WEBVTT - Dark Rides 101 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:12.280 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.280 --> 0:00:15.720 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:15.760 --> 0:00:18.400 I'm an executive producer with iHeartRadio and how the tech 0:00:18.440 --> 0:00:22.279 are you? So recently, I've been watching a lot of 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:27.640 videos on YouTube of theme park and amusement park rides. Man, 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:30.760 there's so many on YouTube, and they're so good, like 0:00:31.720 --> 0:00:36.280 ultra high resolution ride throughs of various rides at parks 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:38.479 that I'll probably never get a chance to visit myself. 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:41.680 And that includes everything from thrill rides, of course, which 0:00:41.680 --> 0:00:44.360 I do love, though I'm now of an age where 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:46.480 I can only do a couple per day or else 0:00:46.520 --> 0:00:49.400 I risk having motion sickness all day long. It's very 0:00:49.400 --> 0:00:51.720 frustrating because I used to be the kid who would 0:00:51.760 --> 0:00:55.000 just jump on a throw ride over and over and 0:00:55.040 --> 0:00:58.360 over again. Can't do that anymore. But one of my 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:01.960 favorite types of ride actually is the thrill ride. It's 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:06.440 the dark ride. Now, the definition of dark ride kind 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:10.039 of depends upon the person who is defining it, so 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:14.199 I'll give you my definition. To me, a dark ride 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:18.680 is an indoor attraction in which you board some sort 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:21.119 of vehicle. It could be a boat. It could actually 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:25.000 float on a channel of water that winds its way 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:28.800 through the attraction. It might be one of a series 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:31.840 of vehicles mounted on a moving belt way, like the 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:35.039 Omnimover system that you would find and say the Doom 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:38.760 Buggies of Disney's Haunted Mansion attraction. It could be a 0:01:38.920 --> 0:01:43.240 suspended vehicle where the rail is actually above you, like 0:01:43.520 --> 0:01:46.440 Disney's Peter Pan attraction. In fact, I think I'll probably 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:50.000 be referencing Disney a bit in this episode because a 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:53.000 lot of my own personal experience on dark rides relates 0:01:53.040 --> 0:01:57.840 to Disney World. And you ride through the experience and 0:01:58.840 --> 0:02:03.800 along the way you see stuff that is interesting. That's 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:06.760 like your basic dark ride, right. These rides have served 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:11.000 different purposes throughout the years. Some of the early early 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:15.519 dark rides gave young couples a chance to court one 0:02:15.520 --> 0:02:18.960 another during a time when public displays of affection were 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:22.520 strictly taboo. We'll talk more about that in a moment, 0:02:22.560 --> 0:02:27.360 but generally speaking, they are all intended to tell some 0:02:27.680 --> 0:02:31.480 sort of story. Now, sometimes it's not a full narrative, 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:34.480 you know. There are plenty of dark rides that are 0:02:34.480 --> 0:02:39.240 in the haunted house genre that have no discernible, coherent 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:42.520 story to speak about instead that just consist of a 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:47.680 series of disconnected scenes of sometimes dubious terror inducing abilities, 0:02:47.800 --> 0:02:51.600 you know, like a skeleton leaning out at you or something. 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:57.440 But sometimes you do get a full, although condensed story. 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:01.320 And this should come as no surprise, because we humans, 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:05.720 we love our stories. This podcast is, when you boil 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:08.040 it down, just a way for me to tell stories 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:12.720 to you. The story could be about how college drop 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:16.240 out launched a company that served as a very efficient 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:21.080 way of parting wealthy fools with their money allow you know, paronos. 0:03:21.880 --> 0:03:25.240 Or it might be about the most interesting products that 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:29.959 never actually materialized. We framed things in terms of story, 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:32.679 and dark rides are a physical manifestation of that, or 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:35.880 at least they can be. And of course we make 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:40.120 our own stories when we experience these rides. So I 0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:42.920 thought it might be fun to look back at the 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:46.160 history of dark rides. Where did they come from? And 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:50.920 how did they evolve over time? Well, let's start with 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:54.440 the first question of where did they come from? And 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:57.560 there's a simple answer for this, and then there's the 0:03:57.880 --> 0:04:03.080 more interesting, thorough and Jonathan style answer. At least it's 0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:05.560 interesting to me. But the simple answers. You could say 0:04:05.800 --> 0:04:10.560 they come from Kennyworth, Pennsylvania in the late nineteenth century, 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:14.240 really the early twentieth century. But to really understand this, 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:17.880 we have to go back a little bit further, all right, 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:21.960 So way back in eighteen twenty five, the Stockton and 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:28.280 Darlington Railway Company ordered a locomotive, a steam powered locomotive, 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:32.560 from Robert Stevenson and Company. So Robert Stevenson, in turn 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:36.680 was son of George Stevenson, sometimes known as the father 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:42.159 of railways. These guys were in England where steam technology 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:46.760 was really at the cornerstone of the Industrial Revolution. The 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:52.440 purpose of this particular locomotive, called the Locomotion Number one, 0:04:52.839 --> 0:04:56.680 was to serve as a passenger train, which would be 0:04:56.760 --> 0:05:00.640 the first of its kind on a public railway. You know, 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:04.360 they had had steam engines pulling carts that had people 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:06.520 in them before, but this was the first time it 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:08.960 was actually going to be on a public railway to 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:13.919 become a conveyance of transportation. And this particular public railway 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:17.720 was the Stockton and Darlington Railway. So the Locomotion Number 0:05:17.760 --> 0:05:23.120 one had its first official run on September twenty seventh, 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:28.320 eighteen twenty five. It reportedly took about two hours to 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:32.039 travel a grand total of eight point seven miles. That's 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:39.279 not exactly burning up the track, but it's faster than walking. Now, 0:05:39.440 --> 0:05:43.679 the locomotive would become a utilitarian way of transporting people 0:05:43.680 --> 0:05:46.560 from one place to another, but it also could be 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:50.200 a way to take in the sites of the surrounding countryside. 0:05:50.520 --> 0:05:52.599 It was a method of transport that could be both 0:05:52.640 --> 0:05:57.400 practical and leisurely, and eventually that thought would evolve into 0:05:57.480 --> 0:06:03.360 the philosophy behind various amusement rides. Some were more geared 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:09.080 toward thrills, you know, having a locomotive pull you up 0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:14.160 a hill and then coast down the hill afterward, and 0:06:14.279 --> 0:06:17.320 some were meant to take riders past tableau of one 0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:23.240 sort or another. There were railways pleasure railways where they 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:27.400 the people who operated the rail would even set up 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:30.760 sort of a tableau for people to look at as 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:34.360 they passed through different areas and you know, just give 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:36.800 them something to look at. That kind of thing. That 0:06:36.880 --> 0:06:42.920 actually became an attraction at various places, particularly in the UK. 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:48.240 All right, so there was that that was part of 0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:50.800 what was going on in the nineteenth century that would 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:54.000 lead to the development of dark rides, but there was 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:56.680 something else that would also be important that was happening 0:06:56.720 --> 0:07:00.360 across the pond. Here in the United States, let's talk 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:05.200 about water powered saw mills. Now, maybe you've seen one 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:07.960 of these in person, maybe you've seen, you know, footage 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:10.920 of one, but if you haven't, just imagined. There's a 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:15.640 wooden structure. Typically it's built alongside or even over a 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:19.000 river or a significant stream. Often you're talking about a 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:24.400 dammed waterway, so that there is a higher level of 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:27.400 elevation where the water is being held back, and then 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:31.200 you know the lower elevation beyond the dam, where water 0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:34.040 is at a much lower level. And then you have 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:38.480 this wooden structure that's built right there that has a 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:42.040 large water wheel on one side of it, and usually 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:46.640 you have a trough that carries water from the elevated 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:50.800 part of the water area and allows it to drop 0:07:50.880 --> 0:07:53.480 down over the top of the water wheel. You could 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:56.360 have a water wheel that's just has the bottom making 0:07:56.440 --> 0:07:59.840 contact with the water itself, but the trough version was 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:03.600 little more reliable, and so the water goes through the trough, 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:08.280 it hits this water wheel, and you know, the water's 0:08:08.320 --> 0:08:10.920 just driven by gravity. You're not using like pumps or anything, 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:16.520 and the water starts to turn this water wheel. It 0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:19.560 begins to rotate the water wheel. The water wheel is 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:23.320 connected to an axle that connects via gears and cogs 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:26.720 and a piston to power the up and down reciprocating 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:30.280 motion of a large saw. So think of like a 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:35.080 hand saw, but much much much bigger, and it's connected 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:40.840 to wooden structures that themselves are connected to these cogs 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:44.199 and gears, and so as the water wheel turns, it 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:47.960 makes the saw go up and down. You would place 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:53.000 lumber on a vice like platform that attached to a ratchet, 0:08:53.040 --> 0:08:54.960 so it could only go in one direction while the 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:59.640 ratchet's engaged, and this platform, because it's also connected to 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:05.000 this this system of gears and cogs, would push the 0:09:05.120 --> 0:09:08.800 lumber toward the saw, eventually making contact. The saw would 0:09:08.800 --> 0:09:11.280 start to cut through the lumber and it would go 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:15.600 through most of the length of a log. It would usually, 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:17.600 you know, it would stop like a couple of inches away, 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:22.199 because otherwise your vice like platform would get sawn in 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:25.280 half too, and that wouldn't make it very useful. But 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:28.120 this ended up saving a lot of labor. You were 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:30.880 making clever use of the natural elements of your area, 0:09:31.160 --> 0:09:34.880 and also things like gear ratios to create the right 0:09:34.920 --> 0:09:38.240 amount of force, and you didn't have to do all 0:09:38.240 --> 0:09:41.120 that backbreaking saw work yourself, just the last couple of 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:45.160 inches per you know, board that you were making, So 0:09:45.200 --> 0:09:48.480 you're working smarter, not harder. You're letting the water take 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:52.640 on the hard stuff. Really really clever, Like I recommend 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:56.640 watching videos of it if you're interested in clever but 0:09:56.880 --> 0:10:03.440 relatively simple mechanical systems. It's fascinating stuff. But water powered sawmills, 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:07.240 you know, they became really popular in the United States. 0:10:07.720 --> 0:10:11.720 The state of Pennsylvania had a ton of them. But 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:15.080 then as steam engine technology reached a point where it 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:21.560 was fairly reliable and not entirely dangerous. Early steam engines 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:24.520 were known to be quite dangerous because the boilers had 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:29.040 a tendency to explode if too much steam pressure was 0:10:29.040 --> 0:10:32.240 built up inside of them. While the steam powered sawmill 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:35.880 began to make the water powered kind obsolete, and the 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:39.800 steampowered versions could work even more efficiently than the water 0:10:39.920 --> 0:10:44.120 powered Once well, this meant that those water powered lumber 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:48.560 mills became less useful, and many times they were just 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:52.160 outright abandoned because you weren't going to get any business 0:10:52.760 --> 0:10:56.040 because of the steam powered lumber bills that were opening up. 0:10:56.440 --> 0:11:00.720 In fact, entire towns would be abandoned because the towns 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:03.640 had grown up around the lumber industry, and without the 0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:07.000 water mill of the neighborhood and operation, there really wasn't 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:11.160 enough industry to support the town, so folks would move away. 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:14.440 The water powered mills just became known as old mills 0:11:14.840 --> 0:11:17.280 because you know, they were the steam mills were the 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:22.439 new ones. And this would bring us back to storytelling, 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:35.960 which I'll explain after we come back from this quick break. Okay, 0:11:35.960 --> 0:11:41.480 you've got these old mills, these abandoned old saw mills. Well, 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:47.760 when we encounter a mystery, such as a town filled 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:52.400 with empty houses and shops that are just slowly going 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:56.920 to decay, our imaginations begin to fill in the gaps 0:11:56.960 --> 0:11:59.760 of our knowledge and we start to ask ourselves questions 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:04.880 could have led to this, to create this abandoned town? 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:09.680 What stories are lingering in those empty buildings? And words 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:15.920 like ghost or haunted start to pop up. The undeniably 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:20.720 eerie environments inspire us to imagine specters and phantoms around 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:24.960 every corner. Now, the truth is probably far more mundane. 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:27.520 You know, people left because there was no more work 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:30.880 at the lumbermill. But when all we have are the 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:35.280 structures and whatever else was left behind, we start to 0:12:35.320 --> 0:12:39.760 create spooky stories to explain stuff. Now, if you're the 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:45.960 entrepreneurial sort, you might think, huh, folks, sure are interested 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:50.280 in abandoned places, but it's usually not safe to explore 0:12:50.360 --> 0:12:53.840 such abandoned spots on your own. What if we could 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:58.720 simulate those types of spaces and tap into that curiosity, 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:01.840 the stuff that makes imagine as run wild, and to 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:07.000 do so in a controlled and relatively safe environment. I 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:09.400 bet folks would hand over a nickel to experience that 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:16.280 world's turn on such thoughts. Now, I'm not really sure 0:13:16.679 --> 0:13:21.440 when the very first Old Mill ride opened. I do 0:13:21.520 --> 0:13:25.200 not know for sure which ride was first. I do 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:28.959 know that the one that is the oldest and is 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:33.440 still in operation is actually called the Old Mill, and 0:13:33.520 --> 0:13:36.760 it opened all the way back in nineteen o one. 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:39.559 It may not be the very first one, but it's 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:41.960 the oldest one still in operation. It has had several 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:45.040 different names over its history, including one that deals with 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:48.480 a certain kitty cat who hates Mondays and loves lasagna. 0:13:48.600 --> 0:13:54.080 Boy Howdy, did that ride get some terrible criticism, But 0:13:54.559 --> 0:13:56.600 these days it's back to what it used to be. 0:13:56.720 --> 0:14:01.600 It's known simply as the Old Mill's. Particular ride is 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:07.040 located in Kennywood, Pennsylvania, not too far from Pittsburgh. Kennywood 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:10.520 itself takes its name from a family who settled that 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:15.120 part of Pennsylvania, the Kenney family. Anthony Herron Kinney, who 0:14:15.200 --> 0:14:19.000 was born in eighteen thirty five, made his money in 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:24.840 coal or possibly farming, or maybe both. Historical records aren't 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:28.040 in full agreement on this point. His family had what 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:33.840 I must imagine was some picturesque land that Anthony repurposed 0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:36.760 into a picnic ground, So the area became associated with 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:40.760 leisure since shortly after the American Civil War. During the 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:44.760 Civil War it was associated with battle because one was 0:14:44.800 --> 0:14:47.880 fought near there. But skip to the late eighteen hundreds. 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:52.360 Then this banker named Andrew Mellon, who came from a 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:57.160 family of wealthy bankers, leased the picnic land on the 0:14:57.240 --> 0:15:00.280 Kenney estate to build what is called a trolley park. 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:02.960 By the way, this Melon was one of the fellows 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:07.080 who would eventually create what would become Carnegie Mellon University 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:09.880 or Carnegie Mellon if you prefer I always pronounced it 0:15:09.960 --> 0:15:15.320 Carnegie because that's how Carnegie pronounced it. But Carnegie Melon. 0:15:15.600 --> 0:15:17.520 So you might say, what the heck is a trolley park? 0:15:17.600 --> 0:15:20.760 What is this thing this guy made? Well, Companies that 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:26.080 ran trolley lines would sometimes construct a destination at the 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:29.560 end of the lines themselves in order to entice folks 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:31.800 to come out and use the street cars, even on 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:35.560 days when people weren't heading into work. So this was 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:41.440 a way to maximize fairs sales of tickets. You know, 0:15:41.480 --> 0:15:43.480 you build something interesting at the end of the line, 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:45.560 and sure enough families are going to go and check 0:15:45.600 --> 0:15:47.720 it out, and you can still sell tickets even if 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:51.360 it ain't a workday. In some ways, the famous Coney 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:55.000 Island was a kind of trolley park, though Coney Island 0:15:55.040 --> 0:15:57.840 was also a seaside destination in its own right before 0:15:57.840 --> 0:16:01.920 all of that, but the amusements at Coney Island were 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:06.240 built as kind of a trolley park. So Andrew Mellon 0:16:06.760 --> 0:16:08.840 was looking for a way to make even more money 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:11.960 from the local population of Pittsburgh, so he got the 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:15.800 idea to build a trolley park on Kenny's property. Before 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:18.600 the turn of the century, he had built a few 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:23.480 attractions there. There was a dance hall, there was a carousel, 0:16:23.600 --> 0:16:27.600 a couple of other things. He used electricity there. Electricity 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:30.240 was a pretty new thing in the United States, and 0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:32.640 so it was all lit up. It was a fancy 0:16:32.680 --> 0:16:37.120 place to go. And the trolley park's name became kenney Wood. 0:16:37.440 --> 0:16:39.880 And in nineteen oh one we would get the dark 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:43.080 Ride that is now the oldest one still in operation today. 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:49.800 So the Old Mill Ride recreated those forbidden abandoned locations 0:16:49.840 --> 0:16:53.240 I was talking about earlier. The folks around Pittsburgh really 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:57.800 familiar with sawmills. There were lots of abandoned ones in Pennsylvania. 0:16:58.000 --> 0:17:01.480 According to Graham Stanley Baker, who a research paper about 0:17:01.720 --> 0:17:05.720 dark rides, there was an average of one sawmill every 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:11.000 eighteen square kilometers in Pennsylvania. They were littering up the 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:14.560 place and yet still mysterious. And so this ride would 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:16.959 let folks get a taste of what it might be 0:17:17.000 --> 0:17:20.639 like to explore the ruins of an abandoned lumber town. 0:17:21.119 --> 0:17:24.440 This particular ride was a boat ride, one in which 0:17:24.520 --> 0:17:27.399 guests would take a seat on a small boat that 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:30.159 would meander its way through a canal that took the 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:34.320 riders past various scenes. By being clever with light sources, 0:17:34.359 --> 0:17:37.280 the ride creators could direct attention to specific sites and 0:17:37.359 --> 0:17:40.080 keep other things in the dark. This gave the ride 0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:42.320 builders the chance to construct the story they wanted to 0:17:42.359 --> 0:17:45.040 tell and make sure that riders are directing their attention 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:49.399 to specific elements. Now, the Old Mill style of ride 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:57.040 proved popular, and it also was relatively easy to maintain. Right, 0:17:57.080 --> 0:17:59.879 you didn't have that many moving parts. You didn't have 0:17:59.920 --> 0:18:02.840 to worry about water quality and changing that out and 0:18:02.880 --> 0:18:06.200 filtering it out and cleaning it occasionally because otherwise, man 0:18:06.359 --> 0:18:10.359 could that get nasty. But typically the mechanical parts consisted 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:13.879 of a paddle wheel that would create the gentle current 0:18:14.240 --> 0:18:16.480 that would carry boats through the pathway. So you didn't 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:18.600 have to have motors on any of the boats or anything. 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:21.919 The water itself just had a current to it that 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:25.840 would naturally push the boats through the path And so 0:18:26.480 --> 0:18:29.960 other trolley parks and later amusement parks began to make 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:33.359 their own version of the Old Mill ride, themed to 0:18:34.080 --> 0:18:36.480 various things. A lot of them were themed to the 0:18:36.520 --> 0:18:41.560 Old West. I've seen a ton of Old Mill ride footage, 0:18:42.040 --> 0:18:46.600 and it's a lot of stuff about drifting through like 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:49.800 a Western landscape, like saloons and all that kind of stuff. 0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:54.000 Something else that would kind of merge with dark rides 0:18:54.119 --> 0:18:58.200 much much later on was called phantom rides. This one's 0:18:58.240 --> 0:19:02.720 interesting because the riders don't actually go anywhere. They're stationary. 0:19:03.520 --> 0:19:07.000 This type of attraction leveraged a new kind of art form, 0:19:07.640 --> 0:19:11.240 that of cinema. See back when folks were still experimenting 0:19:11.240 --> 0:19:14.800 with film, before we would get stuff like an actual story, 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:19.080 we got footage of all kinds of things you've probably 0:19:19.080 --> 0:19:22.600 seen cliche examples of early snippets of film, like a 0:19:22.680 --> 0:19:26.640 train going into a tunnel, for example, or coming toward 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:30.560 the screen, and reportedly people in the theater panicked and 0:19:30.640 --> 0:19:33.119 ran because they felt the train was going to burst 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:36.359 through and crush them. Well, one thing that some early 0:19:36.440 --> 0:19:40.520 experimenters slash filmmakers did was they would strap a camera 0:19:40.560 --> 0:19:43.840 operator to the front of a vehicle like a train, 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:47.639 and the camera operator would shoot footage as the vehicle 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:50.000 moved through a landscape, so you kind of get this 0:19:50.080 --> 0:19:55.080 first person view of passing through an area. And it 0:19:55.240 --> 0:19:58.240 was a way to virtually visit places that you might 0:19:58.400 --> 0:20:00.840 not ever get to go and real life kind of 0:20:00.880 --> 0:20:04.720 like me watching these YouTube videos so you could watch 0:20:04.720 --> 0:20:08.240 as the vista of say Switzerland, passed around you, and 0:20:08.320 --> 0:20:12.760 crowds really liked it. And one feller had this idea 0:20:12.800 --> 0:20:15.520 of how to take this basic concept and make it 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:20.639 even more immersive. That feller was William Keefe, who thought, 0:20:20.800 --> 0:20:25.000 if you built a fake railway car and you outfitted 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:28.680 it with windows that looked out onto screens on all sides, 0:20:29.320 --> 0:20:33.400 you could project a panorama of images on those screens, 0:20:33.720 --> 0:20:36.280 they may look like the car was actually traveling through 0:20:36.760 --> 0:20:40.120 these landscapes. And if you know, you hired some folks 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:42.880 who would stand on either side of the railway car 0:20:42.960 --> 0:20:46.000 out of sight, and then you rock the car a 0:20:46.040 --> 0:20:48.520 little bit, or maybe used a wind machine to blow 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:51.600 air at the passengers. It would really boost the illusion 0:20:51.640 --> 0:20:56.640 that they were actually traveling through those locations. But Keith 0:20:56.720 --> 0:21:01.080 didn't have the cash to build his idea himself. Then 0:21:01.119 --> 0:21:05.560 he met an influential man in Kansas City, Missouri, named 0:21:05.760 --> 0:21:09.480 George C. Hale. Hale had served as the fire chief 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:13.960 for Kansas City. He had even participated in international competitions 0:21:14.000 --> 0:21:17.320 between different firefighting companies that had traveled in Europe. As 0:21:17.359 --> 0:21:20.679 a result of that, and he had accumulated a decent 0:21:20.720 --> 0:21:24.479 amount of pocket change. So Keith tells Hale his idea 0:21:24.640 --> 0:21:27.760 and Hale agrees to back it, and they patented the 0:21:27.760 --> 0:21:30.639 idea in nineteen o four, and then a little bit 0:21:30.760 --> 0:21:34.240 later Hale would buy out Keith, and at the nineteen 0:21:34.240 --> 0:21:38.840 oh four Louisiana Purchase Exhibition or the Saint Louis Exhibition, 0:21:39.440 --> 0:21:42.240 Hale brought his idea and set it up and he 0:21:42.280 --> 0:21:46.679 called it Hale's Tours and Scenes of the World. A 0:21:46.680 --> 0:21:50.560 little subtitle on the poster informed you that trains would 0:21:50.640 --> 0:21:54.560 leave every ten minutes. Of course, these trains didn't go 0:21:54.720 --> 0:21:57.600 anywhere themselves. They were stationary. They would just appear to 0:21:57.640 --> 0:22:01.760 go because of the screens. It was a simulation and 0:22:02.160 --> 0:22:05.240 really a dressed up film of trains traveling through different places. 0:22:05.280 --> 0:22:07.280 But it was a big hit. It was big enough 0:22:07.280 --> 0:22:09.919 for Hailed to make a whole bunch of these, like 0:22:10.080 --> 0:22:13.000 hundreds of them, for the United States and beyond. Like 0:22:13.080 --> 0:22:16.120 they became a popular attraction, not just in the US 0:22:16.200 --> 0:22:19.400 but also in Europe. They were something of a novelty 0:22:19.560 --> 0:22:22.120 because after you experienced at once, you didn't have much 0:22:22.160 --> 0:22:25.280 reason to do it again. But you know, they generated 0:22:25.280 --> 0:22:28.680 a lot of first time foot traffic, virtually speaking early on, 0:22:29.119 --> 0:22:32.280 and elements of the experience would find their way into 0:22:32.359 --> 0:22:38.400 future dark rides. So while this particular example was short lived, 0:22:39.359 --> 0:22:42.879 elements of it would have ultimately come back and be 0:22:43.000 --> 0:22:47.159 reincorporated into the dark ride experience. Now around here is 0:22:47.200 --> 0:22:50.120 also when we got a variation of the old Mill 0:22:50.240 --> 0:22:54.920 ride known as the Tunnel of Love. It's actually pretty 0:22:54.960 --> 0:22:58.840 remarkable how this particular concept has outlived the real thing. 0:22:59.760 --> 0:23:02.359 I mean, I'm sure there may be a few Tunnel 0:23:02.440 --> 0:23:06.080 of Love themed attractions out there, but I've never seen 0:23:06.119 --> 0:23:08.960 one in person, and I think it's a fairly safe 0:23:08.960 --> 0:23:12.000 bet that most of y'all I've never seen one either, 0:23:12.560 --> 0:23:15.040 let alone been on one. I'm not saying none of 0:23:15.080 --> 0:23:18.720 you have, so don't at me about this, but I 0:23:18.760 --> 0:23:21.359 bet most of you have not. And yet the Tunnel 0:23:21.400 --> 0:23:24.160 of Love is iconic, right, I mean, if I say 0:23:24.200 --> 0:23:27.080 Tunnel of Love, people immediately have an image of what 0:23:27.200 --> 0:23:31.640 that means. It's something that's found its way into countless films, 0:23:32.119 --> 0:23:35.280 TV shows, cartoons, lots more. In fact, I think, let's see, 0:23:35.280 --> 0:23:37.800 the most recent version I saw was in season one 0:23:37.840 --> 0:23:41.600 of Schmigadoon. There's a tunnel of love in that season, 0:23:42.200 --> 0:23:45.800 and the reason why it's iconic gets back to stories, 0:23:46.320 --> 0:23:50.800 all right. So what the heck was a Tunnel of Love? Generally, 0:23:50.920 --> 0:23:53.720 it was another boat ride, and it was one where 0:23:54.320 --> 0:23:57.480 boats had these little narrow benches, which meant that a 0:23:57.480 --> 0:24:00.800 pair of riders would need to be pretty snug with 0:24:00.880 --> 0:24:03.600 each other in order to fit. Moreover, it had lots 0:24:03.600 --> 0:24:06.960 of dark sections in the ride. In some cases, the 0:24:07.040 --> 0:24:10.040 ride was intended to play up to the more romantical 0:24:10.600 --> 0:24:14.919 of motivations, with pleasant scenes that you would pass by. 0:24:15.520 --> 0:24:18.399 Other versions of the ride were designed to be spooky, 0:24:18.560 --> 0:24:23.080 haunted experiences and thus encourage couples to huddle closer for safety, 0:24:23.760 --> 0:24:27.040 and they served an important social purpose. They gave couples 0:24:27.080 --> 0:24:29.840 a bit of privacy where they could express some physical 0:24:29.960 --> 0:24:33.439 affection to one another out of sight of all the 0:24:33.520 --> 0:24:38.600 lucky loose. In fact, this is a big deal. A 0:24:38.720 --> 0:24:41.760 guide on etiquette in America that was published in nineteen 0:24:41.840 --> 0:24:46.639 hundred declared that kissing in public was quote a reprehensible 0:24:46.760 --> 0:24:51.320 custom and should not be tolerated in good society end quote. 0:24:51.880 --> 0:24:55.439 And that would be the prevailing opinion in America for 0:24:55.480 --> 0:24:58.840 a few decades. So the Tunnel of love represented a 0:24:58.880 --> 0:25:03.240 safe space to avoid scandal and ignominy, and I'll still 0:25:03.240 --> 0:25:07.160 allow couples to mockingmit their smooch chums as it were, 0:25:07.800 --> 0:25:11.560 that is, to smooch up a storm. Of course, couples 0:25:11.560 --> 0:25:15.080 would sometimes seek opportunities to steal a kiss or three 0:25:15.240 --> 0:25:18.120 on other types of dark rides. The Tunnel of Love 0:25:18.200 --> 0:25:22.000 might have been the most overt version for this activity, 0:25:22.040 --> 0:25:25.840 but really, when opportunity comes a knock in your lips, 0:25:25.960 --> 0:25:29.560 best be a lock in. And importantly, these rides also 0:25:29.600 --> 0:25:33.160 gave opportunity to people who didn't conform to society's concepts 0:25:33.200 --> 0:25:36.960 of gender and gender rules and allow them to express 0:25:37.040 --> 0:25:40.720 affection without fear of putting themselves in harm's way. I'm 0:25:40.760 --> 0:25:43.600 sure their entire research papers about the role of dark 0:25:43.720 --> 0:25:48.199 rides with regard to the LGBTQ plus community. The Tunnel 0:25:48.280 --> 0:25:52.159 of Love type rides, the ones that were implicitly or 0:25:52.359 --> 0:25:57.080 explicitly for making out only enjoyed a brief moment in 0:25:57.119 --> 0:26:02.120