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GA's Street Characters


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Now I'm wondering who my OTHER favorite was? I checked out the photo gallery from 79 and 80. I started in 82 - but the big changeover in on grounds employees started in 1981 - by 1982, no one from 1980 was still there - except for Lynn Hirsch - she's the first headless (!) girl in the photo that starts this thread.

 

I'm glad you found a spot for Sc-Fi in the book. I gave 11 years of my life to that character before I quit on Dec. 18. 1999. For years, I missed writing and performing those shows - especially the hundreds of educational shows that I put on in the schools.

 

I'm over it now - sob, sob!

 

You should be happy you got out when you did. GA was an awesome place to work in the 80s, and a crummy place to work in the 90s. I can't imagine what it was like this century!

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Did you find a set of slides taken in the early 70s of all the classic rides and shops, etc. I think there were about 30 in the set. They are a standard slide holder, but the slide itself is a square format. I had a set of these in my desk on Dec. 18, 1999, but I didn't take them with me, because they belonged to the park! What a dope I was! They were probably tossed.

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I will always remember you telling the story of guarding the puppet that day, and how at one point someone said "he has a piece" and everyone dropped to the ground, but you jumped in front of the puppet!

 

Yep, I do remember you being Salty Dog, and Perthy P. Pelican preceeded him and after Salty Dog was Dastardly Dragon.

 

We just posted a picture with Perthy in the last spotlight:

SFGA0348B%20JUL90.jpg

 

We have a montage of all the puppets in the book.

 

How many times were there angry guys waiting outside the puppet theater waiting to beat you up for insulting them? :lol:

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With Salty Dog there was a story to follow - so you didn't have to do 15 minutes of Don Rickles. But with Perthy, that was just an insult show. My friend Erik Neilsen was doing it around 80, 81, 82, 83 - Paul Broderick was a sub during those years, as was my other pal, John Smales. I came in to perform the "right wing" many times. That was fun. The insults were amazing - these guys went all out. I remember the door being pounded on after the show on more than one occasion. I also remember being asked to lock one of these puppeteers in the booth from the outside (it was a padlock) when he was in there with a girl in between shows. To his credit, he apparently got the job done, composed himself, and hit the next show right on time 45 minutes later. Some one else performed the "right wing" during that show!

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Did you take the SCI-FI pic? I seem to remember the head of retail, or food service hanging around and taking photos that day.

 

I like the picture with Eric - I seem to remember a similar phot from another year with Robbie Zumsteg and a girl in almost the same pose.

 

Anyway, I'm glad I found your site. I don't do Facebook or any of that other suff, so I am pretty out of the loop. But if you type "greg gillette" in google, I am the very first link! pretty cool if you want to catch up on what I'm up to.

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where are all of the old costumes and where is the sci-fi robot ? it would be cool if they would display all of these things throughout the park or even if they opened a little history museum inside of the glow golf bldg, i never see anybody there anyway, i bet it would attract alot of throughput im sure.

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Yep sure do. Its the Grung he was a park origial design. Along with Sir. Wilden Wooley the great hunter. And yes his back story was that he went on safari and brought the animals to the park. There was a cart show for him that was performed on Dream Street. And as a preshow for the Trapolin act that was shown in the pad for the fifth tent in 1974. And the picture of him on the ferris wheel was me taken in 1975.

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And the picture of him on the ferris wheel was me taken in 1975.

 

Do you recall, was the photographer from GAF (the film company that produced the slides) or was it an in-park photographer? I can only imagine what photos he took that didn't make it to their slide sets. :drool:

 

GA%20044%20Mr%20Wild%20and%20Wooly%20copy.jpg

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Do you recall, was the photographer from GAF (the film company that produced the slides) or was it an in-park photographer? I can only imagine what photos he took that didn't make it to their slide sets. :drool:

 

GA%20044%20Mr%20Wild%20and%20Wooly%20copy.jpg

It was taken by a in park photographer.

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