Author: Brandon Seidl

Check out some throwback pics of original stunts from Bill Tracy’s Phantasmagoria dark ride at Bell’s Amusement Park in Tulsa, OK, very shortly before they were loaded on to a tractor trailer and shipped across the country to Ocean City, MD, to be incorporated in to Trimper’s Haunted House in 2012. Tracy’s Phantasmagoria opened in 1973 and closed in 2006, but these vintage Tracy pieces can still be seen today, in one form or another, in Trimper’s Haunted House which is celebrating its 60th birthday this year. More on these pieces and their installation later.

Check out a pre-season photo from Tracy’s Pirate’s Cove at Waldameer Park in Erie, PA courtesy of 16-year curator Randy Skalos who oversees both Pirate’s Cove and Whacky Shack at Waldameer. This particular photo was taken atop Pirate’s Cove on the catwalk!

A throwback to my visit to Isaly’s Ice Cream and Deli Shoppe in West View, PA, circa 2009. Back then, it featured a bovine skeleton prop from Bill Tracy’s Boot Hill at West View Park which opened in 1964 and closed in 1977. By far, one of the most memorable breakfast outings I’ve ever had!

Happy Easter! Check out a vintage newspaper article with photos from Erie Times-News featuring Waldameer’s Pirates Cove circa May 1972. 52 years and counting!

The “Damsel in Distress” was one of Tracy’s signature go-tos back in the day. Check out his Old Mill stunt, shown here fully restored circa 2016 at Trimper’s Haunted House in Ocean City, MD. Always a crowd pleaser. This particular stunt was also featured at several other attractions of the time period, including Haunted House at West View Park in Pittsburgh, PA.

Tracy used his signature Torture Chamber stunt in attractions as early as 1963 and it was very popular thereafter, and still is today. With an average footprint of 16’ long and 8’ deep, it generally included prefabricated dimensional background panels in 4’ sections along with three to four figures animated with continuous duty motors and a few flood lights for a spooky glow. Check out some photos of Tracy’s Torture Chamber after it was freshly overhauled 10 years ago in winter 2014 at Trimper’s Amusements in Ocean City, MD. It’s so cool to see these pieces of amusement and dark ride history being so well taken care of through the years!

Check out a neat Tracy ad circa 1967 under the auspices of his company at the time, Amusement Display Associates, Inc., out of Wildwood, NJ. By this time, Mr. Tracy had many remarkable projects under his belt and was well known as an industry leader!

The Amuse-Pak analog repeater was basically an industry standard for funhouses and dark rides before the digital age to provide sound effects for both amusements and stunts alike. It was small, compact, and had an internal amp with a speaker built in, but also had outputs to power additional speakers if necessary. While Tracy didn’t manufacture the device specifically, he was a distributor under the auspices of his company, Outdoor Dimensional Display Co., Inc., and used it in many of his projects through the late 60’s. Cartridges with stock sounds could be purchased for a fee, but custom sounds were also available to be triggered by the typical magnetic track switch or floor mat. It’s so interesting to ponder just how far this technology has advanced over the past 60 years!

Happy Friday! Check out a few photos of Trimper’s Tracy-built Pirates Cove attraction in Ocean City, MD while still under construction during the cold winter months of 1971 to 1972. Fresh paint on the façade and the “porch,” as Tracy called it, still under construction with floor obstacles yet to be installed. Granville Trimper commissioned Bill Tracy to install the attraction only 7 years after Trimper’s Haunted House was constructed on the boardwalk.

With a massive 45’ front, the Cove has always offered a fantastic first impression to passersby. Tracy’s pirate figure on top, which was originally shipped to Ocean City in two pieces, was constructed with metal and wire, then covered with fiberglass and celastic. With 18 primary stunts, obstacles, and effects, Trimper’s Cove remains one of the most complete Tracy attractions left in existence. Cool to note is that Tracy would go on to build a sister Cove attraction at Waldameer Park in Erie, PA within 12 months of the Trimper Cove project completion. Both walk-thru attractions remain in operation to this day and are the only attractions of their kind left in the world.

Enjoy a 58-year-old memory with a family snapshot in front of Granville Trimper’s Haunted House in Ocean City, MD from 1966, only two years after the attraction was built by Mr. Tracy. Let the good times roll, especially in retrospect!

Unique Design, Inc. was founded in 1969 by Edward D. Hilbert and was based in Baltimore, Maryland. The company specialized in producing decorative scenery and stunts for the amusement park industry, most notably dark rides and themed attractions. Learn more and view complete catalog gallery

Tracy’s Mad Scientist stunt (aka Mad Doctor or sometimes Bartender through the years) was a staple in his attractions through the 60s. The stunt often featured a haggard figure that swayed front to back electronically with various iterations of painted scientific scenery surrounding him. In a few installations, the figure would sway over a glowing pot of brew with bubbles and foam, but for the majority, he’d simply animate while holding a skull with scientific instruments nearby. Most installation dimensions varied but were commonly at least 10’ long, 7’ tall, and 4’ deep. Some installations with smaller footprints featured dimensions as small as 3’ X 3’ X 4’. Flood lights often set the mood to make the figure, props, and backdrop glow. Many popular attractions featured Tracy’s Mad Scientist, such as The Haunted House at West View Park in PA, Ghost Ship at Ocean Playland in MD and later The Haunted House at Trimper’s Amusements in MD, Whacky Shack at Hunt’s Pier in NJ, and Castle of Terror at Rocky Point Park in RI. Very few remnants of this stunt exist today, save for those in private collections or in storage. As many Tracy fans will attest, the Mad Scientist will always be regarded as one of Tracy’s greatest hits during the early part of his dark ride career.

Granville Trimper’s Haunted House, built in 1964 by Bill Tracy on Ocean City, Maryland’s famous boardwalk, officially turned 60 years old this calendar year. This milestone makes Trimper’s Haunted House the oldest continuously operating Tracy dark ride in the world, according to our research. Stay tuned for future updates throughout the year regarding this important anniversary as Trimper’s Haunted House marks an indelible record in both local Maryland and amusement industry history.

Check out my article from when Trimper’s Haunted House turned 50 here.

Tracy and his team fabricated many large elephant stunts back in the day, most of which were used in his Jungle Land and Lost River rides and often towered over ten feet. While some “Jumbos,” as Tracy called them, were used for interior décor, most were built for outdoor and wet conditions as they were made with Celastic, a lightweight, unbreakable, and weatherproof fabric that he utilized previously to build his props while working at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Check out a photo of his secretary, Cornelia Couch, checking out one of his creations circa 1962, and a few other relics.

A multi-year Tracy curiosity was solved after a conversation I had with a gentleman named Manfred Bass over a decade ago. Manfred was chief designer and senior director of Macy’s Parades from 1963 through 2000, but he was also one of Tracy’s lead artists, sculptors, and illustrators in the early 60s. In fact, he was the brains behind many stunts at Trimper’s Haunted House in Ocean City, MD and Haunted House at Westview Park, Pittsburgh, PA.

During our conversation, Mr. Bass was able to confirm that the man and woman pictured in the Peek-A-Boo stunt in Tracy’s 1962 “We WORK in the DARK” catalog are Robert Davidoski, a gifted builder and painter who worked for Tracy in the early to mid 1960s, and Tracy’s secretary, Cornelia Couch. Bill Tracy was very close with Cornelia as she handled his finances and often gave him opinions and consultation regarding different aspects of the business. Mr. Davidoski passed away in April of 2023, and I believe Ms. Couch passed away in 2005. Sadly, Mr. Bass passed away in October of 2017, but his mark on Tracy’s work will never be forgotten.

While The Bill Tracy Project continues to focus on the namesake, it’s always been an eventual mission to make it all-encompassing and include other dark ride leaders, companies, and attractions throughout the years. After all, it’s all worth celebrating, and its all interwoven!

I recently had the opportunity to upload some catalogs from my personal collection for Funni-Frite Industries, a company that existed parallel to Tracy’s during the 60s and 70s, and beyond, opening in 1963 and closing its doors in 2000. FF specialized in manufacturing dark ride and fun house stunts, facades, and even full-sized attractions, and their work has been featured in such attractions as Haunted Hotel at Guntown Mountain in Cave City, Kentucky, and Haunted Mansion at Knoebels Amusement Resort in Elysburg, PA.

Check out the galleries!

Check out the floor plan, drawn by Tracy himself, of Pirates Cove walk-thru at Waldameer Park circa November 1971. I can say from personal experience that it’s an amazing dark funhouse to explore if you’re ever in the area!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone! Here’s a newly-discovered little present for you!

Turns out Million Dollar Pier in Atlantic City, NJ, had a Bill Tracy Pirates Cove as of the early 1970s, the photo featured being circa 1978 (Cove on the right side). At this point, logic says Tracy came back to convert his former Orient Express ride, which he installed in 1962, to the Cove in the early 1970s during the same timeframe when he was completing other Cove attractions at places like Trimper’s Rides and Waldameer Park. This is all new information for us, as no previous Tracy catalogs or documentation has mentioned this attraction. Still lots of mystery surrounding this find, so stay tuned for updates. Special thanks to George LaCross over at laffinthedark.com for the heads up and some background. Photo courtesy of the John Margolies collection, Library of Congress. Have a great holiday!

Check out the original track plan and layout for Tracy’s proposed two-story Haunted House ride for Pearl and Granville Trimper in Ocean City, Maryland, circa 1964. Granville would eventually decide to build a one-story ride, but this layout was a preliminary proposal from Tracy. Some elements from this layout are similar to the ride’s original design, specifically the location of the Rotating Barrel and Upside-down Room.

Although simple and rudimentary, Tracy’s layout drawings proved to be successful in “selling” his products, and provided a scaled depiction to his clients complete with cutouts of stunts from his catalog. These particular drawings were completed by a talented Tracy employee with the last name of Beyer on February 24, 1964. If I find any additional information about that artist, I will update you all here.

First Floor

Second Floor