Who made the scroll in Noah’s Ark?

The text message read, “Idea for a future Chronicle article: deep historical dive on this rare piece of Pittsburgh Judaica from the Noah’s Ark ride at Kennywood.”

Attached was a photograph. It showed a scene from the ride: Noah’s wife, ghastly pale, standing over her equally ghastly husband. Her left hand holds a scroll of Hebrew text. Translated, the text lists some of the pairs of animals bound for the ark: donkey and jenny, sheep and ewe, bear and sow, wolf and she-wolf, bull and cow, and so on.

Perhaps the deep dive idea was a joke, but it seemed like a fun challenge.

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The Heinz History Center holds the records of Kennywood Park. The collection contains more than 135 linear feet of material documenting the history of the beloved amusement park from its creation into the 21st century. The collection was processed and partially digitized through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, making it easier to navigate in search of tidbits of information about aspects of the park.

Kennywood Park opened in 1899 and grew quickly under its president Andrew S. McSwigan. He died in 1923 and was succeeded by son Andrew Brady McSwigan. Also eager to expand the park, Brady McSwigan began sniffing around Noah’s Ark.

LeRoy Raymond of Venice, California, invented the Noah’s Ark ride in 1919. He sold the rights the following year to the Dentzel Carousel Co. of Philadelphia. Dentzel installed the ride across the country, making it a leading amusement park attraction.

Brady McSwigan communicated with William Dentzel at the start of August 1924, asking where the Kennywood Park team could see Noah’s Ark. Dentzel suggested parks in Detroit, North Bergen, Philadelphia and Reading as nearby options. He offered to build the ride at Kennywood Park for around $18,000, but the project stalled.

Dentzel made another pitch in 1927. He offered to build and install Noah Ark’s for $20,000 and provided references for satisfied customers. But the project stalled again.

Dentzel died in 1928, and the Noah’s Ark Corp. was reorganized into the American Amusement Construction Co. Kennywood Park seemed ready to install Noah’s Ark in 1930 but delayed the project during the initial uncertainty of the Great Depression.

Amid that economic turmoil, the Philadelphia Toboggan Co. bought the plans for Noah’s Ark for $500 and bought the rights to build the ride for an additional $500.

This early information comes from “You Can Still Find Noah’s Ark,” a history of the ride by Charles Jacques Jr. from the January 1986 issue of Amusement Park Journal.

According to Jacques Jr., Robert S. Stuart of the Philadelphia Toboggan Co. “agreed to deliver a set of wooden composition figures for $500 to use in connection with the construction of [Kennywood’s] Noah’s Ark. However, he never delivered them and the figures were ultimately carved by Brady McSwigan’s sister.” No mention of a scroll.

The project finally advanced in early 1936. Amid the appropriately high waters of the St. Patrick’s Day flood that inundated most of the Pittsburgh riverfront in March 1936, contractors began building a Noah’s Ark at Kennywood. It was the last version of the ride built and today is the only surviving version of the ride in North America.

The May 1936 issue of the Voice of Kennywood newsletter noted, “Inside and outside this modern ‘Ark’ you’ll find every manner of device for making your visit with Noah a hilarious one… Oh, sure, there are animals… yes, you’ll see Mrs. Noah, too… and the old skipper, himself, with a bag of tricks unmatched by any of the modern comic strips… ‘Old Man Noah knew a thing or two,’ and he still does.” No mention of a scroll.

The Kennywood collection includes a series of letters between McSwigan and Leo Kathe of Cleveland dated February and April 1937. Kathe had been hired to spruce up Noah’s Ark and the Laff In the Dark ride. The list of projects for Noah’s Ark include monkeys, lions, a bear, a cow, and a skeleton—no mention of Noah, his wife, or a scroll.

Surviving film footage from the 1930s and 1940s shows the original version of the ride. It’s an orange-hulled boat rocking atop Mt. Ararat. Noah and his wife are seated — without a scroll — on the railing, while animals poke their heads from the windows.

Noah’s Ark became one of the most beloved attractions at Kennywood, especially after a 1969 update added an open-mouthed blue whale, along whose squishy tongue generations of families entered the chamber of lite thrills and giggles. Still no scroll.

By the mid-1990s, Noah’s Ark needed repairs. Kennywood commissioned a complete overhaul timed to its 60th anniversary in 1996. The boat was rebuilt, and the story was changed. The ride became a spooky tour of a millennium-old archeological site. The blue whale was removed and structures were added to house more scenery.

A document in the collection lists the subcontractors involved in this project. It credits the Creegan Company Inc. of Steubenville as “producers of scenes inside the ark, including Noah and ‘Mrs.’ Noah.” (For the record, a Midrash names her Naamah.)

Creegan Company was a creator of animatronic characters used for various purposes around the world. George Creegan and his wife, Joann, started the company in 1964, eventually becoming one of the largest companies of its kind in the country.

Creegan closed in 2010. The company planned to continue offering maintenance services for many of its projects around the world, but its warehouse was destroyed in a 2013 fire, taking 50 years of company history with it. George Creegan died in 2018.

The Kennywood Park Records contain many of Creegan Company’s conceptual drawings for the updated Noah’s Ark ride in 1996. None show a scroll with Hebrew text. One drawing shows a jolly Noah helming the ship’s wheel. Fan footage of the ride on YouTube from 2001, 2007 and 2014 shows an identical scene, not the current tableau.

That would suggest that the current scene of Noah, his wife, and her scroll was added during the 2016 update that reintroduced the beloved blue whale back to the ride.

The Kennywood Park Records arrived at the Heinz History Center in 2016 and contain few details about this last update. Available coverage online focuses heavily on the reconstruction of the whale, which was created by Dimensional Environments out of Donegal. I was unable to find any mention of the contractor responsible for creating the new scene of Noah and his wife. Park representatives were also unable to recall it.

How frustrating to have been bested by a simple yet elusive fact from just eight years ago! It is a reminder of the persistent gap between life and the historic record. PJC

Eric Lidji is the director of the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center and can be reached at rjarchives@heinzhistorycenter.org or 412-454-6406.