When I was in elementary school in the late 80s/early 90s, I recall being taken on a field trip to an amusement park. It didn't have roller coasters or carnival games. It didn't have shows or performances. In fact, it didn't even really have anything much to eat or drink or buy.
It was the WOOZ.
WOOZ stood for "Wild and Original Object with Zoom!"
So what the heck was it?
To understand the WOOZ, we first have to go back to the middle of the 1980s in Japan. Around this time, a popular destination for amusement in Japan happened to be lifesized mazes - Large, mostly flat structures where people would pay an entrance fee, and then walk a series of modular outdoor corridors in an attempt to escape a modern-day labyrinth. This turned out to be pretty dang successful over there! By the end of the 80s, Japan saw over the opening of over 100 amusement locations based on the concept of a human-sized, walkable maze.
So, based on this success, in 1987 Sun Creative System announced they were bringing one of their maze attractions to America in Vacaville, California. That became the WOOZ.
While a smashing success in Japan, it turned out that in America, people weren't really all that enthusiastic.
There were a number of issues. In Japan, the maze attractions were largely considered a task of logic and thought, to be enjoyed with a leisurely pace in the company of friends. On the other hand, American audiences saw the mazes more as physical challenges, rather than mental ones. Meaning that this new demographic not only attempted to complete the mazes in record time, but that they'd often cheat to do so - diving under or climbing over walls, running at breakneck pace, and generally trying to spend as little time in the mazes as possible. It didn't help that The WOOZ would give you a card on entering the maze that they would time-stamp, with additional time-stamps being collected at certain 'checkpoints' in the maze. They literally were encouraging participants to get the best times (gotta get those gold WOOZ splits). And when attendees were done with the maze, well... that was it! There wasn't anything more to the WOOZ.
While the company anticipated that walking the maze should take two to three hours, people were completing it in fifteen or so minutes.
The WOOZ had essentially zero other draw. Even for refreshments, only light concessions were available. This led to a lot of upset families - Largely because, for most, Vacaville was a bit of a haul to visit. Imagine packing in the car with the family, driving for three hours, and the experience you planned to enjoy all day is over in twenty minutes. And now there's nothing to do. The multiple, and local, locations in Japan meant that enjoying a walkable maze could be an impulse decision, or a way to pass some time within the proximity of your own locale. The WOOZ, on the other hand, boasted being a destination, and had little to support that.
The physical location of the WOOZ was also problematic: Vacaville, California was not known for its mild climate. The outdoor maze was a summertime destination, and the bright, merciless sun often baked people to the point of exhaustion. This lead people to abandon the maze frequently through fire exits, and generally resulted in a less than enjoyable time.
My recollection of my visit was hazy, but lines up with most popular opinion about the WOOZ. I remember it being interesting to me for its uniqueness - But thin and a bit hollow. Even as a small child, I realized it didn't have a lot of staying power. I also remember it being way too goddamn hot.
Just for a glimpse of the "park" in is heyday, here's a brief video from 1988 that someone generously uploaded to Youtube, documenting their home movie of the trip:
The WOOZ eventually closed down in the early 90s, and remained derelict for roughly eight years. Rumor was that local police complained about the abandoned labyrinth-park, as people fleeing the cops often would duck into the maze to evade pursuit. Which, if true, is absolutely goddamned hilarious. No reports exist as to whether or not any kind of Scooby-Doo-esque situation ever occurred on the abandoned grounds.
By the year 2000, the massive maze-complex was sold to the local fire department, who used it to stage various rescue drills. In a final exercise, the fire department eventually burned the WOOZ to the ground.
Sun Creative System had anticipated that the WOOZ would be a smashing success, and had plans to open 60 WOOZ sites across the entire continental US. After the experience in Vacaville, they quietly decided to rethink that decision. The remaining 59 sites never even broke ground.
If you believe the retrospectives, The WOOZ was destined for failure due to poor construction choices and an awful location. More fundamentally, armchair analysts blame the fickle, hyperactive nature of the American consumer. Whatever the reason, it certainly wasn't a sensational hit.
It sure wasn't a phenomenal experience for me, on my singular visit. But thinking back on it, it was exactly the kind of weird, unique thing that I'm glad is in my memory.
BONUS FOOTAGE: In the event that you are hungry for more WOOZ content, here's a fascinating newsertainment broadcast from the late 1980s that shows the maze close up - And has a competition between three contestants to see who can run the maze the fastest.
Oh yeah, and one of the contestants is Steve Wozniak, for some reason???


