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Confederate critter show
MW7

1979 Brochure of Magic World with the Confederate Critter Show.

The Confederate Critter Show is an early animatronic band created by Aaron Fechter in 1977 for Jim Sidwell Sr. owner of Magic World Kids Park in Pigeon Forge TN. The band was a one-stage show, designed to look like the inside of a giant tree stump. The band consisted of three characters: Major Mosby Greyhound III (on piano), General Cornelius Bearpatch (on guitar), and Colonel Stonewall J. Fox (on banjo) all these characters were dressed as Confederate soldiers.

It is also noted that Colonel Stonewall J. Fox was an early version of Rolfe DeWolfe of The Rock-Afire Explosion.

Stonewall J. Fox, and Major Mosby were voiced by John Cederberg.

Originally the show was created when Jim Sidwell Sr. attended the 1976 IAAPA expo in Orlando and saw Aaron’s company’s creations, and had asked Aaron if he could build a full bear character which became known as “friendly Freddy” who performed solo on stage at the park for one season before he was sent back to CEI to later become retrofitted into “Cornelius Bearpatch”, and the other additional two characters were installed along with the new bearpatch the coming year.

The show also featured live cast member portraying a Union Officer named “Ulysses S. Smith” who would perform alongside the show, often conversing with Character, would bring around a bottle of moonshine for the audience to smell, and sobbing during Mosby’s number about lost love.

The show invites entirety was sold at auction with Magic World’s closing in 1996, and was sold by Sonny Thrower (Magic World GM) to Charles Moore, the owner of a business named “Celebrity Golf”. The characters were put on display after being retrofitted into bears, but were in such bad shape at that time that the show was destroyed indefinitely with Celebrity Golf’s closure in 1997. Which later on turned into what’s now Ripley’s Haunted Attractions.

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