Glass House - 1975

We bought the Glass House from Bertazzon in Italy. It was prefab; we put it all together. Glass Houses are good but I think they wear out their value. One year we renamed it “Palacio de Cristal" or something like that. That’s poor Italian. It was pretty good, but as time went on, it went down in revenue and appeal to the public.      One time I was talking to Johnny Allen of the Philadelphia Toboggan Company, and he was saying that way back there was a glass walkthrough but above the Merry Go Round building. That must have been back in the 1920s.

Gold Mine - 1969

Underneath the arcade building we had a stock room for many years. It was used for refrigerator and freezer and dry storage. It was dispersal place, particularly for our foodstuff, hot dogs, soda and so forth. Of course, the park was a lot smaller in those days. When we moved that to another building with enlarged storage room facilities, this stock room lay idle for a couple years. Then I got to talking to Bill Tracy about what we could put down there. And he came up with this thought of a walkthrough gold mine. All the gadgets and scenes in there were humorous. I told Bill, “Let’s not scare people, let’s make them laugh”, and everything in there was based on humor.      We put up the walkthrough, then we put armatures in there and we got the same outfit that did the Iceberg and they came in and they sprayed everything to make it look like a cave. Bill did a heck of a job and it utilized a space that we probably couldn't have used for anything else. For many years it was a good operation. But they no longer use it for whatever reason.

This attraction was far removed from its past life as a basement storage facility. Not a shelf in sight, as the Gold Mine was a twisting, turning walk through underground caverns where bumbling miners tried to extract gold. As mentioned by Mr. Ott, the scenes were humorous, especially one where a toilet gets the best of one of the miners - another stock stunt customized by Tracy. There was the obligatory teetering stack of TNT boxes. And what Tracy ride would be complete without some consumption of alcoholic beverages? In this case, the miners were celebrating with some moonshine.

Alfundo - 1960

Alfundo was the big clown that was the trademark for Dorney Park for a long time. I asked Bill Tracy to come up with something for the entrance to the park. The entrance was on Dorney Park Road in those days - you’d face right into the coaster and scooter building. So Bill came up with a clown head, made of Fiberglas, on top of that building. First, Bill did a model, which I approved. Then he proceeded to build this huge clown head with outstretched arms that simulated juggling with five lighted balls, three-feet in diameter, made of translucent Fiberglas. You can image how big that clown was with his arms outstretched and the flashing lights going from one to another. That was the trademark for Dorney Park for many years, and we named him Alfundo. Johnny Allen (of PTC) used to say that sounded like a dirty Italian word! But it was a worthwhile investment and, once again, Bill Tracy did a hell of a job on it.      We used to have an Alfundo costumed character running around the park. He had a little gas-powered car called “Alfundo’s Car.” We had a novelty stand called “Alfundo’s House.” We used to put billboards up with Alfundo on them. But when kids saw them they didn’t say “Alfundo,” they said “Dorney Park.” That’s what it was all about! The name Alfundo was derived from three words: AL for Allentown, FUN for fun, and DO for Dorney.