Monty RobertsThe Life Archive

Chapter Six · Anheuser-Busch · 1970s

Busch Entertainment

Anheuser-Busch recruited Monty during a period of rapid expansion. Rather than simply marketing beer, the company was creating destinations.

A man in a tuxedo holding a child beside a hot-air balloon basket draped with a Busch Gardens banner, surrounded by children and adults at an evening event.
A Busch Gardens balloon event, from the Roberts family archive. Family records identify the man in the tuxedo as Monty.

By the 1970s, Anheuser-Busch had ambitions well beyond the brewery. Busch Gardens was becoming one of America's premier theme park experiences, and the company needed creative marketers who could think like showmen.

Monty helped develop creative concepts and marketing for Busch Gardens, including work associated with the Tampa "Dark Continent" theme and the Williamsburg expansion.

Family accounts also credit him with contributing ideas surrounding attractions such as the Loch Ness Monster roller coaster — the Williamsburg icon whose interlocking loops became one of the most recognizable silhouettes in American theme park history.