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The Birth of Haunted Attraction MagazineBy Leonard Pickel
Haunted Attraction Magazine was created - not by conscious plan so much - as by a series of occurrences that just fell into place. Early in my haunting career, I went to a business seminar in which the speaker said, “All that you have to do to be an expert is to write a book on the subject.” So I wrote and started selling the series of Pickel Theory Books. To find someone to sell the books to, I started building a database of haunters across the country to which I did direct mailings. In 1990, Mark Cline of Enchanted Castle Studios told me that he got most of his business from a single page newsletter that he produced and mailed to past and potential clients. Originally, I envisioned a newsletter being produced by my haunted house manufacturing company (Elm Street Hauntrepreneurs®), but never had the time to put the articles together.
Then in 1992 The Wall Street Journal wrote an article on the emerging haunted industry. The article spoke about haunters Drew Hunter, Joe Jensen, David Bertolino and myself. I knew Drew, but had never met Joe or David. After the article came out, we had to meet each other, and soon were talking on the phone. I found out that David and Joe were going to be at the Transworld Convention in Chicago and we arranged to meet there. On the first day of the show Bertolino was inundated by haunters who came by the Rubie's Costumes booth to meet him. Then he invited all of us to a meeting in his hotel room. That night in David's room, 20 or so haunters gathered to tell fire marshal horror stories and discuss common problems. During the meeting, David piped up and said, “You know what we need, we need an association!” At the time, I remember thinking, “that will never work,” but I suggested that one way to start the discussion of such a thing would be through a newsletter. I offered the use of my database, and told everyone that if they would send me articles for the newsletter, that I would put it together. Unfortunately, the only person to reply with an article was Cydney Neil of the Rocky Point Haunted Houses in Salt Lake City, Utah.
So the newsletter idea was dropped again until 1994 when I met Oliver Holler of The Haunt Factory in Asheville, North Carolina. Oliver had just purchased a new computer and was looking for a project to use it on. He offered to put in the time that I just did not have to start the newsletter. Without his hard work, Haunted Attraction Magazine would never have gotten out of the planning stages. With $500.00 of start up capital between us, 5,000 copies of issue #1 were printed and mailed to my database with please subscribe cards enclosed. We were not sure if anyone would subscribe, but many of you did! I can still remember the “lick and stick” parties we used to have. Four times a year, Oliver and his wife Terry, my wife Jeanne and I, would sit around talking and laughing, licking stamps and sticking labels onto the newsletters. Oliver handled all of the graphics and layout for the publication, as well as the accounting through issue number 8 and then sold his interests in the magazine in 1998.
Today, Haunted Attraction Magazine has grown from that 8-page newsletter to a full blown magazine, with full color cover and inserts. Its readership is made up of over 5,000 professional and amateur haunters from across the country, Canada and abroad, at all levels of experience. Subscribers range for Home Haunters to the CEO’s of major Amusement Parks, all striving for the insight and in-depth reporting that Haunted Attraction Magazine provides! We strive to make each issue better than the last, competing with ourselves to bring you, our readers, the best publication that we can.
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Order this Special Issue:
Buyers Guide
Issue 26
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