DAFE - More Than Just A Web Site

Rick Davis

When DAFE was created, its long-term goals included saving "lost" dark attractions, and preserving and restoring darkrides. In the first few months of its existence, DAFE was able to assist in locating the remains of a darkride for Tom Gore's "Oklahoma Project" (see the article on this web site) but what we really wanted to do was get some "hands-on" work and help restore an existing traditional darkride.

This "long term" goal was also achieved much sooner than we planned. Recently several DAFE members in Northeast Ohio and Western Pennsylvania offered to clean up and restore the Fright Zone darkride at Erieview Park in Geneva-On-The-Lake, Ohio. Needless to say, the offer was greatly appreciated by Erieview's owner, Don "Woody" Woodward and, of course, DAFE members were thrilled be given the opportunity to put their talents to use.

The upcoming (2002) Eerie Weekend Event provided additional motivation since our first darkride walkthrough was during the first day of the event at Erieview, not that this group of volunteers needed motivation! The first day of the restoration started at 10 AM and went by so quickly that it was 7 PM before we realized that all of the park employees had gone home long before!

While the darkride was in decent shape considering its age (over thirty years total at West View Park and Erieview), the fragile nature of the paper based Bill Tracy gags, their age, and the years of dust and vandalism had all taken their toll. Small parks like Erieview with their dedicated, but small staff, must concentrate their maintenance efforts on safety and operational needs; cosmetics repairs, such as with the figures, are "nice to do" things that are done when time allows.

Our eyes saw through the dust and beyond the broken figures and instead envisioned the artistic creation as it was when Bill Tracy made it so long ago. The fun part, restoring the gags, would have to wait though.

First on the agenda was cleaning 30 years of dust and grime. The better part of the day was devoted to that task. As each scene was cleaned, revealing more of Tracy's handiwork, the members we getting even more motivated, if that is possible. Ideas for restoring the figures flowed freely.

Click the thumbnails above for a look at the "before" pictures of the ride.

The cleaning phase of the project progressed much faster than we thought possible and resulted in a tremendous improvement in the ride's appearance.

With each scene, we learned more and more about Tracy's talents, good and bad. On the plus side, he was a very imaginative artist who incorporated many interesting animated features into the scenes. One female figure features a heaving chest and all the female upper torsos were, shall we say, anatomically correct? Unfortunately in today's politically correct society, much of the detail of the figures must be covered. Much of his attention to detail goes unnoticed in the fast paced darkride.

On the other hand, Tracy's gags were not known for reliability and, today, some of the stunts are disabled to prevent problems. The fragile paper based figures are very susceptible to damage due to time as well as vandals. The later problems were the first priority in the restoration effort.

The gags were not even dry yet, when the project turned from cleaning to restoration and preservation. DAFE is fortunate to have many talented people in its ranks. Each of the people involved in this project has talents that meshed well with the others.

Rick and Sue Davis are shown here repairing damage to the "Cat".

Rick did much of the "patch up work" in this project, putting scenes and figures back together, mechanical work, painting some of the figures and backgrounds and some of the detail work. Sue is our resident artist and was tasked with some figure patch work and painting as well as the being the detail artist that puts the finishing touch's to everyone else's work.

Sarah Windisch "cracked the whip" on the cleaning crew and kept track of the myriad of details about what supplies we needed and what we planned to do next as well as painting and "dressing" some of the figures.

Randy Skalos is well known in his local area for the great "haunt" he sets up at his home every Halloween and knows the "secrets" to many effects.

Randy introduced us all to the secret of using Woolite on cloth and rope to make things glow under black-light. As shown here, he is also the official "web shooter" that was tasked with adding spider webs to several scenes.

Erik Frankenstein had perhaps the most daunting task of all. Appropriately, he was tasked with bringing the vandalized "mad scientist" scene back to life. Little remained of the victim in the scene for "Dr." Frankenstein to bring back to life.

Erik also touched up the exterior doors of the ride as well as being tasked with "blacking out" all the wood panels and other items that should not be seen in the ride.

Cathy Baker, who was unable to make the half-day trip to the lake, is our other talented artist. Cathy created some of the hands that will be used to replace some of the ones lost to vandals and deterioration.

Work on the ride continued until the park opened for the season. Future plans are to return at the end of the season to continue with the detail work as well as restoring all of the stunts back to working condition. The following photos are a look at the work as it progressed. Please look at the updated Fright Zone article for views of each scene as it looks today.

In the "Old Mill" scene, the saw blade was replaced and the old one hung on the wall. The nearby Fire House Winery supplied us with several wine bottles to add some detail to this and the "Party" scene.

We see in the first picture that Rick has repaired the broken leg and has roughed in a new hand. In the second picture, Sarah has repainted the clothing of two of the figures and is beginning to paint in the flesh tones.

To the left, our damsel in distress has received some new clothing.

To the right, Sarah has repainted her face and arms. Some fluorescent shading has been added (but not blended in yet) to her arms as Rick adds some detail to her face.

After repairing the Dancer, Sue repaints her flesh tones.

In the second photo, the dancer has been painted, detailed and has received a new outfit. Work on the piano player has started including a new hat, "cigarette", sleeves, and a garter belts. His hands will be replaced in the future.

Here the Bat has been repainted in fluorescent colors and the red lights will soon be replaced with black-lights.

Sarah removes the clothing and ages of grime from the girl in "the Cellar".

Here she has been repainted and fit with new "clothes". Detailing of the face was done after this photo was taken. The ground has been repainted, but the backdrop repainting and detailing would be done later.

The flying ghost mechanism was repaired so he again circles the room. His "tail" was also repaired. The rest of the figures were cleaned, repainted and detailed as well.

Laffin' Sal seems not to have taken care of herself over the years, so Sue applies a little "make-up" and returns that award winning smile.

Just how scary is the ride now? Just ask Frankenstein!

Erik? ERIK?

Oh well! See for yourself in the Fright Zone article.

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This article ©2002 Rick Davis and used with permission.
Photos ©1999-2002 Rick Davis, and used with permission.