Park News
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Hollowsgraves
Haunted Manor Mobile creep show returns to Jersey shore
Kernels
Legoland Windsor called off an event planned earlier this month by the Muslim Research and Development and closed its on- site hotel following threats from a far-right extremists. Around 1,000 families were due to attend the fun day on Sunday, 9 March. The British park also temporarily closed its Facebook page following the posting of abusive messages. The main season was not due to start until the following weekend.
Mike Howard, who first began working at Cincinnati’s Coney Island amusement park 28 years ago as a seasonal parking attendant, has been promoted to the position of vice-president/general manager.
Stan Ambro
It’s back in business. Chased out of Seaside Park by Hurricane Sandy, concessionaire Stan Ambro has returned to Keansburg Amusement Park – further along the New Jersey shore – with his Hollowgraves Haunted Manor. Appearing at Keansburg for a second time, it has been reinstated as one of the park's prime attractions for 2014, “Those who appreciate old Jersey Shore kitsch will enjoy Hollowgraves Haunted Manor because it’s a family friendly walk-trough attraction,” notes Ambro, an eccentric 46-year-old plumber from Wayne, New Jersey, who owns and operates this mobile creepshow. “While there are some bloody scenes inside, we pride ourselves on creepiness over excessive gore. The Haunted Manor is a classic Jersey Shore haunted house attraction featuring a mixture of live actors and one-of-a-kind animatronic characters that you will find nowhere else!” Transported on three trailers, Hollowgraves has moved around the US state for 22 years. The haunted house first opened in 1995 as a Halloween attraction at the Gingerbread Castle in Hamburg, New Jersey. After additional Halloween runs in Wayne and Andover, it made the change to become a shore attraction with its debut at Keansburg in 2002. After that one season, it moved to Funtown Pier at Seaside Park, where it made brief cameos in the movie Beer League and Donald Trump’s The Apprentice. After four seasons, Hollowgraves returned to its Halloween roots with seasons in Vernon and Budd Lake from 2007 through to 2010. Its appearance last season at Funtown abrupt end when Superstorm Sandy ravaged the
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boardwalk, destroying just about everything on it. Somehow, the Haunted Manor was one of very few attractions to make it through the storm completely intact and, late last year, it relocated back to Keansburg Amusement Park, where Ambro plans to have it remain for the foreseeable future. The walk-through attraction is 55ft (17m) wide by 40ft (12m) deep. Including the gated queue line and grave yard, it occupies a footprint of 65 x 72ft. It takes about eight to 10 minutes to go through, during which visitors will encounter 12 scenes. Up to 180 people per hour in groups of no more than six can be accommodated. Ambro now hopes to restore Hollowgraves it to its prime, like it was in 2005. “I would like to build more attractions, maybe a ride trough, not necessarily haunted but perhaps a western theme with a ghost town scene,” he tells Park World.
Tim Timco has been promoted to vice- president of sales and marketing at S&S Worldwide, following the abrupt departure of his predecessor in the role. According to company president and CEO Rich Allen, Timco “will only strengthen the position of S&S in the amusement industry. Tim’s strong leadership skills, his relationships and highly effective planning abilities and integrity will continue to enable the company’s organisational growth and business success.”
As well as the new Agua Natura waterpark at Isla Magica in Seville, Spain (see page 32), the Looping group is adding a new ride this season at Pleasurewood Hills in England and a kids’ area at Cobac Parc in France.
The former set of leading British television soap opera Coronation Street is to b opened as a tourist attraction. Coronation Street The Tour will open this spring on the former ITV/Granada studios site in Manchester city centre following the building of a new Coronation Street set at MediaCityUK in nearby Salford. The tour will be run by the Continuum Group, which already operates attractions including York’s Chocolate Story, Oxford Castle Unlocked and the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth. From 1988 and throughout the 1990s, the Coronation Street set was open to the public as part of a Granada Studios Tour attraction on the same site, in the days when the Granada group operated the Camelot and American Adventure theme parks. Granada has since been merged into ITV and both parks are now defunct.
Waterworld California, just outside San Francisco, will introduce Break Point Plunge, a duelling SuperLoop from ProSlide. Named Break Point Plunge, the attraction will open this summer.
MARCH 2014
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