Hitch hock Manor.

[plokoon]

What was this ride a walkthrough? They have so many darkrides from wildwood, i hardley have no clue. What was inside it? What was inside the Seascape darkride. That looked pretty cool, what about castle Frankinstine or the lost world?

[1992]

Wao, many questions!!! My folks would not let me ride Frankenstien which I will hold over their heads _forever_. I did however get to ride the Fun Pier Lost World and Jungle Land.

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Lost world looked really impressive on the outside, the inside of the ride was very unusual. I think at one time it was probably a very scary ride but they toned it down as Fun Pier was mostly used as a kiddie ride pier.

Once you were inside it was all dark with just slivers of light shining on objects. It felt very damp and stuffy in there and from what could be seen in the dark there were elaborate jungle sets. Lots of vines, trees, and the odd skeleton in the bushes (lying down and not moving like real dead people do). To this day I don't know how I was able to see anything. There might have been parcans and elipsodial fixtures in the ceiling which were dimmed very much, or there might have been holes in the roof which let light leak in... not sure.

The whole ride was dark and without animation or much light until you reached the very last "scene" or room which was ablaze with multi-colored light and really silly looking cartoon animal statues. Not only were these cartoon animals moving up and down in a joyfull maner but there was a hidden sound system playing loud jungle bird sound effects. Then after this the ride was over.

It was almost like the ride was scripted like a movie and the whole point of the journey was to find the "lost world" which was the scene in the last room.

It could have been done better, the ride was half a let down and half exciting. Looking back this ride was truly one of a kind and pretty darn neat.

===================JUNGLE===LAND======================
Unfortunatly this ride didn't play UK Jungle music, nor could it have as it wasn't invented yet. This was a little boat ride in an enclosed building which I hear is still there but being used as YET ANOTHER storage place for the Moreys. The front wasn't impressive and you can see this from the Funchase site. The inside was much like the last room in Lost World where you could see lots of parcans with colored gels pointed at cartoon like animated animals and scenes. It was very family friendly, it was much like "Its a small world" at Disney except with darker themes like Cannibalism. It was really nice. The memory of this ride was difficult to remember until I saw it pictured on Funchase and then it all came back to me. My mother rode this ride with me often when I was little, she liked it as well.
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Like you, I would very much like to hear about Hitchcock Manor. The more I hear about Mahana's darkrides, the more I like them. I rate him quite highly now, right up there with
Bill Tracy.

[robert]

Hitchcock Manor was a ridethrough, there is a floor plan on the funchase site showing the track layout and walls. According to the arrows it ran counter clockwise, that is in the loading area the cars would have run left to right, most dark rides run right to left. There was a stretch room off to the right after the front doors similar to Disney Haunted Mansion. I might include the Manor in my Wildwood RCT3 park. I have the correct track layout, but no scenery yet, as I'm unsure of the order of the scenes/rooms, there was a Psycho shower scene, a scene like the movie Birds, with lots of birds, etc. If the Aug 1981 fire didn't claim it it might have lasted longer like Dante's as the Morey's take good care of Mariner's Landing unlike some of the former competitor's piers. Seascape looks like Dr. Blood's with a huge monster octopus above the front and balconies but without roofs on either side. It became Castle Frankenstein walk-through in 1978 and was moved to the rear left of the pier. Castle Frankenstein burned in Aug 1984 it was closed that year. It was like a typical horror walk-through on two levels, similar to Castle Dracula. It might have been a Castle Dracula ripoff. Anthony's site has a complete description of it and Funchase has some b&w shots of some of the scenes. Lost World was a pretzel dark ride themed to lost caves. I rode it, I think only once around 1981-1983. It burned along with the Bill Tracy Crazy House funhouse to the right of it and the Mirror Maze to the right of the Crazy House in Nov 1984. My park will include recreations of these rides but since info is hard to come by for some of them, especially the insides, I will have to recreate them from memory or just what I think the inside would have looked like.

[plokoon]

Robert when are you going to post pictures! Im getting tired of waiting! What was inside of Sea Scape?

[robert]

Um, Seascape was even before MY time, I was born Jan 1974 but I didn't start going to WW until around 1980. By that time, the Seascape was Castle Frankenstein. They were the same thing. Seascape was originally on the right side of the pier in the middle, but it was moved to the left rear around 1977-1978 and transformed into Castle Frankenstein where it remained until it burned Aug 1984. But, it closed after the '82 season for some reason. Seascape was a ride through like Dr. Blood's, Dante's, but Castle Frankenstein was a walk-through like Castle Dracula. The others on Fun Pier Lost World, Crazy House, Mirror Maze burned Nov 1984. The only dark ride building to survive into 1985 and beyond was the Jungleland (Fun Pier) building which is Morey's ticket office/storage today. I'm guessing the remains of Castle Frankenstein, Lost World, Crazy House, etc were all cleared away by 1985. About the Lost World, 1992, I was terrified of it. I was only about 6-8 years old when I rode it, it was night and my dad wanted me to ride it. I remember seeing an open middle section while waiting in line where the cars would appear and go back into the unknown. The scene was detailed with some weird scene. On the ride we entered the building and it got pitch black. All I remember are scary sounds and a red light on the wall above once in a while. I was so scared, I bent my head down. The Crazy House was fun, there was a tilted room with handrails on the second floor, and an open area where you would look down over the pier, and a slide at the end and a rotating barrel. I remember seeing the front of Castle Frankenstein at night, but I didn't go in. It looked scary enough. 1992, what do you remember about the inside of the Whacky Shack on Hunt's? It had classic Bill Tracy scenes like the clock, mad scientist, cat, knitwit, spider, mine shaft, etc. Could you possibly describe what happened from start to finish? What was the deal with changing it to Hunt's Horror? Was the inside the same?

[1992]

I had no idea Seascape was the same building as Frankenstien. Also according to a website .... (Anthony's?) Frankenstien was a ride through as photos showed the fire aftermath and you could see darkride cars in the rubble. I thought it was a walkthrough till I saw that. I wanted to ride it so bad by my folks wouldn't allow. I do have a photo of myself sitting on the red monster statue that was in front of it somewhere.

Robert, yes I remember the Wackyshack but I don't remember the exact progression of scenes. I'll give it a shot though...

Once you went through the first set of crash doors you were in a pie shaped room where the track turned to the right. The room was decorated to look like a small parlor and you could see slightly out of the house windows even though they were painted over to look like they hadn't been washed. It was quite atmpsheric and the room was well lit. Then as you left this small room you would crash through another set of doors. What happened at this point progression wise is a foggy memory. There was a skeleton in a bath tub to the left and he was fishing for boots. You got to see a very small scene in a box which was a devil branding a fat lady. Another small scene in a box was a cat that looked very scared. I seem to remember a zombie scene in a box where it would pop up violently and scare you. There was a cool black painted hallway where there were undulating ramps which would rock the car from side to side. When the "tip top man" was running the ride he took me through it on foot and noted that this hallway was extremely brutal on the cars and he hoped it (the undulating ramps) would be removed as he had to repair the ride all the time because of this. At the end of a hallway there was a spider that would rock back and forth under flouresant paint. As he would rock it would make a creepy creeking noise as if it was purposfully never oiled. The torture room was memorable, it featured a lady getting sawed in half on the left and to the right was a clock that would open up and a bird would jump out to scare you. Then there was a hallway with a bat over head which would animate and there would be mine shaft timbers that would break away as you rode under them, at the end of that hallway was a pile of barrels that would half fall over. Next after that there was a grave yard scene with grave stones and cloaked ghost skeletons, the top one would spin around in circles. Then there was an old lady to the left in a library room, she would swing around and you would see that she was among the living dead ("knitwit"). You would make a sharp turn to the right, crash through doors, and you would be in the final hallway. On the left were 3 doors on the left all glowing with flouresant light. They were animated in various ways but I only remember two animations. One had a monster breaking through, his hands were visible on the sides. The door was hinged in half so the door would rock in and out slowly. Another door had a door knocker which was constantly knocking. You went through some crash doors and it was over.

Those were the scenes that I remember, not sure if I got the order correct. Hunts Horror was the same, they just removed the rocking "Wacky Shack" letters. There was probably an issue with maintanance on the rocking letters. I don't remember the "Mad Scientist" scene at all, I know the one you mean.

[robert]

Castle Frankenstein was a walk-through. There is a detailed description on Anthony's now. The dark ride cars might have been from the old Seascape ride that were in storage inside Frankenstein. Denis Easey was the guy who redid Seascape into Castle Frankenstein. There was a tall Frankenstein outside on the upper level. There was also a tall Frankenstein at a 45 degree angle on a table in the lab scene which was the first scene in the north tower after the front room which was like Castle Dracula where the doors would slam shut and the lights go out and bloodcurdling screams and a lady in a coffin giving a spiel. After the lab, you went up to the gory butcher scene and then various hallways. I sent you a private message, 1992 about a scan of a Whacky Shack floor plan I have.

[1992]

Ok check you mail.

Ok so how do you know so much about Frankenstein since neither of us got to go inside?

[plokoon]

Yo send me the floor plan man! One thing I dont get if Whacky shack is like JErsery junkyard, how did they fit everything in there lol?

[robert]

From Anthony's article by Scott Hand. He (Scott) was in it. Jack and Wayne Seddon were involved with it's construction. Read the article at the Fun Pier Frankenstein page. Also Funchase has some info on it including some rare shots. About the Whacky Shack, it was twice the size of the Junkyard. There were two sections to it. You can see on Anthony's how they joined the two sections together in 1969 when they moved it up by the Flyer and Jungleland to make room for the Log Flume. The Shack was originally located across from the Golden Nugget next to Keystone Kops. Kops was first, then the Shack. It started out as a smaller portable dark ride called Devils Inn in 1961-1963, then Bill Tracy came in and transformed it into the Whacky Shack for 1964 and extended the back with a new addition. It lasted about 31 years. Most of the Hunt's rides lasted about 30 years each, from Jungleland (1959-1989), Log Flume (1970-2000). I guess 30 years is the average lifespan for a ride.

[mclunatic4evr]

Yeah, Hitchcock could right em. Great movies, and a great darkride. The ride did include the silohette of hitchcocks head and the old hitchcock theme. Their was also an "Exorcist" dark ride back in the late 70's. But popular movies lose their following quick [unless it's a cult following] and these dark rides lost their appeal, resulting in [seemingly coincidental] fires that quickly elimate these financial burdens for more prospect attracting attractions.

[1992]

mclunatic4evr said:

resulting in [seemingly coincidental] fires that quickly elimate these financial burdens for more prospect attracting attractions.

"Jewish lightning!"

[clnancy50]

You guys really have great detail, but I can really picture it from robert's description. Is this all from memory or just info you picked up?

[mclunatic4evr]

Some of it's from the visions.

[robert]

Here is sound from the Hunt's Whacky Shack! ctacke.tripod.com/whacky.wav Listen to that. Steve, AKA 1992 what do you make of that? What were some of those sounds like a scream, some music playing, a sound going from high pitch to lower pitch, electricity type sound, and a horn sound? Right before the horn sound it sounds like the cat. Maybe you can make sense of this and was this the beginning of the ride? That can't be the full ride because after the horn it ends and it's only 30 seconds. Can you identify any of those sounds?