Hard Luck Bears

The Hard Luck Bears (originally referred to as the Country Bear Jubilee) was a predecessor show to The Rock-afire Explosion that was created in 1979 and was shown at IAAPA. It was a successor to the Bear Country Jubilee, and featured what would inspire the 3-Stage.

In a timespan between 1980 and 2000, the Hard Luck Bears have been installed at 9 theme parks around the world with the first installation being Carowinds in Charlotte, NC (a relocation of the original show seen at IAAPA). The final, new Hard Luck Bears show produced was installed in 1983 for Mundo Magico in Santiago, Chile. The last currently operating show was at Fantasilandia, Chile (Mundo Magico's show relocated) under the name "Show De Osos," but has since been retrofitted to become “The Robotoons”, and their original cosmetics and body shells have been destroyed as of 2020. Gooney Bird's mechanism was put in storage along with his mask, being the only character that wasn't retrofitted with the others. As of 2021, the second ever Hard Luck Bears installation at Knoebels in Elysburg, PA still has the majority of bots and props in storage or around the park, with the characters of Pete and Repeat Thornsberry currently on display in the park museum with corresponding props and general show signage.

Summary

"This is the debut year for the Hard Luck Bears as they begin their tour of the world with their dear sweet mother, Mama Granbags, spreading their own interpretation of 'culture' and decency. In this hilarious first performance our bears tend to stretch the definition of country music to include lovers of rock and classical styles in their mischievous antics behind Mama's back." - Entertainment 1980 Brochure

Locations

Carowinds

Carowinds is an amusement park located in Charlotte, North Carolina, that has been in operation since 1973. It housed the "Honey Bear Bunch Family Reunion", which was a retrofit of the first Hard Luck Bears show from the 1979 IAAPA. The show opened at Carowinds in 1980. It is the only Hard Luck Bears show that has major mechanical differences compared to shows produced after (which were made to be more "standardized" and be compatible with parts from the Rock-afire Explosion) including no mechanical pieces that are separated from the fiberglass body shells (they were, however, separate in the case of heads), different sized eyes, and different jaw mechanisms. Because the original masks for the IAAPA/Carowinds show did not meet the requirements for standardization and were unable to adjust in size with Rock-afire parts, this is the only set to use these original masks as all the characters (except for Repete Thornsberry and Mama Granbags) were required to have resculpted molds in order to fit the new size requirements for future installations. The names of the characters included Ma Bell (Billy Wilbur), Pa Bell (Billy Bill), Na Bob (Billy Boy), Billy Bob, Granny Bell (Mama Granbags), Samantha (Gooney Bird), Aunt Lullabelle, (Repeat Thornsberry) and Uncle Jinglebell (Pete Thornsberry). U.S.-based food company General Mills sponsored this show as the "Big G" logo and small text with the company name was printed on Billy Boy's kick drum front. It can be seen on the picture from the aforementioned news article, but strangely, not in the SP.com photos. In this case, it could be assumed that the sponsorship didn't last long and mentions of GMI were removed shortly after. On the 1980 Carowinds park brochure, the Honey Bear Bunch Family Reunion is referred to as the "Country Bear Show" and included an image of Billy Wilbur and Billy Bill in their unmodified, original forms taken at IAAPA in 1979. Around 1982, a two-parter Harmony Hall show production called "The Phantom of the Opry" that spread over two operating seasons reused the figures from the Honey Bear Bunch Family Reunion. In it, the Phantom character uses his powers to kill a few of the bear characters that reappear in the next operating season as ghosts. It is unspecified which characters were used for the show nor have any photos of this surfaced as of currently. For a long time, there was no information behind this show other than pictures from showbizpizza.com, of which the location was unknown. That was, until February 2021 when Instagram user rockafire_moon posted three new pictures that were sourced from a newspaper article stating the location as Charlotte, NC's Carowinds theme park.

Knoebels

Knoebels' Country Bear Jubilee kept the original show name and also opened in May 1980 like Carowinds. However, due to a threat by Disney, the show's name was quickly changed to the Country Bear Show. Similar to Carowinds and previous CEI shows, Knoebels' Hard Luck Bears ran off a primitive "Tones" control system instead of a modified Grey Box system that newer Hard Luck Bears installations later ended up receiving.

Three showtapes were made exclusive to the park (but were not made by Creative Engineering themselves). These showtapes were "Country Bear Picnic", "Hard Luck Bears Hoedown Hootenanny", and "Rockin' Billy Wilbur & the Bearcats". Instead of working for Smitty's like in the original showtape, Pete & Repeat now work for Golden Arches Burgers in "Country Bear Picnic" (a reference to McDonald's). The backdrop is also used in the second showtape. "Hoedown Hootenanny" featured no exact stage changes, save for Repeat playing a chainsaw on a log. For "Rockin' Billy Wilbur & the Bearcats", all the characters had costume changes to match the 1950's theme of Rock N' Roll. This was the last showtape they played before being put into storage in 1995. Also, Choo-Choo could speak in this showtape.

Outside the theater, an animatronic of the "stupid gorilla" (Fats Gorilla) could be seen in a working display. A special Mama Granbags head would pop her head out of the piano often. It's unknown if separate showtapes were made for the duo. The bots currently reside in CEI. Another gorilla pianist animatronic was built for the Blackpool Pleasure Beach Hard Luck Bears and remained in the park even after that show's removal in 1994/95 where it could be seen at the King Cotton Bar until 2010. However, unlike the Knoebels gorilla, the Blackpool gorilla did not include a Mama Granbags head but rather a typical piano.

This installation is one of the only two shows to have tan guitar for Billy Wilbur, with the other being the original IAAPA/Carowinds show. Installations following Carowinds and Knoebels received Billy Bob's guitar from the Rock-afire.

After the show was decommissioned in 1995, Billy Boy was repurposed as a figure in an electric chair seen in the Knoebels Haunted Mansion attraction, with a piece of black clothing covering his face mechanism.

Creative Engineering has made official documented instructions in the mid to late 80's about how to retrofit the Rock-afire Explosion into a Hard Luck Bears show, with new parts being made for these conversions by CEI themselves. No client has ever commissioned it, leading to this never actually happening in RAE history. This is ironic, considering that Hard Luck Bears shows produced after the IAAPA set were redesigned to be manufactured similar to that of the Rock-afire and even share the same parts as the latter. However, none of these installations were ever converted Rock-afire figures, but rather made from scratch builds.

Show Dos Ursos

The "Show Dos Ursos" installation of the show at Brazil's (now closed) theme park, Playcenter São Paulo, is notable for many things.It opened in early 1981, and was the second international Hard Luck Bears shows in operation (behind only to Blackpool Pleasure Beach).The Brazillian-Portuguese names of the characters go as follows:

Mamãe Úrsula (Mama Granbags)

Papagaio Respondão (Gooney Bird)

Tiburso (Billy Wilbur)

Murso (Billy Bob)

Dudu Urso (Billy Boy)

Laurso (Billy Bill)

Nhõ Pita (Pete Thornsberry)

Repita (Repeat Thornsberry)

Ursinho Bebê (Choo Choo)

• Several props are exclusive to the stage, such as different curtains, backdrops, and some instruments (excluding Billy Wilbur's guitar and Billy Boy's drums).
• In the Brazillian-Portuguese dub, the concept of Smitty's Super Service Station has been phased out, leading to the Super Service Station song topic being changed to chicken omelets.
  • Despite this, a gas pump can be seen on stage reading "Alcohol."
• Despite Mama Grandbags' preference of civilized, softer music over honky tonk (or rock in this case) being the same, the main ecological moral is stated as "do not mistreat the animals".
• Pete & Repeat are now cousins of the bears in this dub.
• Some product placements could be seen on Stage Left and Right in some pictures, although these were phased out for unknown reasons prior to the attraction's closure in 1998.

Pete Thornsberry later went on to be known as "Oso Willy" for Chilean audiences and was one of the main mascots of Mundo Mágico (Fantasilandia later on after that park closed), with a walk around character made for him. Mama Granbags and Repeat Thornsberry also appeared in costume form occasionally, but have since been discontinued.

Orsi Show

Italia in Miniatura is a miniaure park in Viserba, Italy that has been operating since 1970. Ivo Rambaldi, founder of Italia in Miniatura, was very impressed by The Country Bear Jamboree in the Disney Parks and thought a smaller-scale version of it could be very interesting for the people visiting the park. The park bought a Hard Luck Bears set from Creative Engineering and installed it around 1982. During the show's first year in the park, they used the original Creative Engineering showtape, as there was no time to adapt it. The following year, a custom Italian showtape was made (However there is footage of park using the original Creative Engineering showtape in 1991). Not only all of the characters were renamed with more Italian-sounding names (examples included Gooney Bird being renamed Francesco, Mama Granbags being renamed Mamma Italia, and Billy Willbur being renamed Gennariello), but all the characters spoke in different Italian dialects. Also, the only custom elements recorded for the show was the character's dialogue as all of the songs used for the show were original artists' recordings (such as Nabucco by Giuseppe Verdi). The show was removed by either 1993 or 1994. Some pieces, such as the pistons that managed the movement of the characters, were recycled to create some other animations of the park, but everything else was destroyed. For a short time, this show was moved to Gardaland. This was also the second HLB show to be sent to Italy, the first one being unknown.

Characters

Billy Wilbur

A bear who played the guitar. He was voiced by Aaron Fechter. He would go on to become Billy Bob in the Rock-afire Explosion.

Billy Bill

A bear who played the piano. He was a retrofitted Fats Gorilla. He was voiced by Burt Wilson.

Billy Boy

A bear who played the drums. He was a retrofitted Dingo Starr.

Billy Bob

A bear who played the washtub bass. He was a retrofitted Boom Boom Bosko.

Choo-Choo

A bear cub who bounced to the music in a wash basket. He would go on to reappear in the Rock-afire Explosion.

Pete and Repeat Thornsberry

Two brother bears that worked at Smitty's Super Service Station on Stage Left. Repete was voiced by Aaron Fechter.

Mama Granbags

The mother of Billy Wilbur, Billy Bill, Billy Boy, and Billy Bob. She was located on Stage Right.

Gooney Bird

A bird hiding in a wooden barrel who was located on Stage Right. He was voiced by Aaron Fechter. He would later go on to become Looney Bird in the Rock-afire Explosion.

Trivia

• This show seems to be very similar to Disney's Country Bear Jamboree.
• The opening theme sung by Mama Granbags was parodied by Uncle Klunk (sung by Jeff Howell) in the first Uncle Klunk Abombination showtape (1983).