Sometimes, the wildest stories in theme parks happen behind the scenes.
A federal court case in Oklahoma offers stunning allegations that promise to fuel industry cocktail party chatter for a generation. The case involves the American Heartland theme park — a development that was announced a couple of years ago for a site in rural Oklahoma.
A group out of Branson, Mo., Mansion Entertainment Group, in 2023 announced what it called a $2 billion project, featuring attractions designed by some of the top contractors in the theme park industry. If that name sounds familiar, Mansion Entertainment Group presented the Grand Finale float in Pasadena’s Tournament of Roses Parade for the past three years.
The park was supposed to open next year. But today, all that stands on the site are faded signs and a fence. So what happened?
As is typical in business, it’s all about the money. The plaintiff in the lawsuit, a 91-year-old Florida man named Gene Bicknell, contends that people at Mansion and their partners defrauded him out of $60 million. He claims that the defendants impersonated God to send him electronic messages demanding money for the theme park project, which he then provided.
Maybe it’s just me, but I thought that the only investment advice God ever provided was to sell all you own and help the poor. Of all people, you would have thought that I would have caught the part about investing in theme parks, but … alas.
The lawsuit alleges that the defendants had every intention to build the park — and pay themselves fat salaries along the way, provided that Bicknell kept paying. But when Bicknell ran out of money, that was it. Bicknell claims the deal also cost him family relationships and contributed to a stroke.
At some point, this lawsuit will be heard or settled. But show business is littered with stories of people who came in with big dreams only to find nightmares. Whether you have sympathy for the parties in this lawsuit or not, I feel for the designers and creators who put months of effort into envisioning attractions and lands for this park, only now to wonder if they ever will be paid for that work.
Top theme parks bring in billions of dollars in revenue each year. That kind of money blinds people and communities to the skepticism that they should be bringing when someone comes along and promises to build the next Disneyland.
Remember, no one needs a theme park vacation. This is not food, water, shelter or medical treatment. As one industry legend once said to me, “we still are not that far away from carnival barkers.”
To open a park, you need to sell people on the dreams come to life within. Only to keep the park open do you need to deliver them. Throughout show business, some people have figured out that you just need the sales pitch if all you want to do is make a quick buck from a mark.
And what more powerful source could there be for that pitch than God?