Ben Bernstein: [00:00:00] This episode of Ramblin' on the River is presented by BB Riverboats.

Sponsor Message: What does summertime in the Ohio River Valley mean to you? From the deck of a BB riverboat, it means a breeze on the water, lush views, and a historic cruise by the queen city Skyline. BB Riverboats offers an experience as unforgettable as childhood summers.

This season let our crew take care of yours as you cruise the mighty Ohio. BB Riverboats. The river is waiting.

Moderator: You're listening to the Ramblin on the River podcast, presented by BB River Boats. The Bernstein family has been a predominant name in Cincinnati's hospitality landscape since the 1960s, and this podcast will be a collection of the stories, tales, and experiences from their entrepreneurial [00:01:00] endeavors in the restaurant and excursion boat business.

Join as they take you on a A journey through the family's history in their own unique style. Now, here are your hosts, Ben Terri and Alan Bernstein.

Ben Bernstein: Well, welcome back everybody. Welcome to me. Ramblin' on the river podcast. You found your way to another episode of our podcast. We thank you for listening my name is Ben Bernstein. Oh, yeah joined by my father Alan Yes, and my sister Terri. 

Terri Bernstein: Hello, who 

Ben Bernstein: still has a lisp. Don't worry. She still has it still wearing her retainer before we get started, we'd love for you to head over to your favorite podcast platform.

Give us a like and subscribe You you can find us on Instagram and Facebook. You can also visit our website at ramblinontheriver. com. [00:02:00] And if you would like to talk to us directly, we've had quite a few emails. Love to hear from you. The email is podcast. You 

Terri Bernstein: know what we learned the other day? 

Oh, I'm sorry. 

Ben Bernstein: The email is podcast@bbriverboats.Com. Yes. Terri, what would you like to say? 

Terri Bernstein: I just like to talk over you. 

Ben Bernstein: Yeah, I know. 

Terri Bernstein: We realized that we're in what? Seven countries. No, 15. We're more than that. It's 15 or 

Ben Bernstein: 16. You're making me look it up now. Yeah. Oh, it's 

Alan Bernstein: at 

Ben Bernstein: least 15. 

Terri Bernstein: We were totally impressed.

Oh, no. We thought it was only one or two. 

Alan Bernstein: Well, yeah, things 

Allen Rizzo: really took off after that World's Fair episode. . 

Ben Bernstein: We are in 14 countries and territories, 647 different cities. 

Terri Bernstein: Wow. 

Ben Bernstein: Yeah. 

Terri Bernstein: Impressive. Yeah. 

Ben Bernstein: The we were 

Alan Bernstein: rated 150. 

Ben Bernstein: I think, I think that was spam mail. I don't even think it was a real thing. 

Alan Bernstein: And I have one thing to start out with the order in which we're in a dude.

I'm going 

Ben Bernstein: to start using the mute button here. [00:03:00] Very last episode. We discussed my father's summer in the Catskill mountains. So we kind of went back to. The early years, the growing up years this episode, we're going to fast forward and talk about our. Very sentimental possession at BB Riverboats the USS Nightmare, which is our haunted Attraction that will be opening up here in a couple of weeks by the time this And we have live in the studio.

We do we do have a guest in the studio We have a he is a show favorite guest. In fact, he is our first multiple episode guest And he may be on many other shows. He was our first guest period, right? He was our first guest period, and now he's back. Now he's back. We are talking, of course, about the general manager of the USS Nightmare One, Allen Rizzo.

Yes. 

Allen Rizzo: Hey, Riz. Hey, how you guys doing? Thanks for having me back. I'm glad to know that I was welcome back after how long the [00:04:00] last one went. 

Terri Bernstein: You weren't blackballed yet. 

Ben Bernstein: Yeah. That was the longest episode in our. Catalog of episodes, but it was a good episode. It was. Hopefully this one won't for, there's just a lot that long lot.

I think this one's, I think after 

Alan Bernstein: our 

Ben Bernstein: doing our little pre-show meeting, we might be going a little long. 

 So the USS Nightmare like I said, is our haunted attraction. We need some 

Terri Bernstein: spooky music. 

Ben Bernstein: I, you know, if I would have had a little more time, I probably could have, could have cut some in. 

Allen Rizzo: If I had time, I'd have had a guy come in with a chainsaw. 

Ben Bernstein: I don't know if my father's new liver could yeah, I don't know if I, yeah, I'd probably throw everything out of whack.

Alan Bernstein: You know, that your mother, not your mother is but 

Terri Bernstein: my mother, yes, 

Alan Bernstein: the two, yes. Your two has never been. In the haunted house, 

Ben Bernstein: does not surprise me whatsoever? I mean, she won't even get on the deck. Have you met your wife? I met my wife. Okay. I'm just saying, does it surprise you?

Can we call her out here and [00:05:00] challenge her? Well, no, 

Terri Bernstein: that's not. We 

Alan Bernstein: could call a friend and we could tell her we're not calling. We're not calling a friend. Okay. If 

Allen Rizzo: Mary's listening and I'm sure she is, she probably will not forget the the time that I took one of the nightmare Fake snakes and put it over a door that that she walked.

I am sure that your your job was 

Ben Bernstein: in the most jeopardy 

Allen Rizzo: It was definitely not a good idea

Alan Bernstein: Yeah, Riz was definitely in jeopardy, I'm 

Terri Bernstein: still shocked Dad's talking about mom and not the pool girl 

Alan Bernstein: Well, you mentioned the pool 

Ben Bernstein: girls. I was 

Alan Bernstein: down with them. You're poking the bear when you're talking about the pool girls. Can we move this podcast? We're trying. Do you know that my wife, it's my wife. 20 minute introduction.

 your mother has been my wife 50, How many? 

Ben Bernstein: How many? We've even been through this on the show. 

Alan Bernstein: 51 years. 

Ben Bernstein: Yeah. There you go. 51. 

Alan Bernstein: I was going to say 52. That was after [00:06:00] Riz says when you're born, you're one, not two, not, not zero. Now when you're 

Terri Bernstein: born at zero, it's when you, you don't turn one until you're one.

Alan Bernstein: When we 

Terri Bernstein: were trying to calculate when the nightmare opened, we were struggling with the action. 

Alan Bernstein: These are 

Ben Bernstein: concepts that are very hard for dad to understand. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Terri Bernstein: Apparently for me too. It's above my pay grade. 

Ben Bernstein: Yeah. So all of our listeners who aren't aware.

BB Riverboats owns the USS Nightmare, which is a floating haunted attraction that will open up here in the second week. What's the date? 

Terri Bernstein: Friday the 13th.

Ben Bernstein: It couldn't be more perfect. It could not be. It's going to be 

Terri Bernstein: a busy day. 

Ben Bernstein: Yeah. So that's what we're going to talk about. We're going to talk about kind of the the history and how The idea developed and everything from there. If you want any information, you can go to www.ussnightmare.Com. But we will get into the show. 

Moderator: Gather around [00:07:00] everybody because it is story time on Ramblin' on the river.

Ben Bernstein: Don't don't worry. We know everybody's waiting for this. 

Alan Bernstein: Gather around everybody. It's story time. On Ramblin on the River. Ramblin on the River. 

Ben Bernstein: Okay. So starting off, BB Riverboats back in the early years, in the early 1980s. Yep. Purchased a, well I guess BB Riverboats didn't buy it. It was the, the, the overall company.

Let 

Alan Bernstein: me say, Mike Fink was going very strong. El Greco was doing extremely well. And my father said Alan I want you to look around and see if we can find any steamboats, old steamboats like the Mike Fink, and we'll see if we can maybe do another Mike Fink in Louisville or Nashville, you know, wherever.

And So I put out [00:08:00] the fingers, or I put out whatever feelers, yeah. But anyway, we talked about fingers a couple episodes and a friend of mine up on the upper Mississippi river said, I know where an old steamboat is that you could go look at and it's up in a very obscure place on the Illinois river.

for now. Those of you that don't know, the Illinois River flows from the Great Lakes from Chicago all the way into the Mississippi River and back in the early 20s or whatever, Mayor Daley didn't like the fact that the Great Lakes was connected to the river and built a very low bridge at the entrance to Chicago to stop commercial traffic.

From going out of the lakes or in into 

Ben Bernstein: the lake, which is why if you ever see a weird looking tow boat, that is a single deck that comes down the Ohio river. It is because it was built. It's an Illinois. [00:09:00] That's correct. It has to 

Alan Bernstein: get under 20 feet of vertical clearance. A lot of them have telescoping. I guess they probably all had telescoping pilot.

Most of those do. Yeah. So he said it's located in Bath, Illinois. Now For those of you that know Illinois, you may not have ever heard of Bath, Illinois. 

Ben Bernstein: People who probably live in Illinois have never heard of Bath. That's what I'm 

Alan Bernstein: saying. People that take showers have never heard of it. So I said to Dad, I said, Dad, I want to take you up to show you this boat.

And we've got to go, we've got to drive several hours. So we drive into Bath, Illinois. Now my dad always dressed impeccably. He had a tie you know a press shirt and a jacket. And sometimes in the summer it was white shoes. You know, he was a good dresser. Of course he knew fabric. So we were told to meet at the saloon, the saloon in bath.

And you don't need to know the name of the saloon. It's the only saloon [00:10:00] in Bath. So we walk into the saloon and you can just picture my dad all dressed up and it comes to a screeching, quiet halt. And the revenue man has arrived in Bath. And I said, I'm looking for John or Jake or whatever his name was.

And they said, Oh, he's over behind the, saloon. We go out there and sure enough, there he is. And through the trees a Bath is on the river, but it was high water. So the water had seeped up to the saloon and, you could see it through the trees, but not really good. So Jake whatever his name was, took us out there.

And dad just fell in love with the, it was a, it really was a pretty boat. I mean, it had good lines. It had good features to it. And we went through it and dad said, well, what do you think, Alan? I said, well, we'll talk about it on the way back. [00:11:00] So we got in the car and dad said, well, what do you think we ought to do?

And I said, well, what is he selling it for? Well, the guy really wasn't giving me a good price, but we could make an offer. And I said, well, I, Dad, I don't know. You know, this was the early eighties. It was like blind leading the blind. And Alone, you'd only been in river business for a couple of years.

Yeah, it wasn't like we were experts, but sound like you 

Allen Rizzo: had any idea what it took to store. Yeah, 

Alan Bernstein: yeah. So I believe we bought it for about 30, 000. And that was about 29, 999 too much. And we, we made a deal. We finally got it towed down the Illinois river to the Mississippian and down the Mississippi and up the Ohio.

And we are now the proud owners of what was called the Wake Robin. 

Ben Bernstein: Yes. Okay. [00:12:00] And if you ever come on a BB Riverboat cruise, you can see the wheel, the steering wheel. That's right. Of the, of the, which is ginormous. 

Alan Bernstein: Yeah. It's a beautiful thing. As you walk in. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Absolutely. A masterpiece of artwork. It really is. And the Wake Robin was sort of a famous boat for a couple of reasons. One, it was a government boat and it was a U S Lighthouse Tender. And then a coast guard buoy tender. And then it was laid up for good. And we put it in storage for years. Years we stored it down the river and you know, the economy wasn't doing great after we bought it. it's our luck. Usually the economy's not doing great, so Dad said we're, we're just gonna mothball it.

There was this employee of ours. He was a young guy. Well, you had bought it, which you didn't explain 

Ben Bernstein: what, why did you, but why did you buy 

Alan Bernstein: it? To make it a Mike Fink number two. Correct. Mike Fink number two in [00:13:00] Louisville or somewhere. Yeah. Anywhere along the road. That's what the original, that was the original idea.

And like I said, it was a beautiful boat. We then, brought it up to BB riverboats. And which at the time was down at the foot of Madison, down in Covington. That is correct. And we had a flood that year, a bad flood, and we moved it to, to, to keep it from sinking or getting damaged.

We put it up near the suspension bridge. To, And that night we had a bad storm, and the line broke, and the boat sort of did a 360, and it hit the suspension bridge not as a collision, but it just sort of slid into it, and so that the one smokestack slid off of its Perch.

And so it looked like a bunny rabbit with one straight ear and one curvature ear. And then we had to put it back down the [00:14:00] river. It's complicated, so now it has a stack problem. It is not something nice to look at. No, so we had to move it back down the river and it sat there.

But this young man came to me literally once a year and said, boss, You know, that boat we have could make a great haunted house, and you could make 

Ben Bernstein: a lot of money. You can't just point to him and speak. You have to say. 

Alan Bernstein: Well, I, I introduced him as a young man. Okay.

And now it's the guy sitting here next to me. Yes. Yes. I was young once. Yes, he was. Yes, he was. I've known him since 14 anyway. And every year he would come at Halloween time his boss, every, we can make a lot of money. Well, it was always Halloween time when he came the week before Halloween. Yeah, A week before Halloween.

He goes, we can make a lot of money. And that went on for years. Well, I 

Allen Rizzo: loved Haunted Houses. It was a time of WSAI Yeah, yeah. Haunts. And I would, I guess I would spend three hours in line at [00:15:00] WSAI Haunt. Going through it and then the next week I'd say hey boss. You ought to do this. Yeah Yeah, so I you know, it was my love of haunts when I was young.

Alan Bernstein: And of course if I'd have known he was correct nine years earlier. We'd be even nine years further down the road So you got a 

Ben Bernstein: call for a meeting up at Coney Island. 

Alan Bernstein: Yes it was a symphony meeting a big meeting big big deal You And we were talking and the meeting took a break.

It was a BB riverboat meeting for BB Riverboats. The people in the room the radio station, Vaughn Freeman, Jim Bryant. You're right. You were not there. Alan Bernstein, the two girls from the symphony. He's right. He's right. Paint the picture. He's right. He's right. 

They want you to bring a boat to Coney for the, for a ten day festival in the fall. Right. Right. And you know, we were talking and so there was a break.

And at the break well Vaughn and Jim Bryant were talking about a fall attraction for ongoing years. [00:16:00] And I just blared out, well, I've got an old boat that could be a haunted attraction. You've got an employee who's been telling you that, 

Ben Bernstein: yeah, all these years he's telling you.

I've got a great haunted house. 

Alan Bernstein: And it stopped, they absolutely, the room got silent and he goes, what did you say? And I said, I have a boat that is a perfect haunted boat. He said, you're not serious. I said, I am. I'm serious. It's right down the river. And who was that? 

Allen Rizzo: Well, I'll give you the background.

It was Von Freeman and Jim Bryant, but Von Freeman was a salesperson that came from Kansas City to Cincinnati to work for Q102. And he had, he had a boat. I had a lot of experience with the big haunts in Kansas city. And 

Ben Bernstein: he had explained why Kansas city is a big deal. 

Allen Rizzo: Kansas city is a big deal because when they did the highway system, they put it really on bridges over top of the warehouse district.

So all of a sudden the warehouses were off the beaten path and they all went. Dare like they were white elephants, so they got sold cheap and they [00:17:00] became haunted houses. And when I say haunted houses, it's not like the ones we have here. They were five times, I mean, they're huge warehouses. The one had a three story. 720 degree slide that you went down another one had a werewolf forest that took you literally 20 minutes to go through the forest. It was just the whole loading dock with trees. You know, the beast and the edge of hell some really great big haunts. But the road system bypassed the warehouse district.

So they became warehouses and Vaughn had been working with them at the radio stations in Kansas city, knew that they were a big deal, knew that Cincinnati had an opportunity. So he had been trying to convince His new station manager that instead of working with haunted houses like St. Rita's and during the community service and announcements that they were doing, that they could actually personally get involved in and help produce it. So that's the background story with it with them before they get to the meeting and then Alan says we have this boat and you can go for 

Alan Bernstein: it. Yeah, I want to I want to describe these buildings.

If you're from Cincinnati, you know that Longworth Hall is in an old [00:18:00] warehouse in what was the warehouse district. Of Cincinnati. And so those are the size of buildings that Riz is talking about. It's not a small building. These buildings were literally hundreds of feet long and multi story. I mean, some of them were three, four or five stories I mean, unlimited square footage.

Stop banging the table. I am sorry. Well, I, I actually was falling over, I said to Jim, I'll take you next week. I'll take you down there. He says, no, no, no, no, no. Let's go there right now. I went, well, so the next day we got on a boat and 15, 20 minutes later, we turn around on the bend. And there's the Wake Robin, and I thought Jim was going to fall out of the boat, I really did, Jim Bryant went, turn around, that's perfect, we're done, we're in, 

Ben Bernstein: 100 feet away 

Alan Bernstein: from, we're in, we weren't even, we weren't even close to stepping on it, and we're you know, the stack leaning over on one side and the stack straight.

He said, Disney [00:19:00] can't do anything like this. 

Allen Rizzo: I don't know the date, but we are no more than seven weeks from Halloween. 

Alan Bernstein: You are right. In 

Terri Bernstein: 1993 

Alan Bernstein: and 19 and 1993. That is correct. So he loves it. Vaughn connects us to a guy in St. Louis. We flew him in here. And I said, you get up here and I'll introduce you my haunted house manager. 

Allen Rizzo: I wasn't a haunted house manager. I had other responsibilities. 

Ben Bernstein: Not that day. Not two days later, but yeah. 

Alan Bernstein: And the story goes from there. We have literally four weeks twenty eight days to open a haunted house.

And all we have is a platform, which is a boat, filled with junk, filled, we had been filled with junk, I mean, I don't know how many dumpsters [00:20:00] of junk we got rid of. But. It was a lot. Large cement pileups. It was anywhere 

Ben Bernstein: near the amount of junk you personally have, I'm sure it was a lot of dumps.

Alan Bernstein: Well, that junk, you have been taken out of the will for that junk, and Terri Bernstein owns it all. He owns 

Allen Rizzo: it all. The effort to move just the big large cement flowerbed, I don't know why they even kept it. I don't know either. But 

Terri Bernstein: dad keeps everything. 

Ben Bernstein: He doesn't throw anything away. That's not true.

You're not a hoarder, but you're not a get ridder of her. 

Allen Rizzo: You didn't have a garage when you lived in Crescent Springs. 

Alan Bernstein: No. Crescent Springs. No. Crescent Springs. Well, there was a pool table. 

Ben Bernstein: When you would shoot from the corner pocket, you kind of had to press your body to push everything back. It wasn't 

Terri Bernstein: that bad.

I roller skated around the pool table all the time. I would 

Alan Bernstein: play Barry Manilow or something. On the 

Terri Bernstein: 8 

Alan Bernstein: track. On the 8 track? 

Ben Bernstein: It was an 8 track. That was in your younger years. As the years went on, less and less room was there for pool. The last time I saw [00:21:00] that 

Allen Rizzo: garage, it was back. It was a 

Ben Bernstein: lot. 

Allen Rizzo2: We got to back up because the guy that we brought in from Kansas City that Vaughn brought in To consult it really was an amazing thing to watch this guy work. Yeah, he had been in the business for a while he knew it. He obviously knew his stuff And we were asking him to help us design this haunted house and he's just flown in He's never seen the boat before and so we got some chalk and he started walking around drawing lines on the floor and talking to us about putting this in this scene and You know, build an engine room here and build some rooms here.

And you can have this door open and pop and scare people and hang somebody over in this corner and you can throw something down the steps and with the strobe light and he really designed, he took an open platform, drew lines on the floor and design our path the first year in about 40 minutes, the most amazing thing I took his drawings, measured it all up.

And with the exception of a couple of lines, I had to move because the walls were actually four inches thick and not the thickness of a. Piece of chalk to get the minimum aisle of, of 36 inches. His drawing was spot on [00:22:00] and, you know, in the conversation, well, okay. So we've never done this before. What would, what would you call her?

Haunt? And he said, well, yeah, I'd call it the USS nightmare for sure. So he gave us the name, he gave us the walls and he left. And, that's when , we scheduled a trip to go visit haunts in Kansas city. 

Alan Bernstein: Yep.

Allen Rizzo2: We 

Alan Bernstein: took the two ladies that helped us do the show and Riz and I Jim Bryant. Oh, Jim Bryant. We were in the near jet. Cause we were already 

Ben Bernstein: Q102. 

Alan Bernstein: Your partners in the show. Partners in the show. And they were really good partners. They really were. Is Jim still in Cincinnati?

Allen Rizzo2: I have not heard or seen him. Yeah, I haven't heard or seen him. I wish he would come down and say hi. I wish 

Alan Bernstein: he would too. 

Allen Rizzo2: Jim, 

Alan Bernstein: if you're listening, 

Allen Rizzo2: we'd love to hear from you. 

Alan Bernstein: You were on 

Ben Bernstein: your way to Kansas City. On Kansas City. 

Alan Bernstein: That's a drive of a drive for deer jet. 12 and a half hours to there. Why would you We were three hours there. Why? And 12 and a half [00:23:00] hours. It's not 12 and a half 

Ben Bernstein: hours to Kansas City. Yes, it is. It is eight hours, it's nine hours.

No, it's three hours from St. Louis. 

Alan Bernstein: Yeah. It's four hours from St. Louis. St. Louis is yeah. Somebody will check us out, but I'll be fair, it was a long trip. But even today, I, I think the speed limit was 55 back then. I don't think it was 70. Eight 

Ben Bernstein: hours and 44 minutes since 90 Kansas City. There you go. Well, not 12 and a half, but you're, well,

Everywhere, let me set up real quickly. What road tripping with my father's like every stop we got to get beef jerky, bottled water, peanut butter crackers, just in case we get stranded on the side of the road and we need to do this every sixty . to ninety minutes or 

Speaker 8: so.

Every time. 

Ben Bernstein: We ate everything between there and the next stop. And when is your tank empty? Is it when that light turns on? Oh, no, no, no. When do you stop to get gas? When it's half. It's time to get gas. You guys go to Kansas City. Go to Kansas City.

You go through some of the Hana 

Alan Bernstein: towns. Oh my [00:24:00] god. Followed. It went to two or three. It was very difficult and I don't need to be scared. I mean, 

Allen Rizzo2: you have not lived until you've gone through a haunted house with the lights on with your dad.

The warehouse was really hot 

Alan Bernstein: and 

Allen Rizzo2: it's three stories tall. And, and, and we're going up, up, and up, and every time, there's a guy there that's dressed as, as Freddy, and every time we, we turn to Ben, Alan, he's jumping out at Alan, because Alan's the chicken one, and we get to the third floor, and he is sweating bullets.

Alan Bernstein: Oh, my, my shirt was soaking wet. 

Terri Bernstein: You were much heavier back then, too. 

Alan Bernstein: Well, I was, that's true, I'm, 

Allen Rizzo2: You know. He is sweating bullets, and they turn the corner, and there's a 36 inch round pipe coming out of the wall, and they say, get in. I'm 

Alan Bernstein: not getting in there. I'm not getting in there, Pike. He 

Allen Rizzo: says, well, we're all going down.

You can go back the way we came. And then you can see their fear. So they all go down. 

Alan Bernstein: They all go down. Every one of them. And now I have the decision. Do I walk back through all this [00:25:00] terror, or do I go down this tube black? It's a black tube. So did you know it was a slide or was it just a tube? You could tell it was a slide, but you had no idea how long or where it went.

Well, and where it went. I mean, there was no light at the end of the tunnel. It 

Allen Rizzo: was steep. 

Alan Bernstein: It was steep. Yeah. And there was no light at the end of the tunnel. 

Allen Rizzo2: And of course, everybody that went down and screamed. So he has no idea what's going on. 

Alan Bernstein: So I decide. Not only is it the shorter route, but I'm not going through all that three stories of, you said screw it, I said screw it, I need new underwear anyway.

Actually, I don't, I think I traveled commando, because you need a new pants. That's right too. I went down and it was a great ride. Out he came. out I came and I was head over heels and I didn't know where I was. They're all laughing and having a good time. I said, we got to do that again.

We got to do that again. So the haunted house is [00:26:00] born and we now have a real good idea well, so 

Allen Rizzo2: we went from that. That was the 

Alan Bernstein: guy that 

Allen Rizzo2: helped us design our home. That night we went to. Three other four hunts.

Yeah that were in part of the district and we're standing in line and We're being entertained by people that are eating rats and and little kids that are we're talking to them you like these haunts and oh, yeah, we love it And we're gonna go to this one and we're gonna go to two more tonight And we're like, you know Alan can't believe that they're spending twenty dollars and they're in line for one and they're gonna go to in 

Ben Bernstein: 1993 There's 

Allen Rizzo2: hundreds of people and it's everywhere and you can see other lines because we're in warehouse district You can see the other ones.

Yeah, I mean It's a fever. 

Ben Bernstein: That's all I mean. It was it was it was an amazing you had always told him if we do this haunted house, there will be a line that you will see the end of the 

Allen Rizzo2: line up farther than you can see is what I've always said. And you won't believe it. And and that's we were part of it in Kansas City.

The haunts in Kansas City some of them were nice and would let us ask questions. They were very competitive and some of them would, when they found out you were from another haunt, [00:27:00] even though you're from another city, they didn't want to talk to you. They they had people follow us so that we couldn't get their ideas.

One of them would put in a slide and another guy would have to put in a slide that was bigger and better. And, and that's how the beast got there through 720 degree spiral slide that you come down. So Alan went down a couple more slides that day. And we, 

Alan Bernstein: I was a slide aficionado. 

Allen Rizzo2: I mean, we saw everything from ghost dancing through tables.

If you remember with pepper ghost effect, we learned it an enormous amount. Then stuff we didn't use necessarily our first year, but we've used it along the way. So it was a great trip. 

Alan Bernstein: It was we talked all the way back nine and a half hours 12 hours 15 It doesn't matter what it was when we weren't eating beef jerky And peanut 

Ben Bernstein: butter 

Alan Bernstein: crackers 

Ben Bernstein: and bottle of water, oh my gosh this is all in the middle 

Allen Rizzo2: of the four weeks we've got less than four weeks now to build a haunt on a boat.

That was a warehouse 

Ben Bernstein: We've got to 

Allen Rizzo2: empty it out. We've got to build it. We're really moving. I've got a couple of my brothers that are helping. everything [00:28:00] at BB shut down. We would 

Alan Bernstein: late to late in the night, midnight. 

Allen Rizzo2: My, my favorite story is about halfway through the time when we're building all these panels that were just plywood with two by four frames and we were popping them together quickly, making a we had a template and then we'd throw down the, the, the boards and, and nail them together with an air gun.

And, and I was interrupted by a journalist that was sent down by Q one or two to do a story about us. For some promotion and so I'm giving them a tour of the haunt and telling them what we're doing. And I, as I'm walking past the, the guys building the walls, I can hear them popping it together, but the gun keeps double popping and if you've ever used an air gun, that's a bad sign.

That means you don't have control of the gun and, and that's dangerous. And then I look at how the guy's holding the board and it's like he's shooting right at his hand. So I go over quietly and say to the guy, Hey you ought to hold out a different way and be careful. You're going to end up shooting yourself in the hand.

And, I was trying to be quiet. So the journalist didn't hear me and I went back to what I was doing. And when I turned around, I heard pop. Pop. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! [00:29:00] When I turn around, sure enough he's got a nail sticking out of his wrist. He's nailed his thumb to his wrist.

Alan Bernstein: After 

Allen Rizzo2: I took him to the hospital and he got it taken out he went, there was no blood at all when I was taken to the hospital but when I got back I was told that what I didn't hear was when I turned around back to the journalist, that guy said that Asshole doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. and then he shot himself in the wrist. So needless to say, that's if you ever noticed that the nightmare has a nail in the wrist of some of the characters in the hunt, that's might 

Ben Bernstein: be an homage to a past employee. Yes, 

Allen Rizzo2: Believe me, we've got them all over the boat, but the wrist story is one of them. Yep. 

And so, you know, fast forward, we get all the walls up, we get a sprayer and we spray it. I mean, we were King of the Black Maze the first year. We built it just on the first deck, because that's all the time we had and then we opened for seventeen days before Halloween. Seventeen days straight.

Seventeen days straight, which is not what we do today. We were focused on the weekends now, but back then that's all we had was seventeen days, and so we opened [00:30:00] up straight through and, you know, thirty thousand people that first year was a great number. We did more than that. 

Alan Bernstein: And, the first Saturday.

This is the first Saturday. Riz calls me, I'm in my office. He calls me out, get out here right away. The police are here. What the hell is the police here for? So I get out there and we walk up the landing and, and we walk through the flood wall and the policeman says, Mr. Bernstein, you must get these people out of the roadway.

They can't be in the middle of the road. They can't be in the middle of the road. And I said, what, what? And you look up Madison Avenue in Covington and you cannot see the end of the line. You really literally could not say, and Riz is probably sitting there and the policemen's going, you have to do something.

And I'm looking at Riz like, okay, what are we going to do? So Riz and I said, what would just move the line instead of crossing [00:31:00] all these streets? We'll move along. Now, Jeff Ruby was down below us. That was the old waterfront. That was the old waterfront. And so we moved the line from going down Madison to going down River Center.

And the line was at Jeff Ruby's to get to our haunted boat. And they were coming in fast and they were coming in fast. They were dropping people off on a car. You couldn't keep track of all of them. Everything he said. It was absolutely true. He says, you'll never see the end of the line and all this stuff.

And I'm going, I, I just can't believe people are willing to pay 5. Riz, at what point did you say, I told you so? Well, I didn't say I told you so, I tapped him on the shoulder and said, hey boss, can you see the end of the line? Yeah. He said, no Riz, I can't. Yeah. There were a lot of times where he wanted to say, I see I told you so.

And he goes, no, just tell me where you think the end of the line is. And I went, okay, I got the point. Now starts our haunted house. That was the first [00:32:00] Saturday night? That was the first Saturday night. 

Ben Bernstein: There was a day where Al said we have to shut down. Oh, yeah. 

Allen Rizzo2: Oh, it was a Saturday night. It was a very busy night.

I don't know if it was the first one or, you know, the early days get kind of confusing. But yeah, here's what happened. We had some volunteers in the early days, q one or two worked with SIDS. They would provide parents and kids to help scare the people in the haunt as volunteers. And then the donation, instead of paying the actor, would go to the the foundation.

And we worked with SIDS, which was a a great partnership. It 

Alan Bernstein: really was. 

Allen Rizzo2: Their job was to bring people down. One scene was supposed to be an adult and a child, and normally it's a parent and a child. One would jump out and boo, and the other one would bang on a drum. And this one, in this scene one night, they just a mother brought a, a son and a daughter.

And, and the one popped out and jumped up and scared. And the other one came down with a pipe and hit him right square on the top of the head and knocked him out. So we had to stop the show for a sister that knocked out a brother and mom was right there when it happened. But that drum was would come back to [00:33:00] haunt us.

Well, you got to remember 

Alan Bernstein: it was a warehouse and there was a lot of things there that we didn't know what was there, you know, I mean, it was there. So we just left it. 

Allen Rizzo2: So we got a big metal drum, so we'll beat a pipe on it. Well, when you beat a metal drum long enough, it dents in and gets holes in it. So about the second weekend, they decided to turn it over and started beating on the other side.

And halfway through the night somebody comes out and says Something's burning your eyes in there. You can smell fuel or something. I'm like, what's going on? And and so we have to stop the show for a minute We go in and we and we realize that this drum is leaking a mixture of oil and kerosene. 

Alan Bernstein: Or well It was it was junk.

I mean it was slop one slop. That's a better word 

Allen Rizzo2: And they're walking through it And they are taking it through the first three seasons and people are starting to slip and slide. It's burning the eyes of the actors and Alan says, what are we gonna do? We, we gotta stop the shut show.

We gotta close, shut it down, and 

Allen Rizzo: we gotta line out to Second Street. Right? And I'm like, no, we're not gonna close. 

Allen Rizzo2: I mean, I've worked too hard in the last four weeks Yeah. To close down on a [00:34:00] busy Saturday night. So we got a hose , you know, cleaned it up and cleaned it up and, and 15 minutes later we were back in business.

Yep. People didn't know any different, but yeah, we came real close to having our first. 

Alan Bernstein: You should never bang on a drum that you don't know what is inside. 

Ben Bernstein: We don't do that anymore. Thank goodness that happened in 1993. 

Alan Bernstein: Yeah. 

Ben Bernstein: And not 2000. Well, I mean, we 

Alan Bernstein: didn't spill. It wasn't like. I get it. We spilled it, 

Speaker 10: but 

Alan Bernstein: you're right.

It's just the slipping factor. Oh, yeah. It would have been. Yeah. You know, 

Allen Rizzo2: Ben, the early years are the learning years. Very much so. We're still learning at this point. 

We operated Covington landing a few years. We operate on that boat for five years. The third year we added this slide. It was the third, it was that early.

Yeah, it was the third. Yeah, it was early. 

Alan Bernstein: Mean, we wanted to do it when we 

Ben Bernstein: started with the whole thing, but there was just no way to we would come down after school, and Riz would have a box of wax paper. Oh, yeah. And you'd go to the top. Oh. I probably went down the slide 35 times.

I mean, it was just over and over [00:35:00] and over. Well, 

Allen Rizzo2: that, you know, it's a great story that the wax paper reminds me of. And you mentioned fingers earlier. So we sent a boat to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And when we did the one thing that I, is whatever you do, don't wax the slide, 

Alan Bernstein: right? 

Allen Rizzo2: Do not wax. There's no reason to wax it and go too fast.

Cause that's what we were doing. When you were going down on wax paper, you were waxing the aluminum slide that it was otherwise oxidized and oxidized slide. You get down real nice and slow and controlled when you wax it. It 

Ben Bernstein: is now 

Allen Rizzo2: there's no control. And I warned them not to do it. Well, they get to Pittsburgh.

I don't think they use wax paper. I think they got car wax and buffed it. I think they did. They waxed it. They went down and buffed it. Right? Yeah. Well, they had a lady that, that doubled over and had an open wound fracture on her leg from the slide. So they had to change the way they were sliding down the slide and use burlap bags.

So we're going to visit, we take fingers with us. Fingers, as you know from earlier things, he's missing one of his fingers. And he gets, that's the name finger. That's the name fingers. So he gets a rubber [00:36:00] finger and fills it with blood and it goes down the slide. And he lays on the landing at the bottom of the slide with the guy from Pittsburgh watching him and he squeezes the finger, pulls it off.

And starts screaming that he ripped his finger off. Now this is right after they had this break in the leg. The wound was still open. What was the manager's name? 

Zach D'Alessandro. Yep. No, it wasn't Zach, but it was another guy. anyway, he turned white and, and he had to just leave. He couldn't say a word. He turned white. He had just been through that open wound. We'd love to do the practical jokes and fingers pulled that one off pretty well.

Ben Bernstein: And to set all of that up. So I, I know the listeners don't necessarily understand. We leased the. Original boat. The original USS nightmare. The Wake Robin. Yes. We leased it to Gateway Clipper in Pittsburgh. Took it up by water. That's what we were, 

Alan Bernstein: that's why we were, that's why we was in Pittsburgh.

That's right. That's, 

Allen Rizzo2: that's year five. So that brings us to nightmare two so you 

Alan Bernstein: can so Nightmare [00:37:00] one was only for five years. About that five years. And then we had two haunted houses. 

Ben Bernstein: Well, yeah. So where did. The William S. Mitchell. Okay. The William s well, the, the acquisition of the William Mitchell, 

Alan Bernstein: the William S.

Mitchell was a old Corps of Engineers dredge, and it was in a very nice condition. It was actually in pristine condition for the 1940s, maybe 1950s. So you know, it's an older boat and it's got that World War II kind of feeling to it. And it was in Kansas City and Dick Lynn bought it. Dick Lynn bought the William S. Mitchell to make a museum. full intention. It 

Allen Rizzo2: worked till the oil embargo when they shut it down. And whenever that was a seven late 70s, early 80s. It uses like 700, 000 gallons of bunker fuel a week and they had to mothball it. It was the last of the for the run. And you know, if he bought it, he bought it for 1 because it was really a donation from them to him.

That's right. 

Alan Bernstein: They wanted to get rid of it. [00:38:00] He took it to make it the museum. And that very same year that he bought it. 1997 would have been the first Tallston. When was the first Tallston? 

Allen Rizzo2: 1988.

Alan Bernstein: Don't worry about the date. 

Allen Rizzo2: Let Riz tell the story. Before the flood, you and I got on Dick Lynn's plane and flew all over the country for Tall Stacks. Oh, yeah.

And you and I were, of course, we're talking about Haunted House because we're on a plane that's got three seats and wasn't much else to talk about. It was that time of the year, so it's time for me to talk about Haunted House. And we get to Dick Lynn's place, and we rode his train, if you remember.

Oh yeah, his train, 

Alan Bernstein: yeah. Very famous train. 

Allen Rizzo2: Dick Lynn was one of my favorite river characters. And we go to walk on the boat, and the plank is all wobbly, and I'd looked up before I even got on the boat and said, now this would make a nice haunted house. That's correct. We're touring this museum quality boat, and For a possible visit to Cincinnati Tallstacks as part of the Working River Exhibit.

[00:39:00] Tallstacks is asking for a visit. 

Alan Bernstein: That's right. That's 

Allen Rizzo2: right. but before I even stepped foot on the boat, I said, Now this would make a nice haunted house. So that's, you know, ten eight years before it actually hits the bridges and we actually end up with it. That was my prediction.

Then 

Alan Bernstein: we'll now tell the William S. Mitchell is 287 feet, 288 feet. We have measured it many times, 288 feet long and 80 feet wide. So, you know, this is a huge boat. It's just a big boat two, three decks and the pilot house and stacks and the side wheel. It's a side wheeler. Just a great boat.

It 

Allen Rizzo2: hit and all the equipment, all the bedspreads were there, the beds were, was in the kitchen and 

Alan Bernstein: made the beds were all made, all the tools were hanging on the wall. Oh my God. It was, it really, it was pristine museum. It's what 

Terri Bernstein: the black looks like now. Yes, that's right. 

Alan Bernstein: The black is the only one left, other than the middle. And that is a museum in Dubuque, Iowa. In Dubuque, Iowa, in the ice Actually, 

Allen Rizzo2: another one is in a [00:40:00] cornfield someplace. There. The not to maryweather, what's the other one?

Alan Bernstein: There was a major flood major. Finish the story. I know Riz Fast Forward. Said it broke. It broke loose. It broke loose, and it hit all five Kansas City bridges all five of em, so it. It was like a p pong ball rush hour or a pinball it was pinballing everywhere.

And there's a great video of a guy on one of the team. Are are we still showing that video? Oh yes. 

Allen Rizzo2: It's hard. It's the introduction to the show. It is rush hour in Kansas City. Yeah. And, and if you see a boat to breaks loose on the river, it's not like this really high speed. It's not like you're watching a, a road race.

No. The thing's going five miles an hour. 

Allen Rizzo: Yeah. 

Allen Rizzo2: On a big river. Yeah. So it's. It's going slow, but it weighs hundreds of tons. So when it hits a bridge, it does some massive damage. And 

Ben Bernstein: so for 40 minutes. Don't tell Baltimore that. . I can 

Allen Rizzo2: tell you that I, I've got the den on the, on the, on the Mitchell that is the shape of a round bridge pier.

So I know that in Kansas City, they know how to build a bridge [00:41:00] that takes the hit. It's going down the river slow, but uncontrolled. 

Allen Rizzo: Dick Lynn is trying to. Corral it with his little, 

Allen Rizzo2: somebody described it as a fly on an elephant. Another tow boat gets it pushes it ashore and stops it, but they had helicopters in the air. They were stopping the traffic on the bridge one after another. And the news story that night in Kansas city, Just before it hits the last bridge, when it knocks over the smokestacks and knocks the railroad bridge four feet off the center, the announcer says, and next, it's the Mitchell Massacre.

And so we tell people that's the moment that the Mitchell became the nightmare. It was the Mitchell Massacre, and of course, in our story, 60 people didn't survive the crash, and to this date, we still have only found one person that ever survived the boat, and we talked to him, he now lives in Florida.

But we've never been able to really find a whole lot of people that survived the the William S. Mitchell. 

Alan Bernstein: They're all inside waiting to meet you. 

Allen Rizzo2: So [00:42:00] we've blended an enormous amount of folklore to the actual story of the Mitchell and it's been a blast. We'll post the 

Terri Bernstein: video of the 

Alan Bernstein: boat hitting the bridge. I have to tell you one side note about the owner of the William S. Mitchell before we owned it. That's Dick Lynn. He was a dear friend of mine, an older gentleman. In fact, I know that he was 72 years old when he fathered his last child. Wow. And I, I never knew at 72, a man could do that.

So I learned something, but you know, his wife very well, Terri. 

Terri Bernstein: I do. 

Alan Bernstein: And Ludwig, who is that son. Is now probably in his forties or fifties. 

Allen Rizzo2: He contacted me a year ago and sent us a plaque that he had that belonged on the boat. 

Terri Bernstein: We have that plaque. 

Allen Rizzo2: The brass one? 

Terri Bernstein: Yeah. Yeah. We never gave it to Riz.

Allen Rizzo2: They said to 

Alan Bernstein: me. He said it to me. Now wait a minute. [00:43:00] It's in the museum. It is the plaque and it's all we need to get it cleaned. I don't know how to Do that brasso. Yeah, 

Speaker 4: we've talked about that on a few episodes. 

Alan Bernstein: You will it gets really gnarly Yeah, we're five years 

Allen Rizzo2: into the business, we've opened our second haunt, you know both of the boats were rechristened, and they were both rechristened, do you remember who rechristened them? I do. 

Ben Bernstein: I have no, I don't remember. Terri knows that picture. Yes. The cool picture of you and 

Allen Rizzo2: the cool ghoul.

Yeah. He was, he was a friend of a nightmare. And he was there that when we christened, when we christened the first boat, we had a coffin on the deck with a character in it, you know and then when it's time to move, we moved over to howl at the moon. 

Alan Bernstein: Oh, I remember this. 

Allen Rizzo2: And from Howl at the Moon, we were taking pictures of people at the Howl at the Moon in a coffin, with the pictures.

So they had a souvenir photo. We did keychains. [00:44:00] That was our 

Ben Bernstein: media party. 

Allen Rizzo2: At the media party at Howl at the Moon. And so they carried the box over to the bow of the boat. And when all the people went over for their christening, and we exchanged the character, and I got in the mask and got in the coffin.

Alan Bernstein: That's right. 

Allen Rizzo2: And so now they're getting ready to smash the bottle of champagne and they, they go to hit it and it was actually a fake bottle. It didn't break. I jump out of the coffin and the character in the coffin comes out alive, smashes the bottle and runs off. So I got to christen and the boat is as a dead person the first night, 

Ben Bernstein: Which was fun.

We had a couple get married on the boat. Didn't we? Oh yeah. We've had about three. 

Allen Rizzo2: Yeah? And actually four with one of our crew members that did it once. I wonder how those 

Ben Bernstein: marriages are going. 

Allen Rizzo2: Ben, it can't get any worse. If you start on a nightmare, everything's uphill from there. 

Alan Bernstein: That's a good one.

Everything's 

Allen Rizzo2: uphill. 

Terri Bernstein: Maybe we should do your wedding there. 

Alan Bernstein: Well, maybe we should celebrate some anniversaries soon. I don't know.

Allen Rizzo2: The experience of building the second boat was a lot different than the [00:45:00] first. 

Ben Bernstein: Was it three, 

Allen Rizzo2: four? 

Ben Bernstein: Oh, square footage. It's got to be. We went from a 10 

Allen Rizzo2: or 11 minute show to about a 35 minute show. Yep, yep. Easy. And we set out to use every square inch of the boat that we could.

Speaker 2: Yep. 

Allen Rizzo2: And We had a lot more experience by then we had started to go to haunt conventions in Chicago every year and we learned who Distortions was and some of these big players in the haunted house industry in the 

Alan Bernstein: industry 

Allen Rizzo2: learned 

Alan Bernstein: who we 

Allen Rizzo2: were. Yes 

Alan Bernstein: Yes, we're a unique Attraction within the unique traction.

Are there any other floating haunts 

Allen Rizzo2: in the country? There are a few I've been on one on the on the Queen Mary 

Alan Bernstein: Oh, there's one on the Queen Mary. Tampa. The one in Tampa. The victory. The victory. 

Allen Rizzo2: I looked at the boats on the Boblo boats. I thought they would have been great. Oh, they would. We went to look at those.

One of them is no longer around. They're trying to save the other one and I thought it would be a great haunt, but by 

Alan Bernstein: Boblo Island is an island up in Detroit. The date you can go by, like Coney Island [00:46:00] used to be where you went up by boat and Boblo Island is actually an island in the Detroit River.

Allen Rizzo2: And so yeah, there are a few other ones. Actually I don't know if it's still open, but do you know what what's going on with the old Crockett's? I mean, it went and became a, you're right. Did it actually open or not? I don't 

Ben Bernstein: know if it's still open. I saw a YouTube video of, you know, them going through it and it being open.

I don't know if it continued on or not. Don't, 

Allen Rizzo2: their story sounded very similar to ours. Yeah, exactly The same. . Yeah. 

Alan Bernstein: Yeah. So that was our old facility, our old dock facility. 

Allen Rizzo2: Before we, it was not a boat. It was a dock. It was a dock, yes. So, nightmare one is been sent to Pittsburgh for a couple years. Louisville and then Pittsburgh. We were in three cities over the, over the past 30 years. so it's been a heck of a ride. But I told you where the line would be as long as we could possibly see it. Do you have any idea in since 19 since the 1990s how many people total we've sold tickets to? 

Alan Bernstein: Do you, do you want to take a guess at it? 10 million. 

Allen Rizzo2: [00:47:00] 10 million. 

Alan Bernstein: Oh man. 

Terri Bernstein: Really? That seems like a lot. 

Alan Bernstein: I wouldn't be sitting right 

Speaker 8: here right now if we had done 10 million. If there were 10 million. We would be in Hawaii. I'm going to say 1 

Terri Bernstein: million. A little under a million. 

Ben Bernstein: That's very close. Oh yeah, no, that's 960, 000. Yeah, that's what I said. That's not 10 million. 

Alan Bernstein: That's the number you came 

Ben Bernstein: up with.

I did. You guys are all sharing the same number. I looked at my calculator wrong. Here's what, Ben, 

Allen Rizzo2: redo the math because we were closed one year. Yeah. 

Terri Bernstein: Oh, yeah. We were. COVID. 

Allen Rizzo: COVID. Oh, 

Ben Bernstein: that's 

Allen Rizzo: right. Yeah. 

Allen Rizzo2: So, you're off. Take a year off. 2020, we're off. So, is it like 9 20 or 9 6? It's 9 02. Wow. And so, yeah, I, you know, I'm, I hope that I can make it till we get to the million and I, before, before I get to the retirement age And so we're headed Well, you can't 

retire from the, we're you get the better off you are.

We're at some point in the next few years, we will have a 1 million passenger. Mm-Hmm. ceremony. Yeah. We'll give 'em a trophy. We'll scare the ship out. It's even more impressive if [00:48:00] you translate that into the dollars in sales.

We started at five, but we're now at 25 30. Sometimes some of our premium tickets are 35 . So take a stab at the the dollar signs. . 

Alan Bernstein: Now, it's 30 years. You know, it's interesting because the, the, the dollars are, are important, but you have to remember labor was different 30 years ago.

Certainly not as expensive, and we are one of the few haunted houses that do not do volunteers. A lot of them do haunted houses. We have paid every employee. For every hour they have worked. 12. 

Ben Bernstein: 6 million dollars. 

Allen Rizzo2: That's about, that's about right, actually. Oh! I did like a 14 dollar average or something.

It's a little bit high. Most of that's been spent on labor, as Alan's saying, and, and we put an enormous amount of money into I would 

Ben Bernstein: say probably 

Allen Rizzo2: more than this has 

Ben Bernstein: been 

Speaker 4: spent 

Ben Bernstein: on. 

Allen Rizzo2: It's a labor of love, right? But yeah, if I would have told Alan and his father 30 years ago that you'll do 10 million or more in sales in the next 30 years, I'd have been laughed out of the house.

Oh, there's 

Alan Bernstein: [00:49:00] no, Riz, you wouldn't, we wouldn't have laughed. We would have probably, 

Allen Rizzo2: you were laughed 

Alan Bernstein: at even 

Speaker 4: after the first Saturday, 

Allen Rizzo2: even without the real number. Yeah. But yeah, it's been a great ride and I can tell you that, It's gotten to the point for me that it's satisfying because I get to talk to everybody that comes in and goes out of the show and I'm seeing dads that are taking their kids in and, and I'm talking to them and Oh, I was here when I was a kid.

I wanted to make sure my kid experienced. This is childhood. So now the parents, , we're into second generation and it's become a family tradition. And they all have nothing. 

Alan Bernstein: Now, we used to gauge happiness by how many people peed in their pants. . Do we still do that? Do we still look at we, we don't 

Terri Bernstein: embarrass 'em as bad as, oh, we don't, we used to have a chicken coop.

Allen Rizzo2: We used to have a chicken coop Yes. For 

Terri Bernstein: the people that were chicken, 

Allen Rizzo2: so they Oh yeah. They they had a sit in the chicken coop. Yeah, well they could push a button and scare people. And, and what, and what I always said is we'd take a kid that was crying and scared the daylights out and take that frown and turn it upside down.

'cause he would be the one that had the most fun when he left. [00:50:00] Because he got to scare people for 20, 30 minutes. We still have some of those scare stations on the boat. And so if a kid is really scared, we'll take him up there. And instead of leaving, crying and upset, he's had a better time than his parents did when they come out.

Alan Bernstein: But we pull more adults out than we do kids. Oh, I will say so. Elim, 

Ben Bernstein: who's 11 years old last year, he and a big group of his friends came down. Some of the parents came down, they had to psych each other up. You know, they're all 11 years old and they go through their first haunted house.

And one of the parents, I'm not going to name any names. Was in line with the kids. We're getting ready to go through and she bailed. She came out, she found a worker and I'm sitting out there waiting for them all to come through. And here she comes up the exit ramp.

I said, what is going on? She said, I just can't do it. I just can't do it. I can't do it. So maybe this year, Jen, we can get you on the USS Nightmare. 

Allen Rizzo2: I won't throw her under the bus, but I'll tell you that there was an employee that works here. It's been here. For the longest time that had a daughter [00:51:00] that was about the eighth grade and a group of eighth graders were going to go through the haunt.

And so she called me and said, she's so scared. She doesn't want to go through. What can you do? I said, well, send her down before the night and I'll let her go through the house and she'll be ready for it. And then she came down and, and we tried to take her in the front door and she wouldn't go. So we came up with another plan.

We said, what we'll do is I'll have a character come out of the boat. When you're in line, steal you in the front door, take you across the boat. Take it down to the exit and you can be sitting at the ramp separated from your friends when they come out and you can tell them how much fun you had.

And they think you went through the boat. And oh that's a great idea, that's a great idea. And then they're gonna come down next, next Friday night. Well that Thursday night, I'm up in the parking lot and I'm talking to a couple mothers. and they said, yeah, our daughters are coming down here with a group of friends tomorrow.

And they wanted to come down and go through the haunt first so they wouldn't be scared with their friends. It turns out they were all part of the same group. So yeah there are some, even at the eighth grade level that get up to the front door and cannot go through. 

Alan Bernstein: Yeah. Well, [00:52:00] listen I'm 72 years old and I would not go through.

I think even today, I think we need to challenge Derek 

Terri Bernstein: Eastep won't go through it. Really? No, he's doing it. No way. He said this year he's going to try it. Oh my. Who? We need to challenge. Skyler's dad. 

Allen Rizzo2: I need to call Mary out. We need to challenge that. No. We're not going to get married. I promise no snakes.

If you want to stay employed, that's 

Allen Rizzo: probably not to still be married. I promise no snakes, 

Alan Bernstein: Mayor. Well, you know, it's funny. I just, one side story real quick. Through the year. Riz would order props you know, still does, still does and still does come here. And they come and some of them , I mean, are just scary looking.

And they're just, they're, they're just life and life flight. And they put 'em in the office by my door, . Well, and I go to my office and it's dark. When you were scared, you were scared? I screamed twice. 

Terri Bernstein: Last year, we had it in the river's edge and the river's edge has windows in it and our customers [00:53:00] were coming in and we go, Oh, they were looking to be nosy.

And there was a prop in there 

Ben Bernstein: So we're coming to the end. You want to give a little commercial since the season's coming up, 

Allen Rizzo2: September 13th is when we open this year.

We're going to run through November 8th. The, the 8th and 9th, I'm sorry, the 8th and 9th of November are special shows. It's the crew is let really let loose. It's adult oriented. It's not for the young kids. Don't wear your good clothes cause you're going to get messed up. You're probably going to get separated from your group.

You might get wet. Some people are in there for 35 minutes. Why other people are in there for 55 minutes? Some are in there 

Alan Bernstein: two 

Allen Rizzo2: hours, three hours. Some get sent back 

Ben Bernstein: through. 

Allen Rizzo2: Some come out with not everything they went in with and it's just a different kind of show. So that's for the real hardcore adrenaline junkies.

If you're a wimp and you have young kids and you want to see the boat with the lights on, the time to come there is on the Sunday before Halloween when you can see the matinee. maybe we should send Jen and Derek down for the lights 

Ben Bernstein: on. 

Allen Rizzo2: Last year I was not made aware that we had some lights that were [00:54:00] burned out 

we had some parents that complained that. It was too dark and we scared the kids. 

Terri Bernstein: I think we've had things left on to drop windows. 

Allen Rizzo2: Some loud things. We normally will mark them and say, something's getting ready to happen. So the mom can say, Hey, get ready. We leave a couple of the smaller scares, but the worst scares we either turn off or we warn the parents so they can let the kid know.

But we didn't do as good a job last year as we should have. And there was a couple of kids that came out a little bit more frightened than we'd like. We'd like to frighten them just enough that there'll be a customer for life, but I don't think those kids are coming back. 

Terri Bernstein: What I think Riz and his crew have done, which is Pretty cool is it's not just really just a haunted house anymore.

It's more of a immersive Experience they have added additional rooms and fun things to do along the way like if you there's like 

Ben Bernstein: escape room escape room and 

Terri Bernstein: So if you do our, RIP experience, which is an additional [00:55:00] experience on your, it's during the same tour, but you get pulled off into little rooms and, and you get to be a part of a, you know, a game or a escape room, or it's become a lot more.

Of an experience than just a haunted house. Just walking 

Ben Bernstein: through a trail and getting scared. 

Allen Rizzo2: Correct. That's what I tell people. The regular show is you're walking through a haunted attraction like you do any place else. The R. I. P. experience, you're becoming part of the show. And you're immersed into it.

And you're the captain special guest. And it has been wildly successful. It is if you like haunted houses, it's a totally different experience. You won't be disappointed. So you know, I can tell you this, if you're gonna come, I would come early in the season, because the later we get, the longer the lines get.

People say our lines get to be three hour long. I think that's a little bit long in late October, but it's up there. It's up there. And, 

Alan Bernstein: But part of being in line is an experience all on its own as well. You heard me say 

Allen Rizzo2: that. I, that's what I remember about the line when I was a kid.

We're standing in line for three hours. Right, 

Alan Bernstein: right. And in [00:56:00] Kansas city, it's a part of the whole experience that, which we try to make here, but you need a lot more practice. center of energy and people. 

Terri Bernstein: But no worries if you're somebody like me who has zero patience you can buy a front of the line ticket.

Yep, yep. Or a no wait or a fast pass. The 

Allen Rizzo2: celebrities come down they go right to the front of the line they don't wait at all and it's a great experience. I will say that Just so they know they don't have 

Ben Bernstein: to be a celebrity. It's just cost an additional. 

Allen Rizzo2: We have a whole range of tickets.

So yeah, that's that's what the nightmare experience is this year. We're excited because on the 8th of November, we're going to be visited by the legendary haunt tour, which is a group of people from the industry.

That buy tickets every year and they go around this year. They're coming to Ohio and they've included us in Southern Ohio. So on the 8th, they're coming to us and Dent. So and we're going to be visited by a lot of people from a lot of haunts from around the country. You don't have to be a haunt, [00:57:00] but their tickets are sold through that convention.

and so we're excited about that because we're going to meet some people and people that we've known from the show for years that have never seen our product. 

Alan Bernstein: Well, and my beautiful daughter is on the board of directors 

Terri Bernstein: Haunted Attraction Association. 

Alan Bernstein: Which is, I guess, national, it's a, it's all They 

Terri Bernstein: actually listen.

A lot of board members listen. The other day I was talking to one of them and he said, Hold on, I have to pause your dad. 

They listened to our podcast. Does that 

Alan Bernstein: work? Can you pause him?

 All right. 

Allen Rizzo2: I was in Chicago when they had one of the first meetings about a national association and some of the people that had been in the business for a long time, you know, it's very competitive.

They actually got up and said, wait a minute, you know, we're all coming to the same show. We're buying the same stuff. We're all going to look the same. Now you're going to get together and we're going to lose all the creativity. And they didn't think that an association was necessarily a good thing, but.

Certainly over the last 30 years, that association has done an awful lot. Well, very similar 

Alan Bernstein: to the Vessel Association, yeah, [00:58:00] same thing. Well, there's not one boat that is the same anywhere in the country. 

Ben Bernstein: Any other closing thoughts? 

Alan Bernstein: Please come down and visit. It's a great show. 

Ben Bernstein: If you tell us we're coming, Al will be there and he will escort you through the show. Oh, no, 

Terri Bernstein: al does come regularly.

Yes, I do. And he sit, he sits in his car and yells at me the whole time. Time. No, I don't. I go, why Aren? The hot dogs cooking ariz about the line. Wait, where? Where are the hot 

Alan Bernstein: dogs 

Allen Rizzo2: and where are this? Here's what I'll say is my parting thing. You know, I guess they heard in the last podcast that I was on that I was the operations manager and the general manager and at some point I became the, the operations general manager for the USS Nightmare and it has been really the fun of my life, the privilege of my life.

It has been a huge thing that I have just thoroughly enjoyed for over 30 years. Not only because I envisioned it and then watched it come to fruition, but along the way, I've met some great people. I've had the opportunity to work with my family members. We'd love to bring the young kids in and let [00:59:00] them scare people and, and have fun.

It's a family event. I've worked with my my wife for many years who's retired. I've worked with my kids. I've worked with my grandkids and and me and Terri. I, I'm still waiting on Ben and, and Elim, but we'll get there. Oh, that's a challenge. He'll be waiting a while. That's a challenge.

He gets enough of Emma. He gets sick of her. It's not Emma that I get sick of. She brings her friends and they just, I mean, 33 trips in four nights, but she makes a great clown. I, maybe I can get her to come down and work Extreme Night with Missy. 

What makes it so special is the friendships and the relationships that you have. It's just a fun event to work with.

Ben Bernstein: Well, and you've had a team and that team has been that team for a long, long time. 

Alan Bernstein: Well, it's his family. 

Allen Rizzo2: Most 

Alan Bernstein: of it is your 

Allen Rizzo2: family. I, you know, I should talk about Steve a little bit. We talked about St Rita's mother haunt . Steve was with Dent schoolhouse before it was Dent back in the day.

So he was in the haunted house business and somehow he met my daughter, [01:00:00] not. Anything to do with the haunt and the two of them got together and then he decided that he needed to come work for me instead of working for the other guy. So they were disappointed to see him leave. And when they saw me, they asked if I had another daughter.

They didn't want to lose anybody, but Steve's been with us since Tina hooked onto it. , and now He's got a daughter that is now a senior in high school, and she's been working, I mean, the first time is so 

Terri Bernstein: talented, she is very talented. Her 

Allen Rizzo2: artwork and her creativity has really flourished, and she had a great mentor when it came to haunting on the boat, and she's our Anna character nobody has done it better than her.

Anna's the captain's daughter, right? Yeah, it's been quite 

Alan Bernstein: we have been associated with two national associations The boats and now the haunted And I have to say both of those are very similar in nature because they're friendly people and you get to know these owners a lot of them even in the boat business, you know, don't want to tell you about numbers.

We now talk numbers and we talk passenger counts and [01:01:00] people and regulations. It's but 

Terri Bernstein: haunted house. People are coming around. They are a lot more closed lip than the passenger vessel. 

Alan Bernstein: But, and that's okay. Yeah, it takes them a while to get comfortable. They're getting a lot better. Yeah.

Allen Rizzo2: Come to the USS Nightmare and we'll scare the ship out of 

Ben Bernstein: you. Yeah, that's correct. That's been the best marketing line that we've ever had. That's correct. 

Terri Bernstein: I had underwear made once that said, I got the ship scared out of me and we sold those in our gift shop. 

Ben Bernstein: There's a lot of S's in 

Terri Bernstein: that. 

Ben Bernstein: All right, Riz.

Thank you very much. This has been a black Bravo. This is not going to be as long as the 1982 world's fair. Wow. I'm should be right around an hour. Okay. That'd be a little bit more, but that's good. That's great. Thank you very much. Thank you. Yep. 

Moderator: Anyways, now it is time for Ramblin' on the rivers

[01:02:00] word of the day.

Ben Bernstein: So they're both looking at me because they didn't get a show sheet today. What is it? So they have no idea. The suspense is killing me. The word of the day is Highfalutin

Terri Bernstein: Dad's so excited about this word. He 

Ben Bernstein: is know going first question is? How do you spell it? Well, hi Hi is HIGH? Yeah. Falutin. Yeah. F-L-L-F-L. You need Toin. Okay. U. I'm trying to follow along with 

Alan Bernstein: his thinking flu. U-T-E-N-E-D. Is that one word or is it two words?

Well, it would be a hyphenated word or two words, I guess. But, either way, 

Ben Bernstein: I'm [01:03:00] good. 

Alan Bernstein: Typhalutin. But, do you know the 

Ben Bernstein: origin of the Well, it's one word. Okay. It's hyphenated. Okay. No, I do not know the origin. What's the origin? This is a steamboat thing. It is a steamboat term. You were very 

Alan Bernstein: excited about this a few weeks ago.

Ben Bernstein: Before you tell that story, what's the definition of it? Let's get that out there first. And then you can tell the story of 

Terri Bernstein: the hoity toity. It is. 

Alan Bernstein: It is the upper echelon of passengers, higher socioeconomic status.

The elite, because. When you were highfalutin, you were on the upper decks, the way upper decks where that was better air. It was cooler up there and all of that stuff. And they were, 

Allen Rizzo: they were, yeah, 

Alan Bernstein: they, they were dressed, very nicely. And that term turned into.

Why steamboat captains [01:04:00] made their boats look beautiful And look good. That's why Highfalutin refers to the stacks that you see that are decorated on a steamboat And the more they were decorated and they were pretty or they were made to look good the The more highfalutin the boat usually was so that is a term you can look that up.

Is that why we spend 

Terri Bernstein: so much time on the feathers 

Alan Bernstein: on our on our stash? That's right. The owners are always very protective of the way their boat looked and if a feather was missing 

Ben Bernstein: Doing all this, I always thought, because you say this word all the time, but for my entire life I thought it was two words.

High, H I G H, space, falutlino, whatever may be. I was shocked when I was doing all this and it was a single word, highfalutin. H I G H F A L U T I N. [01:05:00] 

Terri Bernstein: F L A. 

Ben Bernstein: You weren't even 

Terri Bernstein: close. 

Ben Bernstein: Well, that's okay. I'm never 

Alan Bernstein: He 

Terri Bernstein: was spelling flute, is what he was doing. Yeah, yeah. High, and then flute, and then an N. 

Alan Bernstein: Highfalutin, yeah.

Although he put 

Terri Bernstein: an E D on the N, so I don't know how he got there. I 

Alan Bernstein: don't know. Moving on, moving 

Moderator: welcome to, as the paddle wheel turns our look at pertinent current events happening right now in the world. All 

Ben Bernstein: right. Coming up here in about a month is a very special anniversary for our family.

Al had a bout with cancer a couple of years ago and he is the proud new recipient of a new liver, which he got on October the 2nd, two years ago coming up here. And I thought it would be appropriate for [01:06:00] you to maybe tell your little story and give an update on how Al's doing. Okay. Al 

Alan Bernstein: is doing quite well.

I did I was diagnosed with a very obscure cancer in my liver and it stayed in my liver. 

I was going for knee surgery. I wasn't making platelets and I went to a doctor he saved my life. There's no doubt about it. 

Ben Bernstein: They gave you some treatment, brought your platelets up. You got the new knee. That's correct. I did get the new knee. Then some time passed and your platelets were low again. Again. That's correct.

Alan Bernstein: I went to see Dr. Niekamp. He's at St. E. Anybody that has a blood issue, I would suggest Dr. Niekamp. He's a great guy. He said, Alan, I'm going to find the reason you're not making playlists. There is a reason, because all the others sort of were just focused on making my body make platelets.

But he was interested in getting the root cause. Why was your body not making them? Why was my body not making them? [01:07:00] And he came up with a doctor at the University of Cincinnati who I went to see who is a specialist. And together, all of them found that I had cancer of the liver. It was a long process.

Oh yeah. 

Ben Bernstein: From the point that your platelets were low to the point that you found out you had cancer was months, if not six months. Oh no, a year, a couple, no, 

Alan Bernstein: it was longer than that. Of test after test after test.

That's correct. And, and they were all baffled, and it was Dr. Niekamp that said, Alan, I'm going to find out why. He was the one that really took the interest. And Yeah, I'm very fortunate, I'm very fortunate, very fortunate that it didn't move. And when you hear that you have cancer, It's a personal moment. And you immediately think, okay, how long do I have to live? And, you know, all the bad [01:08:00] things run through. And in this case I really felt that we would get through it. We would find it, but you learn to believe And you start thinking about you have to believe there's other things out there.

there's something, why do I have cancer and not John Smith or Jane Doe? I spent a lot of time with myself thinking about. Okay, now what do I do I think anybody who is diagnosed with cancer has all of these thoughts. I don't know that they have doctors that really say, okay, we're going to find out why in my case, I was fortunate, but when I started with cancer, that's probably three or four years ago now.

I went in and they said Alan, here are your three choices. It's easy. It's three choices. You can do nothing at all and you will die shortly. You can treat [01:09:00] your cancer. You're going to die in whatever time. God gives you or you could Go for a transplant and maybe be cured if you can get a transplant Yeah, if you can get on the list and if you qualify and all that stuff, and so I said well There's not any choice there.

I'm taking door number three Door number one and two aren't aren't for me So 

Terri Bernstein: and that was kind of shocking. It was me because I thought My dad's he's older. He's never gonna survive a liver transplant I mean you think of a transplant you think I'm gonna go visit him after a transplant He's gonna be laying with tubes everywhere It's gonna be months and months in a hospital and you know, like is he even gonna make it through a transplant?

Well, I had no 

Alan Bernstein: doubt, I had no doubt. Well, I had no doubt, I really didn't feel that way about it. Women are over thinkers. Well, I thought more like Ben, I'll get through [01:10:00] this, you know, we'll make it, I will commit the time if they do the energy and all that. We'll get through it.

What 

Terri Bernstein: I didn't understand is they went in and put nuclear pellets into your liver in the spots that had cancer. 

Alan Bernstein: Yes. 

Terri Bernstein: And killed off the cancer. I did not understand. And that was 

Alan Bernstein: very successful. 

Terri Bernstein: It was very, it did exactly what it was supposed to. 

Alan Bernstein: It did, it was very successful. But I 

Terri Bernstein: could not understand why after they had killed it all, why they had to do a transplant because your liver is one of those organs that regenerate and do things like that.

But apparently if you don't, it will come back and it'll just, it comes back 

Alan Bernstein: worse because 

Terri Bernstein: it'll transfer all over and everything else. 

Alan Bernstein: So I went through all those, I had at least three or four nuclear treatments. That's a semi surgery. You're under sedation and all of that, but it's not real invasive. I went through that and then I qualified to get on a list, an active transplant list [01:11:00] and my wife and I were coming to work one day and I got a call from the hospital. Before 

Ben Bernstein: that, your doctor said you 

Alan Bernstein: need to lose a hundred pounds. 

Ben Bernstein: Oh, 

Alan Bernstein: thank you, Ben. Thank you. He said, yes, we need you to lose 50 pounds before surgery.

And he hooked me up with a nutritionist at UC who said, Alan, here is my suggestion to you. You're morbidly obese. I think that's the word. I weighed about 418 pounds. It was around that. I guess I went up and down. I lost 75 pounds before surgery and they were all very, very happy. And the way I lost it is really pretty simple.

No junk food, no bread, no potatoes, no diet Cokes and the, all the bad food that's out there. That's what you need to stop. And I did, I lost 75 pounds [01:12:00] and they were very, very happy. After the surgery. Well, 

Terri Bernstein: they put you on the list and like seven days later, I think it was only like seven.

Alan Bernstein: Yeah, it was very quick. You and 

Terri Bernstein: mom got a phone call. That's right. 

Alan Bernstein: Please come to the hospital. This liver is not for you. You're the backup. But you're our backup and we need you here. Just in case. 

Terri Bernstein: So I 

Alan Bernstein: went to the hospital with Mary and I said, we're going to be here a couple of hours.

Terri Bernstein: Mom calls and said, don't get excited. They've called about the liver, 

Alan Bernstein: but he's a second, you know, I'm the second. And we got there and we were treated very nicely. the liver people came out and greeted us and got us situated. And it couldn't have been 15, 20 minutes later. They called me to the back and just, you know, Alan Bernstein come to the back, so I went to the back. They took my clothes off they put me on a gurney got me ready for surgery and Wait a minute. 

Terri Bernstein: We don't know yet. We don't [01:13:00] know you're ready. We're still thinking you're number two. Yeah

mom and I go back to sit with dad you know to talk to him and the doctor comes in and they're talking and we said, okay You So what is the plan? How long do we wait? Like, what are we, and they're like, Oh no, he's, 

Alan Bernstein: he's, he's going, and they came literally 

Terri Bernstein: like 10 minutes.

They're like, give him a kiss. Goodbye. And away it went. I mean, we were like, what just happened? We thought we were going to be there for hours. 

Alan Bernstein: Yeah. And while you were there for hours, cause the surgery was quite long. 

Terri Bernstein: Yeah. 

Alan Bernstein: But I had no time to think about surgery. No, thank God. I mean, I had was 

Terri Bernstein: I, I'm glad I didn't have time to sit there and think about it.

Yeah, you were just like, holy 

Alan Bernstein: shit. And about 10 hours later I woke up at 1 45 in the morning. I remember it. And I look around like, you know, and nobody was there. Am I alive? I'm thinking, this is sort of a little spooky. We 

Terri Bernstein: [01:14:00] waited and waited. All we wanted to do was see him. We waited until you came out of surgery and then we went home.

Alan Bernstein: And it's a good thing because I, but I actually felt pretty damn good. You do well on drugs. You feel good on drugs. I was wondering if I was alive, you know, just out of the shock of the whole thing. And the very first person that I met was this nurse, very nice girl.

And she said, Mr. Bernstein, how are you feeling? And I said, I feel fine. And she said, well, you did really well in surgery and I want to be the first one to tell you that they think you're going to do fine. So you know, after that, then in the morning and we met Dr. Dr. 

Terri Bernstein: Lemon, 

Alan Bernstein: Dr. Lemon, amazing.

She was amazing. And if anybody has an opportunity to be. Surgically inclined with Dr. Lemon, do it. , she is a great lady. And we came and saw you in the morning 

Terri Bernstein: and he had already had a bunch of, I mean, he was sitting there [01:15:00] and he was eating, but I did 

Alan Bernstein: have some tubes. I mean, it was and I was alive, I mean, it was, and I don't know that I've ever really looked back.

I was out of the hospital in eight days. It was in eight days. It was like five 

Ben Bernstein: or six. How long do you think you weren't at work through the whole, was it six months? Yeah, it was probably six months, 

Alan Bernstein: because I 

Ben Bernstein: had 

Alan Bernstein: to be in isolation for three months. So I was at an apartment where nobody could come visit me.

You were in 

Ben Bernstein: your bubble. I was in my bubble. Coincidentally, it was the greatest six months BB Riverboats has ever had. 

Speaker 8: Financially, and everybody, 

Ben Bernstein: morale, employee morale was so high. I came back and that went to hell. 

Alan Bernstein: I had a lot of people that were praying for me and Hoping for the best, and all of you that did that, and any of you that want to do it It is greatly appreciated.

He needs prayers every day. I do. And you're doing 

Terri Bernstein: great. I mean, you really [01:16:00] are. All your doctor's appointments that we seem to go to. You're back 

Ben Bernstein: to a complete pain in the ass here on an everyday basis. Yeah, I come every day to work. 

Terri Bernstein: We had knee surgery after that and that was way worse than a liver transplant.

Oh, 

Ben Bernstein: oh. But again, he was out for a few months. Yeah, I was. Very productive months here. I couldn't even walk. It's time to 

Terri Bernstein: work on another limb then. 

Maybe he needs a shoulder. 

Ben Bernstein: All right, Ter, what's the next episode? I think you have something planned. You have something up your sleeve?

Terri Bernstein: No, I think we're gonna get a, a special guest, one of your really good friends and tell a little stories, I guess. Oh, really? 

Ben Bernstein: Like, like stories? Is it like 

Terri Bernstein: story time? Yes. Okay. 

Ben Bernstein: All right Well, thank you for listening. We hope to see you guys next week.

Moderator: Thank you for listening to The Ramblin' on the River podcast presented by BB Riverboats. Stay tuned for the next episode of our podcast and remember to like, [01:17:00] subscribe, and follow us on all your favorite podcast platforms.

Ben Bernstein: The previous episode was brought to you by BB Riverboats. 

Speaker 12: The moments that await just around the river's bend are what we look forward to each day. Watching high school sweethearts tie the knot, or watching them celebrate 50 wonderful years together. A group of old friends reuniting for one more adventure, or young minds embarking on their first.

At BB Riverboats, we believe a cruise on the mighty Ohio is where lifelong memories are made. And that once you experience it, you'll want to share it with others time and time again. Plan your group event at BBRiverboats. com. Journey Aboard.