Three Knott's Berry Farm Beauties
SAY! Did you know that today is GDB friend Grant's birthday? Well it is! Sue definitely knew it, because she sent along this fun scan of a kid enjoying a fabulous party. Wow, what are the odds that the cake has the name "GRANT" on it? Well, pretty good odds, in this case. I like those orange-shaped drink containers, I think I've seen those before, though I'm not positive. The cake has Donald Duck on it, and a pretty good rendering too. The boy to the left has finished eating a human heart, apparently. The birthday boy wears a Chicago Cubs hat, so we can assume that this was taken in the Land of Lincoln. Happy Birthday, Grant!
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Here's a trio of very nice scans of Knott's Berry Farm, from oversized transparencies. They are all train-related, which is OK by me. The slides are undated, but I'm guessing that they are from sometime in the mid-1960s.
First is this great shot of locomotive #40, the "Gold Nugget" as it chugs along a part of the track that I can't ID - perhaps it's near where the Calico Mountain Log Ride would eventually be built? I miss the eucalyptus trees that used to populate the grounds of KBF, they somehow evoked "old California".
In 1931 Jeffries converted this dairy barn into a gym where he trained boxers and worked as a fight promoter. He promoted many fights out of "Jeffries Barn,” also known as Jeffries Center, as well as holding Thursday night boxing matches until his death in 1953. After his death, the barn was dismantled and moved to Knott's Berry Farm amusement park. World heavyweight boxing champion from 1899-1905, James Jackson Jeffries is considered to be one of the great heavyweight boxers of his era, perhaps the best of all time; he retired undefeated in May of 1905. He was elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990.
And finally, here's a good shot of the little locomotives from the Calico Mine Ride, which debuted in 1960, designed by genius Bud Hurlbut. I loved this attraction as a child, and it is still a highlight of KBF today!
3 comments:
Happy Birthday, Grant-! I hope the orange-shaped “cup” you’re sipping from has your name on it, as I can only see Casey’s name-!
Major-
These large format slides really are beauties-! I note in the 2nd image, it appears there’s a 1960 Pontiac parked behind the ‘log fence’.
Thanks, Major.
Happiest of birthdays to you, Grant! Enjoy the cake that Sue made specially for you.
Wow, that IS a faithful portrait of Donald on the cake. I'm assuming this is a vintage photo from the '70s, a time when they didn't have the digital 'cake printing' that they have now, where any picture can be printed on a cake. Those orange-shaped drink containers look familiar to me too. I tried zooming in on the half-eaten human heart to see what it really was... it's a human heart! Or maybe a puddle of half-melted raspberry sherbet, who can say. Meanwhile, on the other side of the pic, it looks like someone spilled some orange-colored salmon eggs on the plate; like my dad sometimes used for bait when he was fishing.
Thank you, Sue for continuing our GDB birthday celebration tradition.
Knott's #1- What a nicely composed picture! The trees look very 'painterly', and we see just the right amount of train coming toward us, The old buckboard (or whatever) adds a lot of interest to the composition. Hey, a peacock, more precisely, a peahen. I didn't know KBF had peacocks running around. This whole picture looks like an oil painting.
Knott's #2- Doesn't have the painterly quality as the previous pic, but still nice. Is that car on the left in one of Knott's parking lots?
Knott's #3- I'm guessing the train on the right is parked on a side track and is not currently in use? We rarely get close-up shots of the Mine Ride trains. It's interesting how much the trains are very different from each other.
Thanks, Major. Now to see if this comment gets 'published' in the usual way!
^ It worked! Back to normal posting again. Except the text window is only half as wide as normal. :-\
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