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The store's chase light adorned sign that also contains the last mentions of the sorely missed Rock Legends Wax Museum, which closed in 2019. December 1st will be a sad day for both heavy metal fans and the Niagara Falls tourism landscape. Rockworld, the souvenir and merchandise store that has sat on Centre Street half a block past where it becomes Clifton Hill for nearly half a century, will close permanently. The store has been a staple of the top of Clifton Hill since it opened in 1983, and is predeceased by the iconic Rock Legends Wax Museum which the same owners operated upstairs from 1997-2019. The wax museum's collection had been sculpted entirely by the owner, Pasquale Ramunno, who coincidentally wasn't even a rock music fan and allegedly had an ear for opera. Thankfully, he had an eye for art, and apparently for business as well, as Rockworld became a legendary pit stop for Ontario metalheads, punk rockers, and classic rock fans alike for generations. A section of the store named the "Niagara Souvenir Centre" offered more generic Canada and Niagara Falls themed items. When the wax museum was added upstairs in 1997, it greatly helped further the identity of the more thematically darker attractions in the up and coming "top of the Hill" area that was becoming popular with teenagers and young adults, joining Alien Encounter, The Criminals Hall of Fame, and the Screamers haunted attraction chain (Rockworld was actually neighbors with the short-lived 3rd Screamers location named "Horror Manor"). The museum's giant neon guitar and wall of musician's faces on the front of the building became a staple sight of the area. Rockworld, Rock Legends Wax Museum, and the iconic neon guitar. After years of success, the wax museum's visitor numbers unfortunately started slowing down in the mid-2010's as the Niagara Falls tourism landscape (and greater amusement industry as a whole) went through a turbulent period. By 2014, all the attractions I listed above that used to rub elbows with Rockworld were gone. With mounting pressure from record labels and their exorbitant licensing fees, the decision was made to close the museum in October 2019, allegedly (according to a conversation I had with the owners some years ago) due in part to YouTube's infamous copyright algorithm flagging vlogs of the museum for use of music, thus alerting media companies to the museum's existence. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic less than 4 months later essentially halting the entire tourism industry for two years, it appears the decision may have been the right one. The incredible and impressive Locomoland, a model train attraction that replaced the wax museum upstairs and was operated by a third party, also unfortunately closed down this past summer (stay tuned for more on that). This also decreased traffic through the store as the wax museum formerly let out into Rockworld, therefore Locomoland did as well after it. The store was carried on for years by Ramunno's children Nick and Maria, but they've decided it's finally time to retire. I was a regular at the store, not for the reasons I'm a regular at most Clifton Hill area attractions, but as a heavy metal fan. The store was well known in the metal scene (allegedly even "back in the day") as a place to get rare and imported merchandise, and as Ontario's other rock stores, headshops, and other headbanger hangouts closed throughout the 2000's and 2010's, the king of them all stood strong. Nowadays, you have essentially three options to buy music merchandise. If you're looking for merchandise from an A-list band (Metallica, AC/DC, Iron Maiden, etc.) you might be lucky enough to find something at a run of the mill mall store like Hot Topic or Spencer's, but don't expect them to be quality, or anything other than the most basic designs. If you're a fan of more obscure bands like me, you could order them online directly from the band or an online merchandise store, but as a Canadian, expect shipping costs as high as the price of the item you're buying. The third option is buying merchandise at a band's concert, if you're willing to pay an arm and a leg, and if you're willing to wait for the band to roll through a city near you, which is especially problematic if a band usually only tours Europe or even worse, no longer exists. Rockworld was the only place left you could buy an officially licensed Razor, Destruction, or Mercyful Fate shirt in person and for a decent price, examples I use because this is probably the only excuse I'm going to have to mention those names on this website. Not only that, they carried a variety of items you simply don't see anywhere anymore like patches, flags, pins, and a variety of spiked/studded accessories. The best part? The store didn't charge the city's infamous "tourist tax", and proudly displayed that above the door. It'll be sad to see the store go, but the owners definitely deserve a good rest after everything they've done for both the Niagara Falls and metal communities. The store is currently on massive discount and getting more and more picked over by the day, so if you were a regular here or even want to squeeze in your first visit before it's too late, I suggest you make the voyage as soon as you're able. For die-hard rock fans or attraction operators, the museum's impressive collection of over 70 figures hand sculpted by Pasquale Ramunno (including the ones that were relocated to the store after the museum's closure), are in storage and still up for grabs, but expect to pay what these works of art are worth. If you've ever wanted an identical replica of Alice Cooper in your living room, Gene Simmons in your basement, or Iron Maiden's mascot Eddie in your Halloween display, now is the time to act.

Niagara Falls, Ontario company Enter-Tech (formerly Waxattract) has been discussed in great detail on this site, even getting a rare special article which can be read here . They were by far one of, if not the most important companies in the development of the Canadian amusement industry as we know it today, and the worldwide industry in general. It's tragic then that most, if not all historians in the amusement history corner of the internet have never heard of them. In brief summary - I first dug the name out of the copyright archive around 5 years ago when researching Niagara's legendary Castle Dracula, and instantly got a feeling that this company was much, much bigger than just that. After years of research, browsing newspaper archives, and interviewing members of the sole family who ran the company, my suspicions were confirmed. They were hugely important to the industry - from designing and building scenes for the majority of Niagara's many wax museums, haunted attractions, and exhibits, to being innovators in early lightshow and projection technology, to pioneering the first electronically programmable animatronics outside of Disneyland for The House of Frankenstein in 1971. By 1980, the company had rebranded from Waxattract to Enter-Tech to reflect changes in the industry as the company's animatronic technology got more advanced, and animated shows became the forefront of the business. The company's Hillbilly Bear Jamboree show at Maple Leaf Village in Niagara Falls, early-80's. Credit: Dunham family archives. Even after learning so much about this company and their vast portfolio, I still can't shake the feeling the company was bigger and more influential than even those involved with it know. One thing that stood out to me when I interviewed members of the Dunham family (who ran business), was that their work didn't stay local to Niagara Falls - far from it. The company built displays and exhibits across Canada, and more importantly than that for today's topic, sold pre-built haunted walkthrough attractions, stage shows, displays and figures to attraction operators at trade shows in the States. That's the work that to this day, remains mostly lost to time. A 1980 newspaper article states that by that point the company was producing "around 60 figures a year", which would have made them one of the largest animation companies in the world at that time, certainly the largest in Canada. Where all those figures went, the ones that didn't end up in iconic Niagara Falls attractions at least, remains largely a mystery. There's tidbits of information buried out there - people remember a "Boris Karloff Wax Museum" in Wildwood, NJ that was likely one of their pre-built haunted attractions, a newspaper article mentions they built an animatronic W.C. Fields for a bar in the States, and they had some sort of work relationship with Creative Presentations out of Schaumburg, IL, possibly even doing early commissions for them until Creative Presentations began building their own shows. But several recently uncovered photos and anecdotes in corners of the internet may just shine some light onto where at least some of this work that has been sadly lost to time was located. Circus Time Pizza newspaper ad, 1983. Credit: Tumblr user smthngstrangehppnd. Exhibit A gives us Circus Time Pizza in Flint, Michigan, and actually connects back to a strange newspaper article covering the Hillbilly Bear Jamboree show. The article on the Hillbilly Bear Jamboree's construction in 1982 shows a photo of a panda bear in front of a circus backdrop, stating he is "Big John" who leads Enter-Tech's Hillbilly Bear Jamboree. However, what limited footage and photos of the Hillbilly Bear Jamboree exist show a different large bear leading the band, who is presumably Big John. The panda bear seems to be totally absent from the show, unless it was outfront the attraction in the hallways of the mall, or on a side stage, which the show doesn't seem to have had. It also doesn't seem the mysterious panda's outfit or circus backdrop match the woodland theme of the Hillbilly Bear Jamboree. What the panda does match however, both in style and theme, is an illustration of a bartender panda character in the above newspaper advertisement for Circus Time Pizza. Circus Time Pizza opened in 1983 and unfortunately only lasted until 1984. It's possible that upon visiting Enter-Tech's studio to report on the construction of the Hillbilly Bear Jamboree, the reporter also photographed other works in progress, which Circus Time Pizza's show would have been at that time. It's possible the newspaper's editors then used the incorrect photo assuming he was part of the Hillbilly Bear Jamboree, or even possible that he shared the named "Big John" for the Circus Time show if it's a name Enter-Tech enjoyed using, adding to the paper's confusion. You can faintly make out the words "Bear Jamboree" on the panda's hat however, furthering this mystery. The dapper panda proclaimed to be "Big John" for the Hillbilly Bear Jamboree show by the Niagara Falls Review, however this may not be the case. The mysterious panda isn't the only piece of evidence here tying this show to Enter-Tech. The company frequently blended art styles even within the same show, usually creating a varied cast of characters instead of all the characters in a show being done in the same art style. Some characters would have sculpted latex masks, whereas characters right next to them would have foam sculpted heads done in a more plush style similar to the animatronics found at Chuck E. Cheese's. This is a distinct feature of Circus Time, which actually had multiple shows. The main stage consisted of the aforementioned panda bartender, a drumming rabbit, a tiger vocalist, a bear on guitar and a saxophone-playing elephant. The guitar-playing bearded circus performer who covered Kenny Rogers songs in a separate room from the main band. Credit: Tumblr user smthngstrangehppnd. Side lounge rooms contained side-shows (pun not intended), one being a circus performer who was a spoof of Kenny Rogers, and the other being a panther in a cage alongside a clown named Jell E. Bean, the restaurant's mascot. These characters, specifically the panther, match the contrasting character styles of Enter-Tech's shows. While no photos exist of the main stage, the circus-themed stage the mysterious Enter-Tech panda figure was photographed on appears to be larger than what's seen in the photo, alluding to him being part of a larger show. This is all speculation, but it's very possible this character was on the main stage at Circus Time Pizza. It's also possible, of course, that the panda was somehow part of Hillbilly Bear Jamboree after all or a different restaurant/stage show entirely, and that Enter-Tech was involved in Circus Time Pizza, but this panda figure was not. Finally, there's the possibility this is entirely coincidence, and they weren't involved in the restaurant at all, but with nobody online having a clue who produced the Circus Time Pizza shows, and Enter-Tech's work being as vast as it was, it's a strong possibility. Jell E. Bean and the panther next to the attraction's owner. Credit: Tumblr user smthngstrangehppnd. Next we have the ultra obscure Pizza Planet of Buffalo lore. Another spot just across the border, the only evidence of it's existence is a 1984 commercial that went viral for it's low-budget production and unsettling narration, as well as the nightmare-inducing Peppy Roni walk around costume. No other photos, videos, and only a handful of vague newspaper articles featuring the attraction exist, leaving little tangible record of it. Coupled with the fact that the fictional arcade restaurant in Toy Story shares the same name, this means any browser search for this place turns up completely empty, except that commercial. What that commercial does feature however is a brief clip of the restaurant's animatronic band in the background of a birthday party. The figures on this stage bear striking resemblance to Enter-Tech's work, specifically the mechanical shapes of their "All Star Mouse Review" show, the only show of Enter-Tech's that is *quite literally*, lost. As in, it was never installed and nobody knows where it went or what happened to it. You can read more about that fascinating story here . The art style on these panda characters is also extremely similar to the panda figure discussed above. The restaurant opened in 1983 and lasted until around 1985, so the timeline also lines up. You can watch the hallowed advertisement here, which apparently aired on Southern Ontario TV back in the 80's too. Exhibit C brings us to Paul E. Parrott in Pheonix, AZ. This is definitely the biggest speculation in this post, as the band featured at this F.E.C. is totally lost. No photos or video exist of this band or the interior of this restaurant at all. All we have to go off is detailed illustrations of the characters in a newspaper advertisement, and while they do look strikingly similar to Enter-Tech's art style, it's hard to say based off illustrations alone. The restaurant was also located on the opposite side of the U.S. from where the bulk of Waxattract/Enter-Tech's confirmed or suspected works abroad ended up. Their influence can be found mostly along the East Coast due to the company owning and operating attractions in Lake George, Myrtle Beach and Panama City Beach, with some more of their confirmed commission work found in the North half of the country. An animatronic toucan is seen in an early 80's Enter-Tech IAAPA brochure, and is the only figure seen in the brochure who's purpose hasn't been made clear, however the species of bird doesn't match. While it does prove they produced a bird mechanism, any relation stops there, and until photos surface of Paul E. Parrot and friends, we'll likely never know. When the short-lived Paul E. Parrot went into bankruptcy early on, this is the only trace it left behind, along with an auction listing. Finally, and most excitingly, we have the only find in this post that without a shred of doubt, proves the existence of a previously unknown and lost Enter-Tech show. Huckleberry Junction Playhouse Theater, also located just outside Flint, Michigan, needs no introduction when it comes to animatronic pizza restaurants. The attraction has been around since at least 1982 or '83, and is still going strong to this day. The attraction now features the popular mass-produced "Daniel and the Dixie Diggers" animatronic show built by the legendary Sally Corporation, which can be found at various amusement parks and restaurants across the world along with their side-stage counterpart, Jethro P. Hogg. However fans of the attraction's 80's glory days remember a different band there, that up until recently, we've had no photos of. These images were recently brought to my attention of the illusive "Animal Krackers" show, which operated at Huckleberry Junction from opening day until it was replaced in 1994. Apparently, fans of animatronic shows have been searching for the manufacturer of this show for as long as it's been mentioned on the internet, with theories ranging between everything from the band being created as a project by a local career skills college to being produced by Dave Thomas, former lead artist at Creative Engineering, who built the animatronics for the giant Showbiz Pizza chain. The truth however, is that this show was made right here in Canada by Enter-Tech. Let's take a deep-dive into why. One of the sole surviving images of the elusive band. Credit: Tumblr user dreamsdntcry. First of all, the art style is instantly familiar, but upon closer inspection, these characters seem to be direct retrofits of Enter-Tech's other confirmed works. The dog (or lion?) at the piano, the female singer sitting on the piano, the moose drummer, and the mouse railroad conductor all appear to be direct cosmetic makeovers of characters from the Mouse Revue, with the conductor even using the same face mask with different coloured fur surrounding it. The dog on guitar has a similar posture and art style to all of Enter-Tech's confirmed works, but the biggest tell is the panda bear on the stand up bass. He seems to be an almost exact copy of Beverly Bear, the seated fiddle player from the Hillbilly Bear Jamboree, his fiddle has just been swapped for a bass and his fur is a different colour. This incredibly unique and specific character design in particular, when put together with all the other evidence presented here, proves almost without a doubt that this show is the work of Enter-Tech. While most of the band seems to re-use the mechanical structures of Enter-Tech's other known works, two elements so far unique to this show are the singing moon on the wall in the lop-left corner and the singing face on the drum kick. There were allegedly two more characters over the pizza pickup window, presumably calling out orders ready for pickup, but no photos of them have surfaced. It's a shame the Animal Krackers have been largely lost to time, but at least another piece of Enter-Tech's history and the Dunham family's story has been preserved in at least some form. It's a great example of how this company was far bigger and far reaching than anyone realizes. Even with this find and these other leads, I still have that feeling that these will be far from the last pieces of this puzzle to fall into place. We will probably never know the true scope of their work, but I have a feeling we'll track down a lot more of it in the future. Huckleberry Junction newspaper ad from 1984 featuring the Animal Krackers. It appears the show had recently got new showtapes when this ad was run. Credit: Facebook user Pasq Notrook. Special Thanks to: The Dunham Family Animatronic Appreciation Blog on Tumblr Pasq Notrook on Facebook

When I rarely have a few minutes of downtime every few months, I'll check YouTube for any recently uploads of under-the-radar vacation footage of Canada's various amusement areas (Niagara, Wasaga Beach, Yonge Street) in hopes to find footage of some obscure long-lost attraction, or even better, something I've been after for years. Yesterday, this paid off big time. This incredible video was uploaded to YouTube recently, showcasing the Niagara region in 1994. After a brief shot of the abandoned bridal path, turned miniature go-kart track, turned walking path, at the 10:04 mark the cameraman enters the Skylon Tower's legendary amusement park, of which very little is actually known. This is despite it being one of the most popular amusement attractions in The Falls from the 1970's to 1990's, and although limited photos exist, establishing the layout of the vast indoor park has been next to impossible until now. This clearly shows the location of the Shooting Gallery, Miniature Golf Course, Bumper Cars, Go Karts, Carousel, the famous Bavarian Nut Shop, and most importantly, where all this was located in relation to what's there today. The cameraman enters the doors on the West side of the building just off of Murray Street, near where the bridge across the street to Fallsview Casino is today. This entrance to the complex remains, and while the amusement park has been gone for nearly 25 years now, the extensive arcade that filled every other square inch of the basement is still there, although massively downsized. One cool thing in this footage is seeing the original facade of the Adventure Into the Unknown dark ride that was designed by legendary Italian artist Armando Tamignini for manufacturer Bertazzon, imported to Canada, and re-assembled by park staff. The facade would be opened up a very short time after this to include a load station and 2nd floor balcony visible from the outside, however originally it looks to have been contained within the walls of the attraction, adding to the "Unknown" theme. A coffin scene outside the attraction looks to be a static prop, but may have been Tamignini's Dracula in a coffin figure he used in many of his attraction, just shut off. The Dracula figure was definitely a part of this attraction as it's in the auction listing after it closed, but where it was located in the attraction is fittingly, unknown. Mural along the front of "Adventure Into the Unknown" that was removed a short time later. There's some great footage here of the shops on the second floor during better days, but sadly the cameraman doesn't visit the Skylon's undocumented and unfortunately now-abandoned third floor which contained the roller rink and potentially the ever-mysterious World a Million Years Ago attraction. There was a Star Trek Exhibit which opened in the Skylon around this time, however if replaced World a Million Years Ago, the Potvin Miniatures Museum (theorized to have been in the basement next to the amusement park), or neither, is unknown. On the escalator back down into the amusement park, a small shooting gallery-type attraction immediately to the left of the escalators near the Capcom bowling lanes can be seen that appears non-functional, however looks to be the same manufacturer as Dazzleland 's mysterious "Fire Department 911" water gun shooting gallery game. The mystery game in question can be seen at the bottom of this screenshot. At 42:22 there's some brief but cool Clifton Hill footage showing the exteriors of several attractions including Dazzleland, Castle Dracula , Dinosaur Park, and Movieland , however the footage isn't anything groundbreaking at this point compared to some of the more-depth videos of The Hill that have surfaced in recent years. What is groundbreaking however comes at 48:40 when the cameraman enters the Minolta Tower . After a journey to the Pinnacle Restaurant, observation deck, and top of the tower gift shop, the cameraman journeys to the basement. Now if you know the tower's history you know the basement was home to one of Niagara's previously "lost" attractions - one that had next to no documentation. A legendary arcade operated here from the 1970's to sometime in the early 2000's. Here it is in all it's glory, complete with footage of an attempt on it's 90's crown jewel that makes documentation of this arcade so sought after in the classic arcade community - Galaxian 3. If you know what that is, you probably just got goosebumps, if you don't, let me give you them. Galaxian 3 is the 5th title in Namco's popular Galaxian/Galaga series (don't ask why it's called Galaxian 3, the series' naming order has always been beyond confusing). This game completely overhauled the gameplay style of the classic vertical shooting games in the series that came before it however, and introduced a 3D, first-person rail shooter style that would end up setting the precedent for the genre later popularized by games like Star Fox and Time Crisis. The game was originally developed as an interactive theme park attraction in Japan that held 28 people, however Namco had the foresight to also market it as a 6-player sit down arcade machine inside a massive cabinet for arcades with the cash to buy one. The plot features you piloting guns on the ship "Dragoon" against an army of alien-bug attackers as per the series' theme, but this time the threat is much larger. The aliens have a superweapon named the "Cannon Seed" which threatens Earth, and you must fly your way in to the core of this weapon through a tunnel and destroy it's reactor. If this sounds a little familiar narratively speaking to a certain film franchise, that's actually deliberate. When Namco's Kazunori Sawano first designed the original Galaxian back in 1979, he wanted to make a Star Wars game, but licensing issues and technological limitations prevented this. The film's presence in the Galaxian series is felt heavily in everything from the ship in Galaxian resembling a Star Wars Y-Wing, the Galaga ship clearly being modeled after the iconic X-Wing, and the symphonic theme music introduced in Galaga and carried throughout the series. A Galaxian 3 cabinet as seen on KLOV (Museum of the Game). If you're a retro arcade fan and a Star Wars fan (those two things seem to go hand in hand), this game is a masterpiece. It's incredible music, technology, and thrilling narrative are a love letter to the previous games, the sci-fi genre, and the original vision of the series' creator years prior. This game has been deemed "lost" due to its obscurity, with several locations destroying them after they were decommissioned due to their high repair costs, easy conversion into other attractions, and the amount of arcade floor space they took up. While a small handful of these machines are owned by private collectors allowing it to be documented, and there's fairly decent documentation of the Japanese theme park ride version, this footage may very well be the only footage of the arcade machine on-location at an arcade. The game's climactic battle. The footage of the rest of this arcade doesn't disappoint, featuring a plethora of 90,s arcade staples including Konami's 8-player widescreen X-Men game, Final Lap 2, and more. Perhaps the coolest thing here is the giant blacklight mural on the ceiling resembling the Tron game grid. It also appears there was some sort of small non-mechanical zero gravity ride here that required an attendant to operate. Just a year after this footage in 1995, a section of the arcade was leased to Cybermind, a Canadian company that imported "Virtuality" VR arcade machines to Canada and started a short-lived chain of attractions in various major Canadian cities and tourist areas. It's unknown how much of the traditional arcade remained after this, but Galaxian 3 certainty lasted until the basement's closure. The arcade's awesome ceiling that looks straight out of the 1980's. The biggest highlight of this video to me however comes right after exiting the Minolta in the form of footage of Waltzing Waters , the dancing fountain lightshow that ran next to the Minolta Tower from 1962 to 2000. This attraction was one of the earliest amusement projects by Robert Dunham, who would go on to start the Waxattract company and work on some of Niagara's most iconic attractions like The House of Frankenstein , Movieland, Circus World, and the Boris Karloff Wax Museum. It was his first amusement attraction in Niagara Falls proper, with his only other attraction at the time being Fantasy Land at the nearby Crystal Beach Amusement Park. The impressive programmable computer technology that ran the fountain was lightyears ahead of its time, and foreshadowed the company's invention of early programmable animatronic figures for the House of Frankenstein less than a decade later. The lightshow concept would re-surface again with a horror theme in Dunham's beloved Castle Dracula chain of haunted attractions with locations in Niagara Falls, Myrtle Beach and Panama City Beach. The Myrtle Beach location even featured a Waltzing Waters style fountain in it's lightshow room, although if the Niagara location's lightshow had a water component is unknown. Waltzing Waters was expanded and updated in the 1970's, resulting in the version seen in this footage. The show used a switchboard so the operator could customize certain elements of each show, encouraging return customers and no two shows being exactly alike. Until now the only brief footage of Waltzing Waters in action has been on silent 8mm reels. This high-quality VHS footage complete with sound is an incredible window into an iconic gone but not forgotten attraction. Huge thank you to Bryce Barnett for taking, preserving, and uploading this footage to YouTube. Please support his channel and like this video.

Castle Dracula Wax Museum/Dracula's Haunted Castle Attraction Type: Haunted Attraction Location: Niagara Falls, Ontario Years Operational: 1974-1976 (Victoria Ave. location), 1977-Present (Clifton Hill location) Designer(s): Waxattract , Gianfranco Avignoni Cover of the original fold-out brochure for the attraction, mid-70's. Castle Dracula needs no introduction. It's been an icon of the Niagara Falls tourism landscape for generations, but while it's impact in Niagara Falls is clear, it's impact on the greater amusement industry worldwide has been completely overlooked, until now. In 1974, after the massive success of the House of Frankenstein locations, Robert Dunham, the creative genius behind the Waxattract company, wanted to do something much more scary than he already had: Castle Dracula. This attraction he would own, and to set it apart, it would have to be even more thematic and technologically advanced than Dunham's previous attractions. To say the least, it delivered. It was originally located on Victoria Ave. in an old Bell Telephone office building, which had since become a Canadian Corps building, and then been abandoned. This is the building Nightmares Fear Factory now occupies. Nightmares would have you believe the building used to be the "Cataract Coffin Factory", which (while great storytelling), isn't true, however being the former home of Dracula is the next best thing, and a pretty good story itself. It opened on June 1st, 1974, to rave reviews. Very little was documented about this original location, but most of what was comes from a thankfully very detailed newspaper clipping about its opening week. According to the article, Castle Dracula was quite a spectacle to behold when it opened, and took the House of Frankenstein concept, and (to quote Spinal Tap), turned it up to 11. Castle Dracula was themed floor to ceiling. The halls were covered in stucco rock, made to look like twisting caves between castle archways, and blacklight stalagmites hung from the ceilings. It would use many of the same sculpts as the figures in the House of Frankenstein locations, and while containing many of the same scenes such as all the classic movie monsters, "The Room of Rats", "The Attic Ghost", the Medieval Torture Chamber, and more, the overall list of scenes would vary even more than the two House of Frankenstein locations varied from each other. The scenes were also usually presented in a much scarier way than in the House of Frankenstein locations. For example, The Room of Rats in both House of Frankenstein locations depicted a man lying in bed being devoured by rats, his chest slowly rising up and down. The Room of Rats scene in Castle Dracula however was an even more gruesome depiction: a dying man chained to the floor of a cell, being devoured by rats crawling up his body and on the the walls around him. Former Bell Telephone building later home to the original Castle Dracula, early-70s. The "Room of Rats" as it appeared in The House of Frankenstein (left), and as it appeared in Castle Dracula (right) at the later Panama City Beach, Florida location. While neither appear to be enjoying themselves, the victim in Castle Dracula doesn't have accommodations quite as nice as the one in The House of Frankenstein, and certainly isn't there of his volition. In addition to scarier scenes and storytelling, it was also even more technologically advanced. The Seance room now had a projected recording of a talking face inside the crystal ball instead of a simple glowing light, but the projection technology wouldn't stop there. Many peoples' fondest memory of the Castle Dracula locations is the Lightshow room with Quadraphonic Surround Sound. The newspaper article interviews Dunham who talks about the Lightshow, which required an operator to control. He says that 50 projectors throw special effects on a 96 foot screen, the finale of the attraction. It was a massive room with a horseshoe shaped screen around three of the walls, with the pathway guests would walk along being akin to a line across the top of the horseshoe. Behind the screen was a lighting rig of various spotlights, projectors, moving lights (like fire or falling snowflake effects), and silhouettes. The operator would talk into a mic to the guests in horror characters' voices, able to actually interact with the guests in real time, and provide a customized show to each guest using the switchboard. The operator booth was behind a two-way mirror located behind the guests, facing out into the room so the operator could see how the show they were putting on looked, and adapt to guests' reactions better. Lightshow operator Jesse Dodd at the switchboard of the Lightshow in the later Florida location, 1977. The Lightshow in the original Niagara Falls location would have used similar equipment. Notice the reel-to-reel tape at top left. The technological improvements wouldn't stop at lighting and audio technology however, as the attraction featured yet another first, this time in the world of animatronics; the Monster Mash. The Monster Mash was a fully animatronic band of monsters singing Bobby Pickett's song "Monster Mash", with Frankenstein's Monster on vocals, The Wolfman on guitar, The Mummy on drums, and Dracula at the piano. It was also incredibly advanced in movement for the time, capable of movements not seen in other animatronics until the end of the decade. Unfortunately, it was in the dark hallways of the actual attraction, not the lobby or window, so photos or video have yet to surface of this historic band, and given camera quality at the time, likely never will. Former location of the original Castle Dracula across Victoria Ave. from Maple Leaf Village, early-80's. The Dracula building is circled here in red. See the shorter building expansion next door to the right with "Frank's" painted on the roof. The attraction was three floors. The building itself is located on a slight hill, so at the front along Victoria Ave., the first floor is level with the ground, whereas around the back of the building, the first floor would be a sort of underground basement, and the second floor would be level with the ground. The front half of the first floor was occupied by Frank's Steakhouse, a popular local restaurant (that would later expand out the side of the building), and the back half of the first floor was home to the lower level of Castle Dracula. You see, while you entered Castle Dracula through a door on Victoria Ave., you were immediately greeted with a stairs up to the lobby, gift shop and arcade on the second floor. An actor in a Dracula mask roamed on the sidewalk outside, a tried-and-true technique that had been drawing major crowds to Dunham's House of Frankenstein. Just like the House of Frankenstein locations, the gift shop would be mostly horror themed selling Aurora Monster Models, monster merchandise, toys, collectables, and plenty of custom Castle Dracula merchandise. This included T-shirts, cups, pins, mugs, postcards, goblets, statues, coin banks and more. These items, especially the banks, fetch a high price now from both vintage monster memorabilia collectors and vintage amusement memorabilia collectors. Waxattract would also sell their masks and latex hands at the Castle Dracula locations, just as they had at the House of Frankenstein(s). These were made from the same molds as the figures in the attraction, meaning you could go home dressed as an authentic Castle Dracula monster. A souvenir Dracula coin bank purchased from the attraction's gift shop in the mid-70's. After you bought your ticket and started on your actual journey into the attraction, you immediately went down to the lower level behind the steakhouse. This lower level was an incredible feat of design that still hasn't been done in another haunted attraction to this day, not even the subsequent Castle Draculas. A pool company was brought in to reinforce all the walls of the foundation with sealed concrete, turning the entire basement into "The Swamp"; a massive watertight fish tank with a twisting hallway running through the middle. Along this hallway were huge windows into various underwater horror scenes, such as the Creature from the Black Lagoon and Davey Jones Locker. All the scenes in The Swamp were connected between each other, for the room's large fish population to freely swim around, including 3-foot long Carp. "The Exorcist" scene after the attraction later moved to Clifton Hill. This image was taken in 2022 after the scene's animation and effects had long since been shut off, and the scene marker placed directly on the bed. After guests' journey through The Swamp they would come back upstairs to the level at which they began, where most of the attraction was located (including The Monster Mash), and from there head up to the top floor containing a handful of scenes as well as the Lightshow. Afterwards they would come down a staircase into the lobby. Some of the new scenes not present in the previous House of Frankenstein locations would include "The Black Hole of Calcutta", "The Human Fly", "Dracula's Wine Cellar" (where a circulating pump poured fake blood out of a draining corpse into one of Dracula's wine barrels), and "The Exorcist", where a young girl would appear to sit up and begin levitating above her bed while a priest waved a cross in the air chanting "The power of Christ compells you!" to no avail. The face of the little girl was actually a cast of Dunham's youngest daughter Debbie's face, who was 8 years old at the time. The attraction was ahead of it's time and spectacular at every turn. The newspaper article also says that the opening weekend saw 500 visitors, and that the attraction took almost an hour to fully experience. An article discussing the opening of the later Myrtle Beach location in 1975 claims Dunham's Niagara location drew 200,000 guests it's first year, but apparently it wasn't enough. You see despite being incredibly well received, it wasn't without its issues, as the attraction's complexity would be a double-edged sword. The pool company who poured the concrete for The Swamp did a less than stellar job, and leaks were an issue from day one. This would cause the water (and fish) to eventually be removed halfway through the location's lifespan, being replaced with shimmering light effects to simulate water. The Monster Mash was also problematic, requiring constant maintenance due to the amount of moving components and servos. Robert Dunham's son Fred was usually the one to do the painstaking maintenance on the band to keep it running to its full potential. There was also an issue with the attraction's location. Victoria Ave. between Clifton Hill and the Fallsview district is somewhat highly trafficked, but Victoria Ave. in the other direction, while still considered part of the Clifton Hill district until Bender St., gets much less foot traffic, even to this day. It still swells with people on a Summer weekend, but nowhere near the levels of the rest of the Clifton Hill area. With a fairly simple exterior and lack of visibility from down the street, the original Castle Dracula simply failed to pull tourists away from the other areas, despite the positive press and lasting effect on the wider amusement industry. Photo of the City of Niagara Falls taken from atop the Oneida Tower in 1975, with the top of "Castle Dracula Museum" and Frank's Steakhouse visible along Victoria Ave. at the bottom left. After the American locations of Castle Dracula were open and running smoothly by 1977, Dunham would move on from opening new Castle Dracula locations to work on other projects. Back in Niagara Falls, despite the version of the attraction there being the most advanced, it was still failing to pull people in the same way that the U.S. locations were due to it's distance from the Hill. Dunham sold the attraction in 1977, and it moved to its current home on Clifton Hill. This took up the entire plot of land formerly occupied by the historic Darling Motel, which contained the doomed Tower of London Wax Museum that had suffered a massive fire the previous year. What remained of the Motel's cabins were demolished, so all that was left was the two story circa-1950's motel building running along the back of the property, and the former wax museum, gift shop and offices building at the front of the property facing Clifton Hill. The front building was severely burnt out by the wax museum fire, and had sat abandoned for several months. It's unknown what the extent of the damage inside was, but the circa 1925 structure (which originally served as the offices, gift shop and restaurant of the motel) was apparently saveable. The same building in the 1930's as the Darling Cabins (left), 1960's as the Darling Motel (center), and 2023 as Castle Dracula (right). A new structure was built connecting the two in the middle, to create one long building running from the front to the back of the property. The charred castle turrets of the Tower of London Wax Museum were repurposed from the Queen's to Dracula's. Red glowing windows and gothic peaks were added to the towers, and the castle was now painted bright white. The top floor of this rebuilt and now conjoined structure became the actual walk through museum, with the first floor being the large gift shop and game room. The basement seems to have become some sort of additional gift shop/game room space. Its also not known if the attraction followed the same path in the building it does today, as it may have used part of the main floor or basement, or let out in either place. Currently, the whole attraction is upstairs with the exit being right next to the entrance in the lobby. Newspaper clippings from the Niagara Falls Review showing the castle turrets being constructed around the pre-existing Darling Motel building for the Tower of London Wax Museum (left,1975), and the towers being remodeled into castle peaks for Castle Dracula (right,1977). The fact that Castle Dracula is the bare bones of the old Darling Motel (and Reinhart's Riverhurst Inn before that) makes it the oldest structure on the Hill, dating to 1925, which much to my surprise is a fact seen nowhere on the internet. Looking at old construction photos or even the building on Google Maps however absolutely confirms this, as from above you can clearly see the shells of the old buildings at the front and back, connected by new structure in the middle. Take a ride on the Skywheel and look down, and this is even more apparent. Shot of Clifton Hill taken from the Skywheel showing the Castle Dracula building. The former office/restaurant building of the Darling Motel is highlighted in red, with the former motel room block at the back of the property highlighted in blue. Newer structure built in 1977 connects the two. The castle design of the new building obviously took heavy inspiration from the U.S. locations despite Waxattract having no involvement. It's unknown what was brought over from the Victoria Ave. location, but it's likely that the Lightshow and The Monster Mash never made the transition, as their mentions were dropped from subsequent brochures. It's also not known what happened to the figures and scenery not included in the sale. One Redditor remarked on one of my history posts there that they were employed at the Victoria Ave. Days Inn in the early 90s, which happens to be next door to the location of the original Castle Dracula location. They said a basement storage room just off the parking garage contained a bunch of figures from "some old horror attraction" that the hotel owners had acquired at some point, but never did anything with. It's unknown if these were infact the unnaccounted for Castle Dracula figures who didn't make it to Clifton Hill, but it's a likely possibility. With the vast amount of horror attractions or wax museum chambers of horror that have existed in The Falls over the years however, there's also a variety of other places they could have come from, including the "Haunted House" attraction that repurposed the Boris Karloff Wax Museum, or possibly Tussaud's, the House of Frankenstein, or Movieland, all of which underwent major renovations around that time Entrance of the Clifton Hill location, 1979. The mystery display was located under the word "Chilling" on the sign above. The newer Clifton Hill location also originally featured a small windowed area with windows on three sides. It faced Clifton Hill and contained a scene, although what exactly (an old news article about the attraction simply calls it a "window corpse") or if it was previously in a window facing Victoria Ave. in the original location, is unknown. There was also a lobby display of some sort above a bench near the attraction's entrance. A new scene remains there today, but the original display or if it too was displayed in the Victoria Ave. lobby is also a mystery. Outside the attraction, Bach's "Toccata and Fugue", known much better as Dracula's theme, played over loudspeaker, alternating between that and Bobby Pickett's "Monster's Mash Party", the B-side track to "Monster Mash". These may have been in place at the original location as well, and evidence points to at least "Toccata and Fugue" being played outside there, due to it also being played outside Dunham's other locations in the U.S. While significantly less impressive than the original, the attraction performed much better thanks to it's new Clifton Hill location, where it remains to this day. The original exterior of the Clifton Hill location, 1977. It was originally brought to Clifton Hill by three brothers named Mario, Victor and Cosmo Menechella, who purchased the attraction from Dunham. The Menechellas gave the attraction plenty of love, completing a $60,000 facade remodel in 1982 that saw the addition of the giant, iconic, vampire skull mouth in front of the lobby's entrance, the front display window area next to it being removed at this time (this is the open space to the right of the face today). It was designed by artist Gianfranco Avignoni, as were many of the other new monsters incorporated into the facade above. The original gift shop and games room was also replaced with The Hill Family Restaurant. They opened up the basement (whatever it contained) right to the street (instead of being accessed from inside), and the original staircase downstairs to the former Darling Motel's gift shop could now be entered from just outside the attraction's lobby. They also painted a stained glass window of Dracula on one of the castle towers. The updated castle exterior in 1983. Notice the blood running down the walls, dripping out of the windows, along with the creature coming out of the wall above the former location of the window display. Both these short-lived features were removed the following year. The original face entrance was much scarier than the current one. It seems it may have been scaring more people away than bringing them in, as just two years later in 1984, the face was completely overhauled by Avignoni to be less scary, as it remains today. It was when the face was remodeled that many more changes would come to the castle. A plywood box containing a light inside with the letters "Thriller" and Michael Jackson's face cut out of it was placed on the outside of the castle, covering the old stained glass painting. A Michael Jackson figure ended up being placed in one of the pre-existing scenes to create a "Thriller" scene. The entire castle was repainted dark grey, and the twisting tree trunks of the giant face now extended up the walls with twisting vines. A variety of fiberglass skeletons, skulls, and heads protruded from the facade (replacing the monsters), and a new, small exterior window was added up high on the wall, although what it contained (if anything) isn't clear. The Hill Family Restaurant was also replaced with a Howard Johnson's Restaurant franchise. Around this time, in the mid-late 80s, local voice actor Lyall Cousins provided a new dialogue recording dubbed over Bach's "Toccatta and Fugue" that had already played outside the attraction. Scans of a 1980 brochure used for the majority of the Menechella years. Updated, dark-grey facade in the late-80s. A skeleton sitting on the branch of the tree has replaced the monster coming out of the wall. The lobby scene as seen in 1991. A large number of figures from elesewhere in the attraction seem to have already been displaced and dismembered shortly prior to this photograph. The Menechellas went on to become big in the hotel industry in Niagara Falls, and shifting their focus, the attraction changed hands to its current owners sometime around 1991. At that time the lobby scene was a hunchbacked man leaning over a woman in a stockade vomiting recirculating water into a barrel. The figures definitely appear to be Waxattract originals, however if they were original to the lobby or relocated from elsewhere in the museum like the bits and pieces of other characters surrounding them is unknown. The owners who purchased the attraction from the Menechellas wouldn't update a thing for the entire tenure of their ownership from 1991-2023, but on the other hand, didn't maintain the original scenes either, leaving them to fall into disrepair. Noticeable problems began essentially immediately in the mid-90s, when the words "Wax Museum" on the sign were painted over and replaced with the words "Haunted Castle", as some of the scenes inside had been turned off or removed by that point. At that time the Howard Johnson's was replaced with a jewelry store named "Colonade", and the entrance to whatever was in the basement was sealed off and replaced with signage. The basement remains abandoned to this day. Eventually in 1997, the jewelry store became a generic gift shop, and the attraction's original sign would be replaced entirely with the one that remains today, renaming the attraction to "Dracula's Haunted Castle." The voiceover remained as well, but the other song that originally played outside, "Monsters' Mash Party", was replaced with a medley of horror movie themes. When the 1997 updates occurred, it seems things inside really started to go downhill, and by the 2010's, the attraction was quite literally a shell of it's former self. Some of the few lit scenes which remained in the museum by the 2010's. Clockwise from bottom: "The Druids" although their victim's still-beating heart they once held has been replaced with a baseball bat, "Rosemary's Baby" (sans-rocking effect and dialogue), and "Dracula's Wine Cellar" with the circulating blood shut off. Only 7 to 13 (depends which day you went) of the original 40 or so that made the move to Clifton Hill were still lit by the 2020's, and none of them were still functional. A majority of the old scenes were still sitting in complete darkness, and remained full of artwork, props, and usually the figures and animatronics. Some figures were relocated to the backgrounds of the few scenes that remained lit as well as to the lobby, with a female vampire in a coffin replacing the woman in the stockade in the early 2000's. Most of the scenes that were emptied out were repurposed for the attraction's one scare actor (plainclothes guy with a clapperboard, sometimes sitting in a Lazyboy) to jump out from. Since the attraction was in a similar state since consumer cameras became higher quality and readily available on smartphones in the late 2000's, it's made it very hard to document what the attraction would have looked like in its incredible glory days. No guide book for the Castle Dracula locations has surfaced like the one for the House of Frankenstein, and also unlike that attraction, the American counterparts to use as a reference are long gone. "The Wax Workshop" (above) that was a bit of a running joke in the Waxattract attractions, as it appeared under flash photography in the early-90s. (Right) The same scene in 2023, the wax maker now missing his head like his victim. Michael Jackson haunts a graveyard once home to an unkown scene amongst several other displaced ghouls from elsewhere in the attractiion. Could "B.F.D." on the old tombstone prop seen in the bottom-right be the initials of a member of the Dunham family? This was tragic considering the amount of artwork and history still contained within the building, not to mention the countless secrets behind what was originally where, how things worked or were constructed. These were all important parts of Niagara's amusement history as well as wider amusement history as a whole. These deserved to be seen and enjoyed by regular guests and enthusiasts alike, not to mention experienced as they were meant to. Worst of all, by 2023, there were spots where you could see through the wall to the daylight and leaks in the roof, especially in the nearly century old front section of the structure that was formerly the Darling Motel offices. Using a flashlight it was easy to see open backstage areas formerly used for the animatronic control centres, and unlit former scenes full of garbage with signs of mold. Without a flashlight, it was actually hard not to stumble into these areas in the pitch darkness. The building was becoming a serious hazard not just to guests, but to itself, as it was becoming a major fire risk. A figure dressed as Santa Claus that somehow wound up inhabiting the attraction's first scene by the late 90's. (Above): An old scene, walled off on one of it's two sides, decayed beyond recognition and full of garbage. The artwork to the right is where the scene was walled off on one side using an old artwork panel from another scene flipped to face inward. It's unknown if all these figures were original to this scene or moved here for storage. This was located directly after the small set of steps where you leave then section housed in the former Darling Motel offices and enter the structure built in 1977. (Top right): an emptied out former scene featuring a never-ending hallway background. (Bottom right): The former Mummy scene emptied out and home to nothing but a mop bucket. Notice the old employee access connection to the former never-ending hallway scene on the left. These scenes were located in the hallway running along the side of building adjacent to the Thriftlodge. And then, miraculously, eagle-eyed visitors to Clifton Hill in 2024 would notice something, the giant, faded sign high above the building would be repainted for the first time in nearly 50 years. Castle Dracula had new owners. The attraction received it's first updates of any kind since the 1997 updates to the exterior, and the first interior remodel in the attraction's history. Unfortunately, filming and photography is not allowed, so if you want to see the updates to the attraction, you'll have to make a voyage to Niagara Falls, or if you're not able to, watch the low quality footage in this video recorded by a YouTube channel which is unaffiliated with this website. A rundown however is as follows: the effects this remodel has had on the attraction, although majorly positive, are a bit conflicting. Updated facade and repainted sign in 2024. This bold sign stands out more than anything on the Hill except perhaps the Skywheel. On one hand, the new owners obviously care very deeply about this place, that's plain to see. They obviously sunk some serious cash in to the structural work on the building alone. Gone is the daylight and rain coming in through the roof, it now feels more solid and put together, as if the place could easily last another 50 years, which couldn't be said before. The remodel is gorgeous, the place is now as spotless and professional as it would have been on opening day. On the other hand about 90% of those original figures, scenes, props, animatronics equipment and more that had been sitting in darkness for 30 years were completely removed. Now to be fair, as you've seen from the images above, there wasn't much left of many of these props to begin with, as over 30 years of neglect had not been kind to their sculpted faces, peering at visitors from the pitch darkness who were unaware they were even still there. Despite that, these were genuine works of art and pieces of amusement history, decayed and dusty the same way an artifact from a tomb would be, but of value nonetheless. What happened to the figures that were removed is currently unknown, but if you know where to look and what to look for, you'll find plenty of original elements still hanging around. Make no mistake, the presence of the Dunham and Menechella families can still be felt throughout these halls. Almost entirely unchanged is the lobby, save for a new zombie display above the bench replacing the hunchback and vampire bride (more on them later.) Outside the attraction, the iconic horror movie themes that have been a staple sound of Clifton Hill for 25 years remain, however Mr. Cousins' late-80's Dracula dialogue set to "Toccata and Fugue" beckoning you inside has been replaced with a new Dracula script. The new script is as bold and commanding as the old one had once been back when the recording was new, and does a fantastic job of demanding attention. Sadly however, Toccata and Fugue is absent from the new recording, marking the first time in the attraction's history since 1974 that Dracula's music isn't present at his own attraction. The long-painted-over Michael Jackson "Thriller" lightbox has also been removed, for a plethora of understandable reasons. Inside the actual halls of the attraction, the changes are even more apparent. New zombie display in the lobby. This figure is a great example of the detiail on the new props. While the attraction follows roughly the same path that it has since it moved to Clifton Hill in 1977, several walls have been knocked out or removed. While this has completely eliminated the locations of certain former scenes, it's also opened up certain scenes that haven't seen the light of day since the mid-90's, along with limited elements of their original artwork and scenery. Both the front hallway and the hallway that formerly ran along the back of the building have been majorly overhauled. Whereas the back hallway was formerly straight with scenes on each side, the hallway now zigzags through the space formerly occupied by the scenes on the left, with scenes only on the right hand side. One cool little easter egg is a giant Dracula face painted on the wall of this hallway that was formerly the background of one of the removed scenes. This old depiction of The Count matches the one found on the original sign that was removed in 1997. The infamous squishy floor room, which hadn't had it's foam flooring replaced since 80's and was more akin to a carpet placed over a hole in the floor, has also had the floor boarded over. The attraction is filled with several elements noticeably absent from it for 30 years including a variety of torture chambers, a mirror maze, and a live actor who's actually both in costume and dedicated to their role. The hunchback, vampire bride, and the guards retrofitted with the Halloween masks from the lobby display have been relocated inside the attraction again as they originally were, whereas the barrels from the former "Dracula's Wine Cellar" scene appear to have been repurposed in a scene depicting a pirate ship. A small handful of other long-lost props are visible again, sometimes in the backgrounds of larger scenes. The iconic exit staircase still remains. Highlights include two formerly walled off scenes that have been opened up and turned into a walk through a haunted forest, a circular torture chamber area that is now visible again albeit occupied by Dracula's Bride, and most of all, the retention of the beautiful exit staircase through the blacklight rock cave. There's much to be said for the new props however as well. While the original props were incredibly advanced for their time and would likely still resonate with visitors even today, they were also the first of their kind, and restoring half-a-century old animatronics running on 1974 wiring and technology that had been neglected for 30 years certainly wouldn't be a cheap or easy task. It's pretty easy to see why the new ownership opted for mostly new animatronic props, and the ones they chose certainly fit the bill. One thing that struck me as an enthusiast, is apart from one or two more popular offerings from the legendary Distortions Unlimited, several of these props look to be either unique or at the very least not often seen in other haunted attractions. Everything you'd expect is here: a werewolf, bat-winged vampires, screaming torture victims, an executioner with his axe, and an inmate in an asylum; all things you also would have encountered in the attraction back in 1974, all animatronics which this attraction grandfathered over 50 years ago. It's fitting then, that on that anniversary, this technology comes home to one of the places it began. Castle Dracula now joins The House of Frankenstein as being an evolved version of it's former self, once again the lively home of it's titular monster, and no longer it's tomb. Castle Dracula can currently be compared to where The House of Frankenstein was in the early 2000's: heavily remodeled, with just enough original elements preserved to retain the spirit of the original. In fact, despite the mass exodus of original scenery, one could argue the Castle Dracula that exists now is more true to the spirit of the original than the decrepit state it was formerly in, regardless of what original elements may have existed behind walls. The same can't really be said anymore for The House of Frankenstein. Following the most recent remodel removing the majority of the remaining original props there, and the immersion break caused by the entrance to the new rooftop Frankencoaster overtaking the old start of the attraction, it's somewhat of a different concept from it's original state save for increasingly few elements. It's still a fantastic attraction nonetheless, but if you want Niagara's closest experience to a preserved, maintained and evolved version of a classic and historic attraction, look no further than Castle Dracula. With the American Castle Dracula locations long gone, it appears much like Dracula himself, the castle can only survive as long as it has it's home soil, and it looks like it has risen from the dead and isn't going anywhere soon. The Count has reclaimed the right to the neon saying on the front of the building: "This is THE ONE!"

News Blog Occasional updates on current industry happenings related to the site, important research breakthroughs, and behind the scenes information. Recent The Search for the Lost Animatronic Shows of Enter-Tech FOUND FOOTAGE: Skylon Tower Amusement Park, Minolta Tower Arcade, Waltzing Waters, and more! Is this the find of the year? Legendary Niagara Falls Merchandise Store Rockworld Closing After 41 Years Castle Dracula Has New Owners, Receives Major Overhaul January 2025 (1) 1 post November 2024 (3) 3 posts July 2024 (1) 1 post

All Photo Galleries Here you'll find historical photo galleries pertaining to all attractions. This list is categorized by region due to many panoramic shots containing several attractions in an area at a time. Photos of attractions located inside an amusement park, F.E.C., or other complex are located in the photo gallery for the wider complex, as other attractions can also usually be seen in these images. More about these attractions specifically can be found on their respective History pages. Image sources are credited in these galleries, and fall under fair use copyright law as they are being used for research/study. This area is under construction and will be greatly expanded upon. Niagara Region Niagara Region General Photos & Street Shots Alien Encounter Boris Karloff Wax Museum/Haunted House Canadia Castle Dracula/ Dracula's Haunted Castle Circus World Criminals Hall of Fame Wax Museum Crystal Beach Amusement Park Dave & Buster's/ Captain Jack's Pirate Cove/ Fun Zone (Clifton Hill Location) Dazzleland Family Fun Center Dinosaur Park Miniature Golf/ Dinosaur Adventure Golf Great Canadian Midway Guinness World of Records Museum Houdini Magical Hall of Fame House of Frankenstein/Hilltop Motel Indian Village Maple Leaf Village Movieland Wax Museum (Hollywood Wax Museum) Jungleland Miniature Golf Marineland Nightmares Louis Tussaud's Wax Museum Marvel Superheroes Adventure City/Adventure City Prudhomme's Landing Pyramid Place Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museum Rock Legends Wax Museum Screamers (and affiliate attractions) Seagram/Royal/ Panasonic/ Minolta Tower Complex Skylon Tower Complex Tivoli Miniature World/Miniature Golf WWE Niagara Falls White Water/ Typhoon Lagoon Other Falls Ave. Company Attractions Wonderful World of Fantasy Other Harry Oakes Company Attractions Other Niagara Clifton Group Attractions Miscellaneous Niagara Region Attractions Greater Toronto Area Canada's Wonderland Centreville Amusement Park Cullen Gardens & Miniature Village Chuck E. Cheese's Locations (GTA) Fantasy Fair (& Woodbine Centre) Ontario Place Sunnyside Amusement Park Yonge Street Strip Attractions Miscellaneous GTA Attractions Lake Huron and Georgian Bay Castle Village Enchanted Kingdom Playland Park Sauble Beach Fun World Wasaga Waterworld Other Wasaga Beach Attractions Miscellaneous Lake Huron Attractions Ontario - Other Areas Boblo Island Amusement Park Storyland Loose Moose/Splash Canyon Storybook Gardens Wally World Wheels Inn Other Miscellaneous Ontario Attractions Alberta West Edmonton Mall Miscellaneous Alberta Attractions Manitoba and Saskatchewan Miscellaneous Manitoba & Saskatchewan Attractions British Columbia (and Northern Canada) Bedrock City Chilliwack/Dinotown Bedrock City Kelowna Dyck's Dinosaur Park Fantasy Gardens/ Fantasy Garden World Playland (Happyland) at the P.N.E. Royal London Wax Museum Miscellaneous B.C. (& Northern Canada) Attractions Quebec Belmont Park Downtown Montreal Arcades La Ronde Miscellaneous Quebec Attractions Atlantic Canada (East of Quebec) Crystal Palace (& Champlain Place) Rainbow Valley Miscellaneous Atlantic Canada Attractions