Legend from p 19 had the Lost Dutchman Mine ride, which was extremely popular and the only original attraction that survived the entire 20-year run. Pat McMahon, local broadcaster, enter- tainer, and Wallace and Ladmo cast member: It wasn’t some low-budget, medium-sized city carnival-type thing that you would see outside of a supermarket somewhere. This is a real honest-to-God permanent theme park that had terrific rides, was on a pretty spacious piece of property, and had a lot of entertainment and a lot of variety. Beuker: The area with the more modern amusement rides, which came from this amusement park in Kansas City, Missouri, was so everything wasn’t all Old West. Louis had very mixed feelings about that, but was persuaded in the end to make it a little more eclectic. Janie Crandall: There was constant activity. They had gunfights in the streets. Strolling marching bands playing. And bandits trying to rob the train when you rode by. Dixon: It was steeped in kitsch, but so were Knott’s Berry Farm and Disneyland in California. So [Legend City] had the parameters of what people liked — a rail- road surrounding the property, a jungle boat river ride, and a frontier town — and were following a certain model. Beuker: They put a lot of work into the Lost Dutchman [attractions]. The mine ride had a giant spider, scenes with animated skeletons, a graveyard, and other creepy stuff. Everybody loved it. And the Lost Dutchman shack was a tilt-house where the floor moved. Dave Pratt, local radio personality: It all felt bigger than life in my little-kid eyes. My dad took me on weekends [and] it was my first thrill rides, the first time being scared on a ride, because at that age every- thing was believable to you. When you went into the Lost Dutchman Mine, it felt real. So to me, Legend City was this fasci- nating world that existed somewhere in Phoenix but was this separate enchanted land. It was also my first time seeing Wallace and Ladmo live. McMahon: It wasn’t very long after [Legend City] opened we began doing shows every weekend on the Lagoon [Amphitheatre]. And we loved it because the audience was automatic. Everybody that was in the park at the time, if they could fit into the seating area, would come in for the show and were enthusiastic and part of the fun. And of course, everybody looked forward to winning a Ladmo Bag. Pratt: I remember my brother Tom won 20 a Ladmo Bag and I didn’t. I was crushed. Those performances had all of my favorite characters, all of which were portrayed by Pat McMahon. And I thought they were real. I believed it. I thought Gerald really was an illegitimate relative of Barry Goldwater. I thought Aunt Maude was real. I thought Captain Super’s muscles were real. My parents never wrecked my imagi- nation and set me straight, which made it a lot more fun. Courtesy of John Bueker Above: The Iron Horse train and Legend City. Left: The Sidewinder roller coaster, which operated from 1978 onward. where I’d go into the audience and sing to some young man. And guys would sit at one table because they knew that’s where I’d be at and would stand in line to sit at the table, which was really fun. The other spot was my ventriloquist act with my dummy Kurley-Q. It was a great experience. Dan Horn, local ventriloquist and come- Courtesy of John Bueker McMahon: [With] the Legend City shows, we’d try changing things up with different characters, but Wallace, Ladmo, and Gerald would always be there. And the plot was always “Yay! Boo! Bad guy causes the kids to go crazy, good guy wins” in the end. But sometimes Captain Super would come in as the blowhard phony superhero. And some- times Aunt Maude would come in and read one of those dark stories and would be ushered off the stage after the punchline. But there was always Gerald. You had to have Gerald there or the audience would revolt because Gerald was revolting. Wallace and Ladmo weren’t the only enter- tainment at the park. The Golden Palace Saloon and Lagoon Amphitheatre hosted a variety of performers. Can-can dancers and barbershop quartets like The Copper Tones and Devilaires. Sleight of hand from magi- cians Ed and Nanci Keener. And ventriloquism by Vonda Kay Van Dyke, a future Miss America. Ellis: I started performing at Legend City right after they opened the park. I was doing my Arizona songs and historic music. I wasn’t there on a regular basis, as I was very busy back in those days. I’d just come back from being in The New Christy Minstrels and was doing six nights a week in nightclubs, so I’d work there on special occasions. Beuker: It was like a parade of entertain- ment they recruited locally, some of it [old- timey], some of it more modern. [The late] Serge Huff was the original musical director who brought many of them in, like Vonda Kay Van Dyke. Vonda Kay Van Dyke, ventriloquist, singer, and Miss America 1965: I worked the show at the Golden Palace Saloon and did two spots: One was [singing] “Hello, My Baby” dian: I remember going as a child after Legend City first opened. I saw Vonda Kay Van Dyke perform with Kurley-Q and I just went crazy. It was the neatest puppet I’d ever seen in my life and I was thor- oughly entranced by her and [the] whole illusion. And that’s when I decided that what I wanted to do was be a ventriloquist. That’s where it all started for me. Rough Ride The following summer, Legend City began experiencing more ups and downs than a roller coaster. Despite welcoming 500,000 guests in its first year, the park was facing dire financial woes. Unforeseen expenses and bad business deals, compounded by revenue shortfalls and pricey upkeep of the popular (and frequently broken) antique car ride caused massive debts. Beuker: They got into financial trouble pretty quickly. There were many cost overruns with building the park and it didn’t get the consistent attendance or revenues they expected. Phoenix just didn’t have enough of a population in 1963. People came out, but not as much as they anticipated. To me, more than the heat or anything else, that’s what doomed Legend City: It didn’t get off to a good viable start SEPT 29TH–OCT 5TH, 2022 PHOENIX NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | NEWS | OPINION | FEEDBACK | CONTENTS | phoenixnewtimes.com
