Thursday, March 26, 2020

Knott's Berry Place Pitchur Gallery

I'm a big fan of souvenir photos from Knott's Berry Farm's "Pitchur Gallery" - this was a room with a lot of different painted backdrops depicting various humorous situations. Just add your own heads! Dancing, sitting in a conestoga wagon, taming a bucking bronco... the possibilities were endless. I used to wonder if they ever updated the scenes, but recently found two weird examples from the 70's, so the answer is "yes". It's always fun to find a pitchur of a tableau that I've never seen before.

First up is this scene from yesteryear; a nervous suitor is in the middle of proposing to his demure lady friend. She looks like she's got a bit of mischief in her! Note that he is wearing his U.S. Navy cap. I wonder if he was just back from serving in WWII? Or maybe he was on furlough?


Some of my favorite Knott's items are from the pre-1946 years, when the farm was called "Knott's Berry Place". 


Here's the same couple, completely turning things on their head, like some sort of crazy French farce! She's got her head on the man's body, and he put his head on the woman's. I approve of their silly shenanigans.


Stay tuned for more fun photos from Knott's' Pitchur Gallery!

27 comments:

"Lou and Sue" said...

Since they only keep negatives for 30 days, I guess it’s too late to order more copies of these pictures - darn! I wonder whatever happened to this fun couple??

Thanks, Major!

K. Martinez said...

The last Pitchur Gallery photo is great! I see these on eBay all the time. Someday, I'll have to buy a few. Thanks, Major.

TokyoMagic! said...

Yay, more Knott's stuff! These are both such great photos. Yeah, whatever happened to the couple and/or their family? Nobody wanted to keep these pics of "grandma and grandpa" or "aunt and uncle so-and-so"?

And once again, we have another example of someone wearing "hostess pants" (first pic).

stu29573 said...

These seem to work much better than most "stick your head in a hole" scenes! Of course it helps that this fun loving couple knew how to ham it up! I wouldn't mind hanging out with them, but I'd probably just be a third wheel...or fifth wheel...or whatever the expression is...

JC Shannon said...

We have several old timey photo places here in Montana. What can I say, we are a fun bunch. I wanted to be a cowboy as a lad, and always fancied myself as town marshal. Maybe someday I'll have my pitchur took. It's a well known fact that the Major looks good in heels, he could be my saloon girl. Great stuff as usual, thanks Major.

Andrew said...

An entire attraction solely based on plywood cutout photo-ops is pretty great, although I get that some tableaux were more elaborate. This kind of simple thing characterizes early Knott's, I guess. Is the Pitchur Gallery more of a modern old-time photo place today? Hooray for non-Disneyland stuff not on a Saturday. I was reading a whole week from years ago that was completely Disneyland-free, and the comments of the readers were acting pretty pained - in a humorous way. Thanks for these!

Melissa said...

Stu, yes, at first I didn't realize that first picture was a stick-your-head-through.

Melissa said...

JC, you brought back a memory. One summer I went to the old-timey photo booth at Darien Lake by myself, and then the following summer my whole family went. I scanned both pictures, and photoshopped the extra old-fashioned me into the family group picture. Both originals have been lost since then, and the only one we have left is the group with two Melissas. Oddly, because of the lighting, one Melissa has significantly lighter skin than the other.

MIKE COZART said...

Everyone kinda gives a “friendly laugh” about these Early Knott’s Stick-your-head-through-a hole” souvenir photo attraction..... but remember DISNEYLAND featured their own versions of these novelty photo scenes up till New Tomorrowland 1967! At first these kinds of things were set up outside in areas lacking attractions and landscaping . Between the Red Wagon and the end of Main Street there were stick your head through flats featuring The Mouseketeer’s , Davy Crockett etc.
in Tomorrowland were more elaborate ones like the famous Matterhorn Climbers scene or you could be in the rear car of the Monorail , in the wheelhouse of the Mark Twain , in the sub voyage porthole or the mermaid in the water .... there was the Jungle Cruise boat skipper or the giant pot on the fire being cooked by jungle cruise canabals.....or being the conductor on a Main St. Horsecar...... and there were many more. Like Knott’s if there were not enough live guests to fill the holes, a hinged panel “filled” in the space with a painted character .

A few years ago for a fiend’s birthday we did the current photo parlor shoot at Knott’s. All of us ( all guys) decided to dress as saloon girls while the birthday boy was a cowboy. We were the UGLIEST saloon girls ever!! The employees loved the picture and asked permission to use a copy in their sample room. It was in there up until recently.

Melissa said...

I don't know if they're still there, but as recently as a few years ago there were two stick-your-head-throughs near the entrance of Disney's Animal Kingdom - one with Balinese dancers and one with jungle explorers.

Nanook said...

Major-
Such an incredibly-simple idea, but still so much fun.


@ TM!-
Yes - but are they smart hostess pants-??

"Lou and Sue" said...

Melissa and Mike - I would love to see your photos that you mentioned! Please scan and send them to Major to post, if possible. :)

And, JC Shannon, I think you SHOULD get your picture taken and have Major post it here. That would be fun! (We can always photo-shop Major in, later, with or without heels.)

Melissa said...

Sue, I can't seem to find the Darien Lake picture, but my Animal Kingdom picture is here.

"Lou and Sue" said...

Melissa - thank you! How fun!!

TokyoMagic! said...

Nanook, well...he does wear them when he gives smart dinner parties!

Melissa, that's such a great picture! Thanks for sharing it with us!

Major Pepperidge said...

Lou and Sue, I was once contacted by a woman who said that her grandfather (or some such relative) ran the Pitchur Gallery, and that he had tons of amazing photos. I replied back to her that I would love to see some of these photos, and she never answered. Boo.

K. Martinez, yeah, these are a lot of fun, and you can usually get them for not very much dough. The real challenge is to find examples that you don’t already have.

TokyoMagic!, I wondered the same thing, why didn’t this couple’s family want these anymore? Maybe they kept hundreds of other photos but didn’t want these silly pix? What are “hostess pants”??

stu29573, don’t sell yourself short, you’d be the sixth wheel! ;-)

Jonathan, I am more of a platform person myself!

Andrew, this is the kind of thing that made Knott’s so appealing; the low-tech charm. These kinds of photos date back to the early 1900’s (people sitting on a paper moon, or in the basket of a hot air balloon), maybe even before that. I don’t think there’s a Pitchur Gallery anymore…

Melissa, NOW YOU KNOW!

Melissa, I would love to see that photo, maybe you can scan it and share it with us?

Mike Cozart, yes, I’ve seen those Disneyland examples, and Patrick J. has some photos of “fun photo” locations that I have never seen anywhere else. I remember he had one with Uncle Scrooge, which is pretty incredible. Wasn’t there a “Fun Photo” location on Main Street as well? Not sure where, exactly - maybe the Opera House before Mr. Lincoln moved in? Once in a while I’ll see a scan of a scene that is new to me, I’ve saved a bunch on my computer. And I see by your comment that there IS still a photo parlor… where is it located? You need to send us a scan of that picture, I’ll post it with Melissa’s!

Melissa, I’ll have to look for images of those fun photos from Animal Kingdom, I hope they’re well done.

Nanook, I agree, and there are lots of other fun simple ideas that they’ve done over the years that would probably still please guests, I don’t know why they don’t do them again.

Lou and Sue, ha ha, I’ve already put in my request! EVERYONE should send me all of their photos. ALL of them.

Melissa, oh cool! Plus now I can be lazy and don’t have to look online.

Lou and Sue, it IS fun!

TokyoMagic!, ever feel like you have no idea what anyone is talking about? Because that’s how I feel.

Nanook said...

Oh, Major-

The 'hostess pants' reference is a recurring one - and as you can [should] imagine, it refers to an episode of - wait for it: I Love Lucy. Specifically Ethel's Birthday, #106. In it, Lucy "helps" Fred pick out a present that 'Ethel will like' - only to have it be these over-the-top, diamond-patterned "... hostess pants... you wear them when you give smart dinner parties." It's It's merely TM's way of making ILL references without you ever knowing it. I guess the cat's out of the bag now - as if it wasn't already.

TokyoMagic! said...

Thanks a lot, Nanook! Now the Major is going to hate me....just as much as he hates I.L.L. Still, I think Ethel would have looked better wearing a toaster, than she would those checkerboard britches!

Major, just last November, I took a couple pics in the Pitchur Gallery at Knott's. I even took some pics of the sample pics they have on the walls/shelves. Unfortunately, I did not take a pic of the photo with Mike Cozart and his friends in it. I'll send you what I have in case you want to add them to this post and if not, maybe you would have a use for them in a future post. Oh, and they no longer have painted plywood scenes like these. They only have three dimensional sets, like the bucking bronco (which they have had for decades) and a bar scene, and a wooden staircase to pose on.

Chuck said...

My wife and I had photos done here back in '95. I only remember three-dimensional sets. We also bought the negative, but durned if I can find it. The print is on display in our bedroom, however. I've always had mixed feelings about it - it didn't come out like we thought it would. But we had a nice, long talk about old-time photography with the photographer (it was a slow might in October).

Sunday Night said...

Brings back a memory of stopping at Pea Soup Anderson's restaurant in Buellton where you can take your pitchur pretending to be Hap-pea and Pea-wee. Looking at Google pictures, the cutout appears to still be there.

TokyoMagic! said...

Sunday Night, you just reminded me that Knott's had some of those painted plywood photo-ops, just a few years ago. There was one outside of "Pink's," when Pink's Hot Dogs had a location within the Knott's Marketplace. The plywood set-up was painted to look like a group or family of hot dogs.....with faces, of course. And several years ago, they also had multiple set-ups like that inside the park, just for a special springtime event. It might have been the very first year of the Boysenberry Festival. Or it could have even been before that, when their spring event was called, "Berry Bloom."

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, I guess I should have known. that this was yet another I Love Lucy reference. It’s so strange to dislike a show that nearly everyone else in the world likes! As I’ve said, this goes back to when I was a kid, I just had a negative feeling about it.

TokyoMagic!, do you really love that show that much, or do you just love torturing me? ;-) Thank you for the photos from the Pitchur Gallery, I replied to you via email already, but for those reading, I will share TM’s photos at a future date.

Chuck, what was the scene that you and your wife were in? Funny how the photographer was so chatty, I’d imagine it could get pretty quiet when the park wasn’t busy. Why don’t you like the way it turned out?

Sunday Night, yes, I have a photo (or two?) of the cutouts at Pea Soup Anderson’s! Love that, it’s been around for at least 50 years.

TokyoMagic!, I’m surprised you didn’t take pictures of the Pink’s Hot Dogs photo location. I sure don’t recall ever seeing them, or even seeing pictures of them, but that’s not saying much considering that there were whole decades where I didn’t go to Knott’s.

TokyoMagic! said...

Major, I grew up watching reruns of "I Love Lucy," when I was a kid. To this day, it is one of my all-time favorite TV shows. However, I was not much of a fan of Lucille Ball's, in any of the other TV shows that she did. For me, they are pretty much unwatchable, so I can understand if you just didn't care for "I Love Lucy."

I'm glad that you can use the "Pitchur Gallery" photos in the future! And of course, I took pics of the Pink's plywood photo-op, AND the other photo-ops used at that Knott's springtime event! One of those had Crafty Coyote on it, from Knott's Bear-y Tales. And this was about 30 years after that attraction had closed! I will look for all of those and send them your way. I just have to do a little bit of searching for them. I knew right where those Pitchur Gallery pics were located, because I had just taken them in November.

"Lou and Sue" said...

TM! I feel the same way about "I Love Lucy," and her other shows. As a kid, I would watch "I Love Lucy" with my mom, and we'd laugh and laugh together . . . wonderful memories! I could watch the episode where she's at the Brown Derby with Bill Holden - over and over and over - that's my favorite. But Lucy's other TV shows ("Here's Lucy," etc.) WERE NOT enjoyable to watch, for me either.

Major, I do think that TM! loves torturing you - MORE than he loves "I Love Lucy." I can picture him grinning from ear to ear as he types away on his computer, trying to get under your skin.

TokyoMagic! said...

Oh Sue, that's not true! I don't enjoy torturing the Major! It's just that "I Love Lucy" is SO ingrained into my brain, that so many things remind me of a particular episode, scene, or line! Actually, I conduct my entire life, only reciting lines from the show! ;-) Discovering that both you and Nanook are also big fans of the show, also didn't help matters!

Chuck said...

Major, it was an attempt at a generic, 19th-Century-style photo backdrop, with heavy drapery, furniture and plants in the background. I guess we'd expected it to actually look like a 19th-Century photo, and the lighting, background, and tonal values just weren't the same. It was still fun, and we obviously like it enough to have it on display...on top of a tall piece of furniture...behind a fake plant.

Dennis said...

Just a note about the last picture. The baby picture in the upper left could be removed, and if you had a spare child handy, could be added to the scene.
The version in our family collection shows my late sister and her husband, with my nephew peering out of the window frame.
Thanks for your blog - it's a public service you're doing here, and we in the public appreciate it!