Thursday, February 11, 2010

More Knott's Viewmaster

It's been nearly two months since I posted PART ONE of this series of Knott's Berry Farm Viewmaster; well here's part two! Better late than never.

"Chicken Dinner Restaurant serves Knott's specialty." Unfortunately the specialty is liver! You can tell from that woman's stylish 'do that this is from the sixties.


"Virginia's Gift Shop". "Where should I put this stuff, Virginia?". "Just put it onna floor and quite botherin' me"! I don't mean to be unkind, but that looks like a whole lotta tacky junk.


"Old-timers meet at Ghost Town's Bottle House". The lady is bragging that she personally drained each one of those bottles. Those crazy college days! She owns another house made entirely of old chewing gum.


"'Cordelia Knott' Side-wheeler." Isn't it cute? If I had my own lake, I'd want one of these li'l steam boats. Does anybody know if it really had a steam engine?


"'Wood-imals,' Jungle Island". Remember the day that the radioactive meteorite hit the earth and the Wood-imals came to life?


"Aunt Hattie spins wool on old-time spinning wheel." Hattie is such a tease, wearing her extra-tight bonnet that leaves nothing to the imagination.


"Old Cable Car of San Francisco provides fun rides." Even the proud Indians of the plains want in on the fun. Could that Buffalo Bill lookalike be from the old show at the Horse Arena?


I hope you've enjoyed part two!

12 comments:

  1. You are absolutely hilarious, Major! Thanks for the good laugh this morning.

    You can also see one of the Cable Cars going by outside that window in the Virginia's Gift Shop pic. That would be the window that faces the Cable Car Kitchen...which is now Cinnabon & Pink's Hot Dogs.

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  2. I remember everything except...a cable car?????

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  3. Connie, yeah there's a couple of other pics of the cable cars floatin' around this here blog. Real thing, too. Cute aren't they?

    The surprise to me is Virginia's. Yikes Maj, I think you're right! My gramma might've loved it though, just like you see it. Loads of nick-knacks n stuff. But where was it located? Isn't that the train passing by right behind, and I mean right behind, that window?! Quick secure the nick-knacks.

    It was a big, pretty neat shop when I went in the '80s but wasn't quite as much when I went more recently. That goes for a lot of Knotts though... Chicken Dinner was still very good, gotta give them credit there.

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  4. Nice images. I have been meaning to pick up some Knott's viewmaster Reels and now that I know what I am missing my desire has increased. Nice rare view inside jungle island too! Thanks for the great post!

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  5. Great set of scans Major, nice work too, those slides are so small, you made them look great! I want to have a chicken with those cool 60's people.

    The gift shop looks like the Good-Will thrift shop near my house!

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  6. VDT: ha! So that's when everyone bought all the stuff that clogged thrift shops for decades to come.

    I just wanna have some of dat chicken. Present company would do. :)

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  7. Old Dog7:13 PM

    Love that restaurant shot. Mighty fancy dress. Must be a Sunday. Excellent restoration of those tiny transparencies.

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  8. never ceases to make me laugh, how everyone looks like they just came from church back in the day...

    inside The Bottle House, did the rest of the bottles just stick out from the cement (or whatever held them together) or was there a wall covering them in there? and what was inside anyway? was it a restaurant, gift shop, something to show a craft of the day, like they have in Williamsburg and such?

    love those Wood-imals...is that part of the park still there??

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  9. Major - There wasn't a steam engine on the Cordelia K. side wheeler. Imagine sitting inches away from the boiler!

    Nancy - The bottles are apparent from both sides of the wall of the Bottle House. Inside and out. And sadly, Jungle Island is long gone from Knott's - but there's still a few woodimals roaming about the land... :)

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  10. These are quite awesome, great collection, and I love the wood-imals (heard of them but never saw in person with my own eyes. The Chicken Dinner restaurant photo is gloriously cheesy to boot, love it. Thanks!

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  11. As I have mentioned before, some of the volunteers at the Poway-Midland Railroad are restoring SF/Knott's Cable Car #17. I'm on the operations side (steam locomotive) so I only notice the progress as we get ready for a day's run.

    I'm always happy to see postcards and photos of these cars from Knott's to pass along the the Cable Car restoration team.

    James Keeline

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  12. James, I think I have another photo or two of the Cable Cars in my collection... they'll appear on this blog one of these days!

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