mayor al Posted November 3, 2014 Report Share Posted November 3, 2014 Another major contributor to the Park's appearance, who I don't see mentioned thus far on this site is BASIL HANGER. Mr Hanger was one of the original Englishmen who came in to build and operate Great Adventure. His specialty was in Landscape design and maintainance. He survived the purges of Management that came when 6 Flags took over and kept the Parks beautiful appearance up from Opening Day thru the every end of the season each year. His crews would be working night and day in the early Spring making sure that flowers wer open and colorful when the gates first opened, even when we were looking at frosty nights. I never really understood the "politics" of the Maint.area.. it was not as clear-cut as Operations and Foods and Games...there seemed to be a lot of overlap of responibilities and functions...but they got the jobs done, and much of the credit for that in the early years belongs to Basil Hanger and his crew of landscapers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
29yrswithaGApass Posted November 3, 2014 Report Share Posted November 3, 2014 We have a whole set of photos of Basil amongst the landscaping which we have yet to share. Watch for it soon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
29yrswithaGApass Posted November 4, 2014 Report Share Posted November 4, 2014 I've set up an Employees - Landscaping galley and uploaded information on Basil Hanger including a 1974 press release and a set of photo proofs from 1976. Does anyone know if Mr. Hanger is still with us? Here are some samples: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
29yrswithaGApass Posted November 4, 2014 Report Share Posted November 4, 2014 Al, here are the press releases for easier reading. FYI, in the galleries you can always view a larger size of a photo by clicking OPTIONS in the upper right, click VIEW ALL SIZES, and then click LARGE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
29yrswithaGApass Posted November 5, 2014 Report Share Posted November 5, 2014 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daved Thomson Posted November 9, 2014 Report Share Posted November 9, 2014 I've set up an Employees - Landscaping galley and uploaded information on Basil Hanger including a 1974 press release and a set of photo proofs from 1976. Does anyone know if Mr. Hanger is still with us? I remember contacting Bernadette Kopacz (former Assistant Mgr. Promotions at GA) regarding an obituary I read about another GA employee who died in the late 90s who worked in Landscape at GA and inquired about Mr. Hanger at that time. Bernadette was still in contact with Larry Cochran at the time (she was then Dir. of Marketing at Sea World San Antonio) with both of them living in Texas. Basil did not stay on at GA when Premier acquired Six Flags (nor did Cochran, unfortunately) and from what Bernadette said had passed away in 1999. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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