Thursday, August 08, 2013

Knott's Pitchur Gallery

The "Pitchur Gallery" was at Knott's Berry Farm for many years, and was a popular spot for creating a unique, humorous souvenir. I sometimes think it would be fun to try to find as many different scenes as possible, but then I remember that I have to pay for all of them. Anyway, here is a fun selection!

I love this first one; Sad Eye Joe probably wasn't crazy about sharing his cell, but nobody said that prison was fun. The lady looks dazed, she is regretting her life of crime. Her husband is unrepentant, and is already plotting his next bank holdup. I wonder what ever happened to that hand-carved Sad Eye Joe head (and did experts know that there was more than one Joe at the park)?


This young couple posed as newlyweds, he in his topcoat (bowler hat in hand), she in the frilliest wedding gown. Isn't she pretty?


And finally, my favorite of the bunch. Sometimes you don't have many choices when you're looking for a place to board, but this couple doesn't seem to mind the fact that they are staying in Goldie's Joint. I love that the lady has her leg out the side window, just like the kicking leg that is still visible today!


8 comments:

Melissa said...

Wow, the guy in the middle in the first picture really looks like my Great-Grandpa, except Great-Grandpa’s face was on a lot straighter, and I don’t think he ever combed his hair with a disc harrow. Although, you never know, he was always good at using whatever he had to hand instead of going out and buying some fancy new gadget. If some city feller threw out a comb with a couple of teeth missing, he'd probably take it home, clean it up, and use it. Or he might turn his hand to whittling a comb if he had a good piece of wood the right size handy. But he’d hardly let a perfectly good disc harrow go to waste, neither.

The only thing that could make the second picture better is if the portrait on the wall behind the couple had their real baby’s head sticking through a hole, crying his poor wee head off, with a little trail of something running down his chin. Although, that couple looks a lot like my Uncle Ralph and Aunt Bertha, so it had better be a bigger trail (both their kids were really colicky).

OK, now you’re really messing with me in the third picture, because that lady is totally, 100%, without a doubt my Grandma. I’d know that saucy grin, Toni home perm, and frisky display of ankle and sensible shoe anywhere. I will bet you a chicken dinner with cherry rhubarb sauce there’s a blue-and-green checked babushka sticking out of a giant black purse behind that fake wall, and half a pack of Camels tucked into a pointy brassiere somewhere back there. AND THAT IS NOT MY GRANDPA IN THE OTHER WINDOW. The kicker? My uncle, born in the fall of 1953, is the only short, red-haired man in the entire family. He looks like some kid they found on the doorstep. And I had to find out about it on Gorillas Don’t Blog! I suppose we can all get swept away on the scent of boysenberries and the romance of narrow-gauge train travel…

TokyoMagic! said...

I love these! The "Pitchur" Gallery is still at Knott's, but unfortunately, they didn't keep any of these quaint set-ups. I was wondering about that baby in the second one. It looks a little creepy (sorry, baby!) being a real photograph stuck up there on the wall when the rest of the set is just painted. And yeah, you have to give that lady in the last pic credit for recreating the "foot out the window" gag....unless the photographers prompted people to do that?

K. Martinez said...

I used to have quite a few Knott's Pitchur Gallery photos like these in which several of my aunts, uncles and other family members posed. Since most of my aunts and uncles were born in the late 1920s-early 30s I'd guess the photos to have been from the 1950s. I later passed them on to my sister. Now I wish I sort of hadn't.

Melissa said...

My sister and I and our friends used to get our pictures taken at the old-timey dress-up photo booth at Darien Lake every summer. One year, we Photoshopped them all together, so we looked like a big, extended family with strong resemblances.

Major Pepperidge said...

Melissa, poor Sad-Eye Joe used to have a haircut worthy of the show "Friends", but years in jail can change a man. As for the second photo, I am guessing that the couple didn't have kids yet; maybe the photo was supposed to inspire them to get to work! Picture #3… did they even have Toni home perms in the 50's? Maybe that is your grandma's brother (Great Uncle) and not the lady's husband. Yeah, that's it!

TokyoMagic!, I had no idea that there was still a Pitchur Gallery at Knott's. Amazing. I agree, the photo of that baby is a weird touch. My guess is that the lady was prompted to stick her foot out the window, but you never know…

K. Martinez, maybe your sister would give the Knott's photos back to you if you asked? She might not cherish them as much as you do. I know my mom has boxes full of photos that she would LOVE to get rid of if somebody wanted them.

Melissa again, I looked up Darien Lake on Google Maps (since I'm not familiar with it), it looks like a fun little park. As small as it is, they called it a "theme park resort", surrounded by hundreds of miles of farmland!

Anonymous said...

Funny stuff.

JG

Melissa said...

Oh, yeah, they started making Toni home perms right after the war (I guess they needed all those chemicals to stink bomb the Germans before that). But that Goldie’s Joint gadabout can’t be her brother, because he also looked like Sad-Eyed Joe, but with the good sense to wear a long, luxurious beard. No, I’m afraid he’s nothing but a Calico Casanova.

Darien Lake not only has a hotel, cabins, RV sites, and a campground, but this new thing called “glamping,” where you can rent a pre-assembled tent on a wooden platform. You still have to bring your own sheets, though, which kind of takes the “glam” out of it. Unless you bring satin sheets or something, which nobody’s going to do in case some squirrel or possum gets in and chews them up or something.

Nanook said...

Major-

Yes, of course, Toni (which was bought by Gillette in 1948) & Lilt (from Proctor & Gamble) were among many home permanents available beginning in the post-WW II years. "Which twin has the Toni?" or "Pick a look - then pick a Lilt". (And then prepare to be disappointed). That last part never made it into the ad copy, but.

And as for Darien Lake - it's been many a year since I was there, but recall having a swell time.