Trimper's Haunted House Website

[robert]

You still haven't told me about the Pirate's Cove, since it's in the back facing the ride area, what would happen to it if they're forced to close the ride area? Is it permanently built into part of a building, or is it movable? There are only 2 Cove's left, the other is at Waldameer, Erie, PA which also has a 2 level Whacky Shack ride built in 1970. The Cove was built in 1972. When was the OC one built? It's kind of funny the Ghost Hole moved to Coney, and now that park and area is endangered with big redevelopment. They say Astroland will be open one more summer. And Rye Playland in NY is thinking about removing it's two electric rail dark rides, but it's not definite yet. In fact, Playland had the other Pirate's Cove which was removed in the 70's.

[notlmpresed]

Robert—To my knowledge and understanding, the Pirate’s Cove, which was built between 1970 and 1971, would be saved as it included on the “main block”. The properties that would be affected directly and more severely are ones like the Inlet Village, Wheels of Yesterday Car Museum in West OC, and smaller other properties. Trimper’s Cove was built into a permanent building. Granville commissioned the ride only after a permanent concrete structure was built to house it (unlike the Aladdin’s Lamp, which is 100% portable. In fact, they take the majority of it down every winter, leaving only the interior shell remaining, while the façade and giant Genie are taken down.) Of course, with any modification to their properties, I would imagine even the main block may get impacted somewhat, but not severely enough to close the Cove and/or HH.

[notlmpresed]

I was wondering today -- If someone decided to start a business which designed dark ride stunts like Tracy's, would it be successful in this day and age? In other words, if I decided to start a company that designed stunts by using old-fashioned construction techniques… using paper mache, fiberglass and chicken wire, would there be any parks or organizations that would desire such stunts when Distortions is probably the industry leader? Of course, you wouldn’t be able to recreate Tracy's, for obvious copyright infringement reasons, but if you followed Tracy's general strategy of thinking of the "strange and unusual", like the Sleeping Sherriff, the woman dancing while the man played the piano, etc, how would it take off? Any thoughts?

[plokoon]

What was ghost hole I may remember it when I was 5 or 6, was it that ride where the facade anmintronic figures going in and out of a window? Thats all I remember.

[robert]

Maybe you should track down Jim Melonic, he took over Tracy's company in the early 70's and ran it until 1979, the same year Pretzel Ride Company closed. The Haunted Mansion at Rehoboth Beach was one of the last projects by Jim Melonic. Dr. Blood's that was at Sportland, WW was another one, and Bucket O' Blood at Dorney Park in 1974-75 which burned Sept. 28, 1983 and was called Pirate's Cove from 1962-1974. Bill Tracy redid all the former dark rides (none still exist) at Dorney Park. They did a good job on the 3 HalloWeekend haunted houses, one of them is a non-scary fun house.

[notlmpresed]

Folks--In conjunction with this awesome forum, I have created a forum for ochh.net for conversation solely for Trimper's Haunted House and Bill Tracy related information. The url is: thhtalk.com .

[robert]

Oh NO! I hope Scott doesn't remove ALL the Tracy stunts! They should preserve all the stunts from the beginning in the original section up until the second crooked mine. The Rat, stairs, sawmill, knit wit, graveyard, flying swamp ghost, and bat should be preserved, not trashed. I hope somehow you can convince Scott that removing them would be a bad idea. Once any of those stunts goes in the garbage, they're gone forever. They can't be remade, unless you know someone that can build working Tracy look-alike props. And, why did Cliff retire from the HH and pass it to son Scott? Scott's ruining it. He seems to not want to bother maintaining the very old Tracy props and take the easy way out and replace them with modern props. The HH just wouldn't be the HH without the Tracy props. Well, we should at least be glad the HH is still there. Other parks trashed their entire dark rides in the past few years, like Myrtle Beach Pavilion's Haunted Hotel (built by Funni-Frite) was demolished in March after being there since 1978. It was renovated by Leonard Pickel in 1992. The Bill Tracy Haunted Castle at Miracle Strip, Panama City Beach, FL was closed after 2004 and the cars, track, and some props were bought by a guy from Birmingham, AL (KingPowerCinema on Flickr) for use in a seasonal dark ride, and the rest of the props went to a fire company in FL somewhere near Pensacola. I suppose the castle building at the former park site was razed by now.

[notlmpresed]

Cliffy retired from the HH and moved to Baltimore. I never really got a great answer for the reasoning, but I guess he just had enough. He managed the HH for over 30 years, since the late 60’s. His son just naturally took it over. Before Scott worked at the HH, he would run the Tilt-A-Whirl or Ferris Wheel on occasion part time. It could not have been a better fit for him, being that he rode the ride his entire life, and would listen to Cliff talking about it around the dinner table. The new management is simply a new generation looking to cater to a changing demographic of audience. While Cliff always fixed up Tracy stunts, Scott is about removing them and replacing them with modernized effects. Again, welcome to a generation of technological advanced know-it-alls. Last I checked, Scotty was planning to move the Saw mill upstairs to the torture chamber, do away with the Rat, and update a few other mundane details. I will try to convince him to keep these treasures. It is not that Scotty is doing a poor job—in fact, mechanically, the ride has never run better. He never lets a car sit in the first room broken for more than a day or two, while Cliff would let a car collect dust for weeks. The ride, regardless of what enthusiasts may believe, is in excellent running condition, and thanks to Scotty, I strongly believe it has a great future…