Archive for July, 2009
There is now only 100 Days until Halloween 2009.
Many online stores are now getting their new merchandise in stock.
Check out Spirit Halloween for their new items. They also have a lot of things that are sold only at their online store.
I had a pleasant time at the final Ironstock Haunt Conference this past weekend. Producers Ralph “Ironman” and Melissa “Ironlady” Griffith gave us all many opportunities to smile, laugh and sigh as the tenth and last Ironstock show wound its way from Friday evening until late Sunday afternoon.
Some bullet points about the conference:
1. The weather was hot in Tell City, Indiana, with temperatures in the low 90s and brilliant sunshine. No one left the shade of the pavilions unless to participate in the coffin races or vie for a free t-shirt blasted out of Ironman’s air-cannon howitzer.
2. I worked with “The Not So Secret Society of the Bitch Sisters”as a volunteer slug. These big-mouthed broads allowed me run the t-shirt sales booth on Saturday afternoon. Just for fun, I purchased a shocking-pink “Bitch Sisters” t-shirt and proudly wore it that day. (Guys, here’s a little fashion secret for you – if you want to completely freak out women, wear pink.)
3. Ironstock has its own relaxed schedule of doing things, usually 30-45 minutes behind what’s been advertised. (All the other haunt conventions that I attend are fairly punctual as to when classes, auctions, meetings, tours and parties begin and end.) I suspect that the heat and humidity had a hand here. Many attendees grabbed empty chairs and tables in the shaded pavilions and did little more than sit around all day, yak and stay hydrated.
Much of what I experienced at Ironstock in my only previous visit (2006) was different. There was no tour of Ironman’s “Slaughter on Second Street” haunted attraction, however the haunt still thrives during the October “season.” Instead of a rollicking outdoor party in the Ramada Inn’s parking lot on Friday night there was a welcome reception in the basement of the fairground’s party center. The overall number of attendees and vendors took a few steps back from 2006. Perhaps it was out of sympathy that they stayed away. Not all of us, it seems, enjoy watching a good friend die.
A mock funeral for the Ironstock conference was held on Friday evening, right after the welcome reception ended. The Bitch Sisters stood by in all black dresses with hats and veils as a metal coffin, symbolizing Ironstock, was lugged to the front of the modest banquet hall by six long-time attendees. There were grand speeches and testimonials mixed with shouts and cries from the audience. I watched a tough-looking man with a crewcut right next to me, who had attended every Ironstock, burst into longs bouts of tears as he weepingly told the crowd how much he will miss them all. I will miss them, too.
At nearly the last moment, I was asked to be a speaker at the funeral and I gladly accepted. What I told the audience was that the death of Ironstock might also be a disguised, happy beginning for something better. I briefly gave them a look at my history of producing haunted conventions. The Ohio Haunted Conferences that I was a part of in 2001 and 2002 ran out of producers in 2003 and quickly screeched to a halt. But later, through the efforts of Kathy and Barry Schieferestein and Neena and Kelly Collins, the show transmorgrified itself into the Midwest Haunters Convention and remains a point of pride for us Ohioans to this day.
A few more bullet points – these are about Saturday:
1. The attendees, nearly all of whom are yard haunters, just jabbered the day away with each other. I saw long conversations at vendor booths as both sides jockeyed over a potential sales transaction. You couldn’t leave the shade of the pavilions and be in the sun for more than a few minutes before feeling its effects. Since we were all somewhat imprisoned under the pole barns, we had no choice but to be sociable with one another.
2. The Saturday night fashion show is an event that I’ve never seen at other haunt conventions. The costumes were provided by large as well as quite small costume vendors. Men, women and children sashayed down the runway, under the spotlight, sporting all sorts of looks. We laid our eyes on styles from the Greek god Dionysus to modern-day goth punk.
3. The Weasel Ball (the convention’s DJ-ed dance party) ran from 9 PM until 1 AM. There were plenty of people on the dance floor, including yours truly, all night. In the middle of the show the lights came on and we partygoers voted for the best table display in the banquet hall. (Table display contests are a regular feature at Ironstock, again a competition that I’ve never seen at other conventions.) The winner was a miniature Norman castle tower with a “bottomless pit” mirror effect inside the tower, illuminated by miniature UV LED spotlights.
Ironstock was a ten-year labor of love for Ralph and Melissa. It’s a good thing that they have plenty of love for the haunt industry because the labor of presenting a convention can be somewhat overwhelming at times. Like nearly every other haunt convention, Ironstock survived and thrived because of the many volunteers who poured in their energy and the vendor-friends who donated merchandise to give away.
The Bitch Sisters cooked up their own special weekend raffle to raise money to cover the convention’s costs. As I understand it, the table top displays at the Weasel Ball were for sale to whomever wanted them and the proceeds would also cover convention costs. I don’t know what the vendors paid for their booths and I don’t care. Weekend attendees, such as myself, forked over twenty bucks for a purple wristband that proclaimed that we were there for the duration. Those who attended just for the day on Saturday reached for a ten-spot and wore an orange wristband. Everyone I spoke to hoped that all this revenue would cover the show and weren’t concerned about anything beyond that.
Regretfully, Ironstock now belongs to history. But perhaps its spirit might still live on. A company called Fright Night Productions intends to put on a haunt show in the Louisville area next June 11-13 at the Holiday Inn Express Louisville Northwest. There is, as of yet, no name for the show nor a Web site. Other rumors I heard talked about adding a haunt show to next year’s Horror Hound movie/memorabilia show in Indianapolis. The site is HorrorHound Weekend – horror movie convention and film festival. And there were a few more rumors of even a third possible show in the general area where Indiana and Kentucky come together.
All these attempts at new conventions demonstrate how much Ironstock will be missed. What made it a special gathering was that it was tiny jewel of haunted elegance set amidst the vast farmlands of the great Midwest.
Ever since I learned that 2009 would be the final year I knew that I had to attend, and I’m glad I did. What we in the commercial haunt industry don’t always remember is that the home/yard- haunt industry continues to steadily grow as the years go by. Yet, it’s dicey if the remnants of Ironstock can conjure up three viable haunted gatherings. But it wouldn’t surprise me if two successful replacement shows appear on next year’s convention calendar. A hydra effect, where two sprout up to replace one fallen, would be a fitting epitaph for Ironstock.
Onward, my brothers and sisters in terror.
Rex B. Hamilton
13939 Clifton Boulevard
Lakewood, Ohio 44107-1462
216.226.7764 (home)
EvilLordZargon@msn.com
“Haunted house actor is not an entry-level position” Roger “Ichabod” Miller
As the 2009 Halloween Season approaches, you may have heard the new SpiritHalloween.com podcast commercial on various Halloween and Haunt oriented podcasts.
Check it out here:
Greetings, Fellow Haunters:
The 9th annual Great Lakes Fright Fest (GLFF) happened this past weekend at Totem Pole Park – a tidy, compact campground, in Petersburg, Michigan. Once again, I happily enjoyed myself. The show was a pleasant success. Here are some bullet points:
*The number of cans of human food donated: 1,477
*The number of cans of pet food donated: 473
*The number of pounds of dry dog food donated: 1,000 (new record)
*The total number of attendees: more than 400 (new record)
*I celebrated the beginning of my 35th season of haunted-house acting. (Who cares? I do.)
*The haunted house ran from about 9:30 PM till around 12:15 AM
*As of this writing I don’t know what the customer count at the haunt was, but my guess is 325
*Next year’s Great Lakes Fright Fest will be a challenge, but we will all get through it safely.
The bigger picture that Fright Fest producer Kkrazy Kkaren Taylor has been attempting to project in recent years is the phrase “Haunters Against Hunger.” Perhaps another way of articulating it would be something like this: Money is just fancy pieces of paper; but food will keep you alive.
At the GLFF, the attendees feed each other with outright food donations for breakfasts and lunches, and homemade potluck dishes for Saturday dinner. Attendees do even more by feeding those less fortunate by donating food items as admission to the haunted house. The haunt did not raise as many cans of human food as it did last year, but the amount of pet food that was donated took a nice jump.
No one goes hungry at Great Lakes Fright Fest because of the waterfall of food donations. It seems that every attendee brings something for the greater good.
A few more bullet points:
*The seminars on Saturday morning were actually ahead of schedule. (Unusual? Quite.)
*There were more dogs at the Fright Fest than I can remember. For the first time, there were Greyhound rescue dogs amongst us.
*The days were sunny and glorious, but the temperatures never climbed above the low 70s.
*Totem Pole Park was completely sold out for the weekend.
*The fog was thicker at The Grand Fog-off on Saturday night than ever before. The complete lack of a breeze in the early evening was instrumental for spreading a lingering fog for hundreds of yards in all directions.
*Mother Nature continued her good streak by not raining on us while the haunt was open. She did send down a few tiny sprinkles as we partied away around 1 AM. We’re not mad. Honest.
I have told you about some of the smile-inducing moments at Great Lakes Fright Fest. But the sad thing I must inform you of is that I will not be able to attend next year. Kkrazy Kkaren regretfully announced to the crowd that in 2010 both the Great Lakes Fright Fest and the Midwest Haunters Convention will take place on the same weekend. This is a choice I wish I didn’t have to make, but my business commitments to MHC and the IAHA win out.
The fact that I can’t attend the Fright Fest in 2010 makes me doubly grumpy because it will be their 10th anniversary. But I’m not worried for them. The Fright Fest doesn’t try to be a typical haunted convention with vendor booths, haunt tours and a costume ball. Instead, it actively bills itself as a family reunion for haunters. Since there are so many home haunters (the show’s target audience) in the general Detroit/Toledo area, I predict that attendance will be fine.
In just the past few years, some of the annual activities of the International Association of Haunted Attractions have taken place at MHC, rather than at the TransWorld convention. (The year 2009 is no exception.) Perhaps the Fright Fest should invite the several different associations of home haunters to attend? Home Haunters of America and Home Haunters Association are just two of them. If these organizations can be coaxed into joining up with GLFF in 2010, my opinion is that attendance could actually grow.
You should see my 2009 photographs on the GLFF’s Web site by early next week.
Very truly yours,
Rex B. Hamilton
13939 Clifton Boulevard
Lakewood, Ohio 44107-1462
216.226.7764 (home)
EvilLordZargon@msn.com
Free Shipping on Orders Over $49 on Halloween Costume and Prop purchases at Spirit Halloween
Limited Time Offer
May 24, 2009 Columbus, Ohio – The Midwest Haunters Convention, MHC returns to Columbus the weekend of June 5, 6 & 7, 2009. This will be the 6th year for the MHC which features a free public Halloween Trade Show; which is the largest event of its kind – primarily serving the Halloween and Haunted Attraction Industry. The Midwest Haunters Convention is the premiere event in the US for providing education, social events and shopping opportunities. The weekend starts with a Friday Midsummer Monster Bash followed by a Halloween trade show and ends with an unforgettable masquerade party. Social events with celebrity hosts include the following:
A Midsummer Monster Bash at the Frog, Bear & Wild Boar on Friday, June 5th. Sponsored by Dead Acres & Westland Insurance. We’re bringing the haunt to our party with a haunted house acting competition, Scary-oke and a costumed band, Scarlet Angel. The bar will be decorated with some of the newest haunted house props available. Advance tickets are only $7 ($12 at the door) for this Halloween extravaganza.
There’s free admission to the two day Exhibitor Trade Show with over 100 exhibit booths. The trade show hours are 9 am – 5 pm Saturday June 6 and 10:00 am – 4:00 pm on Sunday June 7 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.
Saturday starting at 4:30 pm; the Bloody Mary Monster Makeup Wars competition welcomes five teams of makeup artists from around the country in a competition for cash and prizes. Each team will get 30 minutes to create a monster from the neck up. This fast paced contest provides FX artists an opportunity to showcase their abilities with their piers. Bloody Mary makeup inventor; Bobbie Weiner is a professional Hollywood Special Effects Makeup artist. Bobbie will help judge this horrific contest.
Saturday 8:30 pm to 1:00 am June 6, the International Association of Haunted Attractions hosts a Masquerade Party at the Hyatt Regency. Over 1,500 guests will be on hand for an evening with monsters from around the country. Haunted attraction actors will compete in contests for cash and prizes. The evening activities include the following:
– Eight contestants will be competing for the title and crown of the Scariest Woman in the Midwest. This scary pageant has been rated as one of the top ’13 Freaky Attractions’ by AOL Online. Special guest; Crazy Bob Turner, the Dean of Hauntertainer University will emcee our Saturday night contests with flair!
– Judges will be roaming through the crowd handing out invitations to compete in the Scariest Character Contest. Ten contestants will compete on stage for cash and prizes. Haunted attraction actors from around the country will be competing for this coveted award. Hollywood type special effects and movie quality character costumes will provide fantastic photo opportunities.
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– The evening includes a Body Art Fashion Show that features some of the best body painters from around the country – presented by Wolfe Face Art and FX. Our models will be painted with a Halloween Fantasy theme and perform as they strut across the stage. Chuck Williams will entertain us with finesse while introducing our models. During the past two decades, Chuck Williams has continued to establish himself as one of Hollywood’s hardest working celebrities. Chuck is now on THE GIRLS NEXT DOOR Season 5 . . . and just produced “THE TELLING” starring THE GIRLS NEXT DOOR.
The cost for the masquerade party is $40 which includes the following: Heavy Hors d’ovres, DJ w/dance floor, entertainment, prizes and a place to party with lots of Halloween costumed friends. The Hyatt Regency ballroom will be decorated by Terror Within.
The Midwest Haunters Convention (MHC) attracts haunted attraction producers, actors, makeup artists, entertainers and home haunters. Anyone with a love of Halloween or theatrics will enjoy the many festivities associated with the convention.
A full press release and photos are available from the web site or upon request.
For more information, please visit www.MidwestHauntersConvention.com or contact Kelly Collins at 614-203-4626 or E-mail Kelly@Midwesthaunters.com
Calling all Trekkies…
New Star Trek Movie costumes are in stock.
Many different costumes to choose from including your favorites Captain Kirk, Spock.
Check them out at http://www.SpiritHalloween.com
Greetings Fellow Haunters:
The TransWorld show in St. Louis last weekend was my first visit to the Gateway City in darn close to 40 years. It was a fun show with lots to see and do. For me personally, it was a time to feel proud and as well as a time to feel exonerated. I’ll talk about these further down the page.
More than a hundred years ago St. Louis was the fourth-largest city in the country, something we attendees noticed in the many old, large, warehouse-type buildings that lie about the city. Prop-making companies and haunted attractions have plenty of places to set up shop.
The drive from Cleveland to St. Looie was a 10-hour journey through the flatlands of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. It was mile after mile of gazing upon manicured farmland, gathering strength in the warm sunshine to produce another bounty of corn and soybeans this summer.
My traveling companion, Jeff “Scared Stiff” Glatzer and I shared a room on the 16th floor of the Renaissance Grand and Suites Hotel. When we looked out our window, we could plainly see the entrance to the America’s Center. It is a nice-looking convention facility that had plenty of room for the haunt industry along with a large convention of energetic teenagers who are associated with the D.A.R.E. program.
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As soon as we unpacked the car late on Thursday afternoon the 26th, we headed across the street to one of the meeting rooms in the convention center. TransWorld threw a cocktail reception for those who had already registered for the convention. TW big shots Joe Thayer and Jennifer Braverman stood just inside the door, quietly greeting their guests. The party featured a free bar, a few hors d’oeuvres, and plenty of space for attendees to mingle.
Around 7:30 PM Jeff and I jumped into the car and headed off to a restaurant called Jake’s Steaks in the nearby “Landings” district. There we met Shane of Greystone Manor in Alabama, the haunter who had first proposed the event earlier this year via the Internet. The multiple dining rooms at Jake’s had plenty of haunters seated in them. Even though it was a Thursday and a “work night” parking lots were full and the sidewalks were dotted with groups of friends out for an evening.
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Friday the 27th was the first day of the convention itself. Dutifully, I was at the entrance door at the 9:30 opening bell. We all rushed in, gawking at everything that came across our path. I slowly voyaged around the convention floor until the clock turned 11 AM.
I returned to the hotel, grabbed my camera and headed out on a road trip with no road map and no GPS. My first year of college (1968-1969) was spent at Parks College of Aeronautical Technology of St. Louis University in the small village of Cahokia, Illinois – just south of East St. Louis, IL. It was an all-male, Jesuit college that attracted geeks who wanted to become aeronautical or aerospace engineers. From the little bit of research I’d done earlier this year, it appeared that the college was closed and abandoned some years ago.
Having no maps of the area, I worked on feel. There are three bridges that connect Illinois to St. Louis and I drove back and forth over two of them in my efforts to find landmarks that I remembered from so long ago. It took about an hour and a half and lots of U-turns to find the college. Much of this haphazard driving was in East St. Louis, probably the worst-looking city I’ve ever seen. Forty years ago it was a horrible, crowded slum with lousy government and a school system that had collapsed. Today it’s mostly an abandoned wasteland that is difficult to describe. There isn’t a single stretch of road in reasonably good shape. Most of the buildings have been torn down. You don’t just see vacant lots – you see vacant _blocks_ and plenty of them. Trees – what trees? The rest is a weed-infested, trash-strewn, wrecked-building Beirut. It’s only about 4 miles away from downtown St. Louis.
I’ve worked at a few haunts that have had large, artistic scenes that depicted a major urban disaster. Maybe caused by war, disease, radiation poisoning, attack of the zombies, etc. At one haunt, this scene of urban apocalypse was three stories tall and featured wrecked automobiles and light trucks as set dressing. If you ever need inspiration for an urban disaster scene, go drive around East St. Louis, Illinois for a few hours. It makes the ghettoes here in Cleveland look downright pretty by comparison.
I actually drove right by the campus without recognizing it. What was the landmark that made a light bulb go off inside my head and memories come rushing back into focus? Thumping over a particular railroad crossing at the edge of a nearby abandoned airfield. It was like somebody flipped a switch inside me. It just goes to show you what 40 years can do to your memory.
For nearly an hour I wandered around the small, still campus. I snapped a few photos. Mostly I gawked at how small the buildings actually are. Most are one story high. The whole place only had about 500 on-campus students.
It was a luscious Spring day. The daffodils were blooming like crazy, the tulips had a good week to go and flowering trees were just coming into their annual glory. And through it all, I was a visitor in the land of the dead. I was the only human in sight. Around me was a dead college, mourning for her geeky students and oddball professors. (I could tell you many tales.) There was peeling paint like crazy, rotten tree limbs that had fallen onto roofs, holes in walls and signs that had blown completely away. But not a speck of graffiti or vandalism. The entire place is frozen in time like the fictional town of Willoughby. After all these decades, I finally met a part of my past and was exonerated by it. A true Twilight Zone moment.
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The rest of Friday had more surprises in store for me. I spent as much of the late afternoon as I could touring the convention floor. At 5 PM I zipped back to the hotel to get ready for the IAHA Banquet. Jeff and I met a soft-spoken redhead named Maggie Courtis from Fresno, California as we left the hotel for the historic Lemp Grand Hall, site of the banquet. She asked for a ride to the party and we happily complied. We shared a table just to the right of the speaker’s podium. Later that evening we were surprised to learn that Maggie was a candidate for the IAHA Board of Directors election that was held during the banquet. She won a term of office. Face it: it’s hard to know everyone in the haunt industry, and in the long run it pays handsomely to be friendly to all.
The Lemp Grand Hall is on the top floor of an elderly commercial building the size of a city block. As banquet halls go, this one wasn’t very big but it had a nice rooftop patio attached to it so that you could take your cocktail outside and gaze over the St. Louis skyline. For the second year in a row, the association provided a nice buffet dinner to the attendees. There was but a single bartender, but this guy was definitely on the ball.
I was proud to receive The President’s Award that evening for my three decades of work in the haunt industry. The plaque itself is made of clear acrylic, shaped in the form of a church window with purple, metal-flake edges to it. The etched inscription reads: “In grateful recognition of your support for the International Association of Haunted Attractions and your outstanding dedication and contributions to the haunted attraction industry.”
Bobbie Wiener, Leonard Pickel, Rodney Nightscream, Froggy’s Fog and other vendors and haunt luminaries also received awards that evening. It would have been a better party if there was a sound system so that attendees could hear what we speakers were saying. Instead, we relied on voice power alone.
Right around 9 PM the banquet shut down and we happy haunters clomped down the steep wooden stairs to street level and walked around to the building’s opposite side. There we entered the large, raucous Creative Visions party. When I visited Mark McDonough, the president of the company, at his convention booth early that morning he told me that more than 500 people had signed up to attend his shindig.
There were plenty of party trays sitting out for consumption. The bar, as far as I could tell, was free. The firm has a lot of space to create its creations and entertain gobs of guests. Their most recent piece was a replica of the Moon which in the last few days was hoisted atop a new hotel in town.
As the evening wound down, Jeff and I drove back to our hotel to find it packed with people. We couldn’t help but join in the festivities for a while longer. Probably longer than I should have.
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My main task on Saturday the 28th was to pull my annual shift at the IAHA booth from Noon until 2 PM which I did with pleasure. My mates in the booth were longtime board member Randy Young, his daughter Marie Young and the handsome Kevin O’Dea.
Booth traffic has been way, way down since the IAHA changed their fiscal year to coincide with the calendar year. It used to be that we were re-signing members like crazy at the booth. Now that you renew your membership at the end of the year, this year’s booth was the quietest it’s ever been.
On Saturday evening, I was a surprised guest at a private party at Digital Sound and Lighting. My fellow Scab Jeff Glatzer wrangled our invitations. There were about eight of us at this gathering on the 7th floor of a large warehouse building on Cherokee Street. We entered through the cargo dock doors and were taken up in a big, rickety freight elevator. The company has 19,000 square feet of space which was filled with large shelves and tables full of all kinds of stuff – electronic, electrical, plumbing, carpentry, painting, molding and so forth. Owner Stan Jung was giving a couple from North Carolina, Travis and Chris, a hands-on demonstration of the .50 caliber prop machine gun that they were taking delivery from him.
I’ve seen other .50 caliber M2 replicas in past years that were entirely driven by compressed air. Stan’s design is different. It relies on these three power sources: a tank of compressed oxygen, a gas grill tank of propane gas and a 12 volt automobile battery. You must wear ear plugs because this gun is too loud. Stay away from the muzzle blast, too. The barrel spat out orange flames three or four feet long with every report. We also got a demonstration of Stan’s twin .30 caliber machine gun replica which he will mount on the custom dune buggy he’s nearly finished building. Indeed, Stan has a lot of talents.
Around 10 PM, we made our way to the Darkness haunted house for a tour with actors and effects in operation. My ticket was stamped for a 9 PM admittance. Jeff’s ticket was for the 10 PM group. We hung out for a time with other haunters outside the entrance door and yakked it up before entering. Ultimately, we found ourselves in the second-to-last tour group of the evening.
The Darkness is a large haunt. According to co-producer Jim Kelly the total size is 27,000 square feet. But what truly sets it apart from all others is the staggering amount of stuff screwed in to the walls in each scene. Walking through the scenes in the Darkness is like going from one Fridays/Applebee’s restaurant on steroids to the next. The rooms are large and there is so much to be seen that one can’t ingest it all in a single gulp. Some of the themes in various sections of the building are difficult to recognize because of their high level of “visual busyness.”
The actors and actresses at the Darkness have it tough. For the most part, their scenes are designed for them to do little more than pop-out scares. (We call it “cuckoo-clock acting”.) Scenery is king at the Darkness. There isn’t enough free space to do a more elaborate act for the customers. The scenes are constructed so that the high walls and mounds of stuff on the floors guide the customers through them without the need for railings, fencing or other barriers.
As Jeff and I drove back to our hotel, the weather steadily deteriorated. It had rained hard all evening, accompanied by a stiff, cold wind out of the West. By the time we arrived, the rain had changed to snow. As we looked out the windows of the packed bar in the Renaissance Grand, the snow was coming down hard and nearly horizontally.
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The rooftops of the buildings we could see out our hotel window were covered with snow on Sunday morning. The streets and sidewalks were completely clear because the temperature never got cold enough for the white stuff to stick.
Sunday’s convention floor traffic was much lighter than on Friday or Saturday. By lunchtime most of the remaining attendees had left and vendors were starting to tear down their booths. As mid-afternoon approached, the show was effectively finished.
TransWorld set up a couple of bars near the inflatable haunt at the rear of the show floor and, from 4 to 5 PM, offered free drinks to the vendors and few attendees still present. It was the last official function of the convention.
I had decided to stay in St. Louis until Monday since it is a long drive home to Cleveland. The two of us had thought that we would spend Sunday evening in the hotel bar whooping it up with the hard-core vendors and show attendees. But those folks never materialized. The bar and lounge in the hotel were nearly vacant. We spent the evening in our room watching mediocre movies on the TV and began the drive home early Monday morning.
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Overall, the 2009 TransWorld haunt show probably had more vendors than we ever saw on the 2nd floor of the Rosemont convention center in years gone by. The attendee count also was quite healthy. Hopefully, someone who has proven data on these counts will quickly chime in here. For a new city, one that had never seen a haunt convention before, St. Louis seems to have been warmly embraced by the haunt community.
Some of the events that you normally see at TransWorld, such as the IAHA auction and the IAHA Casket Basket Raffle will take place at other haunt conventions later this Spring. Special events such as the Haunter’s Pavilion, make-up and scenery contests and poster, photograph and ticket judgings will have to wait for another day.
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I will attend the Great Lakes Fright Fest and Midwest Haunters Convention in early June. My spies tell me that 2009 will be the final year for the Ironstock convention in southern Indiana and if that is indeed the case, I will be there. I am told that the original plan for Ironstock was to produce it for ten years and then call it quits. If this story is true, then the weekend of June 27 and 28 will witness the end of a beautiful era.
I have several haunts who are interested in my spooky services this coming fall. The year 2009 will be my 35th season of screams. I have every reason to believe it will be one to remember.
Very truly yours,
Rex B. Hamilton
13939 Clifton Boulevard
Lakewood, Ohio 44107-1462
216.226.7764 (home)
216.973.0050 (cell)
EvilLordZargon@msn.com
IAHA Announces New Member Benefit
Affordable Health Care Coverage for IAHA Members
The International Association of Haunted Attractions (IAHA) is pleased to present the new IAHA Health Care Benefit. This is a major milestone achievement from our Three-Year Plan.
As of February 2009, All Business or Individual Members of the IAHA now have access to affordable health care coverage through the IAHA Health Plan. This plan provides competitive premium rates that members can lock into for 3 years, or until that member decides that he/she no longer desires that plan.
If you are a vendor or an owner/operator that needs to hold onto your day job to maintain access to affordable health insurance for yourself and family, the IAHA Health Care Benefit can relieve you of that financial burden. It gives you access to affordable insurance while giving you the freedom to pursue the potential of your own business full-time in the industry you love.
Many, if not most haunters have day jobs. If you have lost yours, like so many recently, and need an alternative to the high prices of the COBRA Plans or individual insurance programs, this is a great solution. For the small price of an individual membership to the IAHA you could literally save thousands of dollars a year on your insurance premiums. (Example- one current IAHA member that is paying into the COBRA plan right now was quoted a rate that’s about half his current premium).
Everyone in the industry that we’ve spoken to agrees that this is a great benefit for our industry, and it is as timely as it could get.
Brett Bertolino of Terror Behind the Walls said, “While the haunt industry had a very strong season last year, with most haunted houses meeting or exceeding 2007 attendance, the declining economy has impacted some haunt owners who relied on a day job for heath insurance…This could not have come at a better time.”
The bottom line is that the entire haunted attraction industry has been in need of a health care program like this for a very long time. Many industry associations provide this to their members, and IAHA is proud to now be able to offer this benefit to its members.
Before you can take advantage of the new IAHA Health Care Benefit, be sure to renew your membership or join IAHA. Click here to renew your membership!
Visit the IAHA website for more information.
http://www.iahaweb.com/
More than 8,000 other retail locations joining national partners in effort to raise $5 million National partners from the 17th annual Halloween Promotion benefiting St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital(R) were in Memphis today to celebrate raising more than $2.4 million to help the hospital in its fight against childhood cancer.
Companies represented at today’s recognition ceremony included Buffalo Wild Wings, Casey’s General Stores, Fox & Hound Restaurant Group and Champps Entertainment, Inc., Hess, and TravelCenters of America. These partners accounted for more than 4,000 retail locations nationwide that participated in the Halloween Promotion; collectively they generated nearly half of the Halloween Promotion’s 2008 fundraising goal of $5 million.
MillerCoors adopted the St. Jude Halloween Promotion as its official national Halloween project in 1994. Since the program began in 1992, MillerCoors, its distributors and retailers have raised millions of dollars for the children of St. Jude.
“MillerCoors is proud to support this fundraiser and partner with St. Jude in saving children’s lives,” said Bryce McTavish, vice president of retail marketing at MillerCoors.
During the month-long Halloween Promotion, participating businesses across the country encouraged consumers to make a $1 donation to St. Jude to support its groundbreaking research and lifesaving care for kids battling catastrophic childhood diseases. In return for the contribution, the donors wrote their names on pumpkin-themed pinups, which the establishment displayed throughout the month of October.
“We couldn’t be more thankful for the success of the St. Jude Halloween Promotion,” said David L. McKee, chief operating officer and interim CEO of ALSAC, the fundraising organization of St. Jude. “We are so grateful to the many businesses and customers who are helping to make a difference for our precious patients. It is inspiring to see these companies join together to raise the money St. Jude needs to continue its lifesaving mission of finding cures and saving the lives of children in communities everywhere.”
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is internationally recognized for its pioneering work in finding cures and saving children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. St. Jude is the first and only pediatric cancer center to be designated as a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute. Founded by late entertainer Danny Thomas and based in Memphis, Tenn., St. Jude freely shares its discoveries with scientific and medical communities around the world.
St. Jude is the only pediatric cancer research center where families never pay for treatment not covered by insurance. No child is ever denied treatment because of the family’s inability to pay. St. Jude is financially supported by ALSAC, its fundraising organization.
For more information, please visit www.stjude.org.