Big Screen Removal [John Hildebrandt tweets]

The screen is coming down this week and they starting up painting MF again.

"Blue skies and lots of sun today, temps in the 40s. Starting to paint the support columns on MF. "Big Screen" will disappear this week." - Hildebrandt's Twitter.

If you look on the webcam. It looks as if the actual screen has been removed.

We asked Bryan if we could help take it down last Saturday and unfortunatly he said no. :-)

It appears as if the structure is still there, but the screen itself is gone.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27981961/PagodaCam_1024.jpg

On the Pagoda Cam, you can see the crane is in position to start removing the screen's support structure.

And she's gone!
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27981961/Pagoda%20%2813%29.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27981961/Pagoda%20%2814%29.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27981961/Pagoda%20%2815%29.jpg
Good Riddance

looks better already

Already looking better.

It looks......what's the word I'm thinking of......right? Yea....it's just right.

It's... glorious! :)
http://goo.gl/Wp44Q

Mahvelous, dahling. Simply mahvelous.

Hildebrandt just tweeted the following pic

http://p.twimg.com/Am2MQVNCIAASVSC.jpg

That's just amazing.

I think I need a before and after picture to comprehend this. I love it. Now all we have to wait for is the new stage to be complete.

Here you go!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewb94/3726691299/
Wow. What an eye sore.

Wow I knew the screen was ugly but after seeing the before and after, the screen was more uglier than I thought.

Geez, I've never seen CP without the screen. I never knew what I was missing until now.

Welcome to our world.

I cannot express how disappointing it was to see that thing erected. You build a giant permanent structure for a crappy "show" (sorry, I have never, ever enjoyed the attempts at night-time entertainment there) and block the train station? The train station? That should be a centerpiece of the whole area. At the very least, a well manicured attractive area to relax.

When I heard this thing was coming down, I was just so....giddy.

Wow... Take a look at the befor-after shots. I never knew how well MF's first hill lined up perfectly with the center of that midway until now. She's gonna look amazing with e new lighting package! Im happy to see the train station once again too! The character and the ...dare I say...charm is coming back!

I completely agree with Kevinj. Now that the train station has returned to being a focal point, perhaps more attention will be given to the entire train attraction. If Kinzel remained in power, I wouldn't have been surprised if there were plans to remove it in the next few years. Now, I feel that it's safe and may even see some nice improvements.

For those who are feeling nostalgic or who never saw the original laser-based Summer Spectacular, I posted a video I took in 1998...the second year for the show. The begining of Part 1 is pretty shaky, but should give you a good feel for what it was like:
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsGkmTPy8nQ

Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e4kV8AMAu8&feature=related

Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5HFlKm4tgI&feature=related