Ghost Town Monster Alumni - 1977-1979
The following interview that
you are about to read is one of those missing puzzle pieces Ultimatehaunt.com
has been seeking for the past two years.
If you read the following information carefully, you will see what type of direct influence the following individual had on not only the Haunt, but specifically Ghost Town.
When Bob Vernon began working the event, the Haunt was still at its very earliest stages. The event had only been going a few years and up to that point was still very much an infant. Read on to discover the incredible foundation that Bob Vernon has left to every single Street Character that has worked the Halloween Haunt ever since.
If you're in the Gauntlet, The Swamp, Carn Evil and especially Ghost Town, it's not out of line to state that your roots and purpose at the Haunt can be directly linked back to Bob Vernon.
Ultimatehaunt.com is very pleased to introduce to you, Mr. Bob Vernon:
If you read the following information carefully, you will see what type of direct influence the following individual had on not only the Haunt, but specifically Ghost Town.
When Bob Vernon began working the event, the Haunt was still at its very earliest stages. The event had only been going a few years and up to that point was still very much an infant. Read on to discover the incredible foundation that Bob Vernon has left to every single Street Character that has worked the Halloween Haunt ever since.
If you're in the Gauntlet, The Swamp, Carn Evil and especially Ghost Town, it's not out of line to state that your roots and purpose at the Haunt can be directly linked back to Bob Vernon.
Ultimatehaunt.com is very pleased to introduce to you, Mr. Bob Vernon:
I started attending the Haunt every year from the very beginning. So I was a fan first. Then in 1977 I began my freshman year at Biola University - which was just down the street from Knotts. I was in need of a part-time job and heard they were hiring. I was already a big fan of Knott's Berry Farm and the Haunt; and I thought why not get paid for being at a place I already loved?!
I remember filling out the application forms in this little adobe office that was right next to the Chicken Dinner restaurant.
I think one of the things that was key in moving me into "entertainment" was that I put down on my application that I had a little acting experience. In high school - I was in numerous plays, I was a Communications major, that type of thing. So, when I got a call back they asked,
"How would you like to be a 'Monster?"
I said, "Are you kidding?! That'd be great!"
They told me they were going to be putting me in what they called a "Peek-In".
A Peek-In was simply one of those rooms you could look into in Ghost Town and see a "still life" - mannequins posed as archetypes of the time. The idea for the Haunt was that we would freeze like a mannequin and once a crowd had formed, jump towards the window and scare them. That's basically how it all started.
How did you go from being in a Peek-In to being a Ghost Town Street Character?
In '77, the only "monsters" I can remember being on the streets were stuntmen (in makeup) on their way to and from the stunt shows. They kind of hung together in a group and would casually sit at the front of the Hotel between shows and "greet" guests as they entered. One year they had a witch up on an elevated stage stirring a cauldron and the ghouls/stunt people stood around for crowd control.
It wasn't at all like what you see today with all these Monsters walking around - mixing with the crowd - whose sole job it is to scare people.
So what I did…
They hired about 8-12 of us to work the Peek-Ins. I don't recall any real formal training no auditions to see if we could act…nothing! I mean, how much orientation do you need if you're going to be locked in a room all night?! I think we only had one day where they explained how to fill out time cards and showed us where our peek-ins were located.
The first night came and I was scheduled to be in the Sheriff's Office (where all the mannequins are sitting around playing cards). When it came time to position me in there we discovered my peek-in was padlocked -
 |
The manager called his support staff on a walkie-talkie and requested another key, but it never showed up! Finally he threw his hands up in the air and said,
"Look, we don't know where the key is. We'll definitely get it for tomorrow night. But until then, why don't you just… well, just kinda walk around… and…uh… scare people!"
So, that's exactly what I did!
Like a fish to water, I just took to it. And man did I have a ball! I remember feeling sorry for all those poor other guys locked in the cramped little peek-in rooms because I was able to run around, on my own - full time; and my sole job was to simply scare people! Up to that point, no one had really mixed with the crowds like that before.
So it was like skiing in untouched, virgin snow - absolutely NO ONE expected it! It totally caught the guests off guard when a monster suddenly showed up right there in their very midst!
Later that night I remember looking over and seeing a small group of managers from Entertainment all laughing and pointing at the guest's reactions to me. I must've done something right because on the second night, Knott's let everybody out of their Peek-Ins. That was the start of it all!
Since we were kind of making it up as we went back then - there weren't really many rules established yet. We could do almost anything we wanted! I remember the second year guidelines started to be laid out. And in the third year a lot more rules were established - which at the time I thought wrecked a lot of the fun. But back in '77, there weren't a lot of rules! No one ever said anything about not touching guests. In fact you could chase people throughout the park. They just told us to "kind of stick around Ghost Town as the main base". As a matter of fact, in the third year I got into some trouble for being outside of Ghost Town and it was because I was used to the first years where we could do our own thing.
As far as I know, 1977 was the first year of the "official" Street Monsters.
A shot of one of the Startling Peek-Ins
What characters were you in the years that you worked there and what was the makeup process that you had to go through?
I was simply called a "Ghost Town Ghoul".
The first year I had a fake, crooked, witch-like, broken nose. I had a brow piece and a cheek appliance that went on the side of my face that was all ripped up. These were all prosthetic pieces that were considered "state-of-the-art" at the time. It wasn't too spectacular by today's standards, but we were all pretty proud of it at the time.
Ghost Town 1977- Bob Vernon as his first Haunt Character
Ghost Town 1978 - Bob Vernon as his second Ghost Town Haunt Character
People who worked Ghost Town would go to an area behind the Ghost Town false fronts where Abel Zeballos led a group of higher skilled makeup artists. Still, there weren't too many people that got prosthetics back then. I did, the Ghost Town Witch did, and there were a few others.
They had a pretty good system where everyone had staggered call times depending on the sophistication of your makeup. Every afternoon they would get you in and out of makeup and wardrobe - with a few minutes to spare - so you could hit your work call time.
Of course, at the end of the night there was major gridlock. Everyone descended on the place at the same time, were dead tired from a long night's work and just wanted to get home - probably still is that way. Unfortunately, those of us with the prosthetics would be the last one's out since we had to wait for someone to come and carefully pull the appliances off us.
A display of one of the early Peek-Ins
I had interviewed with Gary Salisbury [Entertainment Director] who thought I might be able to help out with the shows beyond crowd control. I was the right size, I had athletic ability - was a football player at the time. He asked me if I would be interested in getting involved in the stunts. And eventually we even talked about the possibility of it turning into a full-time gig.
That old Burt Reynolds movie, "Hooper" had just been released and I totally bought the romanticized image of a stuntman the film portrayed hook, line and sinker. So the idea of becoming a stuntman was VERY cool and I jumped at the chance! Told him I'd do whatever he needed!
To give me a chance to try it out, they made me a sort of "second-tier" stuntman, started teaching me gags and slowly worked me into the shows. I wasn't on the level of the full-time stuntmen; those guys actually knew what they were doing!
How were you involved in the early Hanging Shows? [note - the first Hanging Show debuted in 1978]
On the Hanging, we'd drag the Witch through the crowds up to the stage. There would be an official proclamation and a shotgun would go off, scaring the crowd to get them to be quiet.
She would have her last words and tell everybody "You're all cursed! I'll be back and have my revenge!" And then we'd put the noose over her head and drop her through the trap door - hanging her.
Once she was good and "dead" we would pull her back up and cover her in a shroud. At that exact moment there would be a blinding explosion! The shroud would drop revealing that she had somehow disappeared! A black bird was the only thing left which would fly out of the shroud and over the heads of the crowd.
Knott's had installed these speakers all the way down Ghost Town so that the witches cackling voice would pan down the street with the flight of the bird.
But backing up to the actual hanging: It was my job to put the noose around the Witch's neck and then discreetly attach a small "hook" bound within the braids of the noose to her body harness. The problem was they obviously didn't want people to see how we did it so the hook wasn't very big. I remember thinking,
"I can't believe they're letting me do this!"
The reason I was so worried was because I was the only character that had one eye covered! Meaning: I had absolutely no depth perception! I knew that if I missed that hook she was either going to actually hang or have one long fall!
In the show, she only fell a foot or so - a fairly small drop - but if I didn't get that hook in there just right…!
Like I said there was a huge powder flash when she disappeared. In one of the rehearsals, the flash must not have been as big as the director wanted. He got really upset, turned to the special effects man and said,
"I told you that I wanted a huge explosion! Do it again! Only - this time - make it BIG!"
So the effects guy laid out more flash powder and they did it again. It was definitely bigger - but I guess not big enough. The director really screamed at the effects guy this time. They both went back and forth for a while and tempers flared!
Finally the effects guy decided to give the director exactly what he wanted. He dumped large amounts of this flash powder all around us - huge trails of flash powder across the railing, on the floorboards… everywhere. I was a little worried but didn't know quite what to expect.
Finally the part of the show comes where the witch disappears; and this deafening powderkeg goes off...KABOOOOM!
It was sheer hysteria for a few moments as the rest of the cast and I frantically patted out small bits of flames on our clothes and hair. Nothing too serious, but I remember getting my arms slightly burned, my costume was singed, the hair in my wig was instantly a couple inches shorter.
We all felt like Michael Jackson in that Pepsi commercial. It was pretty bad. The special effects guy certainly got it right that time! But, of course, the director told him he could make it a tad smaller next time.
 |
I think it was basically a tried and true stunt show that Knott's had been doing over the years (the show where they had a shoot-out with the Sheriff). Only it was adapted for Halloween to feature Monsters and a Witch.
If I remember right, the Sheriff had somehow captured the Witch and we (the monsters) were trying to get her back. We would milk the standoff for comedy bits and finally end the show with a grand finale shoot-out.
For the final gag we were supposed to charge the well-armed Sheriff. He had a double-barreled shotgun in his left hand and a six-gun revolver in the other. Because all four of us were supposed to rush him at once, it was carefully choreographed so that each one of us, would reach pre-determined marks at just the exact moment - and more importantly distance - to be blown away.
The night I remember most of all… Of course we strictly used safety blanks in all the shows. The only thing that came out of the end of the guns was a flash of powder and the wad of paper that was holding the powder in the shell. Only problem is if you're too close to the end of a gun when it fires a blank it still packs quite a wallop and that small little wad of paper is moving at such a high velocity, it can become almost as lethal as a bullet.
If you remember, several Hollywood actors have been killed by blanks in the past.
Well, the show went smoothly every night except this one time. Like I said we were choreographed to charge the Sheriff and supposed to hit our marks at a very precise time to be shot at a safe distance. I was supposed to be the first guy to get it so I was out in the lead. I hit my mark right where I was supposed to be, but for some reason the sheriff lost track and shot the three other guys before he got to me! I kept on running at him thinking he'd maybe hit me to the ground with the butt of the gun or something. But he must not have seen me coming until the last minute, because - to my horror - I saw that double barreled shot gun swing around toward me and go off!
Not only was it deafening, but it literally threw me all the way over so that I landed on my head. Blew my wig right off. Just a really fast, backwards somersault that I had no control over whatsoever.
We all knew the seriousness of what had just happened, but the crowd had no idea and went crazy! They thought it was part of the show and loved it! Probably because it looked so realistic and out of control - which it was! I was a little dazed at first. They immediately dragged me into the Saloon to see if I was okay. On closer inspection we found that the powder had gone right through my shirt and burned a perfect shotgun blast pattern across my chest.
