Sounds of The Astro Jets: “Please tear out your C coupon, and hand it to the operator. To make your jet go up, push up on the handle. To make your jet go down, push down on the handle. Please remain seated at all times. And, away we go! Pshshshsh!” Then, “Please remain seated until your jet comes to a complete stop.” (Yes! It was a C coupon then (same as Dumbo), but later upgraded to D when the new Rocket Jets were put in.) All day long and into the night. Our Flight Circle was right next to it. In fact, for the New Year’s Eve Party, each cast member had to volunteer 2 hours of ride operation as your pass to attend. I ran the Jets. It was worth it! Tidbit: It’s well known that The Jets were built by a German company. But few remember that it’s base was a Panzer tank turret.
FROM JUNE 1963: The guy in the center flying the plane is Bart Klapinski and the announcer is me (with one hand behind the back . . . they used to rib me about the “military” stance.) Since it is a two man crew, I would assume it's a week day. Note the lights on at Hobbyland and the “next-show” clock reading that the time was the 4:30 show (we changed the clock AFTER the show). What fools we were thinking that all that fun would go on forever. (Very few aircraft scattered to the left, so I would guess that it was early in the show). The angle is from the
Skyway.
In July 1963 I went off for basic training in the Naval Air Reserve for
three months to Memphis, and then to Los Alamitos Naval Air Station
(now the Air National Guard base). By the first part of the
following year, the Circle was running a minimal schedule (Wed thru
Sun, 12:00 to 5:00) in the winter. I went back to college part time
in the AM and worked at the Circle in the afternoons. By the summer of '64 we were back to full time again (10 hours a day, 4 days a week).
We had about 10 guys working there, some of which I do not remember
the names because they seemed to come and go. Five of us were the
main backbone group (Keith Palmer, George Molitor, Bart Klapinski,
Don Hatcher, and myself). |
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