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This article is a continuation of the history of The World of Sid and Marty Krofft. READ PART I
A Tour Around Atlanta’s Defunct Theme Park
“Now, all the fun is indoors.” That was the tagline for the all-new World of Sid and Marty Krofft. The first-of-its-kind theme park officially opened Wednesday, May 26, 1976, at 10 a.m. inside Atlanta’s 10,000-square-foot Omni International megacomplex. The indoor setting allowed for year-round operations.
The Omni’s 14-story atrium had retail and dining options as well as an ice skating rink under a 1.5-acre skylight. Glimpses of the Krofft park could be seen across its balcony-style decks stacked over the atrium, with the park’s name expressively displayed along a middle level. The Omni International Hotel, which overlooked the atrium, featured a World of Sid and Marty Krofft suite.
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Flight to Fantasy
The most prominent feature in the Omni’s atrium was its record-breaking free-span escalator. This lift was not just world’s longest free-span escalator at 205 feet, but it was also the grand entrance to The World of Sid and Marty Krofft. The escalator, manufactured by Westinghouse Electric Corporation, soared 90 feet above the Omni floor to “a land that we had never been to,” as Sid Krofft told Creative Loafing in 2003.
The two-minute climb to the top floor was just the beginning of the Krofft experience. The World of Sid and Marty Krofft was a sequential theme park spread across eight floors with five unique lands, known as “environments.” These themed environments were “each a world within a world of fantasy,” as Marty Krofft explained it to The Atlanta Constitution. The multi-level park was designed to be experienced in descending order starting on the top floor and going down—via stairs or lifts—until reaching the ground level.
Fantasy Fair
Once visitors stepped off the escalator, they were greeted by two 18-foot jester statues standing at the entrance of the park’s first environment: Fantasy Fair. The small upper terrace had some welcoming performers as well as conveniences like guest relations, but the fun began down a set of stairs to Fantasy Fair’s main midway.
Fantasy Fair was inspired by Sid Krofft’s love for renaissance fairs and live entertainment. Performers welcomed visitors to an escape from reality decorated with balloons, drapes, tents, circus wagons, and sideshow acts.
Fantasy Fair made a first impression with its one-on-one entertainment such as musicians, puppeteers, mimes, jugglers, and costumed Krofft characters like H.R. Pufnstuf. Some highlights included costumed characters like Alex, a sword swallower; Betty Broadbent, a tattooed dancer; Tina Tarantula, a spider lady with a human head; Baby Irene, a big pig; and Tiny Tom, the world’s littlest little person. Guests could also meet a witty fortune teller cat puppet accompanied by a ventriloquist’s talking head.
The soundtrack for Fantasy Fair was provided by the Magical Music Machine: a quarter-million-dollar instrument that made music with doodads from bottles to xylophone mallets.
Fantasy Fair’s emphasis on live entertainment was just a preview of the 100 performers around the park at any given time and its nearly 600 employees.
Tranquility Terrace
After Fantasy Fair, visitors entered the next environment: Tranquility Terrace. This woodsy area had a small amphitheater where visitors could enjoy or participate in a variety of 20 different shows, acts, live music, and impromptu performances from Kroffts’ household characters.
The World of Sid and Marty Krofft experience up to this point had been all live entertainment; however, in Tranquility Terrace, visitors would find the park’s first of three rides: The Crystal Carousel.
The Crystal Carousel
This merry-go-round wasn’t your typical carnival ride. The Crystal Carousel was a fully customized attraction with more than 50 crystalline figures of mythological creatures such as pegasi, centaurs, and griffins. The carousel’s graceful figures—made from polyester resin—looked like sculptures, so the Kroffts were justified to advertise the ride as a “marvel of art, prismatic effects, and space age technology.”
The Crystal Carousel—like the park’s other rides—was designed by former aerospace engineers. The attraction weighed 60 tons in total, with the figures weighing about 800 pounds each. Despite its hefty weight, a ride on The Crystal Carousel gave the sensation of floating on a cushion of air—thanks to a hidden system of 12 airbags, inflated to 26 pounds per square inch.
Tranquility Concessions
Tranquility Terrace also had gift shops, a forested dining area called Rooftop Rest, and a venue for private parties.
Uptown
Deeper into The World of Sid and Marty Krofft was its flashiest environment: Uptown. For the highlight of Uptown, visitors were shrunk down to the size of a pinball.
Pinball Machine
Pinball Machine was one of the park’s two dark rides, simulating the sensory experience of a pinball machine. Visitors huddled in pinball ride vehicles, gliding and clanking through 700 feet of track, which was concealed under the slotted floor.
The Pinball Machine experience started with a 10-foot-tall robot pulling the plunger and springing the silvery ride vehicle into the life-sized arcade cabinet. The 6-foot pinball rattled through the colorful chrome playfield with bumpers, flippers, flashing lights, and authentic sound effects. After bouncing around the colorful playfield, the ball rolled into a Bonus Play compartment decked out with disorienting mirrors.
The ride continued into the recesses of the pinball machine along its gears, circuits, and coins. Riders passed by a flashing neon sign that read “GAME OVER” and through a colorful tunnel of lights to end the four-minute ride.
Uptown Arcade
Once out of the human pinball machine, guests could visit the Uptown Arcade and play pinball, Skee-Ball, and other arcade games.
Uptown Concessions
Uptown also had a small food court, International Food Fair, with six kiosks selling dishes such as pizza, crepes, tacos, and hamburgers.
Lidsville
The World of Sid and Marty Krofft continued onto the next environment: Lidsville. In this area, visitors were transported to the world from the Krofft TV show, Lidsville, about a boy who fell into a magical top hat where he was trapped in a town of talking headgear.
Lidsville served as the park’s primary retail area with a small eatery and midway games. The main draw of Lidsville was a specialty of the Krofft brothers: a puppet show.
Celebration
The Lidsville Theater was a 1,000-seat venue that was “a combination of every night club, world’s fair, and arena [Sid and Marty have] ever seen, plus all the things those shows missed,” according to the park’s manager, Dick Weston.
Audiences gathered for 10 showings per day of a puppet musical called Celebration. The show was a spectacle of music, lights, and sets with animated puppetry like a real-life cartoon. Its all-star cast featured puppet caricatures of music legends like The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Stevie Wonder, and Elton John.
The show took odd turns, including a skit with Frankenstein’s Monster, a puppet ice skating act, and a spoof of Jaws. In true 1976 fashion, Celebration ended with a patriotic finale known as the Bielectricentennial. Lights twinkled throughout the extravagant finale, featuring a tap-dancing eagle in an Uncle Sam getup and an energetic version of God Bless America.
Once the curtains closed, the audience went backstage for a behind-the-scenes tour of the production.
Living Island
From Lidsville, visitors stepped into a rickety mine shaft elevator, lowering 50 feet down. It reached the bottom floor and to the final attraction at The World of Sid and Marty Krofft: Living Island Adventure.
Living Island Adventure
Based on the H.R. Pufnstuf TV show, Living Island Adventure was a $2 million omnimover dark ridewith a number of mechanical figures.
Employees, wearing miner overalls, ushered visitors into one of 40 clamshell-style ride vehicles, similar to The Haunted Mansion at Disney Parks. The nearly 10-minute experience told a story of H.R. Pufnstuf and his tussles against Witchiepoo; she was after Pufnstuf and his keystone coppers, Cling and Clang.
Living Island Adventure journeyed through sets both dazzling and dark, sparkly and spooky. The ride wandered through Living Island’s meadows and anthropomorphic woods, where the show’s talking trees could be found.
Riders stumbled upon the Heavenly Slumber Cemetery; the creepy scene showed the darker side of Living Island with The Evil Trees and The Mushrooms, who talked like old-timey crooks. The ride had even more frightening moments through the halls and chambers of Witchiepoo’s castle with minions like Seymour Spider, Stupid Bat, and Orson Vulture lurking about. Apparently, Witchie’s castle had a Krofft Easter egg as two gargoyles that resembled Sid and Marty perched along its walls.
In a scene outside Pufnstuf’s cave, Witchie flew overhead on her jet-propelled broomstick, the “Vroom Broom,” while Cling and Clang dashed toward riders on the Rescue Racer.
The adventure continued into Dr. Blinky’s sneezing house; all the living items on the wise owl’s shelves watched as he used a hand pump of “Witch Be-Gone” (patent-pending). Witchiepoo and her “Vroom Broom” crashed into a puddle, soaking in defeat while Puf proudly waved to riders.
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