Castle Dracula, Wildwood NJ: Sounds

Outside Music	Like Brigantine Castle, Castle Dracula used a rendition of Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" on the outside of the castle. Only the first 3 minutes of the song were used and it would continuously loop on an 8 track cart. According to Scott Hand, a Wildwood resident and dark ride enthusiast, the exact version of the song can be heard in the 1975 movie, "Rollerball." We would like to thank Robert K. for sending us this 1998 recording from outside the castle.
Robotic Dracula	This is the holy grail of Castle Dracula sounds. For those that had the opportunity to visit castle Dracula in the 70s, you probably remember the mechanical Dracula that would roll out of the double doors (see picture above) outside the castle and recite a chilling speech about the horrors inside the castle. The mechanical Dracula would move his arms and head as he talked. We only had the opportunity to see this stunt in operation a few times before it ceased to operate, but we remember it as being very effective. After the robotic Dracula became in-operational, it would occasionally be pushed outside as a static prop. In the final years of the castle, it remained inside the glass doors and fell into complete disrepair. The Nickels decided that it was too expensive to repair or replace. We managed to purchase a copy of the Dracula soundtrack from Creative Engineering in Orlando Florida, which is the company that built Drac in 1976. The company is still in the animatronics business. We would like to thank Darryl Heine for leading us to Creative Engineering, and Aaron Fechter for making this track available to us.
Front Room	One of the most memorable rooms from inside the castle was the large front room. In this room, you would be directed to look into the fireplace as the lights would dim and a speech about the castle would be recited along with loud sound effects. As the speech abruptly ends, the lights would come on and Dracula, or a castle denizen, would jump from the picture above the mantel and startle the patrons. The front room speech would change slightly from year to year, but it always had the same basic theme. The following recording of the front room speech came from a 1995 visit to the castle. We would like to thank Robert K. for providing us with this recording.
Head on Plate	Very few people, including ourselves, remember this animatronic prop in Castle Dracula because it was removed after only a couple of seasons. According to former castle manager Anita Wheeler, this talking head prop was part of a dinner scene located after the lab and before the bridge. Creative Engineering, the same company that built the robotic Dracula, made this prop and its accompanying soundtrack. We would like to thank Aaron Fechter from Creative Engineering for making this track available to us.
Shamron	Shamron was the large demon which looked down on you as you would exit the dungeon boat ride (see picture below). Creative Engineering produced a sound track for this prop which was used during the early years of the castle. We would like to thank Aaron Fechter from Creative Engineering for making this track available to us.