There He is to Save the Day
I'm visiting my nephew Gus (and his parents, Elizabeth and Edward) in Saratoga Springs, New York. Yesterday, we visited nearby Lake George, where Mighty Mouse has found work sitting astride an elephant in a parking lot, beckoning motorists to visit a local amusement park.
For a brief, peculiar time in the 1980s, a New Hampshire animal park called Benson's changed its name to New England Playworld and adopted a Terry-Toons theme–you could meet Oil Can Harry, eat at a Lariat Sam snackbar, and dump your trash in a Sad Cat wastebin. It had a sculpture of Mighty and the elephant, and this one in Lake George is either that very one or an identical example…
Posted at 3:59 am on August 6, 2007 by Harry | Filed under Mighty Mouse, Lake George, Elizabeth McCracken, Edward Carey, Gus Harvey, New England Playworld
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August 6, 2007
David Gerstein :
After your legends of cartoon-themed restaurants, Harry, I'm not sure how much of your New England Playworld description to take seriously! I'm perfectly willing to believe they adopted a Terrytoons theme, but did the characters featured genuinely include such lesser lights as Sad Cat and Lariat Sam? (Did you visit the place?)
Harry :
It's all true–and weirdly, it opened -after- I wrote my theme park article. It lasted only a season or two. I covered it (with photos) in Apatoons at the time.
Thanks,
–Harry