Science Fiction Land was the brainchild of a Hollywood stuntman named Jerry Schafer, who showed up in Aurora in 1979 with a plan for an amusement park three times the size of Disneyland. It was to feature a 38-story Ferris wheel, a holographic zoo, a 1,000-lane bowling alley attended by robots, security guards equipped with jetpacks, and the "Pavilions of Joy," made up of fourteen Las Vegas-style dinner theaters. The park, Schafer said, would also serve as the set of a $50 million sci-fi flick called Lord of Light, which was to be the most expensive movie ever... But it turned out to be a scam. Schafer never had a $400 million line of credit. A December 9, 1979 Rocky story revealed that he'd declared bankruptcy in 1978... On December 14, 1979, the Rocky reported that Schafer had been arrested for securities fraud. Local authorities claimed that he and Barry Geller, Geller had "convinced an immigrant who speaks only broken English to give them his life savings — $50,000 — to help finance the park," the Rocky reported. An arrest warrant had been issued for Geller too, but he'd "left the country."

KUSA