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 In the spring of 1973, Bill Tracy and his company, Amusement Display Associates, Inc., embarked on the enormous task of building the stunts for a two-story dark ride at Bell’s Amusement Park in Tulsa, Oklahoma called “Phantasmagoria”. The attraction, which had a ride time of about five minutes, was incredibly popular at the park and included Tracy’s supersized Façade which was similar to that of his Whacky Shack attractions. At the time of its construction, it was one of the largest and longest dark rides in the country. Classic stunts such as the Skull Waterfall, Swamp Ghost, Giant Rat, Crooked Timber Corridor, and Buzzard could be seen there along with many psychedelic effects to make even the modest visitor leave the attraction feeling tripped out. For over thirty years, Phantasmagoria frightened patrons until November of 2006 when Bell’s Amusement Park closed. Over the following year, several pieces of the park were put into storage in hopes that they could be enjoyed at a future location and eventually the stunts from Phantasmagoria were sold or auctioned off to local businesses and collectors. |
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In the fall of 2011, I was contacted by a collector in Oklahoma who was eager to share the incredible news that he had several original stunts and props from Phantasmagoria in his possession. He was in the process of cleaning out some of his collection and was trying to find a fellow collector that might be interested in adopting the pieces. I happened to be one of the first people he contacted and I knew it was an incredible opportunity. The first thing that came to mind was incorporating them in to Trimper’s Haunted House. I felt they would make awesome additions and I knew that moving them to Ocean City would be the only way to truly protect them and allow dark ride lovers near and far to continue enjoying Tracy’s work. Incorporating the stunts would make Trimper’s Haunted House not only the largest Tracy ride on Earth, but it would include stunts from two other defunct Tracy rides- Ghost Ship and Phantasmagoria. It was a dream that would soon become a reality. After several weeks of planning and negotiating, an agreement was made between the collector and Trimper’s Rides and Amusements to purchase the stunts from Phantasmagoria and transport them to Ocean City, Maryland to be installed in Trimper’s Haunted House. Two months and 1400 miles later, the Phantasmagoria favorites arrived in Ocean City and the plan for incorporating the stunts in to Trimper’s Haunted House was about to take shape. |
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When the stunts arrived in Ocean City in early November, some were moved to Trimper’s Haunted House for storage while others were moved to one of the Trimper warehouses in West Ocean City. The installation took place at the beginning of February and took approximately three days to complete. After developing a plan for the locations of the stunts in the ride weeks prior, we began moving them from storage to the ride. While some of the pieces could be moved easily in to the ride, others had to be placed on a lift and elevated to the balcony where they were unloaded and carried in to place. The cabinets for the Skeleton and Buzzard were so large they required four men to lift. |
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| Due to the enormous sizes of the stunts, we were forced to choose locations on the second story as they simply wouldn’t fit through any of the smaller corridors or doorways on the first story. |
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