Updates

The Bill Tracy Project is pleased to announce to the entire dark ride community that we have located Bill Tracy’s daughter and only child, Willow. After extensive research, numerous phone calls, persistence, patience, and a little luck, we finally located her on November 21, 2008. Willow is alive and well. At this time, out of respect to Willow and her wishes, no other information about her or her recollections of her father will be released to the public. If this were to ever change, any new information regarding her will be released exclusively on The Bill Tracy Project. We have been reluctant to release this information, but due to questions and curiosities raised by the dark ride community, including another well-known dark ride organization, we felt it was the appropriate time to do so.

Thanks to a generous contribution from Anthony, the mastermind behind the Mr. Boardwalk website, we would like to present a rare image that features the blueprint and stunt choices for West View Park’s Haunted House. The images clearly show some of Tracy’s most infamous stunts, including the Spider Skull Staircase, Attic Stairs, and Old Mill. Enjoy!

Join us in celebrating Dorney Park’s 125th anniversary while enjoying two images taken from Dorney’s brochure for the 1969 season! This is a fine example of how Bill Tracy’s work was showcased by a park in its brochures. The first photo, which appeared on the cover, is of The Coaster Clown. This was installed in 1962, and is the only park front that Tracy was known to have built. The second photo is an aerial view of The Coaster Clown. Journey to the Center of the Earth can also be seen in this photo.

Pirates Cove was one of Tracy’s most popular attractions during the “dark ride boom.” Many parks along the east cost commissioned Tracy and his company to build this attraction, which included an enormous pirate on the façade, floor obstacles, and nautical-styled stunts like drunken pirates, skull waterfalls, and killer sharks. Check out the original project proposal on our Documents page from Bill Tracy and his company, Amusement Display Associates, from the early 1970’s that outlines the attraction in full detail. This proposal includes a full price list for the completed attraction, totaling roughly $47,000.

Check out an original advertisement from 1965 featuring Tracy’s Ghost Ship attraction at Ocean Playland Park in Ocean City, Maryland. Although very few images of this attraction’s façade exist, this advertisement shows Tracy’s Ghost Ship on the left side of the image, and is recognizable by the large ship mast towering into the sky. Also, if you look closely, you can make out Tracy’s infamous Skull Crab on the façade.

Two additional catalogs have been added to the Bill Tracy Project. The first, an original book published by Tracy’s Outdoor Dimensional Display Company, is entitled “The Haunted House” and outlines the two-story dark ride package in full. This catalog is from 1963, and influenced the construction of Trimper’s Haunted House in Ocean City, Maryland, which was erected in 1964.

The second catalog was published for the 1970 season by Tracy’s company, Amusement Display Associates, and outlines the multi-level dark ride packages that he built toward the later part of his career. Both books are extremely rare and include images of stunts and facades not seen in his more common catalogs.

Check out an article about the new walk-thru at Hunt’s Pier that appeared in the July 7, 1962 issue of Amusement Business. Featured in this article is a photo of Bill Tracy, Bud Hunt, and Guy Hunt looking over Bill’s famous stretch rack. This is a new photo of Bill Tracy that we have not seen before and are excited to release it on The Bill Tracy Project!

Enjoy viewing an original full-page advertisement from Tracy’s Outdoor Dimensional Display Co., Inc. regarding the Amuse-Pak, the sound system that was used by the company in conjunction with many of its stunts that included sound effects. Although Tracy used an external company to supply the player, he used it with such stunts as the Old Mill, Last Drop, and Knit Wit.

Check out the newest Tracy catalog to be added to the Project!
“Plan a winning move NOW for ’64” was released in 1963 under Outdoor Dimensional Display Co., Inc., and showcased several of Tracy’s biggest sellers, including Whacky Shack (which includes a sketch that clearly resembles that of Hunt’s Pier), Lost River, Tales of Alice, Gold Nugget and others. You’ll be able to browse through dozens of stunt photos and descriptions that were never included in Tracy’s original We WORK in the DARK catalog or the Amusement Displays catalog. It is interesting to see just how many odd-ball stunts Tracy came up with during his day, most of which were not very widely known or seen. Enjoy!

Now permanent features of the Bill Tracy Project are original client correspondence between Tracy and Granville Trimper of Trimper’s Amusements in 1964 regarding the construction of The Haunted House, an original façade drawing of Trimper’s Haunted House from 1964, and a never-before-seen 1968 promotional brochure from Amusement Display Associates, Inc. Many new Bill Tracy brochures and catalogs will be released in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!

Folks, slip on over to Trimper’s Haunted House Online over the next few days to check out never-before-seen original Bill Tracy documents, such as ride proposals, correspondence, and blueprints. Eventually, all of this information will be on both sites, but time is currently working against us. Enjoy!

We are proud to release the original proposals from Bill Tracy for ‘The Haunted House‘, which was a one-story packaged dark ride that was erected at Trimpers Amusements in 1964. Tracy submitted several proposals to Granville Trimper over the course of agreements before deciding on a one-story dark ride package. Initially, Tracy attempted to convince Granville Trimper to build a two-story dark ride, hence, he sent a two-story proposal during late February of 1964. Granville was not keen on the two-story ride and outside forces would have prevented the two-story ride from being completed by the start of the season. As a result, Tracy sent a revised proposal outlining a one-story attraction two weeks later, which inevitably was built during Spring of 1964.

Enjoy viewing newly-released original photographs of Bill Tracy’s sister, Laurabelle Tracy. She was born on May 15, 1915 in Toledo, Ohio and died on March 25, 2006 in Florence, Oregon.

I suppose that without the birth of an artist, the brilliant works of he or she will never be produced, and therefore, never be seen. That is why we are happy to release Bill Tracy’s official Certificate of Birth.

Just found!!! Here is a photo of Dorney Park’s long lost Gold Mine. We now have photos of all six Bill Tracy attractions located at Dorney Park. Was this the smallest facade that Bill Tracy created? If anyone knows of a smaller one, please let us know!

In Bill Tracy’s early years, he was interested in sculpting with clay. He took much pride in this hobby, and made it a large part of his life. Perhaps sculpting helped Tracy master the artistry needed to create the lifelike facial expressions as seen in his dark ride stunts during the latter part of his life.

Surprise! Take a gander at Bill Tracy’s official obituaries as published in the Atlantic City Press and Cape May County Gazette. These files can be found in the Bill Tracy Documents section. Enjoy!

Bill Tracy died of complications associated with heart disease. Funeral arrangements were made by the John C. Sudak Funeral Home of Cape May. No funeral service or viewing was held, as Bill Tracy was cremated. His family requested that expressions of sympathy be donated to the Lower Township Rescue Squad in his memory.

Bill Tracy died in Burdette Tomlin Memorial Hospital, which is located in Cape May Court House, NJ.

Bill Tracy died on August 22, 1974. He was 58 years old at the time of his passing.