04/27/2026
Those two boys looking at the camera is me and my brother in 1959 at Gaslight Village. It was the year that it opened. I was 10 years old and my brother was 8. Here is the story of how this one time visit to the park stuck in my head to wind up getting a job here. While I was here at the park, I got called onstage to perform a magic trick where the magician would make me levitate between two chairs.
Here is the story on the day I tried to get a job at Gaslight Village.
The parking lot at Storytown looked empty except for a few cars. It was around noon when I walked up to the office with my small scrapbook of clippings under my arm. The secretary wasn't at her desk. There was no one around."Hello?" I shouted down the hall. "Yes, down here." A voice said. I walked in and saw a man wearing a yellow shirt, brown pants and work boots. It is funny how I can remember that. "Hello, my name is Bob and I am a ventriloquist and magician. Here is my scrapbook of my news clippings. I would love to work at Gaslight Village on the outdoor stage." Notice, I didn't ask who the man was. I was scared. I never did this before. I had no interview training. I just went in blindly. Oh, to be that naive again!
He invited me to sit down while he looked over my stuff. "Very nice" he said."But we are all filled up with entertainers for this year. Try us again next year." With that, he handed my scrapbook back and I thanked him and walked out the door. As I was going down the hall, another man stopped me and asked what I was doing in that room. I explained what I was doing there. "Do you know who you were talking to? Don't you know that you shouldn't be down this hall? Don't you..etc..etc..." I apologized and said that I was trying to get a job at Gaslight Village. "Well, you were just talking to the boss, Mr. Wood." "He told me that there were no openings." I answered.
Rex Billings was the person who had me cornered now. He was the park manager and as it turns out an amateur magician.I think he saw the fear and hunger in my eyes. I really wanted to do my act at Gaslight.
Then he asked me something that I had hoped to avoid at all costs. "Have you ever done manual labor?" My whole nervous system shut down. I think I went deaf right there. Now mind you, I had done a lot of work when I was a kid. I shoveled snow, mowed grass, raked leaves, mopped floors and so on. But this was not in my area of expertise. I couldn't hammer a nail, lay a brick or mix cement. I think I stuttered."Ye-s-s-s. I-I-hhh-ave!"
I think Rex saw me as a challenge. He knew that I wanted that job really bad so this is what he proposed. "Listen, I think I might be able to help you get that job at Gaslight. Here is what I will do. You come to work as a laborer and when I know Mr. Wood will be in a certain area, I will send you there before he gets there. That way he will see you all over the park and think you must be working hard." I guess it made sense to me. So I began my day with a walkie-talkie and went to work. I dug ditches, installed wires, mixed cement, cleaned up duck p**p, washed windows, painted buildings and fixed rides. Each day was exhausting. But true to his word, Rex called me on the walkie-talkie and told me to go somewhere and do some work. Five minute later, Mr. Wood would show up to do something or give orders. He came up to me after the first few times and asked me if I was the kid who came to his office about the Gaslight job. I said that I still wanted the job if something came up. Every day for three weeks, I would bounce from job to job. I was the master of moving from job to job. I cleaned animal cages, swept, dug ditches, hammered walls, cleaned toilets, etc. It wasn't show business.
Finally, one day Mr. Wood came up to me and said "Can I ask you a question? How many of there are you in the park? You seem to be everywhere! Can't we find you a job you like?" I smiled and said,”I must be so good that I am needed everywhere!" Mr. Wood just shook his head.
Rex was always by Mr. Wood's side when he toured the park so I could see him chuckle to himself when Mr. Wood asked me those questions. It was kind of his own private joke on the boss. I was the only one who knew about it. I was even feeling uneasy about popping up everywhere. After all, it was an 80 acre park.
It was the day before Storytown opened and there weren't many employees around. Mr.Wood asked a few of us if we would stay to sweep the streets of Ghost Town.
I will say that Mr. Wood was one of the hardest working people I have ever met. He would work right next to his employees and do the same amount of work. There were about 6 of us in the park finishing up for the day when Mr. Wood decided to buy us dinner across the street. It was a well needed break. I was eating my sandwich at the table when I saw Mr. Wood getting ready to leave the restaurant. He came up to me and said, " You know that job at Gaslight that you wanted on the outdoor stage..You start next Thursday!" Thanks Rex...wherever you are!
And so began my journey at Gaslight Village. I worked there many summer seasons. It was the best training ground anyone could ever have. I did get to work at Storytown at the Jolly Tree Theater and become a deputy Marshall when Windy Bill McKay had to take two weeks off for surgery.
