August 4th 1971-2021: It's a Worlds of Fun!

 August 4th, doesn’t at first strike anyone as a date of any historic importance. Especially in Kansas City where it’s so hot you can literally fry an egg on the pavement (thank Willis Carrier for his invention of air conditioning).

But for Worlds of Fun fans August 4 should be a day to remember.  

Concept Art by local artist, the late Byron Gash that was released as part of the August 4th 1971 announcement.  Gash would go on to create numerous concept art for various Worlds of Fun attractions (including Orient Express, Fury of the Nile and Barnstormer) as well as the 1973 souvenir map. 

It was this day, 50 years ago, that Lamar Hunt, Chairman of Mid-America Enterprises announced a park that would be named “Worlds of Fun”. It was the first time any member of the public had heard the description of the park that would include seperate American, European, Scandinavian, African and Oriental themed sections.

Readers may ask “but wasn’t the park really announced in 1969?” The answer is yes and no. In January 1969 Lamar Hunt did announce a small theme park to be adjacent to Truman Sports Complex in partnership with Royals-owner Ewing Kauffman. Later in June 1969, Lamar Hunt announced that plans had changed to a 418-acre tract next to the incomplete I-435 and that he would be going forward with the project alone.  

Then radio silence. There was no name for this planned park, there was no design, no concept art. For anyone knew it could have been a lark of an idea, one that would never actually happen. How many times have we heard that in Kansas City before? 

A look at a portion of the Byron Gash concept art that turned out actually fairly similar.  Cotton Blossom, Octopus, Viking Voyager and Henrietta can all be seen in this artwork.  Of course, in the end guests would cross Henrietta not actually walk through it!

And so the whole year of 1970 went without any public news about the park. Lamar Hunt later attributed the pause in publicity to unstable financial markets of the 1969-1970 recession.  Lamar Hunt and Jack Steadman quietly moved forward with their plans as they attended the M.G.M. back lot auction in May 1970. During this historic auction Hunt acquired Cotton Blossom, Victrix and a number of other studio props to be used in the park.

Radio silence ended on August 4, 1971, when Mid-America Enterprises gathered over 200 local dignitaries and leaders at Commerce Tower to unveil plans for phase-one of a massive amusement complex in the Northland. It was to be called “Worlds of Fun” and not only did this “Worlds of Fun” have a theme, but the public was presented with the very first piece of concept art for the planned $20.5 million park. The 140-acre planned park would be followed by hotels, restaurants and other commercial facilities for visitors. Or at least, that was the plan.  

An aerial of Worlds of Fun construction from August 1972.  You can plainly see the vast groves of trees that were left to stand after ground cleaning.  For those not sure of what they are looking at you can plainly see the layout for Le Taxi Tour in the lower right hand corner, the bright white rectangle in the center is Autobahn (Der Fender Bender). Henrietta and Front Street are also easy to see directly to the left of Autobahn.

During the 1960s and 70s several developers were opening master-planned theme parks on large, flat sites.  But Lamar Hunt and Jack Steadman were goal-driven to be unique in the crowd. They tasked famed park-designer Randal Duell to  use the rolling Clay County land’s natural features to create an amazing park immersed in beautiful landscaping. “We intend to have the most beautiful and exciting park every built.  Every effort will be made to enhance the beauty of the site: Steadman told the Kansas City Star, “In fact, we have already marked the trees so that the contractor will not accidentally remove them” (Roberts, 1971, p. 7A). 

And August 4th wasn’t just about announcing the name and  landscaping either. Park officials were ready to promise Cotton Blossom from the movie “Show Boat”, A Sky Ride (Sky Hi), a flume ride (Viking Voyager), Victrix firing range, a petting zoo, and even a dolphin show. A “Speed Racer”  ride that would  “take visitors zipping through the trees, hills and valleys of the park” foreshadowed the classic Schwarzkopf roller coaster millions of guests would come to know as Zambezi Zinger.

July 30th 1972 Jack Steadman supervises work, you can just barely see construction of Cotton Blossom in the background.

The name “Worlds of Fun” was originally the idea of Jack Steadman. And truth be told though Worlds of Fun is often considered “Lamar Hunt’s Park” it in reality was the brainchild of Jack Steadman. Steadman first visited Disneyland in 1957 and came home with the idea of a Disneyland-like park for Kansas City.  He persistently presented the idea to Lamar Hunt, who finally gave him the go-ahead in 1966. Steadman would take his family on fact-finding trips to parks across the country including Six Flags over Texas and Six Flags over Georgia. But Astroworld in Houston was arguably the most influential in Worlds of Fun’s development. Opening in 1968, Astroworld was also designed by Randal Duell and boasted an international theme. One ride, Le Taxi was nearly identical in name and in experience to Le Taxi Tour at Worlds of Fun. Most telling though is its early advertised slogan “Astroworld The Wonderful World of Fun!”.  Coincidence?  Maybe, maybe not.  One thing is known is that various members of the Lamar Hunt organization originally disliked the “classless” name, but Lamar Hunt obviously came around to the idea and the name stuck.  I would also like to think the name not only fit perfectly to a “world-themed” park, but also allowed Astroworld to live on in spirit after permanently closing in 2005. 

Surprise!  Something very few have ever seen until NOW.  Thanks to Erin Gash (daughter in law of the late Byron Gash) provided this scan of the color version of the concept art from the Kansas City Star Article from August 4th 1971! 

Worlds of Fun may have first opened its gates on May 26, 1973, but the park truly began existence 50 years ago today. And as Lamar Hunt promised in 1971, Worlds of Fun still does bring “Adventure, enjoyment and fun” (Roberts, 1971, p. 1A) to guests 50 years after it was originally conceived.

Special Thanks to Todd Swetnam for copy editing this blog as well as Erin Gash for providing the color version of the concept art!

McDonald, J. (1969, January 21). “Giant Amusement Center Proposed. The Examiner, pp. 1-2.

Roberts, J. (1971, August 4). ‘Worlds of Fun’ Work to Start. Kansas City Star, pp. 1A, 1C

Roberts, J. (1971, August 5). Fun Park as Dividend. Kansas City Times, pp. 7A.

A New Northland Attraction: Jack Steadman: A Kid At Heart. (1973, May 30). Dispatch-Tribune. 

Huge Fun Center Here: Lamar Hunt, Chief’s Owner Announces Proposed ‘Theme Park’ Similar to Disneyland to Be Built ion I-435 in Kansas City, North. (1969, June 1).  Kansas City Star, pp. 1A, 6A. 

The Kelly Files

 There is an old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. Which is true. I also like to think that every picture tells a story and is a snapshot into a world that no longer exists, even if it was simply a moment ago.

A few years ago I went through and I scanned all of Jeff’s black and white negatives that he shot and self-developed back when he worked at the park between 1986 and 1988.  They cover a lot of ground, but are for the most part just photos of friends he worked with at the time. Each series of photos tells a different story, and I thought it would be fun to share one of those stories with you.  

Among the many teenagers or ambassadors if you will that Jeff worked with was Kelly. Many of you have seen Kelly, in the Silly Serpent photo that pretty much shows up anytime anyone mentions Silly Serpent. 

But I think it's a travesty to not tell the entire story in which this one photo fits into, which is why I am creating this blog. For those interested I have reached out to Kelly and he has given me the ok to use his photos in this blog. Out of respect for his own privacy I am not sharing his last name.

So the story.

Jeff began working as a park ambassador in 1982 in food service. The following year he moved up to Ride Operations and by 1986 he was a ride manager. On this particular day in 1986, it was the middle of fall, a time of year which is, or was until Haunt came around, notoriously slow. Jeff and Kelly were both considered "extras" in that they were needed on rides in the case that extra staffing was needed. On this particular day they weren't needed as ride operators and were sent around to various rides to check on any stocking needs. Well they "officially" did that... but they also had just a little bit of fun. That included posing with many of the rides too! They were paid (as in minimum wage which was around $2.10 an hour at the time), for their travels, and were signed in for various hours at each ride they visited. It might seem just slightly devious... but otherwise we would not have had these photos to look back on!

Deep in thought pondering the Sky Hi in Americana. Behind him is the western section of Americana looking not all that different than it does today.

Looking back towards Sky Hi, and Jeff can't remember who these two are. If anyone knows please let us know!  Interesting enough, 1986 would be the last full season for Sky Hi!

Yes that's Screamroller, and Kelly is standing in the queue line beside the track. The ride is gone but the queue line is virtually unchanged!

That might look like Timber Wolf's station because it IS!  But it ISN'T! Because in 1986 it was Extremeroller's station!

They aren't locking lap bars there... but horse collars instead. I don't think they are talking about locking lap bars though, probably more about what kind of party they are going to have with the spare change from Omegatron!

Wait... aren't there supposed to be train robbers here? 

Deep thoughts about Flying Dutchman...such as, why is a Swiss company building a ride composed of tiny Dutch boats? Or I wonder if this ride will be around when I am older with grey hair?  (It will) 

And there he goes... finally working just a bit hopping taxi cars. 

Uh... testing the horses out for safety, exactly.  It's a dangerous job but someone has to do it. 

Kelly on Zulu.  Here is a thought to turn your head like Zulu... At the point this photo was taken Zulu was only seven years old.  Today it's 42. Yep I just made a bunch of people feel old, you're welcome. 

Where are we at now? 

Oh it's Omegatron!  Omegatron was new in 1986.  Yes and it was removed from the park now 20 years ago.  If you think I'm enjoying everyone feeling old, why yes, yes I am. Because if I have to feel old, so does everyone else. 

I heard on the radio today how thankful the older generations are that social media didn't exist back when they were kids. I am personally immensely thankful for reasons that we won't talk about. Funny thing is that Jeff took enough photos to at least allow us this small snap shot of what the world was like back then, and I hope you have enjoyed this brief snapshot of a moment of time in 1986.