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Ghost Train (Pleasure Beach Blackpool)
Ghost Train is a dark ride attraction at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, in Blackpool, Lancashire, England. It opened in 1930 as a single deck 'Pretzel' ride but was rebuilt and designed as an Art Deco double deck in 1936 by Joseph Emberton. It is notable as being the first to use the name of Ghost Train. It has also undergone several refurbishments over its years of operation. Notably by Joeseph Emberton in 1936 (as mentioned) and again in 1957 by Jack Ratcliff, where it was moved up slightly from its original location to accommodate the Wild Mouse. This is the version we see today although originally it was not themed at all. It finally got a makeover with 'castle' theming in 1973 and a large skeleton on the top. Design and history In the 1920s, '' Pretzel rides'' were becoming a big hit in the United States of America. During the late 1920s, Blackpool Pleasure Beach decided to buy one of these types of dark rides. It was called the "Ghost Train", based on the name of the popular ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blackpool Pleasure Beach
Blackpool Pleasure Beach is an amusement park situated on Blackpool's South Shore, in the county of Lancashire, North West England. It operates as a secure facility, and has introduced epayments via smartphones for admission charges, replacing wristbands and Pleasure Beach Passes, and removing the need to attend the Ticket Centre. The park was founded in 1896 by A. W. G. Bean and his partner John Outhwaite and has been family owned and operated since its inception. The current managing director is Bean's great-granddaughter Amanda Thompson. The park is host to many records, including the largest collection of wooden roller coasters of any park in the United Kingdom with four: the Big Dipper, Blue Flyer, Grand National and Nickelodeon Streak. Many of the roller coasters in the park are record-breaking attractions. When it opened in 1994, The Big One was the tallest roller coaster in the world. It was also the steepest, with an incline angle of 65° and the second fastest w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blackpool
Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre rivers, and is north of Liverpool and northwest of Manchester. At the 2011 census, the unitary authority of Blackpool had an estimated population of 139,720 while the urban settlement had a population of 147,663, making it the most populous settlement in Lancashire, and the fifth-most populous in North West England after Manchester, Liverpool, Bolton and Warrington. The wider built-up area (which also includes additional settlements outside the unitary authority) had a population of 239,409, making it the fifth-most populous urban area in the North West after the Manchester, Liverpool, Preston and Birkenhead areas. It is home to the Blackpool Tower, which when built in 1894 was the tallest building in the British Empire. Throughout the Medieva ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pretzel Rides
The Pretzel Amusement Ride Company was an amusement ride manufacturer that produced a variety of rides, including an early dark ride known as The Pretzel, the company's namesake. It built over 1400 rides for carnivals and amusement parks. Name The company took its name from its trademark dark ride, The Pretzel, so called because of its track's winding, pretzel-like layout. It may also have been influenced by the comment of someone who rode the ride's prototype: "It felt like I was turned and twisted like a pretzel". History The company was established in 1928 when founders Marvin Rempfer and Leon Cassidy patented a single-rail dark ride they built in Tumbling Dam Park on the banks of Sunset Lake in Bridgeton, New Jersey. The company remained in Bridgeton throughout its existence. A large heavy pretzel design was originally affixed to the front of each car to prevent it from flipping backwards. In 1929, a standard Pretzel ride had five cars, 350 feet of track, a riding time of o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Ghost Train (play)
''The Ghost Train'' is a stage comedy-thriller, written in 1923 by the English actor and playwright Arnold Ridley. The story centres upon the social interaction of a group of railway passengers who have been stranded at a remote rural station overnight, and are increasingly threatened by a latent external force, with a denouement ending. The play ran for over a year in its original sold-out London theatrical run, and is regarded as a modern minor classic. It established the 20th century dramatic genre of "strangers stranded together in a railway scenario in constrained circumstances" thrillers, leading to the films such as ''The Lady Vanishes'' (1938), '' Night Train to Munich'' (1940), '' The Taking of Pelham One Two Three'' (1974) and ''Narrow Margin'' (1990). Background Ridley was inspired to write the play after becoming stranded overnight at Mangotsfield railway station (a now "lost station", on the defunct Midland Railway Company's main line), during a rail journey thro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dracula
''Dracula'' is a novel by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. As an epistolary novel, the narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist, but opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taking a business trip to stay at the castle of a Transylvanian nobleman, Count Dracula. Harker escapes the castle after discovering that Dracula is a vampire, and the Count moves to England and plagues the seaside town of Whitby. A small group, led by Abraham Van Helsing, hunt Dracula and, in the end, kill him. ''Dracula'' was mostly written in the 1890s. Stoker produced over a hundred pages of notes for the novel, drawing extensively from Transylvanian folklore and history. Some scholars have suggested that the character of Dracula was inspired by historical figures like the Wallachian prince Vlad the Impaler or the countess Elizabeth Báthory, but there is widespread disagreement. Stoker's notes mention neither figure. He found the n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Exorcist (film)
''The Exorcist'' is a 1973 American supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin and written for the screen by William Peter Blatty, based on his 1971 novel of the same name. It stars Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, Kitty Winn, Jack MacGowran (in his final film role), Jason Miller and Linda Blair. It follows the demonic possession of a young girl and her mother's attempt to rescue her through an exorcism conducted by a pair of Catholic priests. The book was a bestseller, but Blatty, who also produced, and Friedkin, his choice for director, had difficulty casting the film. Unable to hire major stars of the era, they cast relative unknowns Burstyn, Blair and Miller (author of a hit play with no film acting experience), choices vigorously opposed by Warner Brothers executives. Principal photography was also difficult. Friedkin insisted on realism, going to northern Iraq to film the prologue despite political instability in the region, relying on live special e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trauma Towers
Trauma Towers, formerly The Haunted Hotel, was a themed funhouse, haunted attraction based at Blackpool Pleasure Beach in the North of the United Kingdom. The attraction opened in 1980 as a walk-through, themed as a derelict hotel taking visitors through several haunted rooms. The outside of the hotel was painted blue and ramshackle with animations behind windows. In 1999, the attraction was renamed Trauma Towers and joined with the neighboring Tagada flat ride, which became the 'Baronial Dining Hall' and served as a finale. The area outside Trauma Towers included gargoyles, ornate stone benches and a fountain with blood-red water. This area was later taken over by the dancing fountains show. In 2009, the attraction was closed and left standing but not operating. One of the reasons for its discontinuation was purportedly due to the building becoming damp from the new adjacent Dancing Water Show. Some of the scenes were reused in the Ghost Train ride. The old entrance was re-us ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music band founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The group has seen many personnel changes over the years, with Froese having been the only constant member until his death in January 2015. The best-known lineup of the group was its mid-1970s trio of Froese, Christopher Franke, and Peter Baumann. In 1979, Johannes Schmoelling replaced Baumann. Since Froese's death in 2015, the group has been under the leadership of Thorsten Quaeschning (Froese's chosen successor and the current longest-serving band member, having joined in 2005). He was joined by violinist Hoshiko Yamane in 2011, Ulrich Schnauss in 2014 and Paul Frick in 2020. Tangerine Dream are considered a pioneering act in electronica. Their work with the electronic music Ohr label produced albums that had a pivotal role in the development of the German musical scene known as kosmische Musik ("cosmic music"). Their "Virgin Years", so called because of their association with Virgin Re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paranormal
Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Notable paranormal beliefs include those that pertain to extrasensory perception (for example, telepathy), spiritualism and the pseudosciences of ghost hunting, cryptozoology, and ufology. Proposals regarding the paranormal are different from scientific hypotheses or speculations extrapolated from scientific evidence because scientific ideas are grounded in empirical observations and experimental data gained through the scientific method. In contrast, those who argue for the existence of the paranormal explicitly do not base their arguments on empirical evidence but rather on anecdote, testimony, and suspicion. The standard scientific models give the explanation that what appears to be paranormal phenomena is usually a misinterpretat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clogs
Clogs are a type of footwear made in part or completely from wood. Used in many parts of the world, their forms can vary by culture, but often remained unchanged for centuries within a culture. Traditional clogs remain in use as protective footwear in agriculture and in some factories and mines. Although they are sometimes negatively associated with cheap and folkloric footwear of farmers and the working class, some types are considered fashion wear today, such as Swedish träskor or Japanese geta. Clogs are also used in several different styles of dance, where an important feature is the sound they produce against the floor. Clog dancing is one of the fundamental roots of tap dancing, but with tap shoes the taps are free to click against each other and produce a different sound from clogs. Types The Oxford English Dictionary defines a clog as a "thick piece of wood", and later as a "wooden soled overshoe" and a "shoe with a thick wooden sole". Welsh traditional ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Most Haunted Live!
''Most Haunted Live'' is a spin-off of the paranormal reality television series ''Most Haunted'' and was also produced by Antix Productions. The show consists of paranormal investigations broadcast live over a period of one or more nights, usually with interactive sections that involve the viewer. Following a five-year hiatus, Most Haunted Live returned to our screens, this time on UKTV's Really on 31 October 2015. Most Haunted Live was back on 31 October 2019, Hallowe'en Night, exclusive to the official YouTube channel. Production The first episode of ''Most Haunted Live!'' was broadcast on Living on 31 October 2002, from Dudley Castle and was produced jointly by Antix and Hanrahan Media. The format of the show under this joint venture was different from ''Most Haunted'', with different music cues and production style. The next seven live events were produced by Hanrahan. From the 2004 Summer Solstice live event onwards, the Most Haunted Live events were produced by Antix ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
