Cartoon Destination: New England Playworld

 

It's time to take another trip into unknown lands, and this one by far is unknown.  Very little is known about this place and for it to be a cartoon destination it did not last at all.  I'm talking of course about New England Playworld in Hudson, New Hampshire.

For locals, the name was best known as Benson's Animal Farm.  New England Playworld was the name given on its very last year.  The place opened in 1926 and was a mix of zoo animals and amusement rides.  I'll spare the details on the history of the park itself, but it was best known for their large 500 lbs gorilla named Colossus.  Enough is known about its years as Benson's, but what about as Playworld?

That, unfortunately, is not easy to research.  Because it only lasted one year as such, and because it was on its last legs which means not many people were coming to the park, only a handful of proof could be found online.  No video recordings exist online (or maybe ever), very few pictures, most in bad quality black and white ink, and some select merchandise proved that Mighty Mouse and the Terrytoons gang were at the park.  This blog post is supposed to fill in all the details as best as possible.  There are still plenty of gaps in this picture, but after recent research, I think I have enough information to do a post about it.  UPDATE:  We FOUND video of when it was Playworld.  Special thanks to WMUR-TV for color footage of Mighty Mouse, Heckle and Jeckle, and Deputy Dawg meeting and entertaining guests.  

New England Playworld was a rebrand to attract more guests to the park.  As the recent trend of bringing popular IPs to parks went up (Knott's had Snoopy, Cedar Point had Berenstain Bears, Kings Entertainment had Hanna-Barbera, Six Flags had Looney Tunes, Dorney Park would soon have Care Bears, and Disney had...well...Disney).  Almost by default would be the rights to use the Terrytoons characters.  These include Mighty Mouse, Heckle and Jeckle, Dinky Duck, Deputy Dawg, etc.  All licensed by Viacom (now Paramount).  Remember, Nickelodeon wasn't on the map yet and no Nicktoon existed, so Mighty Mouse would be the top cartoon brand for the company at the time.....sort of.

Playworld used as many Terrytoons characters as possible.  There was the Mighty Mouse Express which was a CP Huntington train, Gandy's Boat Rides, and rides and concessions named after Deputy Dawg, The Terry Bears, Pearl Pureheart, Hector Heathecote, and even Larriet Sam and Sad Cat.  There was a family roller coaster, but was never named after any Terrytoons characters.  Judging by the familiarity of these characters, this probably wasn't a good idea to license save for Mighty Mouse and Heckle and Jeckle.  There was also a statue of Mighty Mouse on an elephant.  

Wait...two different Mighty Mouse costumes?

There were also costume characters of the Terrytoons.  For sure we know of the following characters that had a costume: Mighty Mouse, Heckle and Jeckle, Pure Pearlheart, Oil Can Harry, Soupuss, and Deputy Dawg.  The Mighty Mouse characters specifically had a live show where Mighty Mouse has to save Pearl from Oil Can Harry.  The blog, Heroes in My Closet, tells a greater story about some of the characters and the show.  There was even one with Spider Man for some special occasion.  

New England Playland sadly came to an end after the 1987 season.  It's easy to blame the rebrand or the Terrytoons themselves.  Even Jerry Beck said the characters were added to the park "to the brink of extinction."  The reason for its closure may not be as simple as it seems.  That's not to 100% defend the Terrytoons, but they aren't completely to blame either.  In 1985, Benson's filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.  The reason for the rebrand was to try to bring in customers due to decline in business.  The type of park was not able to compete compared to the larger parks.  Had it been a full blown rebrand adding tons of exciting rides and attractions as opposed to just slapping the Terrytoons on there and claiming them as new, it could have been better, but who knows....it was probably too late before opening day 1987.  What's interesting is that the park closed right before Mighty Mouse The New Adventures went on the air and was actually successful on Saturday Mornings.  Had this aired a TV season earlier, would it have helped the park?  Maybe, but odds are.....maybe not.  The park was in trouble, and there was no going back no matter what is to blame.  There was another park that used the Hanna Barbera characters called Frontier Village, but despite their popularity at that time, it was already too late as the property was set to be sold off causing the park to close.   

The statue moved to Magic Forest in Lake George, New York.

There is a happy ending to the park as many years later it would reopen as a recreational park.  Some of the buildings put in the National Registry of Historic Places.  But the park has a lack of rides, roller coasters, and Terrytoons. 

New England Playworld did not leave much of a legacy if any.  It would have been nice to have had a Terrytoons themed park or themed area.  Universal Studios did at one point think of using a Mighty Mouse show for their Cartoon World concept but never did.  To this day, Paramount hasn't any interest of even Mighty Mouse as the Nickelodeon characters became more and more popular, Terrytoons were shoved to the side.  Perhaps someday Mighty Mouse will come to save the day again, but for now, this has been your cartoon destination.
 

Below are some more photos (sorry for bad quality):