After additional research by The Bill Tracy Project, it is now known that the Lumalusion at Fair Park in Dallas, Texas was not built by Bill Tracy.
Lumalusion has been removed from the list of surviving attractions and moved to the influences section of our website. We apologize for any confusion or misdirection this may have caused. The story of Lumalusion is actually quite an interesting one.
Charles Noland of Amusements, Inc., located in Dallas, took some time in December of 1978 to travel to a few relatively nearby amusement parks to find some inspiration. During his trip he visited Whacky Shack at Joyland Amusement Park in Wichita, Kansas, Phantasmagoria at Bell’s Amusement Park in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Fantastic Journey at Wonderland Park in Amarillo, Texas. At each park he took photos and documented these dark rides so that he could replicate some of his favorite features including Bill Tracy’s famous Whacky Shack facade. Construction started on Lumalusion, a name meaning light illusion, in January of 1979.
Everything was built in-house except for the 16 dark ride fiberglass car bodies, which he made from a Hush-Puppy car body mold that he acquired. Even the building itself was designed and built in-house. The building’s footprint was smaller than a typical Tracy 2-story dark ride. Tracy’s buildings were approximately 70′ x 80′, where Lumalusion was 55′ x 60′ and included restrooms and shower facilities for the park employees. The smaller building created the need for the ramps to be steeper than in Tracy’s 2-story dark rides. This created an interesting challenge as the typical Hush-Puppy car’s motors were not strong enough to negotiate these steeper inclines. A custom built chassis had to be constructed with a more powerful motor for the drive system of the ride car. Specially built safeties were also installed that shut all of the cars down if any two of them got too close together.
The interior was filled with optical and light based illusions. The facade was built completely on a level section of ground. Once finished, a crane lifted it into place on the completed building. After working almost 100 hours per week from January through June of 1979, Lumalusion officially opened on July 4, 1979. The ride has been a favorite at the State Fair of Texas and has remained almost completely unchanged since it opened more than 30 years ago. Lumalusion is a familiar “face”, but is also a unique, durable, and well-built ride in its own right that deserves its own place in dark ride history. This ride is a lasting tribute to the influence that Bill Tracy had on the dark ride industry and is expected to entertain guests at Fair Park for years to come.
A special thanks goes to Charles Noland of Amusements, Inc. for taking the time to share this incredible information with us!
The Bill Tracy Project 