From Vaudeville Star to Amusement Park Tycoon: The Unusual Life of Bobbejaan Schoepen

Music · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Bobbejaan Schoepen was a Belgian entertainer who rose from a working-class smithy to become one of the country's wealthiest individuals. A pioneer in pop and country music, he eventually traded his international touring career for the grueling, daily management of Bobbejaanland, an amusement park he built from the ground up.

Born in 1925, Modest Schoepen began his career in the late 1930s performing vaudeville with his sister. His life took a dramatic turn during the war; after a 1944 performance in Brussels where he sang an anti-German song, he was imprisoned for three months. Following the war, he adopted the name Bobbejaan and toured extensively, even entertaining troops during the Nuremberg Trials. By the 1950s, he was an international vedette, performing alongside stars like Josephine Baker and becoming one of the first Europeans to appear at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.

Schoepen’s transition from artist to entrepreneur was born of exhaustion. After a decade of constant touring, he sought a place to settle. In 1959, he purchased a marshy domain in Lichtaart-Kasterlee, which he transformed into Bobbejaanland. Officially opened on 31 December 1961, the park became his life's work. He managed the business with his wife Josée and sister-in-law Louise, working sixteen hours a day, seven days a week to support a staff of four hundred. The park’s success eventually overshadowed his music, turning his performances into rare, utilitarian acts adapted to the specific nationalities of visiting bus tours.

Despite his commercial focus, Schoepen’s artistic legacy remained significant. He sold over five million records and wrote enduring hits like 'De lichtjes van de Schelde'. Even after selling Bobbejaanland to Parques Reunidos in 2004, he returned to music. In 2008, he released his first album in 35 years, recorded in his own living room. By the time of his death in 2010, he had been inducted into the Whistler's Hall of Fame and honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award, cementing his status as a singular figure in Belgian cultural history.

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