Question for the Gurnee folks

imdaman · Post by **imdaman** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 5:34 pm

Was the Gurnee park either known as Marriott's GA or Six Flags GA? In other words, the park was never known as just Great America (like PGA was), right?

jonrev · Post by **jonrev** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 7:50 pm

No. I think after 1984 the Six Flags signage went up in place of Marriott's.

RLAiello · Post by **RLAiello** » Sat Feb 18, 2006 2:13 am

jonrev wrote:No. I think after 1984 the Six Flags signage went up in place of Marriott's.

This is true. There was never a lapse of time where the park was known simply as "Great America"... although toward the end of the Marriott ownership, there were instances where the "Great America" logo would appear on its own without "Marriott's" on it... but that was extremely rare.

customfabricators · Post by **customfabricators** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 6:37 am

Locally though, after the park was sold a lot of people called it "Great America" and have never called it Six Flags. Some folks around here still call it "Marriotts". Most of the kids under 25 call it Six Flags.

Shockwavegirl · Post by **Shockwavegirl** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 2:05 am

To me it's always been "Great America"...I got into an argument with my math teacher my freshman year of high school about how it wasn't called "Great America" anymore. I had to be a smart ass and tell her that it's still Great America....just instead of it being Marriott's Great America, Its Six Flags Great America.

Yeah.....I got detention for being a smart ass. But my point was made.

m_force_4_ever · Post by **m_force_4_ever** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 10:23 am

I usually save breath by just saying great america, but alot of GP here call it six flags (grrr) to which I usually reply "well which six flags are you talking about?"

redfishpaw · Post by **redfishpaw** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 10:52 am

Six Flags did actually consider getting rid of the name ''Great America'' (and also the individual names of the other parks) and just going with the ''Six Flags'' name. It almost happened, then corporate decided that might be a bad marketing plan after all. Six Flags does try a bit to hard to push the corporate name. They even changed the little brown road signs to say just ''six flags''.

Also, I just call the park Great America, some still call it Mariotts. I never hear anyone say Six Flags.

JW65 · Post by **JW65** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 11:13 am

As was the case with Six Flags deciding to keep the recognizable name, Great America, someone should tell corporate at Macys in New York that the folks in the Chicago area would rather keep the name Marshall Fields.

For those of you not in the Chicago area, Execs at Macy's have stated that after the "buy out" they will rename Marshall Field's, a long-time 150+ years Chicago historical landmark, Macys. Many Chicagoans have become quite upset about this news, to say the least.

Is there any business that hasn't been bought out by another business? It can be maddening!

redfishpaw · Post by **redfishpaw** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 12:35 pm

^ Yup, coming from a Chicago based family I've also been pretty upset about the Marshall Field's takeover. (It's 153 years old). I can't stand Macy's. Here is a Save Marshall Fields petitiion (55,000 strong) if your want to help

http://www.keepitfields.org/ or better yet, send a letter (as I have a couple times) to Federated Department Stores CEO Terry Lundgren. If he thinks Chicago wants Macy's, then he doesn't know his customers base. Ok, I'm done now. Sorry if this is too O.T. for here.

Tech Services 1 · Post by **Tech Services 1** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 7:18 pm

All of my friends and family call the park Great America when we're talking about it in the present tense. If we're talking about the good old days, we often refer to it as Marriott's.

I can never bring myself to call it six flags! Yuck!

To this day, my dad usually calls it Marriott's!

PPG

RLAiello · Post by **RLAiello** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 11:56 am

Tech Services 1 wrote:All of my friends and family call the park Great America when we're talking about it in the present tense. If we're talking about the good old days, we often refer to it as Marriott's.

I can never bring myself to call it six flags! Yuck!

To this day, my dad usually calls it Marriott's!

PPG

When I was working at Great America, it was always Six Flags Great America, yet my family ALWAYS said "So are you still working at Marriott's?" I guess it doesn't matter what people call it... they all know what it is.

I was working there when Six Flags tried to eliminate the actual names of all the parks (Six Flags Mid-America became "Six Flags St. Louis", for instance... Great America was to become "Six Flags Chicago", even though it really isn't IN Chicago.) I'm glad they never did that to our park. I think the resistance was too great. Let's see what happens with the new management.

redfishpaw · Post by **redfishpaw** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 11:30 am

^ I worked at the park from 1985-1992 (SF era). Even in 2002, a decade later, some people asked me if I'm still working at Marriotts.

Glorfindel7 · Post by **Glorfindel7** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 9:44 pm

I remember visiting in 1983 just before Six Flags took over full ownership of the park from Marriot buying a Shirt that said "Marriot's Great America" with the number 83 on the front. It was colored blue and white...

I think the next year Six Flags issued an 84 shirt, same style, except Six Flags replaced Marriott's on the front.

I remember thinking in 1983 that Six Flags would change the name of the park to something like "Six Flags Over Illinois" and was very upset about this... I'm glad they kept the Great America.

SFGAm Rules · Post by **SFGAm Rules** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 2:52 pm

I have heard some people call it "Bally's Great America," even though I can't find any evidence that it was ever called that. I have, however, seen Six Flags Great America, a Bally company.

Personally I call it Great America, or sometimes just G.A. for short.

jonrev · Post by **jonrev** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 2:59 pm

The park was never called Bally's Great America.