For creative ace Alexander, theming is Totally Fun
Dean Lamanna
Amusement Today!

Few amusement experts are as attuned to the dreams and desires of the fun-seeking public as Peter Alexander.

With nearly a quarter century of industry experience, including 10 years with universal Studios, Alexander has been the driving focer behind some of our highest-profile attractions and shows. He has continued as a top themed-leisure learder through Totally Fun Company (www.totallyfuncompany.com), the Tampa, Fla., based design and production concern he established in 1991.

Alexander's latest "funovation", tentatively is the XS Entertainment Center in Orlando, Fla. Located at the Point Mall on International Drive and jointly conceived with Chicago-based XS, a division of video and arcade game maker Namco, the destination will combine unique restaurants, games and rides.

"Our goal was to come up with an exciting, original entertainment center that would interest men and women in the 25 to 45 range of age", Alexander told Amusement Today. "Typical game centers don't really appeal to that wide an audience."

Among the attractions Alexander has proposedc for the site are Sky Joust, a mid-air contest incorporating laser tag technology and played in vehicles suspended by wires, and the Sidewinder, a motorcycle experience which carries riders sideways and upside down on a track around the inside perimeter of the complex .

Orlando's XS is a project of Totally Fun's Alexander Entertainment division, which Alexander formed recently in response to the growing demand for mixec use urban and family entertainment centers. "While Totally Fun concentrates on theme park attractions, Alexander Entertainment offers turn-key design and construction as well as consulting and re-theming services", he said.

BANKING ON BOOMERS
Alexander feels XS is part of a larger industry effort to appeal to aging Baby boomers and Generation X-ers. "Unfortunately, we've been losing these people (as patrons)", he said. "They are interested in the more expensive theme parks, like Disney and Universal, but they're lost to the Six Flags of this world because there's nothing for them there, really. Nor have the Disney Quest or Sega GameWorks facilities been entirely successful in this regard. I think what we're trying to do with XS is make a place that , design wise, feels like a space that they would like to be in.

Alexander has spent most of this life dreaming up attractive and exciting enviroments. He became a three dimensional conceptualist while growing up in Anaheim, Calif., in a house adjacent to the stand of orange trees that buffered Disneyland from the rest of the world. (The Anaheim Convention Center occupies the land now).

"I used to walk through the grove every weekend to get to Disneyland", he said. "Watching films and witnessing upclose how Disney actualized his dreams at the park, I felt that anything could be made or built and put into reality. I would create fantasy worlds, making entire cities in modeling clay."

In 1965, a teenage Alexander split his time between his own fantasy worlds and Uncle Walt's - exchanging his clay for ground beef as a fry cook at a busy Fantasyland hamburger stand. It wasn't unusual for him to tend to as many as 96 burgers and dogs sizzling away at once. "Because I had to stand so close to that hot grill, I still don't have any sensation in the back of my hands", he said.

It wasn't until years later, when he was creating news graphics for the Los Angeles CBS-TV affiliate that he finally extended one of this battered mitts to the man behind the grease… er, magic. "We were dowm at Disneyland shooting a story. I shook Walt's hand and said, "Hello, Mr. Disney. I used to work for you." He just said, "Hi."

UNCLE WALT, UNCLE JAY

Alexander found Disney and his work a lifelong inspiration none the less. After serving as the charter editor of a college sports publication called Western Basketball News and working as staff engineer for Hughes Aircraft Company, he became director of project management for WED Enterprises - the Disney division responsible for designing and building the $1 billion Epcot Center in Orlando and Tokyo Disneyland.

"It wasn't on the creative side", he said of the position, which lasted from 1979 to 81. "But I observed and learned everything I could about designing theme parks while I was there."

The most important amusement philosophy Alexander learned at Disney was imparted at a stockholders meeting. "Don Tatum, who was then our chairman, was asked by one of the stockholders kids, 'Hey, how come Six Flags has better rides that you do?' And Don said, 'Because we don't have rides, son. We have adventures."

That remark echoed in Alexander's mind though the next decade, which he spent at Universal Studios as vice president of shows and special effects under Jay Stein, president of MCA Recreation Services Group. Stein was famous for pioneering the notion of catastrophe as live entertainment.

"Jay got a big kick out of scaring people", Alexander recalled. "He'd say, 'Two and half minutes isn't enough time to tell 'em a story, but it's enough to scare 'em. Breaking from the routine, of course, is what theme parks are all about, since most people don't get to experience all the adventure that they'd like. They want their emotions and senses awakened."

As the creator or co-creator of such classic Universal attractions as Back to the Future - The Ride, Kongfrontation, Earthquake: The Big One, and more recently, the Six Flags chain's Batman Live Stunt Show and the Lethal Weapon Stunt Spectacular. Alexander knows the power of Hollywood style showmanship. Yet despite the increasing symbiosis between the amusment and entertainment industries, distinctions remain.

"In film and television, you have more of an opportunity to tell a story and evolve the characters", Alexander said. "That's not easily done in a ride or a show. We've got 20 minutes max - which is about the longest a park show will run. But what we can do that that other media can't is immerse people in a three dimensional enviroment and expose them to a variety of sensations.

"It's all about emotional cathasis", he continued. "In a film, you indentify with the characters as they go through their travails to achieve some sort of victory. You feel connected and share their emotions. In a three dimensional enviroment, you'r able to suspend disbelief long enough to be put in situations most people consider fearful. And yet somewhere deep in your heart you know you're going to survive."

Alexander, whose credits include television producing for Nickelodeon and that NBA, is now producting a feature film in Florida though another as yet unnamed division of his company. He affirmed that Hollywood's impact on our lives is farreaching.

"When I was a kid, your hereos where generals and politicians and baseballs all stars. Some of those traditional role models have become discredited though that years, so now our heroes are actors. Everybody wants to know about them, and everybody wants to be a part of their on camera world."

The amusement industry's ability to capitalize on that desire, Alexander adds, is key to its future growth. "With the right kind of Hollywood drama, you'll catch what really people want: They want to be stars."