A month ago, we looked in detail at Viking Voyager. Voyager wasn't the only place to set sail for the high seas; in Scandinavia. Originally, the area was home to Victrix, a full-size 110-foot-tall, 3-masted schooner (pirate ship) about where Sea Dragon is today. It was removed after 1992. However, Victrix wasn't alone. The area was also home to a collection of 8-foot miniature boats, also bought from the MGM Backlot auction in 1970, but from a far more legendary movie, the 1959 MGM spectacular "Ben Hur" starring Charlton Heston. If you don't know who that is... shame on you, go Google it, I'll wait.
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| Scene from Ben Hur, the Roman galley ship, from the "Making of Ben Hur" |
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| And the Macedonian ship also from the "Making of Ben Hur" |
I can only barely remember these boats, with the one in front of Finnish Fling being the most memorable, but there were several around Victrix, too. They would "vanish" around the same time as Victrix, 1991-1992. Over the past 30-odd years, I've pieced together the history of these small ships, identifying all the 8-foot ships throughout the park, finding out where they came from, how they were renovated, and quite possibly their story AFTER they left the park.
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| Roman and Macedonian ships in front of Victrix, photo by Gregg Barr. |
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| Macedonian ship in front of Finnish Fling, photo by Gregg Barr. These are the exact same ships from the Ben Hur shots above. |
Our story starts on May 3, 1970, when the MGM backlot auction began. Lamar Hunt would purchase dozens of different movie props for use throughout the park, wagons, buggies, carts, and, yes, of course, Cotton Blossom and Victrix too.
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Roman Galley Ship by William Hooping. This was shot before Worlds of Fun opened, but after the boats were acquired from MGM. William Hoobing restored many of them. Notice the shields on the boat.
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| The Macedonian ship, also by William Hoobing. |
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| shields from the Roman galley ship that were sent to us by Williams Hoobing. |
Several years ago, I was contacted by a William Hoobing, who was a neighbor of Jack Steadman, President of Mid America Enterprises, who built Worlds of Fun. He told an intriguing story that many of the smaller boats once purchased at the MGM backlot auction had been dropped off in his driveway for refurbishment before being placed in the park. One could only imagine these 8-foot boats sitting in a residential driveway... well, imagine no more, as his son recently sent me several photos of the said boats in the said driveway.
From a driveway to Worlds of Fun, and there they would stay for nearly 20 years. I was surprised this last weekend when I asked Jeff's sister, who worked at the park back in the 1980s, if she remembered the smaller boats... she didn't recall them. I don't think she is alone. Honestly, that makes two points. One being that it was super impressive that Lamar Hunt invested into the detail of the park that many wouldn't even recall... and two, that it's no surprise they were removed, as many people don't remember them. Funny enough, though I am far younger, I actually remember the boat in front of Finnish Fling, even though I can't actually recall Victrix! It's odd how memory works sometimes.
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| Screenshot from AP news clip on the opening of Planet Hollywood Australia in 1996. Note the Macedonian ship in the background. |
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| And compare. Though there were multiple model ships built, the one above is identical to the one at Worlds of Fun (though the above condition if far more poor). |
At this point, we leave the world of fact and enter the world of maybe. While I can't exactly pinpoint the year the smaller boats were removed, I know they were gone by 1993. Our next chapter has to do with Planet Hollywood, a nearly forgotten restaurant chain similar to Hard Rock Cafes but dedicated to movie props instead. Jeff recalled reading an article in an airline magazine around the early 2000s about how Planet Hollywood had recovered a Ben Hur model boat in a Nebraska field... abandoned. Several years ago, I even found a photo from the opening of a Planet Hollywood in 1996 with a boat... that suspiciously looked very similar to the Macedonian galley boat that was in front of Finnish Fling. I was so intrigued that I even reached out to the Planet Hollywood curator at the time, located conveniently in Orlando, FL. I even provided photos of the boats at Worlds of Fun. I didn't receive an immediate response, and when I did receive a response, it was to tell me that they couldn't divulge details of their collection. That response, along with the matching details I had found over the years, makes me think there is a very good chance Planet Hollywood today has one of the boats that was located at Worlds of Fun. Will we ever know? Maybe. But sometimes it's the unanswered questions that both annoy and intrigue, and allow the opportunities for the stories to come out of the darkness of the past. After all... if I hadn't originally asked, maybe I would have never found out about the ships in the driveway?
