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| The
glorious Pretzel delivery van with its proud message "Manufactured
in Bridgeton, NJ" boldly emblazoned on its side.
Famed show painter Slick Reynolds, who decorated the truck,
stands beside it along with Pretzel Ride Co. owner Bill
Cassidy. |
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"We
drove that truck all the way out to California. Slick
painted it. It got a lot of attention. Wherever we went,
we tried to publicize our hometown, and we always tried
to use local labor and materials whenever possible."
Several
artists were employed over the years to do the decorative
painting on the fronts of dark rides. The "flash"
on the façade
was important. Some owners would have the outside of
their rides repainted almost every year to make it appear
like a new attraction, although seldom was the inside
actually updated.
Some
of the artists employed by Pretzel for this work, in
addition to Reynolds, were Shirley Simmons, Howard Hewlett
and Bill Tracy. Tracy later went into competition with
Pretzel when he started building and selling dark rides
on his own.
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Shirley
Simmons was a multi-faceted artist reputed to have been
a Hollywood set designer, and to have been schooled at
various American universities and in Paris. In addition
to painting, he was involved in creating figures and the
first foam-fiberglass wall panels for Pretzel.
On Simmons:
Well, he was your typical artist. He did have a wife.
He was a pretty nice guy. I drove to get lumber from the
lumber yard and he ordered a whole slew of fancy knives.
He really didn’t need them for what he was doing - maybe
one of them. So I had to tell them not to sell him anything
without my OK. And he would work nights, not days. All
night long. He was a nice guy and I liked him. But he
was just odd. Eccentric, you'd call it today. He'd usually
have one of his Alaskan Husky dogs with him wherever he
went. He had around nine of them." |
Above:
Shirley Simmons at work in the Pretzel shop preparing
scenery for the "Caveman" portable double-decker
dark ride.
Inset: Doug Cassidy, ride owner Al LeFleur, Elmer
Lawrence and Simmons observe the construction
of the "Caveman" ride at the Amusements
of America carnival in 1964. |
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| The
most notable artist to work on projects for Pretzel was
Bill Tracy. Before concentrating on his own dark ride
design business, Outdoor Dimensional Display Co., Tracy
did sub-contract work for several Pretzel ride facades.
Regarding
Tracy, Mr. Cassidy had these recollections:
" Well, we put in a ride
at Atlantic City on a pier down the south end. He did
the façade. It was the Orient Express. We put the ride
in. He was contracted separately by the owners to build
the front. I think the first time we got in touch with
Bill Tracy, if I remember, I met him up in Newark or
somewhere. And then we put, on Steel Pier, underneath
the pier, we put a ride with sheets with luminous paints.
He was involved in that. He did put fronts on our rides
like the Haunted House at Seaside Heights. The Orient
Express - that was a beautiful front - he did that one.
He was my competition at one time. He put a ride in
at Eerie, PA., Waldameer Park. We gave them a price
too, but he won that one. Last time I saw him he was
living in a lobster house or something like that in
Cape May."
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| Tracy
designed this elaborate facade for the
Pretzel-built Orient Express ride which
was built on Million-Dollar Pier in Atlantic
City. |
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| Tracy's
familiar Whacky Shack-style facade on
Pretzel's Haunted House double-decker
ride which was located on Casino Pier,
Seaside Heights, NJ. |
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