BRANSON — Back in 1970, when I was 8 years old, my family took a vacation at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Mo., and the little theme park located near it was very different back then. However, the welcoming spirit that Silver Dollar City “citizens,” or employees, gives visitors has never changed over the decades.
I still remember how at the end of the second day of our family visit some of the Hatfield/McCoy street troupe members took time to speak with my brother and me, and how the guy playing the Zeke Hatfield role gave us a bullet shell used earlier in the day in a street feud sketch. Zeke showed my brother and me how to blow into the shell to make a whistling sound.
We kept that bullet shell for years! That personal contact had a deep impression on me.
In 1978, my parents announced that the healthcare company they worked for was transferring them to Branson. My brother and I looked at each other, our jaws dropped open and our eyes got big. Wow! We were going to get a chance to live in Wonderland! I announced firmly to my parents, with much conviction, that I was going to get a job at Silver Dollar City.
Our family moved to Branson in June 1978. I applied for a job at the park.
The phone rang, and it was a representative of Silver Dollar City on the other end. I’d been hired!
I was told when to report for work. I was so excited, I didn’t find out until that first day of work I was going to be paid the ripe hourly wage of $2.35 per hour! (Pretty good money for a 15-year-old kid at the time.)
The first two weeks at Silver Dollar City were difficult for me. I had a food service worker job, and was stuck eight hours a day, five days a week inside the kitchen of one of the restaurants. The temperature was in the 90s outside on the streets, and even with air conditioning in the kitchen, working over a hot fryer making French fries and onion rings, it probably was 100 degrees!
When I received my first paycheck, I discovered I was paid half-pay the first two weeks, as I was hired on a trial basis. Take home pay after taxes were deducted was about 80 bucks! Oh well, anyway, I’d made it! I was a “citizen” of Silver Dollar City. Good things were sure to follow!
In August 1979, open job listings were posted in the company newsletter. An attractions worker job at the Jim Owens’ Float Trip ride was available. I applied for it, and was accepted. It was considered a lateral move in the company, but I didn’t care. I was a costumed employee playing a role as a “hillbilly river rat,” and was going to get to load people in and out of boats at the ride! No more work in a hot kitchen over a fryer.
In the spring of 1980, I received a letter from my bosses at Silver Dollar City informing me when I reported for work in a few weeks I wouldn’t be working at the float trip ride. I’d been promoted. I was being stationed at the diving bell. That was one of the top jobs in the Attractions Department at the time.
Rube Dugan’s Diving Bell was a cutting-edge attraction. One of the first simulation attractions in theme park history. The attraction simulated a ride on a submarine into the depths of a lake in a search for treasure. I was to play the role of Junior Dugan, another hillbilly character at Silver Dollar City, and would take people on the ride and pilot the diving bell. It was a role I wound up playing at Silver Dollar City through August 1984, when I eventually left Branson to complete college.
Those years at Silver Dollar City were a lot of fun. I always kept in mind that feeling Zeke Hatfield gave me when he spent time with me during that first vacation to Silver Dollar City, and how he showed my brother and me how to make that bullet shell he gave us whistle.
Over the years as I entertained families at the park, I gave it my all hoping to leave happy memories of a great vacation with those I came into contact with.
I felt like I was getting paid to have fun all day, all summer long. Little did I know it at the time, but all that entertainment work in front of crowds of people was helping to prep me for working in radio broadcasting, a career I had for 20 years after leaving Branson.
So here it is, 2010. Current Silver Dollar City “citizens” are now in the midst of celebrating the golden anniversary of the park. Five decades have passed since the park was founded. My service, my “citizenship” at Silver Dollar City ended some 26 years ago.
Back in 1960, Silver Dollar City was constructed as a side attraction, themed as a little town square of an old Ozarks community. Initially, the park contained a few shops for folks to look around in until it was time to take their tour of Marvel Cave, the main attraction at the time.When the Herschend family, operators of the cave, saw attendance increase that year to 125,000 visitors, four times the number that visited the previous year, they knew they had something going.
“We discovered we were in the theme park business,” said Pete Herschend.
Current figures show that two million people visit each year.
As Silver Dollar City was developed, founder Mary Herschend insisted on authenticity and preservation of the old time Ozark folkways. The natural beauty of the location was preserved, and historic hewn log structures were relocated to the park. Silver Dollar City remains a showcase for American heritage crafts like woodcarving, basket weaving, candle making, leather-workingand blacksmithing. Seventeen people initially were employed at the park; now over 2,000 work there.
Early on, Silver Dollar City offered simple rides in stagecoaches, surreys and a steam train. As time progressed, rides became more innovative, like Fire in the Hole, an indoorroller coaster added in the early ’70s. Then the diving bell, was added in 1977. The stagecoach and surrey rides and the diving bell have been phased out as trends in theme parks changed, and as guest capacity issues became necessary to address. The park now offers a variety of high-tech roller coasters, water rides like this year’s new $7 million RiverBlast raft ride and several other family and kid-friendly rides. An ever-changing roster of high production entertainment shows are offered in theaters scattered throughout the park.
Many festivals and special guest entertainment are also featured each year.
Silver Dollar City is the original property of what has now grown to be the largest family-owned theme park corporation in America, Herschend Family Entertainment, which has 21 properties in nine states.
“The Herschend family built Silver Dollar City’s business and reputation based upon providing guests fun, memorable experiences as well as taking care of our employees. That’s as true today as it was 50 years ago,” Silver Dollar City General Manager Brad Thomas said.
Last year, the Branson theme park was named “friendliest park” in the entire theme park industry by Amusement Today newspaper.
Mary Herschend retired and has since passed away.
Her sons Jack and Pete have semi-retired and have turned over day-today operations to others.
Currently, some of their children and grandchildren work at Silver Dollar City, the third and fourth generations of the family to do so.
As a former “citizen” of Silver Dollar City, I can attest that one thing is for certain. Generations of families have enjoyed visiting Silver Dollar City on vacations for five decades, and the current “citizens” of Silver Dollar City will continue to welcome guests to their special community in the Ozarks for generations to come.
I have experienced Silver Dollar City as both a guest and “citizen,“ and the park has always been a special place to go to inmy life. I hope you have a chance to visit Silver Dollar City with your family this year!
For more information on the 2010 operating season, contact Silver Dollar City at 800-831-4FUN, or visit www.silverdollarcity.com. Enthusiasts of the theme park may visit the unofficial fan site at www.sdcfans.com.
Community, Pages 12 on 08/04/2010