Complete History Of PP

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TeknoScorpion said:
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. T

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Well, actually there are several parks in the NC Mountains that have good attendance figures (Just not enough to break the top 50 list)

Tweetsie Railroad, Santa's Land, Ghost Town (Well, maybe not that one anymore). Tweetsie had nearly 500,000 visitors in 2003. *** Edited 8/30/2004 2:46:47 AM UTC by Dukeis#1***

"In 1968 Taft Broadcasting(which 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!). For years Coney Island had wanted to move from it's spot on the riverfront(It was located along the Ohio River.)"

- I am not so sure they "wanted" to move. Basically when Taft came on board, the park had reached an uprecidented attendance. The previous owners were very true to Coney's roots.

"The main reason for this was for the unpredictable floods every year."

- Well, that and mostly there was no space to expand. Fess Parker, of Davy Crockett TV fame was looking to build a western themed park very close by in Northern Kentucky. When Taft heard this, they decided to pursue re-building Coney to beat him to the punch. The Fess Parker project never took off once Taft began plans for a new park. Mr. Parker lost all his backers.

"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!)."

- Actually it was named by a little girl that won a Cincinnati Enquirer "Name the new park" contest. She simply took the "Kings" from King's Mills Ohio (where PKI sits) and combined it with the "Island" of the former Coney Island park. The road, Kings Island Drive, did not open until 1971, it was built for the new park.

"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.)."

- True, the park was originally concieved to be a big park themed only to the HB characters. But by the time it had opened, the HB theme had given way to simply a themed area that was originally supposed to be called "The Happy Kingdom of Hannah Barbera." It may have claimed to be the first regional park with a themed area... but it is not true. SFOT and Knotts had themed areas for years prior. Why even Holiday World in Indiana was known as "Santa Claus Land." and had themeing then.

"In 1975 Taft opened up it's second theme park King Dominion in Doswell, Virginia. It was mainly a clone of Kings Island. "

- But 1/3 smaller. Oh and actually the park opened in 1975, but the Lion Country Safari Monerail and part of their Hannah Barbera land opened in 1974.

"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. "

- I don't recall them announcing the name change until early 1993.

"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. "

- And now, of course, they are building the new park in Japan.

- Not sure all of the dates and things are exact, but you got the general idea. Good work!

Shaggy

*** Edited 9/1/2004 5:40:18 PM UTC by Shaggy***

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rollergator said:

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?

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Carowinds is the same.......most of the wonderful original theming removed and sloppy, non-timeless Paramount-type theming dominates the park now. Many good flat rides removed and park with a high quantity of mediocre coasters. Well come to think of it, all of the Paramount Parks except maybe Canada's Wonderland have suffered from this and Wonderland is still a park with a high quantity of mediocre coasters.

Most parks with more than three or four coasters have mostly mediocre (or worse) coasters including CP, Dorney, WOF, VF, MiAdv, Wild Adventures, most SF parks, etc. You didn't make any point whatsoever with that as the Paramount parks have several flats (way more than BGW) and great theming compared to SF (SFOG, SFMW, SFKK, SFA, SFDL) and CF (CP, GL) parks as well who are their direct competition. I doubt many people have to make a decision between PKI and the Magic Kingdom... Even if we are getting tons of out of state people from Texas to Missouri to New York visiting the park.

I'm sure many people felt the original Carowinds theming was outdated. If parks don't have to live in the past, I doubt they will. People grow and change and I'm sure they expect the park to grow and change with them and their families. Paramount is doing a great job setting themselves apart from the CF and SF parks and that's probably a huge reason PP overall is way up in attendance this season and the other two major regional players are down. It's hard to argue that they're not doing *something* right.

+Danny

So why did the Virginia park get the "Kings" name in it? Never quite understood that part.

Cause, Jeff, Paramount's Dominion would sound really retarded ;)

You miss my point... it was long before Paramount.

Maybe to tie it back to the days when the colonies were under England's control? When Kings Dominion opened some of the areas had themes relating to Virginia's history.

Or maybe just to show some sort of link to Kings Island.

"I'm sure many people felt the original Carowinds theming was outdated."

I'm sure many people felt it was fine the way it was as well. Paramount gutted the Caro right out of Carowinds, and took the park's unique charm and atmosphere right with it. Now the park is nothing more than a bunch of tacky colored buildings and concrete. And I almost forgot all the roller coasters...which are about the only rides at Carowinds these days since most of our flats and slower-paced attractions have been removed.

They should change the name to Parawinds.

PC did get a new kids area last year. However, the original one, Animation Station, is still rotting away. *** Edited 9/2/2004 12:21:50 AM UTC by Dukeis#1***

"So why did the Virginia park get the "Kings" name in it? Never quite understood that part."

Simply a reference to the already established park in Ohio. They were trying to garner a common moniker ala Six Flags, or Mariott.

Shaggy