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THE
HAUNTED MANOR
A
Haunters Haunter explains in bloody detail what it takes to do it safe
and do it right...and interview with Stan Ambro
BY
RICH HANF
You can almost hear them
say it. A frustrated would be Haunter and his band of gypsies are striking
out big time in their attempt to find a place (or maybe a new place) to
put on a show. One of them gets a bright idea..."I know, why don’t
we get some trucks and do a Trailer Haunt,
I mean...how bad can THAT
be"? If you have ever said "something" and then regretted
it as soon as the words have left your mouth...well, that would be the
case here. I am going to take you on a short journey, doing my best to
describe to you exactly what it takes to open a Trailer Haunt.
Now, we are not talking about opening a Trailer Haunt just anywhere...we
are not talking about some sweaty little trailer park, inhabited by toothless
white trash that will undoubtedly end up on a Saturday night episode of
Cops (probably from Florida)...NO SIR...I’m taking’ yall
to the toughest place on earth to do a Haunt....ESPECIALLY A TRAILER HAUNT.
I’m taking you to the car jacking capital of these U...nited States,
a place where you definitely don’t want to try to get into the garbage
hauling or trucking business, the only place on earth where you can get
real "Taylor Ham", and a place where 8 teens died in the "Haunted
Castle" fire at Great Adventure way back on May 11, 1984. Yes...I’m
talkin about the great state of New Jersey...and not just anywhere in New
Jersey...we are going to Ocean County...home of (you guessed it) Great
Adventure. This is a place with a long memory, and the deadly fire that
happened that summer might as well have happened yesterday. What kind of
idiot, you may well ask, would do a haunt in THAT County? Well, I guess
that answer would be.....ME!!! Along with big time help from my pre Spookyworld
friend Ed "Ready Eddie" Gannon, I did the first Haunted House
in Ocean County N.J. after
the fire some 10 years ago. It was called "Frightland" (yes there
was a Frightland prior to Aven Warren) and it was in Toms
River NJ...home
of the oldest Halloween parade in the country...even older than the one
in the Village (in NY Larry)!!! Anyway...fast forward to 2005.....to the
Boardwalk at Seaside Heights (known
in NJ as goin’ down the shore), and a show called The
Haunted Manor.
 
The owner, designer, builder,
creator, operator.. is Stanley Ambro, and he is a GREAT HAUNTER in
the old thyme sense of the word. Stan is a licensed plumber by trade...as
was his father. Now, any Haunter reading this, that has ever plumbed a
plumb, knows that any trade plumber worth is salt can not only plumb, but
can also do carpentry, electric, welding, pipe bending...things that coincidentally
come in very handy if you plan on building a Haunted Attraction. Stan is
a natural, and even after many years of Haunting, is still in it for the
passion...not the money, politics, or ego (a sure sign if there ever was
one that poor Stan is gonna get screwed).
I join Stan on a warm
summer night. The boardwalk isn’t all that busy... yet. Business
at
 
The Haunted
Manor comes
in spurts. This is his third year on the boardwalk, and like many a
carnival showman, Stan makes his money one customer at a time. The
show is housed in 3 tractor trailers that Stan has expanded to the
size of 5 trailers, and with an eye for detail you could easily forget
you were in a trailer haunt and think you were in Kevin McCurdys Haunted Mansion.
Rich Hanf.....Readers
Digest version...how’d you get down here?
Stan Ambro.....Carmine
Ricci...talked me into coming down here
RH....."The
Fat Man"
SA.....Carmine
Ricci made me a deal I couldn’t refuse. He said it was gonna be great,
said I was gonna make a lot of money.
RH.....You
know his background right?
SA.....Yes...he
owned the Haunted Mansion in
Long Branch (NJ), AND the Brigintine Castle just
outside of Atlantic
City. So Bill
Majors who manages the pier here told me Carmine was coming down one day.
Bill couldn’t make it that day but I had to come down and meet him.
I had my heart set on not coming here because I was doing ok where I was
at Keansburg...and basically I was talked into it. So here I am...3 years
later!!!
RH.....How ‘bout
a quick history of you and your shows.
SA.....Started
as a young man...went to "Scream in the Dark" in the West Belt
Mall. I got the bug after that. I started out small in my front yard...like
you. Every year the crowds would come. Gave me more of a reason to do more,
to build more. From there I was going to open up in a PAL (Police Athletic
League) building, but they wanted me to take it down on Tuesday nights
for bingo so that wasn’t going to work. A building inspector from Totowa NJ suggested
I build it in some trailers because they were fireproof because they were
metal. I started doing that in 1991. It took me five years to get to the Gingerbread Castle.
RH.....And
we know how well the Castle went!!!
SA.....Yeah...somebody
made a lot of money...and it wasn’t me.
Writers Note...The
Castle owner screwed over more people than just Stan. In a classic case
of what comes around goes around, he finally died...sick and penniless...forcing
his wife to sell the Castle liquor license dirt cheap to save her house.....and
to take a job as a lowly security guard. Oh how the mighty have fallen!!!
SA.....From
the Castle we went to an ambulance squad in Wayne NJ. We were well received,
and did pretty well there...we hit a high and then after the third year
it began to fizzle out.
We were just losing steam...we
were in the back of a building, we weren’t really exposed, we didn’t
have any light up signs yet so we didn’t do very well after that
third year so from there we went to the Fire Dept in Andover NJ. We did
well there...had good numbers but a ride inspector we knew recommended
us to Funtown Pier at the Keansburg Amusement
Park. We expected
to do big numbers at Keansburg but when it turned out to be slow during
the day we got antsy and one of our guys contacted the Seaside boardwalk.
RH.....Tell
me about that ride inspector. Where was he from, what did he do, and how
did you feel about him?
SA.....Well
the ride inspector was from the DCA which is
the Dept. of Community Affairs....
Division of Carnival
Safety. I
had to pay my fee of $250 to be registered with them for the year. That
$250 goes towards paying an inspector to come out to make sure you are
safe.
Sometimes they do catch
things that you are not thinking about. You never know...it could be any
little thing that someone could trip on and get hurt. They look at it like
you’re conveying people. Just because you are not a ride doesn’t
mean that you are not a ride to the State. The State looks at it like you
are conveying people even though they are on foot. This could actually
be more dangerous than being in a car (as in a Dark Ride) because they
are running around, back stepping, running over one another. The inspectors
are definitely there to do an important job which is help you keep things
safe... which ultimately keeps you in business.
RH.....OK,
let’s get down to business.....this whole magazine is ultimately
about safety. You meet with the guys down here. You get the green light.
You are excited about this new prospect. What does it really take to open
a Haunted House on the Boardwalk in New
Jersey?
SA.....Well,
once again you have to deal with the Dept. of Community Affairs...Division
of Fire Safety. They oversee all fire safety issues. Because this
is a tourist attraction area we are dealing with the State. If we were
just a show in a town we would deal with the local fire official.
The DCA supersedes
any local officials. They could shut me down for anything. If there is
just one thing they could red tag me and that would be the end of it. They
almost did it the first year I was here. According to the local guy everything
was fine. Well these guys came in with their white shirts and badges...I
mean they looked like cops. So they came in and looked everything over.
Things were pretty much ok except they didn’t like that I had some
extension cords. They don’t like any of that, everything has to be
hard wired.....and on that rare occasion that you use an extension cord
it has to be rated way higher that what you want to use it for...and of
course twist lock plugs. As you probably know...if you have a heavy load
with no circuit protection...the plug will burn up...and if it’s
somewhere in a wall, near paper or wood, it will start a fire. They are
the fire police so to speak.
RH.....Who
else do you have to deal with?
SA.....Well
you have to deal with the Ride Inspector.....but he can’t
even come in here without a certificate from the State saying that I’m
ok to open.
RH.....What
are the biggest things they look for?
SA.....The
biggest things they look for are your fire dept. connections to make sure
you have adequate water in you system in case of a fire.....and OH.....there
are 2 new things that just started in New Jersey which is Certifications.
You cannot test and inspect your own systems anymore. The suppression
system has to be certified by a licensed inspector that runs his own company,
and has his own insurance. The same is true when it comes to the fire alarms. The
fire alarm shuts the whole system down. There is a shunt trip breaker that
turns off the electricity to the building, eliminates all possibility of
someone getting electrocuted, while at the same time turns on your emergency
back up lights because they go on when the power goes off. There is also
a Voice Evacuation System that so far only has to be in English.
RH.....If
the fire alarm goes off is the local fire dept notified?
SA.....No,
we do not need to be what they call Supervised...perhaps
because the pier is such a high visibility location. In addition, we have
to have a certain number of emergency exit doors per sq footage. I’m
not sure what that sq footage is but I know that we not only meet it...but
exceed that requirement.
RH.....Something
you told me the last time I was here that really surprised me was that
the Scarefactory Controllers can’t pass code in New
Jersey.
SA.....Well,
the inspectors don’t like what they call "Wall Warts"...or "Cube
Adaptors". In addition, they have a problem with the large number
of wires coming out of the boxes. Although it’s all low voltage,
they want to see everything contained. That said, low voltage can start
a fire if not used properly...it happens in cars all the time.
RH.....So
what did you do to the Scarefactory pieces you bought?
SA.....Basically
I replaced their control boards with boards made by other companies...Blue
Point Engineering for one, and used that board to reprogram all the e-proms.
I then mounted everything into a 4x4 metal box with a cover. Being that
everything is in a covered box, oxygen can’t get in there to burn.
If a fire were to start in one of the metal boxes, there wouldn’t
be enough oxygen in there to support the flame.
RH.....What
else have you had to do that you consider over the top or above and beyond?
SA.....Above
and beyond would be my fire dept. connection. We are on an amusement pier
that sits over the Atlantic
Ocean. The fire
dept. connection is in the back of the Haunted House. They required me
to run 60 feet of 4 inch iron pipe from the back of the house all the way
to the front...and still it won’t help anything. If there was a problem
up here and the Haunted House was engulfed in flames, the fire dept. still
could not drive a fire truck up onto the boardwalk. They would still have
to drag the hoses up here and connect to the fire dept. main. It’s
a little bit overkill. Other than that I really can’t say anything
that bad.
RH.....Did
you find that things got tougher for you after the "Great White" fire
in Rhode Island?
SA.....Yes,
sort of. They came in and did a much more thorough inspection of the house.
They were making sure that nothing like that was going to happen here.
RH.....If
someone was new and trying to get into this business, what kind of advice
would you give them in terms of safety issues? Would it be a good idea
to reach out to all these people we talked about first? What should they
do?
SA.....I
find that inspectors don’t want to get involved. If you are in this
business already and have a question for them they don’t have a problem
with that.....but no.....it’s not really necessary to go to the inspectors
first. It’s more necessary to go to the certification guys. That
said, you have to be careful even with that. We had a guy come in here
that was qualified to do the certification but he was not REGISTERED with
the DCA. Because he wasn’t registered with them,
the DCA wouldn’t accept his certification.....what
a bunch of red tape that was. In the end I had to find a guy that was registered
with them and he had to redo the certification.
RH.....What’s
happening is this...the fire people, the inspectors, the officials...are
all saying "I don’t want to go out on a limb and be the guy
that says this attraction is safe".
SA.....Yes,
but it makes sense. The guys doing the certification know the business
better than the inspectors. I think it’s legit. Who knows suppression
systems better than the guy that puts them in? There’s a lot to know.
For instance, my water pipes are on the roof here where we know that the
salt air from the ocean is under constant stress. Things are getting rotted
up there like crazy.
If I have blistered pipes,
or things that look like they may fail, it’s his job to say "hey,
change that pipe". These guys are really the last word...the experts
at what they are looking at which is good because if I’m not safe
whose ass is on the line??? MINE!!!
RH.....What
kind of electrical issues do you have to deal with here?
SA.....Everything
here is going through pipe...as I said before, extension cords going through
walls is a no no. If anything low voltage is fused it’s generally
not an issue but for some things the metal boxes are required. I try to
make sure that everything is over rated. They love it when they see the
rating is much higher than what the load is.
RH.....If
someone wanted to get into this business, specifically using trailers,
what advice would you have for them?
SA.....I
really wouldn’t recommend trailers. They are a problem. The retrofit,
cutting them apart,
making them road worthy
after butchering them up to make rooms, reinforcing large open spaces...you
have to learn to be a welder. You just can’t get into this business
and not be a welder, plumber, and electrician, not to mention artist, creator,
showman...you gotta have a lot of skills...and don’t think that you
know it all because you don’t know it all. You will learn by trial
and error...as we all know.
On the other hand it is
convenient to be in trailers because you can move from site to site. Carnivals
make a lot of money because they come to a town for a short time. Sure,
they spend more time and money in gas, set up and break down...but they
are brand new. You are special.
I call them mobile attractions,
they are really units. I don’t like calling them trailers...that
was Great Adventure...that’s a bad issue.
RH.....What
do you have to do to make these trailers road worthy?
SA.....Well,
now you are talking about the DOT.....Dept. of Transportation. You
can’t be overweight. You have to watch your height. Our roof is completely
collapsible so we can remove it and put it into another trailer for transport.
We do that because we have to be no higher than 13' 6" high. With
my sprinkler pipes up there, and the way the roof folds, I would be at
approx 14' 6". They would have to come down for me to go on the road.
Of course I have weight issues. I believe 85,000 lbs is the maximum. One
of my trailers exceeds that by 20,000 lbs. RH.....When
you leave, do you have to call the DOT telling them you
are leaving and to come down and inspect you?
SA.....No,
you just try to do it at 5
o’clock in
the morning when the cops are having a coffee break. You want to avoid
the weigh stations if you can because there is a lot of weight here.
In this attraction alone
I have one ton of 1x1 square tubing which comes out to about 3,500 feet.
RH.....So
far we have spoken about a lot of safety issues...and inspectors. Regarding
the inspectors I heard you say they are not bad guys.
SA.....No
they’re not...it’s definitely good to have them. For instance,
take my exit doors. We are down the shore here. Everything rusts, everything
corrodes, and everything gets tight. If it wasn’t for that inspector
coming I wouldn’t have showed up at midnight to
re-weld frames, take hinges off, oil them, get the panic bars to work.
If not for the inspectors these things would get neglected because I’m
more concerned with getting a new sign up so I can get more business in
here. A perfect example is the fire pull boxes. They used to be right next
to the emergency doors. As the show got bigger and I expanded the square
footage the pull boxes ended up farther away from the exit doors. The alarm
certification guy made me come up to code and move them back right by the
emergency exit doors. They are doing their job which keeps me doing my
job.
RH.....That’s
a great attitude. I think too many Haunters look at these issues as standing
in the way of what they want to do, they see the inspectors as their enemy,
and the money you spend on safety as a useless expense. I looked at the
Great White fire and said that could never happen in my show. I have working
emergency exits that are clear, I have working panic bars and lighted emergency
exit signs, I have a working fire suppression system, etc...and the reason
I have a safe show is because of these inspectors.....period!!!
SA.....How
about this one...I was written up for debris. I had no idea how it got
there but someone had thrown a bunch of 4x4s under my trailers. Hey, you
never know what can happen.
We have all seen these
things burn down before. You never know who you enemies are, who is jealous
of you. Was the next trip with a can of gas? Nobody knows...but luckily
that particular inspector found it. You know, your customers are innocent;
they’re coming to your attraction looking to have a good time. They’re
not looking to get burned or fall down and break a leg.
Another law that I came
into that was new is that EVERY STEP...even if you are
going down, has to have some yellow paint at the edge. I
have 4 stair cases and all of them are marked because when you are going
down the stairs YOU DO SEE THAT STRIP. It’s also
important to make sure all your stairs are properly lit because
it’s only a matter of time before someone does a header down those
stairs if they aren’t.
RH.....Stan,
I know there are several more things before we bring this home. What you
are talking about is exactly what this entire issue of HAUNTWORLD is
about. What else can you tell us?
SA.....Well,
we can talk about smoke for a moment. Smoke is actually something that
kills more than fire. With some of these two part urethane foams, you can
kill people with just the smoke from them. A cigarette that someone smuggled
into the show is enough to start a fire in some of these foams. You don’t
know how many times we have caught people trying to get into the attraction
with a cigarette cupped in their hand, or behind their leg...trying to
sneak it in. You would be surprised...no matter how many signs we put up,
they just want to disobey that sign. So, it’s vitally important that
your actors watch for this as they operate the front door.
RH.....It
was the smoke that killed those 8 kids at Great Adventure (see attached
articles).
RH.....OK...speaking
of your employees.....what do you do in terms of safety training with them?
SA.....Well,
again...another new law for this year is that you have to have a written
employee safety guide or manual that instructs your employees on how to
act during certain emergencies.
It is not a standardized
form that has to get filled out, something hand written or done on your
computer will do just fine. Just as long as it covers what to do in the
case of various emergencies.
RH.....Not
to blow my own horn, but the "Haunted Attraction Employee
Handbook" that I’ve had out for years now covers just
that...and a whole lot more. It also includes an employee sign off page
that lets it be known that the employee in question has been properly trained
in all aspects of working in a Haunted House Show...and that they have
had opportunities to ask questions and those questions have been answered
to their satisfaction. It’s a real pro-active kind of thing and I
was told by an attorney it would go miles in a court of law.
RH.....We
are almost there, but we have several more very important things to talk
about. One would think that by now you have dealt with all the inspectors
that were out there looking for things to inspect. Is that true? Nooooooooooo.
So who is next on the list?
SA.....The
Insurance Inspector.....You pay another $700 for a guy to come down and
make sure you are safe to open. He is actually from the insurance company.
It’s specialty insurance.
You see, I’m not
really considered a Haunted House. I am now considered an attraction, an
amusement device being that I am registered with the Dept. of Community
Affairs. Because I am not a seasonal Haunted House I am considered
more of an attraction so getting insurance isn’t too difficult for
me.
RH.....OK...here
is one most people would never have thought of...go ahead drop the bomb.
SA.....Don’t
get caught without titles!!! You need titles for your trailers or you won’t
be able to register them to get license plates so you can move them around.
RH.....BUT
THE LOOPHOLE IS??????
SA.....Go
to Maine or
any other State that is a TITLE STATE,
and you can get a title after you prove ownership of the trailer by using
photos of yourself building the attraction, or a note from the guy you
are buying the trailers from. These things can be used to get you title
through a title State such as Maine.
RH.....How
about paperwork...what do you need to keep handy?
SA.....Everything,
including all your receipts, your applications, msds forms, permits, and
things like affidavit of flame retardant treatment. Things like that which
are provided by New York Fireshield show that you have used the product...have
used for instance the Class "A" Intumescent Paint. You really
need to keep everything available for the inspectors to look at.
RH.....I’m
guessing there is still one more person to talk about.
SA.....Well,
now that you mention it.....
RH.....I
KNEW IT!!!
SA.....You
can’t just throw your fire suppression system up anywhere and so
you need a licensed Architect that is in the field
that can seal your drawing. I provided a rough sketch of the dimensions
of what my Haunted House would be like here (which they call a FUNHOUSE),
they draw up a set of blueprints and it’s gotta be sealed by an Architect...or
actually...a State of New Jersey Professional Engineer...and his license
number. You can’t even get in the door without this. The inspectors
will always want to see this to make sure things are up to par. If your
pipes are on the roof, and I recommend you put them on the roof, the plans
will reflect this. And I also recommend that you use galvanized pipes.
Don’t go the short or cheap way. In the long run it cheaper to buy
galvanized because it won’t rust out on you.
RH...OK...I
think that’s it. Any parting words for everyone out there?
SA.....(Laughing) "There’s
no money in the Haunted House Industry". How can I explain this...there
is an explosion of money one day and then the next week you’re sitting
here wondering...where is everybody and why is nobody coming in here and
why is the boardwalk empty. The weather has a lot to do with it.
RH.....So
here on the boardwalk you face the same problems as seasonal Haunters do.
We are both subject to the weather, the inspectors, the whims of the public.
Hey...Haunting is Haunting.
 
 
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