Complete History Of PP

I think I have the complete history of Paramount Parks! Can some of you help me? Thank You for any help!

In 1968 Taft Broadcasting(witich owned Hanna-Barbera Productions) purchased a small theme park in Cincinnati, OH called Coney Island(NO, not the one in NYC, but the one in Ohio!). And for years COney Island had wanted to move from it's spot on the riverfront(It was located along the Ohio River.). The main reason for this was for the unpredictable floods every year. So Taft purchased some 1,600 acres of land outside of Cincinnati for $2,000 per acre. In 1972 Coney Island was closed down, and Kings Island was opened(It was named after the road it was built along!). Ones it's first major features was Hanna-Barbera Land(Witich used Hanna-Barbera Characters in it.), witich was the first Kids themed area in any regional theme park(A "Regional Theme Park" is a park that is mainly know by the people live near it.). In 1975 Taft opened up it's second theme park King Dominion in Doswell, Virginia. It was mainly a clone of Kings Island. It 1976 Taft purchased Carowinds(A small theme park build in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1973 themed to the Carolinas.). In 1980 Taft opened up Canada's Wonderland(Taft/KECO/Paramount only owns about 20% of the park the rest is owned by a group of Investors.) in Toronto, Canada. In 1983 Taft sold the parks off to a group of investors lead by senior heads of Taft. The new company was called KECO(Witich standed for Kings Entertainment Company). Taft keep Hanna-Barbera, but they worked out a liscencing(Spelling?) agreement witch aslong as the parks are open the parks can't drop the Hanna-Barbera liscense. In 1985 KECO opened up Australia's Wonderland. In 1989 Taft sold Hanna-Barbera to Turner Broadcasting. In 1986 the city of Santa Clara in California purchased Marriott's Great America(A park built by the Marriott hotel company in Santa Clara in 1976 to celebrate America's 200th Birthday.). KECO was hired to manage the park with a five year contract in witich it would have the option to buy the park. In 1990 Taft went under, most of it's assets are what is know Clear Channel Communications. In 1991 KECO purchased Great America. In 1992 KECO went under too. All of it's North American parks where sold to Paramount Communications. In November 1992 Paramount anouced it would be renaming the parks. All would Have the Paramount name added. Australia's Wonderland was keep out of the sale, Paramount didn't want it. It was sold to a group of Australia investors(The Hanna-Barbera liscense didn't apple to this park due to it being build AFTER the Taft Sale.). Then to SUNWAY witich in April 2004 closed the park down after losing money on it's investment.
In 1993 Paramount Parks was Paramount's biggest divison by way of Profit. In 1994 VIACOM anounced it was going to make the biggest merger up-to-that-time by purchasing Paramount Communications. Paramount also manages a small theme park in Gilroy, CA named Bofante Gardens and a theme park in Spain called Terra Mitica.Today Paramount Parks are considered by many to the best theme parks in the world.

Ok... Normally I'm not one to ***** about this but that is completely unreadable due to lack of paragraphs, correct punctuation, and horrible spelling. Edit that thing, and then maybe you will get some constructive responses.

RCC, I'm with you on this one...

This needs crazy editing.

I have to say this is one of the most intriguing thread titles I've seen in a while...

Chris (who can't believe that he decided to make this his first post after being silent for so long) *** Edited 8/29/2004 1:31:15 AM UTC by MooreOn***

Well, you wanted some help so… here it goes:

First off, lets try typing out "Paramount Parks", especially in the title. Someone (a.k.a. me) might click the thread expecting to find information on the process of urine formation. What with the glomerular excretion and such.

Secondly, it's spelt "which" not "witch" or "witich".

Thirdly, lets try and divide this block of text into paragraphs. You'll need one for each distinct thought or topic.

Finally, while I'm not sure where you got your information, or how credible it is, but if you fix up a couple of the grammatical problems you will actually have a very interesting post!!

"In November 1992 Paramount anouced it would be renaming the parks."

If I recall, Paramount didn't purchase KECO until July of 1992, and then the parks were not branded "Paramount's" until the 1993 season.

I have a 1992 Carowinds brochure and there is no mention of Paramount anywhere in it.

If you want to get technical about it, it's "spelled" not "spelt". ;)

I agree, the whole post was unreadable, mostly because there's no chance to give your eyes a break. I was also misled by the title, expecting a complete history of PPP (a much more common abreviation around here).

Spelt is a past tense and a past participle of spell. Look it up. ;)

Actually, if you want to get technical, it *is* spelt. "Spelled" is simply a grammatical mistake that is slowly becoming increasingly more common and excepted. Just like pronouncing the "t" in "often".

Holy unreasonably large paragraph, Batman! ;)

My bad, you are correct. I've worked with real English my whole life, not the British stuff.:)

I think I missed the joke... The real English is the British stuff. Its us americans that can't talk left. ;)

Language evolves, time moves on.

If not, we'd all still be grunting and gesturing at each other...

...well, some of us still do ;)

A little rough to read but it was intriguing nonetheless. :-)

Thanks for the info, Kent.

-Tina

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Dukeis#1 said:
"In November 1992 Paramount anouced it would be renaming the parks."

If I recall, Paramount didn't purchase KECO until July of 1992, and then the parks were not branded "Paramount's" until the 1993 season.

I have a 1992 Carowinds brochure and there is no mention of Paramount anywhere in it.

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Yeah, if they did not anounce that the parks would be rebranded until November then it is likely that the name would not appear until the next year.

Since we're discussing Paramount anyway, (and I do love the chain)...Someone PLEASE explain to me why it is that of the two Marriott *Great America* parks that were sold off, the one that went to SF has skyrocketed, taken off, and become one of the five best parks in the country. Meanwhile, the park that went to Paramount...

I love PKI, PKD, PCar...great staff, nice atmosphere, theming ('cept for Wayne's Worlds..;)), but I just don't get why the NorCal park has been "thrown to the wolves". If PGA had been handled the way SFGAm had been, then SFMW never would have had a chance to get off the ground, right?

I have only been to PGA the one time, but virtually all the input from locals suggest that my impression was NOT an "isolated incident"....Paramount otherwise has been fantastic in my experience, and then this one park stands out like a sore thumb...why? Any guesses?

OK! I'm not even going to try and read that. As you can see from everyone else it needs some work. Try again later and I may atempt to read it. I love Kings Island and all its sister parks, but that is a little too much. I did notice some periods and other punctuation, but it is all crammed into one large paragraph. It has an interesting theme, so try again so I can enjoy it in the future.

Bill...I agree 100%. Both Marriot parks were great, and SF Great America is the best SF park by far. However, something has gone wrong, IMO, with PGA. I love paramount parks, but the NoCal park is just kinda sad. I'll take marine world over it anyday.

People from NoCal seem to be taking PGA instead of SFMW according to attendance figures. We all know it's not for the coasters-wood *nor* steel...

+Danny, sure that Top Gun is fantastic

But ya know what, Bill? PCar was, in my opinion, in the same boat as PGA is now a few years ago. Sure, the park had decent attendance figures, but its the only regional theme park from Virginia to Georgia, and Tenn. to the coast, so thats atleast part of the reason. They've concentrated to turn PCar, IMHO, into a park that (atleast with themeing and getting new stuff) is just about on par with PKI and PKD. The only real problem I see with PCar is that they don't have as many "break-thru" coasters. But they have good wood, and my favorite invert so far, so that counts for alot. Oh, and that (so far) hugely popular with the GP star trek ride they got this year.

I hope PGA won't be the "red headed stepchild" of the chain for long. And if it does turn around, I hope they keep all parks in the same boat.