Landmark founders Gary Goddard and Tony Christopher

By Frank McDonough

The smooth, pink granite facade of the Landmark Entertainment Group’s eight story headquarters at Magnolia and Lankershim stands in stark contrast to the funky, aging theaters of the surrounding NoHo Arts District. Although seemingly unrelated, the activity inside the massive edifice owes much to those small theaters, for Landmark designs what are probably the most expensive and long-running of all theatrical productions — theme parks.

A theme park is to an amusement park what rock concerts are to Broadway musicals. One doles out visceral thrills whereas the other takes you to a time and place that exists nowhere except in the imagination. Theme parks take you either to a mythic past (Knott’ s Berry Farm), a mythic present (Universal Studios), or a mythic future (Disneyworld’s Epcot Center). Amusement parks, on the other hand, cater to the dark sexual mystery of puberty; many of their rides are invariably designed to afford those who ride them close and intimate contact with their screaming dates, fairly straight forward work for an attraction engineer. Theme parks are not so easy. The creation of myth, as the ancient Greeks well knew, is in the realm of theater, and theater is a touchy and fragile thing.

From start to finish and beyond, a theme park is indeed an elaborate production. The sales pitches are staged and orchestrated -— over a million dollars can go into a polished and crafted pitch. Skilled artists spend hundreds of hours producing drawings, models, videos, and other representations of the proposed park.

The creation and propagation of the “theme” requires many, if not all, of the artistic tools of theater. Set design for the grounds, choreography for the shows and parades, production for the orchestration of financial resources, writing for the scripts and sales pitches, and direction for the implementation of these and the other myriad components that need to come together for the building of a successful theme park.

A theme park is rarely developed on a whim. Since the stakes are high (one current project has $350 million invested into its first phase). Landmark breaks each development down into stages, each one costlier than the last. The first phase includes concept development and market research. It’s at this stage that the goals of the prospective client are established, as well as the feasibility of the project. The following phases require more and more financial and artistic commitment until finally, a theme park is built. It is a complex and risky business.

Gary Goddard and Tony Christopher are the founders of Landmark Entertain-ment Group. Their partnership formed through a mutual interest in high school theater in their native Santa Barbara. Goddard had dreams of directing motion pictures, Christopher of doing New York theater. Both went to Disney-supported Cal Arts in Valencia. Gary eventually earned a degree in film; Christopher a degree in dance. Both of them wound up working for their life-dream company; Disney. Christopher was a performer in Disney shows and Gary designed rides and shows for the pre-imagineering arm of Disney, WED.

In the late ’70s and early ’80s there was an exodus from Disney, and both Goddard and Christopher found themselves counted among the creative diaspora. Both performed a variety of jobs until they formed Landmark Entertainment in the summer of 1980. They and Rich Hoag, a fellow Santa Barbaran who had before then teamed up with Goddard to write Saturday morning cartoons, created the company initially to produce films and theater. Their first paying job put those plans on hold.

Six Flags over Atlanta was looking for a company to design and build a “dark ride.” A “dark ride” is a trade name for an attraction that is totally enclosed. They are usually theatrical in nature, telling some sort of story with animated characters. The term comes from the earliest Disneyland rides like “Mr. Toads Wild Ride” and the “Peter Pan” ride that are mostly dark except for black lighting and illuminated characters. The Six Flags Company approached the people at Disney with the idea of building such a ride for their Atlanta park. Since Disney’s policy was to do only its own work, they turned Six Flags down; but they did recommend “those Goddard boys.” Landmark entertainment won the project, and has been in the theme park business ever since.

The ’80s saw Goddard and Christopher’s company expand from a struggling company with a handful of employees and only a thousand dollars to its name to one that by 1992 employed 110 people and netted over 26 million dollars in profits. They built or planned at least eight more attractions for their first client Six Flags. They have developed over 60 live shows and attractions, including shows like Universal Studio’s “The Conan Sword and Sorcery Spectacular,” which combined live actors with robotics, and “Kong on the Loose,” which features a large animated monster ape. They planned and developed two complete theme parks in Japan; Sanrio Puroland and Oita Harmonyland. The latest World’s Fair in Korea boasts three pavilions designed by Landmark, including the expo’s most popular the “Starquest” pavilion. “Starquest” is a high-tech simulator ride that improves on Disney’s “Star Tours.” Still, simulator rides are a long way from traditional theater.

Landmark’s success in the theme park business has allowed Goddard et al. to get back to their theater roots. In the last five years Landmark Theatre Group has produced such plays as Sherlock’s Last Case, Hurly-burly with Sean Penn and Danny Aiello, and Tru starring Robert Morse. Currently Rich Hoag is producing Twists, a black version of Oliver Twist in Philadel-phia.

Despite the recent hard times, Landmark’s theme park business is thriving. Foreign investors have taken up the slack in the domestic market of the last few years. Attractions are being planned or are opening in Korea, Japan, Indonesia, and Thailand. Now that the economy is improving somewhat the domestic market is also heating up. Las Vegas has decided en masse to become the adult theme park of the ’90s, resulting in Landmark projects opening up or being planned for Harrah’s, MGM Grand, Caesar’s Palace, and many other casinos. The World of Oz, a $428 million dollar theme park based on Frank Baum’s Oz books is slated to open n Kansas City in the late ’90s. Closer to home Landmark plans to open a theme park here in Southern California.

Calaveras County, tentatively planned for a sight near L.A. is a combination water and amusement park modeled loosely on Denmark’s Tivoli Gardens. Moderate in size, it will feature an admission price less than half of what the larger theme parks charge. A model of the park is located in the downstairs lobby of Landmark’s offices. According to it, the most prominent feature of the park will be a large European-style Ferris wheel with walk-in enclosed gondolas. Landmark hopes to open the park soon.

Other Landmark projects include video games, children’s music, “Scared Guy” products, toy licensing and merchandising, a theme park attraction based on a major summer blockbuster, and a planned return of Kimba the White Lion to children’s television.