Random Stuff Round-Up

[Coaster]

I remember the Rugrats at SDC one year! They were my favorite back when I was little. But that's not the answer you wanted. Haha. I haven't seen any old-time characters. Except for Dr. Harris the Wildfire guy. The year Wildfire opened he was outside the queue line taking pictures with guests.

[shavethewhales]

Dr. Hartio Harris hasn't been around since Wildfire opened as far as I know, has anyone seen him since?

[Coaster]

Nope, only that one time the year it opened. I remember thinking I was meeting a celebrity.

[Zephon]

I think the idea proposed last night was a great one. Moving all the Tom Sawyer stuff up to Geyser Gulch. They could so pull off that area, as a Mark Twain character. I can just see Mark Twain walking around the park right now.

Actually, they did used to have a fellow who did a Mark Twain character.  Kind of like Hal Holbrook did for the Hallmark Hall of Fame years ago.  There used to be a little stage called the Valley Theater next to where the entrance to Thunderation is now, and he would perform there.  The magic shop is very close to where it was.


Ahhh yes, the old Rainmaker show.  I remember it well.  He used to tell the story of reading in the Bible of when it rained 40 days and 40 nights, then he would say "Yah, we got an inch and a half here."  Then at the end of his show, after he had given out a "sample" of rain, he would offer to come to your town and produce a "toad strangler for a dollar," "a gulley washer for six bits," "and for 25 cents, you can watch my mule slobber."

Do any of you remember:  the Carrie Nation show in the Saloon?  the Melvin the Chicken Thief show in the Courthouse Theater (now Riverfront Playhouse) with the jury picked from the audience?  the Little Deputies show at 4:00pm on the balcony of Hannah's Ice Cream Parlor with all the little kids that the Marshall would deputize when he handed out the tin badges?  the mule drawn carousel in Tom Sawyer's Landing?  Do you remember when the carousel was actually inside the Carousel Barn?  the River Rats show?  Do you remember the trained pig show or the man who walked around the park trailing two black bear cubs behind him?  the stuntman show in which he would jump off of the old shot tower just west of the Gazebo?  Do you remember that where the Christmas Hollow shop is now located used to be just a flat deck (over the restrooms) where they would regularly hold square dances?  Did you know that there used to be a tiny stage in the OMP where a magician performed, and also, in the summer of 1976 they did a bicentennial salute show featuring several songs from the musical "1776" right at park closing hour to entertain guests as they left the park?  Do you remember the hoedown involving guests that they used to do on main street just before the park closed?  Do you remember when they used to fire the cannon off that was under that old shot tower when the park closed?

Does that suffice for some random tidbits?

You guys were talking about the concept of the city moving up through the 00's, 10's, 20's, etc.  Well, actually, the concept was for the city to stay exactly 100 years in the past.  Realizing the problem they would have (narrow streets) when the age of the automobile was reached (Model T's, and such), they abandoned that concept and decided to remain in the 1880's.

[shavethewhales]

You guys were talking about the concept of the city moving up through the 00's, 10's, 20's, etc.  Well, actually, the concept was for the city to stay exactly 100 years in the past.  Realizing the problem they would have (narrow streets) when the age of the automobile was reached (Model T's, and such), they abandoned that concept and decided to remain in the 1880's.

Now that is quite interesting. I'm glad they're staying where they are though. IMO, the 1880's provides for some of the most colorful theming and character. WWI and II coming to the park would be weird. Thanks for all the tid bits, that's quite a load.

Why did they move the carousel out of the carousel barn?

[Copper]

I remember a few of those, but most I have only heard from employees and such. Most of the Street Entertainers aren’t very entertaining, they simply sit around most of the day playing checkers; or they are super creepy and you want them to stay away.

I loved the rainmaker. When I was young, where the fire tower is on Main Street, there was a windmill (former shot tower location) and the water would spray from the top of the windmill, it took me a long time to figure that one out.

I also remember the cave at the end of Huck Fin’s Hide Away. It had water and a lot of twinkling Christmas lights. It was known as Injun Joe’s Cave. I think the abandonment of the facility had to do with people messing around in it. Doing things they shouldn’t, leave it to some idiot to ruin things.

[Zephon]

Why did they move the carousel out of the carousel barn?

It was only in there for a season or two in the early 80's, and I don't know why they moved it out, except maybe to expose it a little bit more.  I believe they put some kind of a kids show and workshop area in there instead.  Seems to me like it had about 5 work areas and a central stage.  The whole area was kind of a forest theme.  I've forgotten what they called it though.

[Copper]

The area was originally called the Deep Woods section. The original playground (slides, swings, ropes...) was located where present day Rib House is. The Carousel Barn, correct me if I am wrong; was renamed Captain Bill’s and was used for special events.

[Old Guy]

Something else that used to go on at SDC is they used to have a "Boardwalk Tour", where they'd have a Citizen take people around and tour the park. Of course, that was back before they'd expanded extremely far, but I've still always thought it'd be awesome to have a VIP tour like I've heard some other parks have."
 
They did indeed in the 80's The building to the right of the waterclock was built for this with a small theater which showed a short history and intro to SDC, then you were escorted around for about an hour. There were no privliges in avoiding ride cues or early admits.

Those in the know came an hour before the scheduled opening to get in for breakfast at the mine/mill, then music at the gazebo untel they dropped the chains at the opening street show.

[Old Guy]

I the early 60's SDC did an evening show at the Silve Palace Theater. It sat across the street from the church where the new General store in now. Thy did a melodrama called "Only an Orphan Girl", and "An Evening with Mark Twain" on alternate nights . After the show theye would shoot off fireworks over the square.

[Old Guy]

All right. More random stuff:

The building to the left of the curlycue bridge over the train tracks in midtown, is the sight of the origanal train depot!. Last time I looked there were still stairs down there. Another old train dept. was just about where the red/gold hall is now. This was the "new" entrance to the park after the square ceased being parking. You bought your tickets and boarded the train which went in the opposite direction than now, and arrived at the city in midtown. Cool huh?

The street runing from the flume to the treehouse used to be the border of the park. Hill street ended at the stagecoach depot about where the furniture factory is now.

FIRE!  An entire block of buildings in midtown burned ( no baldknobbers this time) in the 60's. The original mill, print shop and candle shop. From that point on no more row shops were built.

Due to a copy error on the plans, the Riverfront Playhouse was built backwards! The entrances were suposed to be facing the lakefront area, as at that time it was a dead end street!

More to come

[shavethewhales]

Good grief Old Man, I really am going to have to add more pages to the site to hold all this info. Thanks, this is great stuff.

[Old Guy]

For one season in late 1950's, (pre SDC days) the property was Marval cave park and the Marlin Perkins Zoo.  Marlin, from Carthage, Missouri, was at the time host of a Chicago based TV show called Zoo Parade and few years latter he became the longtime host of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.

Pete Hershend, one of the most  inteligent and witty men I have had the pleasure to have known, refers to the SDC logo as the "Stump and Cumquat"

In the "What were they thinking" catagory:

Early 60"s main street Demo/show, the old game of "shooting the anvil" .
 The two anvils used were placed on the ground in th middle of main street. The largest of the anvils was placed upside down.  Black powder, was poured into the bottom of the anvil on the ground leaving a small opening at one end directly under the small opening at the squared end of the top anvil (which was also placed into position upside down and crossways) so that the small round hole in the squared end was directly over the opening beneath. Into this round hole was poured enough black powder to form a firing train. Then  Shad Heller the blacksmith heated a long, thin iron rod red hot in his forge, the men charging the anvil stood to one side, and the sizzling iron was applied to the powder. Then came the loudest bang you ever heard. and the upper anvil sailed down the length of the street.
This was a once a day show untel one day as they were cleaning up after they discovered a chunk missing from one of the anvils. It was latter found imbedded in the wall of the general store just above head height behind where the spectators had been standing. 

In a part two, one of the other shows was a mussel loading contest with two cannons set on a platform behind the church. Union vs Reb vets would chalange each other to hit targets set up on the far side of the valley. The union always won Because the show was all riged. They were firing coffee cans filled with sand which would theoreticly fall into the lake long before reaching the target. The target blew up becouse Rex Matsenbacher (his emloyee number was 5) would be behind a tree and when he heard the report would set of a charge attached to the target.

All went went well untel one day he was relaxing in the sun, when he heard the canon go off. He was just about to hit his switch when a coffee can sailed through the branches and landed about a foot from where he was sitting. They never did the show again.

Rex is mentioned in an artical on SDC glassblowing at:
http://www.stateoftheozarks.net/Cultural/Craftsmanship/Glassblowing.html

I have to pass all this on now that the good folks who related these storys to me are no longer with us. SDC was always terrable at archiving their own history. I hope all of you can help preserve it.

More tidbits late next week.....

[Old Guy]

There used to be a little stage called the Valley Theater next to where the entrance to Thunderation is now, and he would perform there.  The magic shop is very close to where it was.

The magic shop is the old Valley Theater. Before Thunderation this was a quiet corner of town and the little theater was a great late afternoon place to relax. You can see it an this CD cover
http://www.witheandstone.com/Music/

The Mark Twain you refered too was Keith Scarborough who is now a preacher in St. Louis I believe. He also played Huck Finn in a Hannibal MO outdoor theater when he was young.
http://www.brokeith.com/about.htm

[Coaster]

Wow!! Thanks for all this great info. It's very interesting.