kings Island steel

[Purplehaze]

I still have quite a bit of the set from "retro repeat the beat" show in the International showplace of 1996. In February of 1997 we demolished that set with ice and snow everywhere. they were throwing it away so I asked if I could have a truck load of it for my neighbor who makes stuff out of steel.(( yes I had permission from Phil Cosker, I think he is in a different dept. now, he started back in the 80's when I did however he worked at potato Works in Rivertown))...

He brought his pick up in and we loaded him up. I still have pretty much of the black frame work that was part of the set. never really thought much about it but now I have it , its pretty cool...lol.. Thats when Danny Cravin was head of the crafts dept. Part of that set was used in 95 and 96 they just re-skinned the backdrops.

I am not sure how they work the techs in entertainment these days but it was our job then in Late January & February to break down and set up the current years sets and props. They came in on 18 wheelers.

the entertainment dept also changed out light bulbs in FOF. Wow that was spooky in the middle of the night those little aliens seemed real..lmao....

During the set up of Fear Fest it was also our job to do all the decorating. We made thousands of black and purple bows(each one by hand). Black banners to hang from the building windows. I drove one of the huge cherry pickers we would rent so we could reach top of the buildings on International Street to hang the banners and bows.

We spent two days out at a farmers corn field by my house cutting corn stalks with machettes. Truck load after truck load we brought them in. As we brought them in the fire dept would spray them with some chemicals to make them flame resistant. The craft dept and Amy Griffin(Head of the Wardrobe dept.) would go to local thrift shops and buy tons of blue jeans and flannel shirts and we made the scarecrows.

I remember driving the big cherry pickers thru the park at 2:00am back by Vortex. No we didnt decorate back there but it was fun to drive those rigs through the park as fast as they would go, and believe me they moved on. Then once I went by myself and it was very spooky that time of night made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. last year visiting tthe park it looks like a lot of the stuff was bought pre-made.

I still see a little bit of the work I did in the park back in the 90's that I am sure gets over looked each year, for example at International Showplace in the wings there are peach colored screens we built on either side of the stage where the doors used to be. If you look up on the street lights on International Street you will see some wire still there we used to tie the bows up on back in 97. Most of its gone but last summer there was still a few on them here and there.

I really miss those days!!!!!!!!