Magic comes back to life

Published in The Post-Star
10/16/06

Arto Monaco may not be a household name, but his work touched many households in this region over the past half-century.

His "Land of Make Believe" amusement park in Upper Jay fascinated kids growing up in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. Around the same time, his creations added whimsical wonder to other theme parks in the region, including Santa’s Workshop, Storytown, USA (now the Great Escape), Frontier Town and Gaslight Village.

He made or helped develop hundreds of unique toys and games over his 70-year career, from simple wooden pull-toys to mass-market board games like Othello.

Yet somehow, Monaco never got particularly rich or famous. When the master toymaker and artist died in 2003 at age 90, there was no official home for his work, save a building in Upper Jay where he stashed many of his models and prototypes. Some of his outdoor projects had already been decaying for years.

The Arto Monaco Historical Society, a newly formed nonprofit organization started by a few of Monaco’s close friends, hopes to change that.

"We’re hoping, long-range, to really keep Arto’s story alive, and educate people about who he was and what he did," said Jane Mackintosh, the society’s planning director.

Right now, the group is focusing its efforts on purchasing and restoring the fairytale castle that was once a main attraction at the Land of Make Believe. The three-story stuccoed building, complete with turrets and towers, has been largely ignored since 1979, when Monaco closed the park because perpetual spring flooding from the nearby AuSable River had made it difficult to maintain.

Over the years, the castle has nestled more deeply into the surrounding woods and begun to crumble, giving it an even more authentic fairy-tale look — though perhaps more Brothers Grimm than Disneyland.

The long spell of disrepair was broken last month, when a group of volunteers spent several days clearing brush and debris from the grounds, fixing the roof, and inspecting the building.

The group included two University of Vermont graduate students who had selected the castle as their hands-on project for a course in historic preservation. Julie Weisgerber and Michaela Ann Hutchins helped photograph, measure and create drawings of the structure to contribute to a needs assessment.

The society expects to complete a purchase of the castle property "any day now," Mackintosh said, and then will focus on raising funds to continue the restoration project and acquire more of Monaco’s works. Their vision is to acquire a collection of his physical works, while also building up a digital archive of stories, memories and photos related to Monaco and his creations.

"One of the things we hope to do once we acquire these collections is develop exhibits and work with museums and other historical societies to display his work," she said. "This is what he would have wanted."

When he was alive, Monaco didn’t seem to want much, as his friends remember it. He was "a happy-go-lucky guy," although he could be a perfectionist about his work, said Dean Miller, a Queensbury resident.

Miller spent 30 years working for Charles Wood, Monaco’s contemporary in the theme-park industry. Wood developed Storytown around the same time that Monaco was building the Land of Make Believe. The men could have been competitors, but became friends instead, and Wood hired Monaco to design many of his park projects over the next several decades.

"Charlie had all the flair and flash, and nothing against him, but he didn’t have a lot of his own ideas ... He had people like Arto who could make ideas and designs into something," Miller reflected. "Arto was a really talented guy, but he didn’t seem like much of a business person."

For an artist whose work thrived on imagination and fantasy, Monaco’s personality was very down-to-earth, Miller added. Monaco had his own private studio at Storytown, but often chose to join the park employees for lunch in the cafeteria. He welcomed visitors to his studio in Upper Jay, often giving them small toys or models as parting gifts.

"He enjoyed real people, the way I looked at it," Miller said.

SHARE YOUR STORY
The Arto Monaco Historical Society invites people to share their memories, pictures and artifacts related to Arto Monaco at "Arto-fact Days," scheduled periodically at the Wells Memorial Library in Upper Jay. For more information, go to www.artomonaco.org or call planning director Jane Mackintosh at 793-4220.