Welcome Back to Euclid Beach Park

     The Fun Science Hall was scheduled to open in the spring of the 1935 season. In a Cleveland Plain Dealer article by Glenn C. Pullen, May 16, 1935 Harvey Humphrey stated the new attraction would surpass the Fun House at Cleveland’s Luna Park, Euclid Beach Park’s competition.

                                                                                                                                                               Source: Euclid Beach Park is closed for the season.

     There is no documentation as to when the name was changed from Fun Science Hall to Surprise House. The last paragraph of the article may explain how it came about.

Reprint of an article that appeared in The Arch, Euclid Beach Park Now’s quarterly newsletter: Volume 13, Issue 4, Summer/Fall 2002. Authored by Doris Humphrey.

Doris Humphrey Mackley and her brother Dudley were the children of Harvey J. Humphrey, son of Dudley S. Humphrey II. She became secretary to the general manager; one of her jobs was to write articles about the various aspects and attractions of the park for the feature story of the Euclid Beach News. Doris wrote journals of documentary--type articles about each of the rides, the annual dance hall events, and the food and safety rules of Euclid Beach. The articles started in 1934 and continued until the 1969 closing of the park. The following article may very well be one of these articles, the date of its writing unknown. Doris and her brother Dudley assumed more important roles in the operation of the park in 1959 after the passing of their father.

     There’s a surprise at every turn in the Euclid Beach fun house. As you walk through the winding hallways you pass from one intriguing spectacle to another that’s equally interesting. Not a thing that happens in the course of the entertainment can be considered in any way unpleasant or unintelligent. Mr. Humphrey (Note 1) with the aid of Mr. Howard Stoneback (Note 2) and Mr. George Lister (Note 3),has put a great deal of effort into its construction; and Mr. Dudley H. Scott (Note 4) did a large amount of preliminary research on the project. All the sciences-mechanical, natural, and psychological-have contributed to the various illusions and displays.

     A new control device that operates by the mere presence of a person, without the use of any mechanical contact or ray of light, plays an important part in the activities. Under the control of this invention little artificial mice are practically turned into living animals. You can’t touch them; no matter how quietly you sneak in on them. The minute you get your fingers within a foot of their little heads they scurry back into the holes of the large Swiss cheese.

     Standing on a stage just a few feet away from you, there’s a bright healthy--looking woman. Suddenly, before your eyes, she fades into her skeleton.

     You look up at the fish globe and realize that right inside the bowl, with fish swimming around them, you can see people looking down into a well and moving around in a spot that you passed earlier in your wanderings, an you realize that when you put your arm around your girlfriend, as she was inspecting the phenomena in the depths of the wall, the whole episode was registered in the fish globe.

     The dizzy room is the most startling trick of all. There you stand in a room in which you don’t seem to be able to stand up straight. You scramble to keep from falling. The illusion has been produced by setting up a conflict between two or our cues to balance--namely between the evidence of the eye and the evidence of the liquid of the inner ear. The floor of the room is slanted quite steeply; the walls are perpendicular to the floor--not to the ground. So, when you finally get yourself balanced and have your feet firmly set underneath you, you’re not standing parallel to the middle of the room the way you usually are in any ordinary enclosure, but you’re on an angle. It’s all a very strange and eerie sensation.

     The Lagoon at the World’s Fair has been reproduced with various artistic variations on and enclosed platform with water in the foreground and with lighting effects passing over it in alternation between night and day. Luminous paint has been used for coloring so that when the normal yellow-white lights that are used in the daylight effect are turned off and the ultra-violet ray is turned on the scene, you are looking at the same gorgeous lighting displays that glistened under the many-colored searchlights as they hit the brightly painted buildings at the fair.

     You’ll find all sorts of other things that are lovely or startling to look at and things that are fun to do. The things we’ve mentioned are only a few of the wonders of the little world with in the walls of the fun house. Like the producers of the movie trailers, we don’t want to tell too much, because we don’t want to spoil your encounter with that whole show. Incidentally it’s fairly generally agreed that the most fitting name for this new amusement has been found just recently. The other day a very bright little girl ran up to Mrs. Harvey Humphrey and said with enthusiasm, “I had the most wonderful time at Euclid Beach the other night—I went all through your Surprise House twice.” And her descriptive title seemed to be the best yet heard.

Note 1: Harvey J. Humphrey.

Note 2: Howard Stoneback arrived at Euclid Beach Park in 1923 and remained a valued employee until his untimely death in 1958 at the age of 69. He altered and improved many rides and buildings at the park.

Note 3: George Lister was Euclid Beach Park’s radio/electronic wizard.

Note 4: Dudley Humphrey Scott was employed for several decades by the Humphrey Co. and held the title of Chief Engineer and Gen. Mgr. of Euclid Beach Park.

Two other article on the Surprise House have appeared in The Arch. They will appear on this page sometime in the future