Secret Fun Blog reader Wendi informed me that she's uploaded the following video footage of the Phantasmagoria on YouTube! Naturally there's a lot of darkness, but if you're at all familiar with the ride this clip is sure to bring back memories. Just hearing the audio was extremely enjoyable to me. It's all there: the hum of the car, the slam of the bang doors, and of course the blast of the bus horn. It also depicts some of the latter day improvements that Kyle J. Wood was behind...
I love the motive behind this little film. From her description...
"This video was taken inside the Phantasmagoria ride at Bell's Amusement Park in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 2006. Our three-year-old son was fascinated with this ride and got the courage to ride it once. After that he wanted us to retell each part of the ride over and over to him. We eventually videotaped ourselves riding it so that we could show him the video when we got tired of recounting the ride to him..."
I can totally relate to that. When I was a kid I was too afraid to watch certain scary movies so I'd make my friends describe every detail to me over and over again. Anyway, Thanks Wendi for sharing your video!
Your recent posts have gotten me to thinking about my own local childhood dark ride, The Laff in the Dark at the Pacific National Exhibition. Every summer I would be going crazy with the anticipation of seeing it again, and I talked about it so much during the school year that my friends started to avoid me. I was REALLY obsessed, which makes it strange to me that now I can't remember ANYTHING specific about the ride itself.
ReplyDeleteThat is SOOOOO awesome. I'm moving back to Tulsa right before the fair this year; I can't imagine what it's going to be like without the Phantasmagoria and the Himalaya and the Zingo. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteImmortalized! (Well, until everything burns, including all the servers.)
ReplyDeletePerhaps someday the 1974 16mm professionally lit film will resurface...?
flashfink- Funny how that happens. Also ashame that I can't find much about that ride online. I'll bet it was a beaut
ReplyDeletevintage reader- I drove by the fairgrounds a couple weeks ago and it was a dirt lot and I felt like I was in another land or something. I think I was in denial.
scott- At this point I wouldn't doubt the existence of something like that. Surely someone (maybe the news?) captured some very early footage.
Glad to see the video since I never had the chance to ride it. Thanks to Wendi for uploading this and thanks Kirk for posting it!
ReplyDeleteThis is great! I remember the excitement when I finally turned the age that my parents allowed me to ride the Fantasmagoria. It was a rite of passage for sure. It looks like they changed it up a bit. Kirk's "Flip" cartoon is more how I remember it. Now the ride is GONE.
ReplyDelete