As the years go by (faster and faster!), my appreciation for Knott's Berry Farm continues to grow. And that's saying something, because I've always loved the place. I have a modest collection of paper ephemera from Knott's (compared to the multiple boxes of things from Disneyland), mostly because Knott's did not seem to produce an many different brochures, flyers, gate handouts, and so on.
One of my favorite items is this brochure celebrating Jungle Island, which debuted on May 2, 1964. Folks who were lucky enough to see this beloved feature remember the endearingly odd "Wood-imals", fanciful critters created from pieces of logs and branches.
The man responsible for the Wood-imals was Forrest Morrow of Elgin, Illinois (one of our Junior Gorillas lives in Elgin!) Read more about him on the brochure, or have your servant read for you, like I do. I'm sure Mr. Morrow never dreamed that his folk art would result in he and his family moving from Illinois to California (he loaded up his truck, and he moved to Bever-ly). I also love that people were encouraged to climb on and play with the wood-imals. I tried playing with the art when I visited the Louvre, and you would not believe the dirty looks I received. Mon dieu!
Here's a fun and smudgy concept drawing of Jungle Island - I have no idea how accurate it is compared to the final product. Was there a little suspension bridge? If so I've forgotten it.
Next is a brochure from 1965. It's a bit less-common compared to some others, but you could probably find one without too much trouble. I think the "brown ink on yellow paper" aesthetic was supposed to look like an antique item, but they might have had better results if they'd used something a little more muted. I like the drawing of Calico Square with the saloon and the locomotive.
More awesome line art! "What is Knott's?". A question for the ages. Plus info about various restaurants (such as Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant) and shops. I love that it proudly proclaims that the whole place is "Owned and operated by the founders, Mr. & Mrs. Walter Knott and family".
And in this age of automobiles and freeways (some of those freeways were only a few years old at this point) it only makes sense to provide a map so that you have an idea of how far you had to go.
I hope you have enjoyed today's Knott's ephemera!
I love the idea of the Wood-imals. It's something I, and I'm sure, many others, have toyed with. I remember picking up driftwood at the beach and seeing odd looking creatures in the gnarled and worn sticks. Most of them looked like snakes. ;-p
ReplyDeleteThanks for a look at the Knott's brochures, Major.
- Jacob's Burden (The long and heavy chains of inhumanity dragged around by Marley's ghost.)
Major, there wasn't a suspension bridge, at least not one like that! I'm thinking there might have been a very short one, that was very low, like only a foot above the ground. But I'm not 100% sure about that.
ReplyDeleteThere was something that kind of resembled a suspension bridge. It was just a pathway, but it was located at the highest part of the island. It had ropes or fencing along the sides of it, which made it seem kind of like a suspension bridge. I have a pic of my brother and me, climbing up the stairs that led to that pathway. I'll have to look for it and see if our faces are showing. ;-)
I love the Knott's ephemera. Thanks for sharing it!
Jacob's Burden, (clever name!) only four days remaining, for Christmas names!
- Turtle (Dove) Magic!
DrGoat, I forgot to say, that I hope you and your wife are both feeling better!
ReplyDeleteI have the second Knott's brochure and it's one of my favorites because of the graphics and illustrations.
ReplyDeleteI sure wish that Steak House was still around at Knott's. I could go for steak and mushrooms.
Thanks, Major.
Krampus Martinez
That illustration of Calico Square is interesting. The artist could have edited out or moved around any element of the original photograph it was based on, but he or she chose to leave the long bench in the foreground. I like it.
ReplyDeleteAlso note the authentic, Old West vibe generated by that critical establishment that every frontier town had at least one of - the ice cream parlor. Many a weary cowpoke and miner blew his meager paycheck there at the end of a long, hard week. “Scooptender! Gimme three fingers of mint chocolate chip, and leave me the carton.” Fights were settled here with fists, spoons, and sometimes the broken end of a waffle cone. A sordid place that catered to the seamy underbelly of society, but it provided a balm for the pent-up frustration of broken men suffering from broken dreams, and besides - it kept Dr. Faust in business with his tooth powders.
Loving all the clever Christmas names today!
DrGoat, I’m sorry to hear that you have been ill of late. Praying for a speedy recovery for both you & Mrs. DrGoat!
I am starting to like Knotts more and more. I would have loved to have seen Woodimals in a place called Jungle Island. Sounds exotic. Like the Island Of Dr. Moreau. My family had a troll shop in Norway, and they made trolls like these animals out of found pieces of interesting wood. Sustainable trolls even in 1965! The map is great...they missed Universal Studios. Maybe Mr. Knott wasn't a huge fan? I want to go to Mohave where the "other" Knotts was...does anyone know what that was? They certainly stressed more than one time that Mr. and Mrs. Knott + Family owned and ran the place. Was this a "thing" back then? FAMILY OWNED!!! Not like the corporate evils of Disney and Movieland Wax Museum. I don't see Japanese Deer Park on here either...maybe this pre-dates that. I loved the Fuji Folk. We only got to see them on commercials. We were not fancy enough to visit the park...and if were driving "all that way" it had to be for something better like Disneyland, or Movieland of the Air...what was that? I am headed off to the Los Alamitos Track to watch the races. Who knew there was so much to do in Southern California. Too bad I was trapped on Palos Verdes to even know these things existed right outside my door. Guess I'll take another trip to Marineland. Are woodimals like manimals?
ReplyDeleteBu, Universal Studios only started offering tours in a form we would recognize today with the “Glamour Trams” in 1964, so by 1965 when this was printed, it may not have been a big enough deal yet to put them on the map. The graphic may also have been recycled from an earlier brochure.
ReplyDelete“Knott’s Calico Ghost Town on the Mohave Desert” was the actual ghost town of Calico, California. Walter Knott’s had worked in Calico as a young man, bought the property in the early’50s and began restoring it, turning it into an attraction. He donated it to San Bernardino County in 1966, and today it’s maintained as a county regional park.
Chuck, the really hardened ice cream addicts knew that if you asked just right, you'd be motioned to the back...for TOPPINGS.
ReplyDeleteAh what a den of dispair and sprinkles. Men laying about with smears of hot fudge on their faces and blank looks in their eyes. The road from the Lollipop Woods to the Ice Cream Floats is shiny, but the Molasses Swamp hides right behind. Beware, my child, beware.
JB, I agree, the Wood-imals are wonderful - so simple and playful. Just take an oddly-shaped branch and go nuts. Hmmm, I just don’t see how a branch could be a snake! ;-)
ReplyDeleteTokyoMagic!, thanks for the info about the suspension bridge (or lack thereof), I’m sure that the drawing was just a sort of “what if?” concept. You remember Jungle Island way more vividly than I do, as with many things it is just a series of small things, but not the “big picture”. Unfortunately. Still, I’m glad I remember it at all.
TokyoMagic!, definitely, I would also like to send my best wishes to DrGoat and his wife.
K. Martinez, sure, steak and mushrooms is great, but have you ever put crushed Oreos on a steak? Try it sometime!
Chuck, as far as that artist was concerned, the illustration was ALL ABOUT that bench. The rest of Calico Square was just set-dressing. I have to wonder, did ice cream ever appear in any old west town? Maybe as a treat shipped from “back east” (St. Louis) via pony express for a wealthy banker? Unfortunately the only flavors they had were meat based. “Chunky chicken”! “Beef stew”! Oh wait, that was dog food. I’m more of a sugar cone man, myself. Not that I would turn my nose up at a waffle cone. I used to always laugh when Daffy Duck ordered his shot of redeye and told them to “put it in a dirty glass”, maybe ice cream could be served in a dirty bowl.
Bu, Knott’s was awesome! My buddy Mr. X has always been a “Disneyland and ONLY Disneyland” person, he did not care for Knott’s at all, but I am glad that my family did both. In fact we did Knott’s more often because it was cheaper, slightly closer to where we lived, and more manageable for young kids. A “troll shop in Norway”?! I need photos! Japanese Deer Park didn’t open until two years after that brochure was printed. Was Movieland Wax Museum an example of “corporate evil”?? It always seemed kind of cute and humble to me. Universal Studios would have practically been off the map at the north, and I don’t know how much of a tourist attraction it was in 1965. “Trapped on Palos Verdes”, doesn’t sound so bad! I know that there was so much that I could have done around SoCal, but of course I was dependent on being driven by an adult.
Chuck, thanks for the Universal Studios info! I was going to look it up, but then I got lazy. I just scanned some Universal Studios slides that appear to be from the 1950s, at first I thought that they might be from some other movie lot, until I finally noticed a klieg light with “Universal” written on it. My family went to Calico a few times when I was a kid, but gosh, that seems like a lifetime ago.
Stu29573, maybe if there were more ice cream parlors in the Old West, there would have been peace and harmony. “I don’t need that Winchester rifle, I need another scoop of eureka lemon ice cream, p’odner. The Molasses Swamp was fun and all, but the flies!
Major, that Daffy Duck Reference reminds me of one of my favorite lines from The Right Stuff. Harry Shearer (yes - that Harry Shearer) is at Pancho's Happy Bottom Riding Club ordering a drink at the bar from Chuck Yeager (yes - that Chuck Yeager). "I'd like a Coca-Cola. [pause] In a clean glass."
ReplyDeleteI only went to Calico proper once, back in '76 as we were moving out of California. I went back as a Scout leader in the early '90s, but we got hit by a huge storm after we set up out tents and ended up cancelling the campout before we made it into the town proper.
Stu, it starts with a little soft serve and then progresses to the harder stuff. It chills me to the bone to think about it. Many have tried to free themselves from the Molasses Swamp only to find themselves back at the Peppermint Forest, a long hard road ahead of them without any shortcuts along the Rainbow Trail. Beware! Beware! Be very, very ware!
Major, I remember that yellow brochure, yellow as the "yaller, yaller gold" that all men sought for...
ReplyDeleteI'm sure we kept one somewhere, and just as sure that it is gone now.
I vaguely remember the Woodimals, and probably saw them once, but can't be sure. Maybe just the brochure or an ad.
Bu, Calico is a fun place, even in these degenerate times. We went several times when I was a kid, and then, like Chuck, I went back as an adult on Scout outings. The campground was a day's drive from home on the way out to the Grand Canyon, so it was a good place to stop with something for the boys to do at the end of a long day in the car.
The old village was in better shape when the Knotts' had it. Like Disneyland Main Street, the exhibits and businesses were more realistic to what the old originals might have been. Now, the shops are full of cheap imported junk, not at all like they used to be. It is still fun, and there are several mines and a little train to ride.
Thanks Major, this post takes me back.
JG
Chuck, I love “The Right Stuff” (both the book and the movie), but I’d forgotten about that part with Harry Shearer at Pancho’s. So great. Imagine being able to go back to those days (a familiar sentiment on GDB), just sit at a table in the corner and soak up the atmosphere. I’m glad you saw Calico at least once… too bad about the storm scuttling your Scout campout, but hey, that’s Mother Nature for you. She cares not for camping! All she likes is bugs. Mmmm, soft serve… I always think that the ultimate in luxury (should I win the Mega Millions) would be to have a soft serve machine in my man cave.
ReplyDeleteJG, I like the yaller gold! I’m still waiting to combine a few more Knott’s “gold pan” vials (found in a box, hooray) into one single vial so that it looks like I really struck it rich. Meanwhile, I probably actually paid $25 for $2 worth of gold. But you know what? If you shake one of those bottles, those little flakes really do have a noticeable density. A friend of mine talked about wanting to go to Calico, until he saw just how far we would have to drive to get there. So much for that trip. Looking at Google Maps right now, it estimates the drive at 2 hours and 47 minutes. Yeesh. I’m sorry to hear that Calico is not what it used to be, but am grateful that Walter Knott gave it to San Bernardino County. Who knows, maybe there would be luxury condos there instead.
I always loved the "odd" things that Knott's had over the years. I think it's one the reasons they've lasted so long as they don't try to "compete" with Disney but coexist in their own special way. I still drink my coffee out of my Knott's Catawampus mug I picked up several years ago at Virginia's gift shop. Below is a link to some info on the Catawampus (and others) that were tended to by Forrest Morrow.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.knotts.com/blog/2012-2016/2015/4-20-15-catawampus
Major, you should jump in the car and go now, you will be there by dinner time.
ReplyDeleteMaps says 8 hours, 9 minutes for me right now.
After a Knotts thread some time back, I dug out my vial of gold, still have it after all these years.
Dr. Goat, praying for you and your wife.
Alonzo, what a great link, I think you are right, there is room for off beat things and places in life.
JG
Turtle (Dove) Magic!, I'm looking forward to "Three (French Hens) Magic!". Oops, did I spoil it? ;-)
ReplyDelete"only four days remaining, for Christmas names!" Yaaaay!
Krampus Martinez, Nice one!
Chuck, I enjoyed your ice cream parlour schtick, especially the "broken end of a waffle cone".
Bu, I like how you ended up back where you started.
Stu, haha. Thanks for continuing Chuck's parody of the old west saloon.
Major, I was going to say that ice cream probably didn't exist in the 1800's. But after a quick check with Saint Google, it seems some sort of ice cream has been around for literally, ages. I suppose if old west towns had access to ice, then they probably also had ice cream.
"The Molasses Swamp was fun and all, but the flies!" and the wooly mammoth carcasses! (Don't even get me started on the giant tree sloths!)
Chuck (again), Yay! The puns continue! (It always seem like it leads to 'the hard stuff', doesn't it.)
JG, you drove your Scout Troop to Calico? I thought Scouts HIKED everywhere they went! Another pre-conception bites the dust. ;-)
I was gonna mention I had learned many years ago that even the ancient Romans ate a form of Ice Cream.... it seems historians are learn Learning all the time that the Romans seemed to have invented everything - including the BLUE LIGHT SPECIAL for their KMARTICUS stores!
ReplyDeleteI do a lot of free lance model making for museums and historical organizations and several years ago when the COSMOPOLITAN HOTEL / BANDINI HOUSE was finally being completely restored in Old Town San Diego it was discovered that the hotel purchased its first ice maker in 1869!!!! (There were ice makers in 1869!??) and that it was purchased used from another older hotel !! So that means the 1969 ice maker was even older than 1869!!!
And in small town 1860’s San Diego hotels had an ice maker ..... bigger cities must have had tons of ice makers!!!
My dad used to say “ there’s nothing really new under the sun”
JB, we drove to the Grand Canyon to hike to the bottom and back. I’ll allow a drive to a destination like that. It’s a two-day drive to the GC for us.
ReplyDeleteAlso Death Valley. You haven’t lived till you have carried all your drinking water 30 miles through Death Valley. That’s hiking.
JG