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!

 

Mamba Celebrates it's 25th Silver Anniversary!

Opening Day 1998 looking towards Mamba from the Nile queue line

25 years ago, on April 18, 1998, Mamba opened to guests for the very first time. I was there for its opening day. I still remember the cars streaming down Worlds of Fun Avenue backing up onto I-435. I recall the enormously long line for Mamba as it was only running one train thanks to a literal 11th-hour miracle to get it open. I didn’t ride it that day, and in fact, wouldn’t ride it for six more years.

Opening Day of Mamba, with no landscaping!

Five years ago I wrote a blog for Mamba’s 20th anniversary, discussing what made it a legend. Mamba  was a legend and still is, many can’t imagine a Worlds of Fun without it. I began thinking of what made it ceaselessly linked with all our conscious imaginations in much the same way that Orient Express and Zambezi Zinger were. Then I began to think about how the two stories, Mamba being built and Zinger being dismantled will be forever enjoined, they were happening at the same time. The two coasters would never coexist operationally at Worlds of Fun. This year for the first time the park will have rides named Mamba and Zambezi Zinger at the same time. 

Why do I bring this up? Because I believe that part of the impact of the legacy of Mamba is based on what was happening at the park at the time. The late 1990s and early 2000s were a period of turmoil for the park, everything was changing. Nearly a dozen attractions were removed during those years, and much of Mamba’s durability is because, during its early years, it was a constant in a world of change.  

My first time riding Mamba in 2004.

All those years ago though I was afraid of riding Mamba, or any coaster for that matter. People tried for years to get me on the old Zinger and then the new Mamba. My mom, who doesn’t even like amusement parks, rode the old Zinger! But not me. No way. By the time I was 21 and Mamba opened, I began getting told something new, “Mamba isn’t that scary, really it’s just an overgrown Zambezi Zinger”. Having never ridden Zinger that didn’t have any major impact on me at the time but I’ve never forgotten that line that Mamba is just an overgrown Zinger. it has kept repeating in the back of my head every time I see Mamba. I have come to realize that there is much more truth in those few worlds than I ever originally thought when I heard them.

Maybe it was originally meant to be a joke, but thinking of Mamba as an overgrown Zinger defines the ride and defines why many of us love it. Both Zinger and Mamba share similar qualities and hear me out. Yes, visually they are VERY different coasters. However, both are also specifically built for speed and less for crazy shenanigans, like loops and twists. Both are easily re-rideable, and visitors mention jumping off and back in line to ride Mamba again and again, They are both simply, fun. They both filled the same void. 

25 years ago Worlds of Fun lost its 24-year-old classic Anton Schwarzkopf creation and gained a brand new Steve Okomoto-designed Morgan Hypercoaster named Mamba. The park unintentionally created a perfect bookend to park history. Today, Mamba does what no other steel coaster in park history has done to date, it has reached its silver anniversary. But even more important, it long ago achieved iconic status at the park. In so doing it has also carried on the legacy of the two steel coasters that preceded it. It’s fun, and it’s dependable, and simply it’s a good friend that is still that red bedrock on the hill.