My name is Edward Hilbert, … and
practically this is as much I could say in
English, when my wife and I had arrived to
Baltimore in early 1957.
Adler Display Studio just made the
finishing touches on the displays for
Enchanted Forest. With my luck, I had been
introduced to Mr. Adler at the right time.
He needed a sculptor, I needed a job and
we mad a deal. Dollar per Hour before
taxes. I had my chance to work on two
guys, who was seated in the “Tub” and
floated near the Blue Whale. When we
installed them, I meet Mr. Harrison and
his sons.
In 1959, I founded Unique Design Inc.
Roughly one year later, Mr. Harrison
called me and asked to see him about some
display ideas. When I get there, we seated
in a small boat, and because the water
channel wasn’t operated, we pushed our
boat through a large, pitch-dark area
under a manmade mountain. He pointed out 4
large caves and asked me to design some
scenes for them with some human figures on
a story line of Ali Baba and a Forty
Thieves.
I made some sketches, some detailed
renderings and within two weeks, I went
back to show my proposal. The ideas were
approved and I got the order to build it.
The Ali Baba Ride was a success and my
future direction in my business was
changed too. With this new line, Enchanted
Forest put me into the Amusement Industry.
Soon, I started to create animated figures
for Wax Museums and for Amusement Parks.
These animated characters were operated by
compressed air, and they were controlled
by our own, home built computers. (That
time, it wasn’t any commercially available
PC on the market.) We built ours, entirely
from scratch. The were large, awkward, but
… they were dependable and they did the
job.
In 1980, Mr. Harrison called me again and
asked me to think about an animated stage
show for Enchanted Forest. I got together
with David DeBoy, and Brent Hardesty and
we started to write a musical show. This
was an other ... first, for me. Not long
after, we presented our conception of the
“Enchanted Days” Musical show. The design
was accepted and we were ready to start to
work on it when the Superintendent of
Enchanted Forest died. This tragic event
stopped everything. Without him, Mr.
Harrison hesitated to go into this large
project.
I was frustrated too. I had so much time
invested into this project; I just didn’t
want to stop with it. I made a special
promise to Mr. Harrison and I gave him my
personal guarantee. I promised to him,
this show will be operating flawlessly and
will be kept in perfect condition.
I must have a trustworthy face, because he
gave me the go ahead for the production …
and a check for a deposit.
We started to create the animated
characters in my studio and Enchanted
Forest started to build the stage and the
auditorium based on my blueprints. Few
months passed by and we set up Giggle-Achi,
Buck Berry and Chicken Little on our own
test stage in our shop and started to
“Program” their motions. Everything
worked, as it should be. The stage at
Enchanted Forest was ready for us too.
Took us a few days until all three stars
were placed on the right location and
their wires and air hoses were connected.
We set and checked out all spotlights and
speakers. We made sure, the stage curtain
moved with the correct speed … and open
and close, when it should. We
double-checked the “Applause” sign to,
because we wanted it to light up only,
when it supposed to. Than we had to make
the final programming, for all moving
parts. It took us a whole day to doe,
because we want everything to be perfect.
It was about 10 PM when we started with
the demonstration. The Harrisons and a few
park employees seated in their chairs and
anxiously waited to see and hear our
presentation. Our little show worked
exactly as it should.
…. And it worked for a long time after
this day. The success of this show placed
my Company and me on the map. We created
animated stage productions for different
Theme Parks from Long Island, NY. To Long
Beach, California.
Than the tragic fire happened, and ended
the life of our show too. The fire hit me
personally. It was frustrating because
this was my “First Animated Show”.
Luckily, I made a video recording before
the fire and I still have and treasuring
that tape.
