BYLINE: Leonard Pickel

Editor's Note: As anyone who has done it knows, building a major attraction is not an easy task, and the first time is always the roughest! Chances are you will do more things wrong that right, and to build your first Haunted Attraction in Orlando, Florida is a gutsy move indeed! This story, as is life, revolves around a series of accidental events, any of which having not occurred, could have kept this intriguing project from happening at all. This article is two-fold in its focus. First, we will look at the struggles and hardships that forged the attraction, and then more importantly, we will refocus on the attraction's rise from the ashes, to become a contender in one of the most competitive amusement markets in the world!

K. Trevor Thompson, had worked in museum type attractions since he was in high school, first for Ripley's Believe it or Not and later for the Guinness Book of World Records Museum both in his boyhood home of Niagara Falls, Canada. Through hard work and perseverance, Thompson worked his way up from the bottom, all the way to becoming the North American Sales Representative. After 8 years of selling museums to others, Thompson decided he wanted one of his own. Together with long time acquaintance, Jim Doyle, Thompson secured investors for funding and in the winter of 1996, headed to Orlando, Florida to search for a location. Once in Orlando, Thompson contacted Tahiar Ansari, a Pakistani businessman, who owned several pieces of speculative property in and around Orlando. Although Thompson had contacted Ansari about a particular piece of property, Ansari had another site he wanted Thompson to see.

A highly visible corner of Republic Drive and International Drive, the site was diagonally across from the most visited Wet 'n Wild Water Park in the United States with a yearly attendance of 1.8 million people. Unfortunately, this great piece of property had major problems. The "I Drive" walking traffic stops on the other side of a major intersection just short of the location. The only vehicular entrance to the site is from a minor side street, which is difficult to find. An old IHOP restaurant sits on the right front of the block, screening the property from traffic approaching from that direction. The restaurant's parking is in the front part of the site, which would push any development back from the street and force parking to the rear.

This difficult site was not what Thompson had in mind for his museum, but undeterred, Ansari asked Thompson what kind of attraction he thought would work on this property. The difficulty in finding someone to build on the property had caused Ansari to consider getting into the attraction business himself. At first, Thompson replied that he could not think of anything that might work, but after some brainstorming with Doyle, he came back to Ansari with an answer, that surprised even him, "The only thing that I can think of is a Haunted House!"

Although Thompson had worked much of his life on Clifton Hill, home of no less than five permanent Haunted Attractions, he had very little haunted experience. Doyle, who had years of experience in the design of museum type attractions, both with Ripley's and his own company, Desert Design of Las Vegas, Nevada, had no haunted experience either. But it could not be that difficult, could it? And what they did not know they could learn. So when Ansari offered the duo the opportunity to be partners in the Haunted Attraction, they accepted.

At first, Thompson planned to open both the Guinness museum and the Haunt, but the Ripley's corporation bought the rights to Guinness, and in March of 1996, the Orlando location fell through. After some negotiation, it was decided that Doyle would design the new attraction, Thompson would operate it as general manager and most importantly, Ansari would fund the project!

Brainstorming between the new partners began immediately. From the beginning, it was decided that this attraction needed to be drastically different from any other. A conscious decision was made not to visit other attractions in the area, for fear that the creative team might emulate what had already been done. Even the architectural firm, Architects in Partnership, of Orlando, was hired to only provide drawings required by the building department to be sealed.

Doyle envisioned the attraction as a self-paced, museum-like stroll through a dark and mysterious place, with various opportunities along the way for additional revenue, and a few startles thrown in for effect. The concept was not to just scare the patrons, but also to dazzle them with special effects and highly detailed sets. Patrons would push buttons in the form of displays, and actors would be kept to a minimum. To appeal to the wide cross section of tourists that vacation in Orlando, it was felt that the concept of a "family" attraction was mandatory. Doyle put his 20 years of museum experience to work, using tried and true formulas, that he knew to be successful for a museum that is!

The difficult location required the building to stand out and grab everyone's attention! It was feared that a "House" façade that looked old and dilapidated would look like an old dilapidated house and would not draw the attention needed for success. Alternate themes were discussed and storyline ideas explored. The stone walls of a great castle were envisioned with patrons having to enter and to pass through the gaping mouth of a huge fanged skull. The attraction would look like a "kingdom," but unlike the others in town, this kingdom would be an evil place, a Skull Kingdom!

Doug Wolfe had worked on a charity attraction called Shrieks and Freaks Haunted House benefiting the Boys and Girls Club for 4 seasons before, David Bertolino (see related story) came to the charitable organization in 1991 and offered them a dream deal. Bertolino wanted to hire the charity's volunteers to help him build Spooky World, America's Horror theme Park. In exchange for their experienced assistance, and the promise that they would not do their Halloween show that year, the charity would receive a sizable cash donation. With the offer of more money and less liability, the charity jumped at the chance. Wolfe went to work for Spooky World in 1991 and in 1992 was placed in charge of the actors. After six seasons with Bertolino, Wolfe pulled up stakes and moved to Orlando, Florida to seek his fortune in the entertainment industry. At first, things were slow going, and Wolfe even asked his old boss Bertolino, to help with the job search. In March of 1997, a meeting was arranged with Dave Clevinger, creative director for Terror on Church Street. Clevinger did not have an open position at that time but during the conversation, the new attraction in town, Skull Kingdom, came up. Wolfe wasted no time in contacting Thompson and soon he was part of the Skull Kingdom crew. Not a glamorous position, Wolfe was helping keep the now behind schedule Kingdom, swept up for the construction crew, until actors were needed.

To speed the construction schedule, the walls of the attraction were built and finished up in a nearby warehouse at the same time the structure was going up. Massive set walls were carved from solid Styrofoam and artistically painted. All of the electrical was installed inside the foam walls ready for a speedy onsite assembly. Just before the walls were to be separated and moved onto location, the Fire Marshal red tagged the final inspection. He determined that there was more than the allowable amount of foam in the project. The completed work was then 'hollowed out,' in an attempt to fix the problem, but to no avail. Even with this expensive attempt to salvage the completed walls, the foam was disallowed and $50,000 was wasted.

Things that are normal procedure for a Ripley's museum were designed into the building, which in hindsight, are bizarre oddities in the final layout. The lobby has a large reception like desk in the dead center of the room, which doubles as a ticket booth. This takes up a large portion of the room and any queue line for patrons has to be formed outside the front door causing some confusion, and requires a greeter character outside, to assist the victims and direct traffic. There is only one set of restrooms in the building, and they are on the second floor next to the elevator, at the halfway point of the tour. There were no dressing rooms and Wolfe gave up his office so that the actors could have a break room. The arcade is inaccessible from the lobby, and in the back of the building hidden behind the gift store, so that only those who tour the attraction know it exists.

Mixed in with the 'haunted' type room designs were additional revenue generating opportunities, such as a coin operated shooting gallery, themed as a skid row alley, a candid photo of your group getting frightened, and a "Have your picture taken with a monster," photo opportunity. Each of these 'opportunities' required an employee to operate the equipment, increasing overhead. Realizing this would disrupt the pace of the patrons between scares, a series of doors with lighted 'Enter-Wait' signs were added to the floor plan as 'control valves," to regulate the flow. Patrons would be asked not to pass through the door until the Enter light was illuminated. As the attraction neared completion, concerns were voiced from the hired actors who had previous Haunting experience that some of these nuances in the show were not going to work. "It just did not have the feel of a Haunted Attraction," remembers Lee Sanders who had worked for 3 years with Six Flags over Georgia's Halloween event. Thompson remembers telling the crew repeatedly, "Don't worry, it will be fine!"

After five and a half months of construction (two months late), and a 2.8 million dollar cost, (twice the original budget), Skull Kingdom was ready to open to the public. At the last minute, it was discovered by the Planning Department, that some of the trees planted in front of the building were a smaller caliber than was called for on the landscape plan. The already planted trees had to be dug up and replaced with larger ones before opening. Finally, at 2 P.M. on opening day, Skull Kingdom received a certificate of occupancy and a green light to finally open the attraction to the public. At 7 o'clock on Friday the 13^th of June 1997, over 500 excited patrons waited breathlessly for the doors to open. Kane Hodder was there to sign autographs, and although the owners and crew knew that the show was not 100% complete, they felt comfortable, that they were close enough.

The opening of Disneyland on July 17, 1955 was called "Black Sunday" by the press because of opening day bugs that fouled things up. This is to be expected with any endeavor that is new and different. Unfortunately, Disneyland's opening has nothing on Skull Kingdom's. As the first few groups finished the tour of "Orlando's Most Frightening Kingdom," it was obvious that things were not right. Angry patrons demanded their money back in droves. Not to be deterred, the decision was made to let the rest of the people go through for free, kind of as a dress rehearsal, but even that did not deter the complaints. Even at free admission, the show was destroying its own reputation. At 75 minutes into the grand opening, fate mercifully intervened, in the form of a complete power failure, and the attraction was closed.

Devastated, the partners and employees gathered to weigh the options. It was decided that the attraction would close for renovations, and that Skull Kingdom would not open again unless it was ready to deliver the fright!

This could have been the end of the story, but in fact, it is where the real story begins. What came out of the personnel meeting in the aftermath of opening day, was the inherent essence of what built this industry! People with lots of money to throw at an event seldom have the longevity, the endurance, and the love of what they are doing to persevere. Management had done the best they could and spent a great deal of money in the process, but their inexperience was showing.

Wolfe and the lead actors, Jeff Chokel and Robin Watkins, had years of precious haunting experience. They believed in the Skull Kingdom and they knew that with some minor changes that it could be turned into the "Fun and Fright" filled attraction that the marketing collateral promised. Best of all, they wanted to do the renovation themselves. During the most recent renovation, the actors turned their break room into a scenic shop and were carving stone walls for the new crypt during their breaks. The actors felt so strongly about the potential of Skull Kingdom, that they even deferred wages for working on the renovations, saying, "Pay me when you can."

The lack of control that the show had over its patrons was part of the problem. The "Wait" lights were largely ignored by the patrons, so actor/guides were added where needed to stop the patrons for an effect. The next to go were the "revenue generating opportunities." The Shooting Gallery and stand up photo op were causing bottlenecks and no one was buying. Luckily, the set for the Shooting Gallery was themed and could be used with little alteration other than removing the guns. The Digital Photo Op area was changed into a "Checkerboard Hall" with open mirror frame gags along one wall. After moving the "fright camera," location three times, it was decided to retain the Photo Op, which was purchased from Flash Photo Marketing of Orlando.

Even in the worst of situations there are usually bright spots. From opening day, the costumes and make-up used by the Skull crew have been exquisite. Bill McCoy, a professional make-up artist and instructor for Joe Blasco Make-up Center, of Orlando, uses the latest in airbrush application techniques for the Kingdom. Actors spend from 10 to 20 minuets in the make-up chair for their shift. Another bright spot was Andrew Nicholls and the crew of the local, Orlando Special Effects. Not only did they provide the flame cannons, which shoot fire off the roof of the kingdom, and mist foggers for the moat, they have assisted a great deal in the renovation process and have been instrumental in repairing various props and effects in the attraction.

Thompson realized at this point that the ability of the actors was a crucial element of the attraction, and that this was something that he could not do himself. Thompson explained this change of approach as "Paying attention to your customers and listening to your acting crew!" Wolfe was soon promoted to Director of Operations and Show Manger, which gave him artistic control of the show production.

Eight days and $500,000 dollars later, the Skull crew was ready on June 20th to deliver the frights! Still not where they wanted to be, but with a huge step in the right direction, Skull Kingdom reopened, to better, but mixed reviews. Some of the problems were literally cast in concrete at this point, and fixing them would take some time! A second renovation was completed before the 1997 Halloween season under the promotional banner of "No more Mr. Nice guy." Although the Kingdom's first Halloween season was not as big as the management had hoped for, there was still more to be done! Still mixed reviews were followed by another renovation in December of 1997.

During and between renovations, all of the room designs have gone through various experiments to seek out the best frightful use of their space. The "Trampoline Hall," which had walls and floor made of spring tensioned canvas, became much more effective by placing actors behind the walls to push their hands and heads into the canvas in a 'living wall' effect. Adding a live actor popping out at random in the "Punching Bag Room" greatly added to its effectiveness. Ineffective rooms, like the "Freeze Room" where automated sound and lights were used to make patrons feel that they were in a gangsters crossfire, were replaced completely.

The "Ghost Mirror Hall" used a noisy Laundromat conveyer system to move ghost props behind a 2-way mirror was removed because it was a waste of space and a constant maintenance problem. This renovation was done for October of 1998, and actually lengthened the patron pathway, while leaving space for the "Crypt Room!"

It has been a long and ugly road, but after almost two years of renovations and changes, Skull Kingdom has turned the corner, and is getting the reactions that were originally envisioned. "People now say that the show is fantastic!" boasts the proud Thompson, "We still have a poor reputation to overcome, but it is getting much better!" The best part is that it was done as a full team effort, and the Skull crew is not through. "We are very proud of the show now," says Sanders, "It is a work in progress, it keeps evolving. The talent we have on staff is amazing, there is nothing we cannot do!"

Knowing where they started from and where they are now, there is little surprise that even more renovations are planned for the near future! The location is still a problem, and even the brochure reads, "Your journey begins as you try to find us. Across from Wet 'n Wild." Longevity is the key here, and as more people discover the 'frightening fun' of Skull Kingdom, more will come!

Fast Facts

$9.95

6-10 actors

14,000 square feet, 2 floors with 30' ceilings.

23 rooms

Groups of 8-10 people every 90 seconds

Original budget: 1.4 million dollars

Actual cost: 2.8 million dollars (1.4 million overrun)

$800,000 for the building façade alone.

Tours are available in Portuguese and Spanish, as well as English.

Leonard Pickel is the editor of Haunted Attraction Magazine of Myrtle Beach, SC, and can be reached at 843-626-2369 or via email at leonard@hauntedattraction.com