Kansas City Can You STAND to Be First?

 We celebrated Worlds of Fun's 50th Anniversary only a few days ago, and today we have another significant anniversary to recall. On today's date: May 31st, 40 years ago, Screamroller was converted into the country's first stand-up coaster and became Extremeroller or E.X.T. In researching E.X.T. over the years, I have found very little about it before May 1983, and the 1983 map lists the ride as a sit-down and still named Screamroller. Extremeroller as a stand-up only appears on the 1984 map. My theory is that converting the coaster was not a multi-year planned one like most attractions but was instead a fly-by-night, "how about we try this? Sure, that sounds good" kind of thing. Like many historical details, this is just a theory based on the facts that I have. Worlds of Fun spent about $250,000 to convert Screamroller to Extremeroller. The conversion was completed by Arrow-Huss, the short-lived attempted merger of two great amusement manufacturing companies. Arrow Dynamics and Huss Manufacturing would eventually go separate ways only a few years later. 

To understand why E.X.T. happened, though, one only has to look at what was happening in the coaster world. From the mid-1970s until around 2000, the amusement industry was fully engaged in a "coaster war." Whoever could build the loopiest, fastest, tallest, longest coaster had a claim to "coaster capital," and Arrow was right at the forefront for much of it. Most reactions to the concept of E.X.T. were ones of disbelief, and according to Lee Derrough, that was exactly what they were looking for. 

The stand-up pods and fiberglass body.

Extremeroller would use the original structure of the Screamroller coaster, an Arrow Corkscrew, with only a slight modification to the rollover on the first drop to accommodate the larger and heavier trains. The trains themselves would be gutted, with new fiberglass cars and restraints added to the Screamroller trains' original undercarriage. Out went the seats, and in came tall, six-foot-pods with a shoulder harness, a thigh harness, and a seatbelt around the waist. Also, unlike modern stand-up coasters, there was no seat; it was a literal stand-up ride. 

Concept art by Byron Gash

In the true meaning of "coaster wars," Worlds of Fun wasn't alone in this attempted venture. Six Flags Mid America (St. Louis) was doing its own stand-up conversion to its aging Arrow, River King Mine Train. Many are familiar with this classic family coaster but unaware that it originally had two tracks. One track on the Mine Train received a similar conversion and was dubbed Railblazer. Railblazer, unlike E.X.T., wouldn't open until 1984. 

Extremeroller at Worlds of Fun

Railblazer at Six Flags Mid-America

Tragedy would strike at Six Flags on July 9th, 1984, when Stella Holcomb, aged 45, was thrown from the ride and died from her head and chest injuries. For many years urban legend would twist this story so that the actual culprit was E.X.T. which had already ceased operation by the time of the accident at Six Flags. An investigation after the death found that Railblazer lacked the waist belts that E.X.T. had, which may have contributed to the accident.

The deconstructed Extremeroller with Timber Wolf going up in the background.

So why did Extremeroller return to being a sit-down if it wasn't for an accident? The simple answer is that Screamroller was never designed to be a stand-up coaster. The stand-up trains were far heavier and had a completely different center of gravity, causing technical difficulties with the lift hill and breaking the lift hill chain on more than one occasion. The ride itself wasn't any less safe, but the problems did cause it to be a mechanical nightmare. Extremeroller would return to being a standard sit-down model in June 1984 and live out the rest of its short life at Worlds of Fun until its removal in 1988. Extremeroller would be sold to a park in Taiwan and live on until 2003-2004, known as the Spiral. 

Forty years have passed since Worlds of Fun's made its splash into the great coaster wars. To many, Extremeroller was a blip in amusement park history but a monumental part of Worlds of Fun history. When it played on T.V., the E.X.T. commercial is my earliest memory of Worlds of Fun, commercial, park, or otherwise; it's probably why I ended up going to Worlds of Fun for the first time in 1983. So for me, at least, I may not have been able to "Stand Being First," but E.X.T. is anything but inconsequential.

Celebrating 50 Years of Magic and Adventure!

There are many important dates in Worlds of Fun history, and we’ve celebrated many of them, literal cornerstones to memories for many years. Today, though, is the most important date of all. May 26, 1973, the first day that Worlds of Fun opened to the public. The day the magic started. Today’s date started not just the story of Worlds of Fun, it started all of OUR stories with Worlds of Fun. 

50 years ago today, one has to wonder what was going through the heads of everyone who attended opening day. We know the thoughts of Jack Steadman, President of Worlds of Fun, because his words about opening day in 1973 are in print: he states that the opening of Worlds of Fun in 1973 was “an event only slightly less spectacular than the Super Bowl” (Ramstack p. 52). Which says a lot. What about Lamar Hunt and his family? Was he elated that the years of planning had come to fruition? Or did he look forward to the future? How about all the others, the guests, I am not talking about the dignitaries, but the regular park guests themselves. The only park that many of them had ever been to was Fairyland, and here was a new park. Here is how the park was described in an advertisement from the Kansas City Times on May 26, 1973: 

 

“Worlds of Fun is over sixty brand new and exciting things to do. It’s the sternwheeler Cotton Blossom and a train ride right out of the Old West. It’s good eats from around the globe and a trip across five worlds in the Sky Hi. 

 

Worlds of Fun is Europa and watching the Can-Can at the Moulin Rouge. It’s a Flying Dutchman windmill ride and a bumpy-crunching journey on the Autobahn in Der Fender Bender. 

 

Worlds of Fun is a Safari through the African veldt, a big game hunt, and finding wealth at the Diamond Mine. It’s a breathtaking ride on the Zambezi Zinger, and shopping for souvenirs at Bwana’s Bargains. 

 

Worlds of Fun is fighting off the Royal Navy in the pirate ship Victrix, and enjoying a musical revue at the giant Tivoli Playhouse. It’s taking a diving, dipping ride in the Schussboomer, and watching wood carvers at the Baltic Bazaar. 

 

Worlds of Fun is exploring the Far East and its alluring gardens and mysterious waterways. It’s challenging the Oriental Octopus ride and laughing at the antics of the dolphins. It’s a world of fun at Worlds of Fun, for the young, the old, for everyone!” 

 

 

The weather was gray that morning when at 10:00 AM Worlds of Fun opened. But that didn’t deter the festivities and in fact, probably made the day that much more memorable. The park opened with a gala parade that featured cars from Le Taxitour and The Safari carrying dignitaries, which was led by Worlds of Fun Ambassadors and several local High School marching bands. It was followed by a christening of S.S. Henrietta, balloon ascension, and antique plane flyover. The opening ceremonies themselves were held at Cotton Blossom and included about 3,000 total in attendance, which included everyone from Lamar Hunt to Dutton Brookfield president of the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, to the governor of Missouri, Christopher Bond. Bond even commented on the less-than-ideal weather conditions in the Jefferson City News Tribune stating “I heard there was a chance it was going to rain this morning in the middle of the ceremonies, but knowing how Lamar Hunt plans things, I wasn’t too worried” (amusement park opens p. 5). 

Lamar, Norma and Clark Hunt

 

Cliff Trainer of Kansas City added his two cents in an article published the next day May 27th, “you spend four years on a park like this and opening day it rains, don’t you know Lamar Hunt is just sick?” (Speck, p. 1). Trainer, who with his family visited the park on opening day had their story told by the Kansas City Star and it’s like a veritable time capsule. Mom doesn’t want to ride the coaster with the unpronounceable name (Schussboomer), but the kids do so she rides anyway and there will be no more coasters after that! After the ride, the kids jump out looking for the next adventure, and Dad has to rein them in saying they have all day! The recently defunct Finnish Fling even makes an appearance, though it’s misnamed in the article as Finnish Flum. The park wasn’t just about the rides though, Mom wanted to visit the shops and the “authentic riverboat” Cotton Blossom, the point being there was something for everyone.  

 

 A lot would change over the next fifty years, Schussboomer, Finnish Fling, and Cotton Blossom are gone, but Flying Dutchman, Le Taxitour, Viking Voyager, Autobahn (Der Fender Bender), Scrambler, and Worlds of Fun Railroad, even ELI the steam engine are still there, and still providing similar fun experiences as they did fifty years before when the Trainers and other 11,072 first day visitors first experienced them. Stop for a moment and appreciate that, fifty years of rides being given is a testament to the longevity of those six original rides and to the many mechanics who have kept and continue to keep them running! So, for me at least as long as Worlds of Fun continues to open its gates it will always ALWAYS be Worlds of Fun.  

 

 

 

 

The six original rides from 1973 that operate today: Scandi Scrambler, Viking Voyager, Le Taxitour, Flying Dutchman, Autobahn (Der Fender Bender), and the Worlds of Fun Railroad.

In the end, it's not about just the rides, or attractions, it's about the people, the people you visit with, the people you make memories with, and what a WONDERFUL adventure it has been over the past 50 years! Today Worlds of Fun celebrates 50 years of adventures, 50 years of makin’ magical memories, and hopefully will for many more years to come. 

 

 

 

(1973, May 27). Amusement Park Opens. The Sunday News and Tribune, p. 5. 

 

Ramstack, T. (1983, June 1). Who is Jack Steadman? Kansas City Business Journal, 49–57. 

 

Speck, E. (1973, May 27). “Rain, Thrills at Fun World” The Kansas City Star, p. 1 

 

 

 

 Special thanks to Elora Maxwell for proofreading!