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It practically gallops!

G-burger, G-burger

“And the winner of a ten-year pass for all Ripley’s attractions in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge is… Frank Murphy,” said Ryan DeSear, general manager of Ripley Entertainment’s Tennessee attractions. I got about halfway to the podium when he said, “Oh sit back down, everybody gets one!” As you can imagine, the rest of the invited guests gathered for the opening of Ripley’s Penguin Playhouse at Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies cheered at their good fortune. I stood there for a split-second, trying to figure out what had just happened while Bill Haslam looked at me quizzically.

One of the black-footed African penguins in the exhibit is named Fearless Frank. Maybe that’s why Chuck Winstead and the rest of the staff at Ripley’s decided to pull the prank on me instead of, say, Betsy Pickle.  Betsy was especially thrilled to be there. She has a large collection of penguin figurines and other items. I was happy that the first thing I saw upon entering the exhibit was a framed picture of Burgess Meredith. Considering the original name of the species on display, they could just as easily had a picture of Johnny Knoxville.

Penguin Playhouse is designed for families. Kids will love crawling through the Plexiglas tubes and popping up into the middle of the habitat. I enjoyed it myself. Steve File, operational manager for the exhibit, described the Playhouse as a “Disney-quality attraction.” He also said that people will now go to Disney theme-parks and think of them as up to Ripley’s standards.

As I was leaving, Ryan DeSear thanked me for being a good sport. As a consolation prize, he gave me a piece of original art, created by Maureen “Mo Mo” Penguin, a female in the exhibit. Officially, it is described as “finger-paint on canvas” but I am going with “happy feet in goo.”

April 21, 2010 | Filed Under Uncategorized 

comments

3 Responses to “G-burger, G-burger”

  1. Pam Mc on April 21st, 2010

    Lucky!

  2. Brooke on April 21st, 2010

    Thats great Frank… I worked for Ryan DeSear at Ripley’s (all attractions except for the Aquarium) from 2003-2007. He is a hoot and that definitely sounds like a prank he would play :)

  3. Bedtime Stories : Frank Murphy Dot Com on April 30th, 2010

    [...] am kind of excited about the Ripley’s Oddcast. I was motivated to browse their website after “winning” a pass to Ripley’s Tennessee attractions. The Oddcast is right up my alley and the one [...]