This is part of an ongoing series of interviews with the people who make the horror/haunted house business work. We have been explaining haunted houses, the music that goes into them and what makes them tick. This week we talk to Baron Von Goolo of Baron Von Goolo’s Museum of Horrors and Food Court of the Damned in Portland, Oregon.
Q: Why did you first become interested in the Haunted House/Horror Business?
Baron Von Goolo: When I was a wee piggy, I would join my father in the warehouse of his import business where I would entertain myself by poking the Fiji Mermen with sticks. After the untimely flaying accident that resulted in my inheriting my parents’ not inconsiderable wealth, I devoted my life to the collecting, wrangling, hunting and gathering of crypto-zoological and supernatural oddities and entities now on display in my Museum of Horrors.
What previous jobs have you had?
I did dabble in a few odd jobs after college, just to get the wanderlust out of my system. The days I spent milking rattlesnake venom in the American Southwest were magical, though extremely challenging since those wiggly fellows have such small nipples. Excellent dental plan, though.
But overall, my path was clear to me even as a child and I always knew that I would follow in my father’s footsteps. Just not into the flayer.
How long have you been in the business?
I first went public in 2002 with Baron Von Goolo’s Museum of Horrors and Petting Zoo of the Unsettling. In 2003, I followed that up with Baron Von Goolo’s Museum of Horrors and Freakshow of Freakish Freaks, and in 2004 my cadaverous crew and I unveiled Baron Von Goolo’s Museum of Horrors and School for Wayward Girls.
Having just collected a pod of inbred cannibal mutant zombies it only seemed natural to open Baron Von Goolo’s Museum of Horrors and 8-Piece Bucket of Doom in 2005. (That was also the year we joined FrightTown, the greatest haunted attraction in the whole Pacific Northwest, thank you very much.) And this year we are diversifying into the service industry with Baron Von Goolo’s Museum of Horrors and Food Court of The Damned. That’s some tasty business.
How did you start?
I discovered that people would pay me for doing what I loved. It’s like going into porn only I never wake up sore and sticky.
Article comments
1 - diana hartman
I am pleased to tell you this article is being featured in the Culture Focus today, October 10th.
Diana Hartman
Culture Editor