BATMAN THE RIDE CONSTRUCTION



This was my practice page so that I could get a feel for doing one of these sorts of pages while the new ride for SFMM was being built. If you have suggestions on what this page should look like, please email me and let me know. I want it to be informative, and easy to navigate.


These pictures were taken during the fall and winter of 1993 while Magic Mountain was converting Back Street into Gotham City backlot. New facades were built, and Z-Force was removed for the centerpiece--Batman the Ride. Thanks to kruszn@ucla.edu for the pictures, (except for the ones on the fourt page) and to j-dogg@earthlink.net for the scans (on the first three pages). I hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane.




Back Street Work:


First up is the site work done to Back Street to convert it to Gotham City. Many of the old buildings just had their facades redone, while some buildings lost their lives entirely. Amoung those that were redone were Turbo, Subway, and Guidos Pizza. They became Gordon (later Grinder) GearWorks, Acme Atom Smasher, and Pizza Factory (later Pizza Vector), respectively. These photos show their "inbetween" state of being. First up is the old Guido's building. On a side note, Guido's was so named during the Back Street era as a reference to the president of Magic Mountain at the time, Joe Schillaci (sp. error, I know).

Next up is the conversion of Subway (ex-Himilaya) to Atom Smasher. It looked a lot better after the rehab than when it was Subway.

You can see an old Twickets sign on this one featuring Elmer Fudd. One twicket is worth two twips!



Turbo (ex-Electric Rainbow) became Gordon GearWorks, later to become Grinder Gearworks for some dumb reason probably not worth going into. Anyhow, here's a glimpse into it's transitional phase.



Coming up is a picture of the facade that was redone across from Atom Smasher.Let it be noted now that I am NOT featured in any of these photos, they are other people who worked there.



This is the site work being done, and earth being pushed around by heavy machinery. Appreciated by a few, I know, but if you glimpse at the skyline you'll see one of the last pictures taken of an operating Eagle's Flight. Yep, this was pre-Northridge Quake!



Last up in the Back Street series is this picture:It shows what would become Joker's Juices on the right, and former After Hours facades in the background from the old After Hours dance club. Guidos makes another appearance on the left of the picture.



On the next page is the track after being delivered, where it was stored, and what it looked like on the ground.

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