Catalog selling Donley's Wild West Town for $7 million

The always quirky Hammacher Schlemmer catalog offers a remote-controlled flying shark balloon for $39.95, a battery-powered miniature boat that catches actual fish for $69.95 and the Donley's Wild West Town amusement park in Union (live actors not included) for $7 million.

How did the iconic family amusement park end up on Page 6 of that catalog, alongside the world's smallest quadcopter, boxing robots and cordless, lighted ornaments?

"We'd like to sell, and that's about it," says Larry Donley, 86, who started developing Wild West Town with his wife, Helene, in 1974, and made it his passion. "It needs some young blood with some get-up and go."

The Donleys make it clear they'd like to sell to someone (maybe a charity that works with children) who will keep the park running. But if the park doesn't sell, the Donleys will make sure Wild West Town will remain open and provide another summer of family entertainment.

"We'd like to sell it as a park, because people really enjoy it," says

Helene Donley, who will celebrate her 82nd birthday later this month. "We have the nicest families, and they come from all over."

The park still makes money, and a new owner might even want to reopen the restaurant and expand.

"Honestly, it's just like the fun from long ago. It's one of the last places where little kids can be little kids," says Larry Donley, who remembers making his own toys growing up as one of eight kids in Berwyn. "I had a lot of kid in me. I still do."

Hammacher Schlemmer is selling antique Thomas Edison ticker tape stock machines owned and refurbished by Donley Auctions, the family business headed by the Donley's 62-year-old son, Randy. That led to the unique agreement to offer the park in the catalog.

"I would say this is a one-of-a-kind deal," says John Pinto, a buyer for Hammacher Schlemmer who set up the deal.

Pinto says the

amusement park fits nicely with the catalog's long tradition of including a few offbeat items that help the company maintain its image of "offering the best, the only and the unexpected for 168 years." This year's holiday catalog also includes an old-fashioned electric tricycle that seats five children, looks as if it were designed by Jules Verne and sells for $12,000.

"We sold one yesterday," Pinto says of the high-end bike.

Last year, the catalog offered a $7,000 old-fashioned coin-operated kiddie ride similar to ones that used to be popular outside stores, and sold a dozen. In recent years, the company has sold an actual black London taxi cab for $40,000 and a personal submarine that looked like a killer whale for $98,000.

"There is a method to our madness," Pinto says.

The Wild West Town catalog entry, which asks people to call (800) 227-3528 for details, has attracted only one serious inquiry, Pinto says. But he expects more.

The Donleys moved to Union because Larry Donley needed more space to store his growing

collection of antique toys and other unusual items. Owner of a successful service station, the mechanic sometimes bartered with customers. He also picked up stuff people threw away.

"The only way I lost a customer was if they died or moved away," he says. But he sold the business and moved all of his collections to Union.

"I can remember as a kid having no toys," Larry Donley says, explaining how, as an adult, he assembled a collection of more than 100 toy cap guns, other toys and antiques. "I'm still looking for one little red airplane that looked like it had bat wings."

Finally getting a cap gun as a boy, he realized the gun was made from two mirror pieces.

"I remember taking the gun apart so I'd have two guns. And I made myself a pair of holsters out of old socks,"

Larry Donley says, before smiling sheepishly and admitting, "I don't even know that they were old socks."

When the Donleys moved to the empty farm land in Union, he immediately visualized the amusement park.

"I took a stick and drew a line and said I wanted to build a Wild West Town," he says. The first newspaper piece about the amusement park was in the Berwyn Life, written by then-reporter and future-politician Judy Baar Topinka.

Helene Donley hires the staff and keeps the books. The shows changed from historic gunbattles to more kid-friendly comedies, and several of the cowboy actors have gone on to become world champion gun-spinners and stuntmen. Elder son, Michael, 64, helps with the business. The Donleys' granddaughter, Shawnah, 28, is a real estate broker but still does stunt work for some of the TV shows filmed in Chicago. Larry Donley keeps all the buildings and

equipment in shape, and for a bit took on the acting role of a cowboy who went by the name of "Rattlesnake."

He bought the locomotive and spent a year rehabbing it in his garage.

"It's not that I don't have the desire. I still get up with a lot of ambition," Larry Donley says. "This is my life. I like to get up in the morning with the thought of what I have to do."

If the town doesn't sell, he and his wife will make sure it's ready for this coming summer. And if it does sell?

"I can't tell them what to do," Larry Donley says of the potential new owners. "But I hope to hell they'll give me a job around here."