A few days ago a poster asked about all the old themed costumes. My original plan was to post a couple photos to Facebook but then I found SO many I thought to do a quick blog. So here we are.
For those unaware Worlds of Fun Ambassadors wore themed costumes until approximately 1992-1993 when they were slowly phased out. They were completely gone by the time I was a rides ambassador in 1994, at that point everyone wore the Americana ride shirt/bandana costume. For many though, including myself, the themed costumes are a vivid part of early Worlds of Fun memories. Not surprising many changed over the years, but some were relatively resilient and changed very little.
I will use color photos when they are available, otherwise I will supplement with black and white when that's all I have. Photos are supplied by Jeff Mast and Debbie Reasoner. For those wondering why there are not more, and are under 30, please remember that when ambassadors wore costumes cameras also ONLY used film. Meaning photos, especially color photos, are much more rare for this time period.
Thanks to Debbie Reasoner we have several color photos of the old gate costumes. When guests arrived at the park this is how they were greeted, remembering that guests passed over the Henrietta upon arrival!
Scattered through the park guests would find these lovely balloon girls...
The Orient would be the first stop of many outside of Americana and it's one section we know changed color drastically over the years. The costumes started out orange, and became turquoise by the late 1980's
At the Oriental Octopus two male ambassadors load and unload the cars. An important detail to note is that until polo shirts took over all male ambassadors wore pants and women always wore shorts. This was true even in 1994 when individually themed costumes had been phased out.
An early woman's costume from the Orient, standing in front of the original Rickshaw Richards.
A photo by Jeff Mast from the late 80's shows the newer woman's costume. You can't tell in this photo but it's turquoise. Another detail to easily tell age of a ambassador photo is by their name badge. If you compare the name badge in this photo with the one proceeding it, the rectangular badges were from the 1980's while the smaller badges with the round logo on top were from the 1970's.
The men's version, also turquoise.
Moving onto to Scandinavia, we have ride ambassadors for Viking Voyager lined up in front of the old Norseman's Nicities sign. There were different costumes not only for men and women, but for different departments too.
A photo by Jeff Mast shows the actual colors of these costumes. This photo is from Voyager unload.
I believe these were Scandinavian retail costumes.
And Scandinavian food service. Notice the 1970's name badges. These last two photos are by Debbie Reasoner.
Moving onto Africa, and we find the panel operator not so busy in the Zinger station. African ambassadors wore khaki safari costumes. I have also been told that when Fury of the Nile first opened the costume included a safari helmet too but it didn't last long as they were incredibly hot.
A close up look at the Africa men's costume.
And women's in front of Smor Bord. Notice again how women were always wearing shorts.
Moving up the hill to Europa, I don't have many photos of the Europa costume but I do have this one by Jeff Mast. Notice the Europa scarf that was often used for completely unintended purposes...
The Aerodrome and Barnstormer had it's version of the aeronautical costume complete with captain bars on the shoulders.
As areas of the park were expanded they too received their own costumes. These were the Pandamonium costumes, which were quite plain but very colorful (the stripes were various bright colors).
EXT or Extremeroller probably had my absolute favorite ambassador costume, the "Buck Rogers" costume as I like to call it. It was updated in 1986 with the addition of Omegatron.
This is only a small taste of the various costumes park ambassadors would wear over the first twenty years of the park's operation. It's amazing to think that these polyester nightmares existed for not even half of the park's operational years, yet are still so memorable and integral to many's early memories of the park.
No blog on park costuming would be complete without mentioning the group of dedicated seamstresses and costumers responsible for creating these multitude of outfits. Let's not forget Worlds of Fun employees even to this day thousands of seasonal ambassadors every year! They then as now all need something to wear! To this day, costuming at Worlds of Fun still is running full steam ahead and creates costumes not just for Worlds of Fun but many other Cedar Fair parks as well!
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