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The World of Sid and Marty Krofft was an entirely indoor amusement park in Atlanta, Georgia. [1] It was based on the various TV shows produced by the sibling duo Sid and Marty Krofft.
The park was built in the Omni International complex with space to accommodate 6,000 visitors at any time. [1] It opened with great fanfare on May 26, 1976, and was featured prominently at the host segments during the first season of the Saturday morning program Krofft Supershow .
While launched with much hoopla in the national press, and incorporating quality performances and entertainment options (many of the performers came from Los Angeles to perform in the park during its run), it suffered from poor attendance, never seeing more than 300,000 visitors, [1] and was closed after six months, on November 10. The Kroffts partially blamed the park's failure on the fact that, at the time, downtown Atlanta was experiencing urban decay and close to major housing projects and generally was not considered a safe place for a family outing. Others noted that the park was "overpriced," especially when compared to the much larger Six Flags Over Georgia. Dr. Dana White, professor of Urban Studies at Emory University in Atlanta, remarked, "People were thinking of it as a full-day, family experience but it only took a couple hours. It wasn’t worth the money or the drive." [2]
When the World of Sid and Marty Krofft closed, many of the other shops and venues went through a similar transition. The park's area was largely vacant - a dinner theater operated for a short period on one of the lower levels, but eventually closed.
In keeping with the colorful and creative nature of its namesakes, the park featured elaborate attractions such as a large carousel adorned with mythological creatures of crystal and a giant pinball machine-themed dark ride in which the riders would sit inside large ball-shaped pods and ricochet through the "machine." Visitors received a "ticket booklet" with four tickets, one for each area. Most started at the top floor by riding the world's longest freestanding escalator, working their way down through the four areas of the park. Tranquility Terrace occupied the top 3 levels out of 6, followed by Uptown on the next lowest level, Lidsville on the next, and Living Island Adventure on the bottom level.
Visitors entered the park at its uppermost level via a multi-story escalator, which was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records [3] as the longest freestanding (supported only at its ends) escalator in the world. [1] Moving down from the reception level was the first carnival level, presided over by a stilt-walking master of ceremonies, and featuring three circus trailers, each with a different performer. These shows were presented in circus "trailers"; a performer in costume did a 2-3 minute show to a different narrator/performer's voice. The middle trailer featured Betty Broadbent, a purple belly-dancing rhino who was voiced by Ruth Buzzi.
The next floor was a transition level and included a caricature artist and an overlook for the stage show below. The next floor featured a live performance stage and a number of different shops and artisans. Shows included a slackrope walker, a trio of locking-style street dancers, from the streets of South Central [4] Los Angeles known as 33 RPM, James "Skeeter Rabbit" Higgins, Mike "Peek-a-Boo" Frenke and John "Okie Doke" Wilson and a song-and-dance show that starred Patty Maloney and 33 RPM. Events throughout the park featured other "little people", including Debbie Dixon (who was later in Star Wars) and twin brothers John and Greg Rice of Lake Worth, Florida, who were listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the 'World's Shortest Living Twins' until John's death in 2005. A gift shop, food emporium and a glass blower/shop run by Lee Mabes completed this level.
The lower level featured a Krofft forest-theme and incorporated a theater with a live-action Krofft character show, as well as a crafts stall with a leather crafts person. The park also had a pinball-style dark ride. The various floors of the park were largely open to the main atrium of the Omni. The ground level of the Omni also featured a skating rink.
After the park closed, the Omni complex went through a number of renovations, but continued to have trouble attracting tenants until the mid-1980s. At that point, Ted Turner decided that his CNN cable network had outgrown its sparse headquarters at Atlanta's old Progressive Club building. When scouting a new location, he discovered that the old Krofft park section of the Omni was largely unchanged, sporting enormous rooms and hallways that were ideal for television studios and newsrooms. CNN moved into the building in 1987. Turner soon bought the entire complex and renamed it CNN Center. Several features and aspects of the Krofft park remain, such as the massive escalator, which is now part of the CNN Tour. The facility also features an Omni Hotel (which has been there since the Center was built), meeting space, restaurants, and gift shops. It is directly adjacent to State Farm Arena, which is no longer considered part of CNN Center.
Land of the Lost is a children's adventure television series created by David Gerrold and produced by Sid and Marty Krofft, who co-developed the series with Allan Foshko. It is a live-action show mixed with stop-motion animated dinosaurs, originally aired on Saturday mornings from 1974 to 1976, on the NBC television network. It has since become a cult classic, Krofft Productions remade the series in 1991, also titled Land of the Lost, and a film parody was released in 2009.
Sid Krofft and Marty Krofft are a Canadian sibling team of television creators and puppeteers. Through their production company, Sid & Marty Krofft Pictures, they have made numerous children's television and variety show programs in the U.S., particularly in the 1970s and early 1980s, including H.R. Pufnstuf and Land of the Lost. Their fantasy programs often feature large-headed puppets, high-concept plots, and extensive use of low-budget special effects.
H.R. Pufnstuf is a children's television series produced by Sid and Marty Krofft in the United States. It was the first Krofft live-action, life-sized-puppet program. The seventeen episodes were originally broadcast Saturday mornings from September 6, 1969, to December 27, 1969. The broadcasts were successful enough that NBC kept it on the schedule until August 1972. The show was shot at Paramount Studios and its opening was shot at Big Bear Lake, California. Reruns of the show aired on ABC Saturday morning from September 2, 1972, to September 8, 1973, and on Sunday mornings in some markets from September 16, 1973, to September 8, 1974. It was syndicated by itself from September 1974 to June 1978 and in a package with six other Krofft series under the banner Krofft Superstars from 1978 to 1985. Reruns of the show were featured on TV Land in 1999 as part of its Super Retrovision Saturdaze Saturday morning-related overnight prime programming block and in the summer of 2004 as part of its TV Land Kitschen weekend late-night prime programming block, and it was later shown on MeTV from 2014 until 2016.
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