Before he started his own production company, before he became vice president of entertainment for SeaWorld and long before he dreamed of bringing a theme park to Myrtle Beach, Jon Binkowski was a penguin.

At age 15, Binkowski got a job at SeaWorld in San Diego to stroll the grounds all summer, sweating inside his towering Pete the Penguin costume and greeting hoards of Mexican schoolchildren.

When he wasn't busy being Pete the Penguin, he sometimes sweltered inside jovial Wally the Walrus.

Now, the 45-year-old Orlando, Fla., entertainment producer is leading a group of investors who want to build a theme park in Myrtle Beach.

Back in his animal character days, Binkowski got his introduction to the magical world of theme parks, where, 13 years later, he retired as SeaWorld's vice president of entertainment. "I sort of worked my way up the food chain to become a high-ranking executive at SeaWorld," Binkowski said.

Binkowski credits perfect timing for his rapid promotion from sidewalk entertainer to corporate executive.

"I was lucky because, particularly in the 1980s, the theme park industry was just going gangbusters," Binkowski said. "So I was in the right place at the right time."

The Myrtle Beach market

Binkowski now owns Orlando-based entertainment production company Renaissance Entertainment, which produced several shows for the Ice Castle Theatre at Fantasy Harbour from 1999-2002.

"I got involved in 1999 in Myrtle Beach when opportunities arose at Fantasy Harbour because things were not doing so well there," Binkowski said. "I felt, as did other investors there, that its time had not come yet. We came out with some productions basically to show good faith to Myrtle Beach and to our local landowners that I'm not going anywhere; I'm serious about being here. It's difficult to come into a community if you have not lived and breathed it."

According to Binkowski, the Myrtle Beach shows "Halloween On Ice," which starred Olympic skater Nancy Kerrigan, and "Christmas On Ice" were successful.

After Kerrigan fulfilled her contract and left to pursue other commitments, Binkowski leased his theaters to other companies, and subsequent shows failed.

"There was overbuilding of theaters," Binkowski said. "Pigeon Forge, [Tenn.], experienced the same thing at the same time."

Binkowski still owns Ice Castle Theatre and Cercle Theatre and, along with other partners, recently submitted plans for 150 acres of land at Fantasy Harbour to be zoned for a future theme park.

Binkowski said he has dreamed of the theme park for at least two years.

"It just makes sense to me that Myrtle Beach is destined to have one," Binkowski said. "It's really the last legitimate opportunity to do a regional-sized theme park. All the major cities have them now, and all the destinations, like the Smoky Mountains, have one."

Some analysts, however, have raised questions about its viability.

Obstacles include the seasonal nature of the local tourist business, the relatively small year-round population and the lagging national economy. "Those are three huge barriers right now you would have to overcome," Mark Bonne, professor at Florida State University's Dedman School of Hospitality, has said.

A theme park childhood

Binkowski's interests in Myrtle Beach brings him far from his roots in San Diego and his ground-floor entrance into the theme park industry.

"SeaWorld opened in the 1960s, and I was a little kid," Binkowski said. "All my older brothers and sisters went to work there as busboys and food servers. It was the summer job to do - the whole family did it."

Binkowski refers to himself as "child five, boy three," because he is the fifth of nine children. The son of a Navy chief petty officer, Binkowski was born in Norfolk, Va., and named after an uncle who went down in a submarine during World War II.

Although his family moved a few times, Binkowski spent most of his youth in San Diego, where he nearly completed a bachelor's degree in speech and communications with the idea of becoming a TV news anchor.

"Then I was offered a job full time with SeaWorld," Binkowski said. "I veered off, and the rest is history."

Binkowski became an announcer for a lagoon show at SeaWorld called "The Brainy Bunch," which featured a game played between dolphins and the audience.

During the show, Binkowski told jokes and asked questions, such as "Where do you get chocolate fish?" The answer: "Cocoa Beach."

Binkowski said he jumped at the job.

"Because I had no talent myself," Binkowski said. "I would always talk to my friends who could draw or write or do music to put a presentation together. That's what I think a true producer is, someone who can recognize good talent and pull a team together and guide them in the right direction."

Building a career

SeaWorld was rapidly building parks at the time, and Binkowski was transferred to parks across the country, from California to Ohio and finally to Florida.

"As I bounced, I got promoted," Binkowski said.

Ken McCabe, Binkowski's former partner at Renaissance Entertainment and now corporate director of entertainment for Dixie Stampede, worked for years with Binkowski at SeaWorld.

"You might say we both kind of grew up in the theme park industry," McCabe said. "He's extremely creative and not easily dissuaded, very tenacious. He's just a superpositive person, also very good with people. He's been a very good leader. We still work together whenever it makes sense, and we're friends."

While at SeaWorld in Orlando, Binkowski started an informal group called the Second Stage Creative Concept Unit.

"We were all nerds, and we had no life, no girlfriends or anything," he said. "All we did was go home and try to think of things for SeaWorld to do."

Binkowski was eventually paired with two experienced producers to form a corporate entertainment department at SeaWorld.

"I had absolutely no track record," Binkowski said. "These other gentleman had degrees in theater, production credits in TV, and I was just Wally the Walrus. I was the leader of the nerds."

The job of the entertainment department was to create the attraction mix for SeaWorld properties.

Between 1981-85, it produced more than 30 shows and attractions for SeaWorld, including the Penguin Encounter and the Shamu shows.

As SeaWorld started purchasing other parks, the group got involved with laser and fireworks shows and robotic presentations.

"I got my fingers into just about everything," Binkowski said. "I got a chance to work with some of the best in the business."

Jim Timon, vice president of entertainment for SeaWorld in Orlando, met Binkowski about 20 years ago, when both were working as show producers for SeaWorld.

"He's got an astounding work ethic," Timon said. "I rarely see people in this business who are more passionate about their work than Jon. He eats, sleeps, breathes it. He's one of these people who's always thinking of the next thing, what's bigger, what's better."

The next thing that excited Binkowski was the theme park industry's migration overseas and the development of theme parks in Europe and Asia.

"I wanted to be a part of it," Binkowski said. "I retired to pursue developing attractions. When I retired, I was an old man of 31."

Binkowski formed Renaissance Entertainment with McCabe and later purchased McCabe's interest in the company.

One of the company's first projects was to create entertainment for Dixie Stampede.

"We were the guys who brought the pig races and the chicken chases and the musical numbers," Binkowski said. "We work with a number of different talents. We'll hire the composer, the costume designer, the special-effects company. Between my experience with SeaWorld and Renaissance, I have a pretty good feel for the entertainment industry."