After all the hullabaloo with the new Zambezi Zinger died down I began to think about a blog and realized I had never written a blog on the original Zambezi Zinger. It’s been featured in a couple of blogs, but no single blog about it. Now is the time.
Zinger queue house in the 1990s.
For 25 years Zinger's queue house has been without the signage for Zinger on it. This last week it returned! Photo by Kim Slater.
Probably one of the most discussed details of the new Zinger is that the park elected to keep the original name, Zambezi Zinger. What many don’t realize is that just the simple fact of re-introducing the name adds a whole great story back to the park. Back before Worlds of Fun first opened, all those 60 brand new and exciting things to do needed names. The story I am going to tell is one I have heard from multiple sources, and the details vary a bit, but the basic facts are always the same. There was a gathering held to name the rides, and numerous adult beverages were present. That makes some of those crazy names make more sense right? Anyway, at the end of it all, they tabulated the number of drinks that were required to name each ride, and Zambezi Zinger came out on top with the most.
The original Zinger under construction.
Another detail about the original ride names that I love, is that so many of them were alliterations. An alliteration is a two-word phrase where both words start with the same letter. Viking Voyager, Congo Clearing, Rickshaw Richards, Oriental Octopus, and… Zambezi Zinger. All alliterations. Most of them are gone, but one of them is now back.
Big Bend at Six Flags over Texas, the original Speedracer.
Before there was a name though there was the idea. The original Zambezi Zinger was designed by Werner Stengel and built by Anton Schwarzkopf and was part of Schwarzkopf’s Jet Star line. The Jet Star line was introduced in 1968 and included the Jet Star I and 2 models, the Jumbo Jet model, and Speedracers (sometimes referred to as the Extended Jumbo Jet). You can read more about the evolution of the entire line of coasters in my blog from last year here. In my opinion, Zinger is the best of the Jet Star family, and one of the finest coasters ever built by Anton Schwarzkopf (Though admittedly I never rode Big Bend). What has always fascinated me is that Lamar Hunt went with a German-built steel coaster as his headliner coaster when most parks opened with an Arrow mine train coaster or a wooden coaster or both. The likely inspiration for Zinger was its direct predecessor, Big Bend which opened at Six Flags over Texas in 1971. Both Lamar Hunt and Jack Steadman were from Texas too, so it's likely they saw it while planning for the park. Zinger would become the second Speedracer, with the two Whizzers at the two Great America parks being three and four.
The spiral lift shot from the midway by Zulu. The spiral lift of the new Zinger will be roughly in the same place.
Zinging through the woods!
What made Zinger so memorable, and what made it also probably so difficult to recreate, is its abundance of unique features. The ride started with the spiral lift, which was a feature shared by nearly all the Jet Star coasters but nearly no other coaster ever before or afterward. Unlike traditional lifts, Zinger’s lift was neither straight nor powered by a chain. Instead, it spiraled up, powered by an electric power rail at the center of the track. Inside each car was an electric motor, and when the two came in contact, it propelled the train up the lift and created the signature hum of the lift too. Wee…. Hummmmm…..
The first drop on Zinger.
AND the first drop on Zinger (that's going to get confusing!)
Of course, this unique design had its faults, which is why it was abandoned after the Jet Star line was discontinued, and Schwarzkopf himself went back to traditional chain lift hills for his future coasters. Many past guests and ambassadors recall Zinger trains stalling out on the lift. When this happened it necessitated multiple park ambassadors to climb up the lift and release each car’s clutch which allowed for the train to roll back down the lift. So let’s not be too hard on the park if it has issues with the new spiral lift. It’s pretty dang heroic of them to attempt that craziness a second time.
Another angle, original Zinger.
New Zinger.
Besides the lift, Zinger had some very unique ride vehicles. Unlike nearly every modern coaster, the original Zinger cars were ridden bobsled-style, similar to Voyager boats. It was one of Zinger’s most memorable features, allowing guests to ride in the laps of their loved ones or friends, or perfect strangers, with not a single restraint, not even a seatbelt. That lack of restraints and open car design is pretty much why that would never fly today. Not so much because it's technologically difficult but because insurance companies would never allow it.
The spiral lift and high speed turn on the original Zinger.
And similar element on the new Zinger.
The ride itself was described best as almost all Schwarzkopf coasters are, it was fun. Zinger was zippy, had just a touch of airtime, and sped through the trees like abandon. Once it got warmed up that is. Zinger was a little sluggish getting going in the morning and still is for that matter. It didn’t take riders upside down but was built as its name implied (Speedracer) for speed. Probably my favorite element was its high-speed turn, which the new Zinger partially attempts to replicate. After dropping off the lift, and taking the initial drop, Zinger would head out towards Nile, turn and then head back towards the lift. It would then duck under the first drop and do a quick turn around the spiral lift. After traversing around the lift it would then drop, curving into the hillside. It offered just a little thrill to an otherwise mild, family-style coaster.
Entering the tunnel of the original Zinger. Photo from ACE News.
Exiting the tunnel.
Of course, no discussion of Zinger would be complete without talking about its tunnel. Zinger’s tunnel was so integral to the ride experience and iconic that Parque del Cafe in Colombia where Zinger is today built a nearly identical underground concrete tunnel just for the relocated ride. And there are still NO SNAKES falling on riders. The new Zinger plan states that it will also have a tunnel, and honestly it is one detail I can’t imagine any tribute to the original Zinger NOT having.
The tunnel from 1998, looked so forlorn...
The removal of Zinger left scars...
Same viewpoint as above but from 1973 when Zinger was there...
Zinger would only be with us for 24 years, making its final ride in 1997. There was no announcement of its removal, only an empty lot on opening day 1998. One question is why Zinger was removed, and there are multiple answers. Probably having a major impact was that Anton Schwarzkopf declared a final bankruptcy and went out of business in 1995, thereby making replacement parts harder and more expensive to obtain. So it makes sense that in 1997 when the park looked at a necessary structural refurbishment of Zinger, it was decided once the price tag went above two million it wasn’t worth the expenditure. That’s one question that I am positive would have had a different answer if the impact had been realized at the time.
From a 1982-83 off season photo of the park, I have outlined the layout of the Zinger as its hard to tell from just the photo.
A similar viewpoint of the new Zinger.
Zinger was beloved by many, then and now, and hasn’t been forgotten. Though for many years I believe that was Cedar Fair’s desire. And here is the major takeaway. 25 years ago, when Zinger was removed Cedar Fair’s focus was on remaking the park in their image, that of Cedar Point. Mamba, Boomerang, Detonator, Ripcord, and Thunderhawk were in, while the old guard Orient Express, Zambezi Zinger, and Omegatron were out. A key detail is that the park never announced the removal of either the Zinger or Express. There was no last ride. Like they had never even existed. Except it didn’t work quite the way Cedar Fair expected. People didn’t forget. Time passed and Cedar Fair began to change its way of managing Worlds of Fun. Finnish Fling DID get a retirement party, defunct attractions were no longer on the “black list” and their names were mentioned, and celebrated again. Details that were once overlooked were appreciated, and theming returned. A new, different focus. Is it perfect? No. Is the new Zinger perfect? No. Was the original Zinger perfect? No. But the very fact that Cedar Fair made the realization that Zinger was important to the park’s culture and was worth the effort to at least pay homage to makes a point that this isn’t your Cedar Fair’s Worlds of Fun of twenty-five years ago. It’s a more honest Worlds of Fun than it was. No longer denying the past but trying to recreate it as best as today’s technology will allow. And for that, I give them all the credit in the world.
Special thanks to Brad Green for reading over this for me, and to Tara Shryock for providing the sub-title!
As I recalled to a recent poster a few weeks ago, I’ve been researching Worlds of Fun history now for more than 25 years, but I didn’t always have some obscure Worlds of Fun history fact coming out of my mouth at a second's notice. Back when I was a teenager, I spent many hours at the Missouri Valley Room at the Kansas City downtown library scrolling through old microfilm/fiche of Kansas City Star and Times articles on Worlds of Fun. One of the first articles I encountered was a tiny article titled “Worlds of Fun Park 20 Per Cent Complete” which was published July 28, 1972. I also recall tabulating at the time how old I would be when the park turned 50 years old. Oh, how old 45 felt to a 19-year-old.
The importance of the article and others around the same time can’t be emphasized enough when it comes to the history of the park. It was the summer of 1972 when the foundations of everything we now know as our park truly started rising from the ground up.
Lamar Hunt signs a ceremonial contract with J.E. Dunn for the construction of Worlds of Fun. Also pictured are Jack Steadman (President of Worlds of Fun), Stan McIlvaine (General Manager), Bill Dunn Sr. and Lamar Hunt. (And this is why he was called "Big" Jack).
May 19, 1972: At Traders National Bank (Traders on Grand), the announcement was made that the general construction contract had been awarded to JE Dunn Construction company. Burns and McDonnell, a local engineering company, had already been working with Worlds of Fun and park designers Randall Duell & Associates of Los Angeles, Ca., since the park had been announced in 1971. According to William Dunn, at the time of the announcement, all construction work, including all sub-contracting, was to be completed by Kansas City area firms. Jack Steadman, Worlds of Fun President, supplied some fun statistics regarding the park:
2/12 acres of lakes to contain three ships
Twenty-two box cars of lumber
2 1/2 acres of roofing material
3 miles of plumbing
35 miles of electrical wiring
30 million pounds of concrete
50 million pounds of crushed rock
58 million pounds of asphalt.
4,000 railroad ties
6,000 feet of track
The Ski Heis station under construction from the Kansas City Star July 16, 1972
And depot from the same article.
According to a Kansas City Star article by Joe Roberts published May 19, five of the 61 structures that would form the park were already under construction including the Cotton Blossom foundation, Scandinavian Sky Ride station, Victrix, Train station, and the Americana Sky Ride loading station. Two days later, May 21, Roberts uniquely explained the quick vertical growth of the park. “Sixty different buildings and at least 20 special rides and recreational features designed to be concealed by the natural contours of the Clay County hills will start appearing like mushrooms after a spring rain,” Roberts said.
Victrix from around August 7, 1972
He was right, yet some of them would be more complicated to get to rise from the ground than others. Case in point: Cotton Blossom and Victrix–two boats bought from the 1970 MGM Backlot Auction. By June 18, the 2.5-acre concrete “lake” for Cotton Blossom was complete with a base foundation and vertical construction of Cotton Blossom could commence. Jack Steadman specifically mentioned the struggles with Cotton Blossom in an article from The Kansas City Business Journal in 1983. At the time, Steadman stated it was Lamar Hunt who wanted Cotton Blossom when he saw it in May, 1970. “Hunt Saw the Cotton Blossom and something clicked,” he said. Contrarily, Steadman shared that he was skeptical about such a purchase as he doubted the ability to physically move such a large object halfway across the country (Oh to be a fly on the wall during THAT conversation!).
Cotton Blossom's grid-like foundation completed from around June 18, 1972.
Cotton Blossom finally vertical in around October of 1972.
Lamar Hunt would win the auction for Cotton Blossom with a bid of $15,000, beating six other bidders, including one who wanted to turn Cotton Blossom into a floating restaurant in Los Angeles. The plan was that Cotton Blossom would be methodically disassembled, with each piece labeled and noted on the blueprints. It was then moved from California to Kansas City via six boxcars and put into the caves for storage. It was almost exactly 50 years ago that JE Dunn must have realized the re-construction of Cotton Blossom wasn’t going to be a walk in the park. All those numbered pieces weren’t all numbered. Steadman’s concerns were realized, and there were some that thought that Cotton Blossom might not ever be re-assembled. Local retired shipbuilder Wyman Beardsley came to the rescue though and supervised a 35-man crew to re-construct both Cotton Blossom and its MGM neighbor Victrix.
Henrietta's foundation with the Sky Hi station in the background. from around July/August 1972.
From around July/August time frame, the Depot track bed is visible center of the photo, with the Sky Hi station on it's left.
Another aspect of Worlds of Fun was already there and would turn out to be just as integral a feature of Worlds of Fun: the trees. Jack Steadman himself stated that he wanted to build the most beautiful park in the world, and that included natural beauty. Randall Duell, designer of the park, was quoted in Midwest Architect's article “The Fun City Where No One Lives” describing how he originally envisioned the park. “We walked through there one morning, and we came onto the most beautiful circle of trees–the park kind of grew around them. It’s an absolutely beautiful site and we’ve worked hard to preserve it,” Duell said. Cotton Blossom wasn’t the only struggle the park had, and that included redesigning the train layout five different times so as not to lose any of the park’s mature trees. Jack Steadman even went on record stating, “I told the workmen if I saw anybody touch a tree I would personally strangle them” (A New Northland Attraction). I believe that the original tree grove mostly still exists if hampered not by the owners of the park but by Mother Nature herself. It’s still the center of the park to this day.
From August 30, 1972, in it can be plainly seen the giant grove of trees at the center of the park.
And a recent Google maps aerial of Worlds of Fun, in which can still be seen the same large central grove of trees.
If anything is obvious about the details mentioned is that Jack and Lamar weren’t planning just for 1973 but for the long term. As we can see by the following two decades the park grew and doubled in the number of attractions, and acreage, including an additional park, too (Oceans of Fun in 1982). I will share one final quote from Jack Steadman which epitomizes this concept: “We will never stop building. We have almost 500 acres and every year we will build more and more rides, more and more family attractions, and will have a greater number of activities.”
Yes, you did Jack, and we who grew up with it will never forget the park and the memories you gave us.
Special Thanks to James Carter for Proofreading!
A New Northland Attraction, Jack Steadman: A Kid at Heart. (1973, May 30). Dispatch-Tribune, 2.
Big Showboat’s a Comin’ . (1972, June 18). Kansas City Star, 104.
Cotton Blossom docks at KC’s Worlds of Fun. (1972, June 18). Olathe News, 3.
Gosa, G. (1972, November 5). ‘Worlds of Fun’ Playland is Taking Shape Swiftly . Kansas City Star, 2B.
In the Fun City ... Where No One Lives. (1972). Midwest Architect, 1(4), 18–21.
Ramstack, T. (1983, June 1). Who is Jack Steadman? Kansas City Business Journal, 49–57.
Roberts, J. (1972, May 19). Fun Park Contract Signed. Kansas City Star, 42.
Roberts, J. (1972, May 21). Building Variety in Big Fun Center. Kansas City Star, 1G–2G.
.Worlds of Fun Park 20 Per Cent Complete. (1972, July 28). Kansas City Star, 7.
