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There was also a Circus (athough I don't know what year[s] - I *think* that Mark Hawbecker was the ringmaster) and "Country Music Time!" played the summer of 1980 in the area that later became the queue line for the American Eagle (Gurnee park).

Thanks for the list!

-Joe

Hello, brdwyguy!

Just a technical note! You wrote!:
"thats was the original cast of Music America 76"!

I believe the name of the show was, "Music America!", because all GMH shows ended in an exclamation mark, except for "The Evolution of Rock"!


-Joe!

There was a television variety show taped from the park in Gurnee that starred Lisa Hartman (Black) and the Great America Singers. It won a Chicago Emmy award.

I know it was taped and aired pre-1980, but can't remember the year...?

-Joe

This may be a tag line to another slogan, but the one slogan I recall was... The rides are great! The shows are great! The fun is great! Discover Marriott's Great America! Cynically, we used to sing, "The rides are broke, the show's a joke, pay a dollar for a Coke! Discover Marriott's Great America...

At the end of the 1980 season in Gurnee, I was asked to "fill in" at the Pictorium, beyond my regular hours in ShowOps. I was given a speech to read before the movie started that included the text, "The screen you see before you measures...". As I only did this a few times at the end of the season, ...

"M3" was the first show to use the tracks at the Gurnee park in 1981 (I believe the same was true for Santa Clara). The year prior was the last year for the full orchestra with "Music, America!" (the revival). It was about saving money, as I recall.

-Joe

PS: I did shows at Rye, Playland, too.

In the Gurnee Park, we didn't have a circus, but for one year (1980), we had a large, outdoor circus tent structure with grandstand seating where we performed "Country Music Time". The show was very successful (as I remember), but it was so HOT that on some days we had to cut numbers and mark choreo...

In "Music! Music! Music!" at the Gurnee Park, there were several, short one-line solos written into the opening number. Someone bet that we couldn't change our solo lines into a recognizable melody written by Leonard Bernstein (keeping the "M3" lyric). My solo line was "Memphis in June". I changed t...