Celebrities are nothing new to Mall of America, they’ve been a part of our story since the day we opened. During this short take a 25-year veteran ride operator Frank Gold speaks with Chris Grap and Brian Spielman from Mall of America and Nickelodeon Universe. Frank shares the story of when he met Donny Osmond and called him out over a P.A. system on the carousel! Safety first, Frank. Safety first.
To hear the entire conversation, check out So Much More Ep. 65: Frank Gold, Roller Coaster Enthusiast Shares the Thrills.
[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00]: A lot of guests, I'm sure a lot of your friends from...
[00:00:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I might as well tell you about a celebrity that I had on my ride.
[00:00:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Might as well!
[00:00:06] [SPEAKER_00]: It's not training me at Orange Streak, so let's move on to celebrity encounters.
[00:00:10] [SPEAKER_01]: This was very memorable to me.
[00:00:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[00:00:13] [SPEAKER_01]: And it's gonna make you laugh from what I did because the celebrity was Donny Osmond.
[00:00:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Donny Osmond was here at Mystic Lake performing. He came to the park beforehand, one of his
[00:00:26] [SPEAKER_01]: sons. He just got through riding Orange Streak Peggy, who should be at the...
[00:00:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh yeah.
[00:00:31] [SPEAKER_01]: She was the one that called me and I answered the phone. I said, this is Carousel Frank here.
[00:00:36] [SPEAKER_01]: It says, guess who we just had on my ride? I had Donny Osmond on my ride. And I said, yeah,
[00:00:41] [SPEAKER_01]: I see him in my queue line right now. And it wasn't not a very busy day. I start scanning
[00:00:48] [SPEAKER_01]: him in. Okay, no problem. You're gonna ride with your son because the son needed a chaperone.
[00:00:54] [SPEAKER_01]: He said, remember, you stand next to him. He's on the figure.
[00:00:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Safety first, man. I don't care if you're Donny Osmond or not. You're getting the rules.
[00:01:01] [SPEAKER_00]: I love it.
[00:01:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay. So everything was fine. Went around, checked the ride. Everything was still good.
[00:01:07] [SPEAKER_01]: When I started the ride, Donny started misbehaving.
[00:01:11] [SPEAKER_01]: See?
[00:01:12] [SPEAKER_01]: And I had to call him out on that.
[00:01:15] [SPEAKER_01]: Normally you're not supposed...
[00:01:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Over the microphone. You did your spiel.
[00:01:18] [SPEAKER_01]: Normally you're not supposed to do that, but I had to.
[00:01:21] [SPEAKER_01]: He took his child off the figure and holding him. First time...
[00:01:25] [SPEAKER_00]: So now he's surfing on the carousel, basically. Not riding a figure.
[00:01:29] [SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[00:01:29] [SPEAKER_01]: So the first couple of times it goes around, I don't say anything. The third time I said,
[00:01:34] [SPEAKER_01]: okay. I said, without going on the microphone, I said, could you put your child back on the
[00:01:38] [SPEAKER_01]: figure? Still would not do it. Okay. Two more times, he's still holding him. I go on the microphone
[00:01:45] [SPEAKER_01]: and I pan him out. I say, could you please put your child back on the figure, Mr. Donny Osmond?
[00:01:55] [SPEAKER_01]: He heard that.
[00:01:56] [SPEAKER_01]: He heard that. And then you put it back on, but the ride was almost done anyway.
[00:02:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Oh yeah. He didn't want to make the front news, right? The front page of the paper.
[00:02:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Rule breaker, Donny Osmond.
[00:02:06] [SPEAKER_01]: I opened the gate and I go around and sweep the ride. Well, I beat him around to the exit gate
[00:02:12] [SPEAKER_01]: and I said, what'd you think of the ride? You know what he said? I really enjoyed your ride, Mr. Frank.
[00:02:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Perfect. He had your name tag, now he dimed you out, huh?
[00:02:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[00:02:25] [SPEAKER_00]: That's awesome.
[00:02:26] [SPEAKER_00]: That's awesome.