Anyone remember? Quarter animal shows - Opryland......

Here's a strange memory:

I was chatting with my mom and remembered something weird/funny about Opryland and perhaps Six Flags St. Louis (over MId America) as well. In the early to mid 80s there were these funny vending machine looking things and inside would be an animal...one had a chicken for sure, and we think one might have had a rabbit. You would put a quarter in and feed would be released that would cause the animal to do a "trick"

We vividly remember one would drop pieces of feed onto a toy piano. As the chicken pecked to eat the food it would "play" the piano as a result. It was pretty funny as we recall. My dad remembers one chicken somehow playing tic-tac-toe as well.

Does anyone else remember these crazy things? They would totally be considered abuse and shut down by ASPCA or PETA today, probably. Did they exist in other parks? Anyone actually have a picture of one? THe last one I think I saw was around '86 in Opryland.

Please tell me I'm not the only one to have seen these.... :) *** Edited 10/11/2006 10:35:48 PM UTC by Peabody***

I have seen those, but at malls there was one the operted inside of the Bay that was inplace untill the mid 90's if I recall properly it was of a parrot and it said a joke and sung a song, then out would come a gum ball.

No dude, read my post again.....I'm talking real, live animals! I remember the little animated parrot gumball machine as well. But, what I'm talking about was real chickens, and real rabbits, etc..... *** Edited 10/11/2006 11:15:48 PM UTC by Peabody***

While not in a park (though it is home to a former park), the Tropicana casino in Atlantic City around 3 - 4 years ago had a chicken tic tac toe game set up. You had to play against the chicken and could win money (it was free to play but you needed to have a casino club card to play). It wasn't a permanent thing and only lasted a few months,

I've seen one (or maybe it was two) as early as early 90's at a local Amish park-thingy.

There were a few machines that actually "shocked" a chicken on its feet, causing it to "dance." They started to disappear due to a ban on cruelty to animals or something like that. When I was a kid (Early 1970's) there was one at the Chinese Museum in New York. My day camp used to take us there.

Conneaut Lake Park used to have these vending 'animal shows' also. They probably had them up until the mid to late 80s. Originally, they were located at the park's Fairyland Forest walk-thru attraction across the highway from the park (where Camperland is now). When they closed Fairyland Forest, they brought the 'performing' animals over to the park and had them lined up along the side of the building that used to be where the Round-Up is now, across from the Colisseum. They were mostly chickens that would peck out a tune on a toy piano (actually eating the feed on the keyboard) or other such silly things. Nothing there would really hurt the animals, but, I'm guessing that groups like PETA and the ASPCA would frown on them today.

Amazing what people thought was entertaining at one time...

Edited for spelling. *** Edited 10/12/2006 12:35:03 AM UTC by Brother Dave***

I grew up here in Nashville and have many fond memories of the petting zoo and the "pay for play" animal attractions.

My personal fave was the duck that played tic-tac-toe against the player.

I rememer seeing these kind of machines at the Cherokee Indian Reservation in North Carolina.

Daning Chicken
Piano playing chicken
basketball playing duck
the Tic-Tac-Toe one - the animal went first so you could never win.

I was one of the ones who saw those and eagerly rounded up a roll of quarters.

last time I saw the things they were up to 50 cents a play.

"Educated Animals" or something like that was the name of the attraction

Great! Thanks for sharing guys!

A quick google search found this page:

http://www.mnmuseumofthems.org/Grotto/Rockome5.html

After seeing the duck it totally brings back a memory.....and seems really cruel!

I read in a description thatthe chicken danced because a minor electric shock was delivered to the floor! THe also mentional a fire-fighting rabbit.

Man wasthatstuff weird.

We had those in SFStL in the late 70's. They kept them in the ivy-covered tunnels. As I recall the enclosures were climate controlled and the animals did not appear to be in any distress. Our dancing chicken was not shocked, though. The floor was a rotating platter. The chicken didn't dance as much as run in place.

*** Edited 10/12/2006 1:16:06 PM UTC by Frantic Ferret***

I don't remember those but I do remember throwing the ping pong balls in the fish bowls at several carnivals.....just as cruel. :-/

-Tina

Yeah....its not the ping pongs that is "cruel".....it's that 98% of those fish died due to not having an appropriate aquarium.

I was 5th grade early 70s with my folks traveling to what I think was Florida f rye on Ohio pulling a camper. We stopped at what I think was supposedly largest campgrounds then, maybe in Goergia. Had amusement park n in it was like you mentioned about chickens. You paid some change n these animals did amazing things!

Memory lying in bed wondering about n thought I do a Google search n found this thread! Pretty cool. Thanks. Nice to know you shared a memory as crazy as this one...lol