threatening to capsize many
The regional theme park history book keeps pushing right along toward completion (hint…it’s close). To hold you over in the meantime, I’ll be sharing bits and pieces from the book and my research while tossing in other interesting items along the way. Three of them, in fact. I’m extremely pleased to have some wonderful folks who were eager to pitch in on this project.
First up is Rob
Although not that many people know the name, C.V. Wood was the—shall we say—enterprising individual who helped get Disneyland built, then got fired, then opened his own park development firm. He opened three parks with Marco Engineering, the first two being Magic Mountain in Colorado and Pleasure Island in Massachusetts. The third one opened for business
Libertyland was a small, charming theme park in Memphis, TN. Designed by Duell & Associates, the same firm responsible for most of the regional theme parks around the country, it was intended to fit a smaller niche than the likes of Six Flags, Opryland, and so on. With a much smaller footprint (and budget), it was well-designed, but could never really
From Imagineering an American Dreamscape
With the turmoil of the 1960s nearly inescapable in the daily news, Americans sought refuge in a steady stream of rural, down-home television shows. Feel-good fodder such as Hee Haw, Mayberry RFD, Green Acres, Petticoat Junction, and The Real McCoys were set in simpler times and places, reminding
Two of the four Busch Gardens properties live on to this day. The first, in Tampa, started out in 1959 as a free, fun thing to do while touring the brewery; it was intended to promote the brand. But it became so popular the company decided it was worth more as a gated park, and so the park expanded, the brewery went away. The opposite happened in Los Angeles and Houston, which didn’t survive as gated, ticketed parks. As in Florida, the LA property started out as merely a promotional
