Sally Corporation (also known as Sally Dark Rides) is a

dark ride A dark ride—or ghost train when horror themed—is an indoor amusement ride on which passengers aboard guided vehicles travel through specially lit scenes that typically contain Animatronics, animation, sound, music and Special effect#Live spe ...

and

animatronic An animatronic is a puppet controlled electronically to move in a fluent way. Animatronics are the modern adaptation of the automaton and are often used for the portrayal of characters in films, video games and in theme park attractions. Anim ...

manufacturing company based in

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...

, United States. The company serves amusement parks, attractions,

museums A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private collections that are used by researchers ...

, and retail clients worldwide. It offers complete design/build services from concept to installation, including scripting, audio and music production, props and sets, lighting and special effects, electronics, and project management.

History

Sally Corporation was founded in 1977 by high school friends John Fox and John Rob Holland. The company began by manufacturing animatronics for various commercial applications, including an animated figure of President

Lyndon Baines Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after assassination of John F. Kennedy, the assassination of John F. Ken ...

, which was created for

Neiman Marcus Neiman Marcus is an American department store chain founded in 1907 in Dallas, Texas by Herbert Marcus, his sister Carrie Marcus Neiman, and her husband Abraham Lincoln Neiman. It has been owned by Saks Global, a Corporate spin-off, spin-o ...

and later donated to the LBJ Library in Austin, Texas. After Sally had been in business for 6–9 months the second hire for the new company was John Wood who had previously worked with Fox. The first hire was an office manager, Nancy Hafner. John Fox left the company in 1983. Holland stayed with the company until 1988. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Sally Corporation went on to develop interactive dark rides. John Wood continues to serve as the Chairman and President, with Rolf Paegert assuming the role of CEO following a corporate restructuring in January 2023.

Dark Rides

Animatronic Shows

Notes

References

External links

Sally Corporation's official website
{{Amusement rides American companies established in 1977 Amusement ride manufacturers Animatronics companies Entertainment companies established in 1977 Electronics companies established in 1977 LaVilla, Jacksonville 1977 establishments in Florida Technology companies based in the Jacksonville area Technology companies based in Florida Robotics companies of the United States Multinational companies based in Jacksonville