It occurred to me that I have not shared any Knott's Berry Farm "Pitchur Gallery" souvenir photos for a while. Since November 1st, in fact! So it's time to delve into the folder where those scans live, and choose a few.
The covered wagon tableau was probably the most popular, but this bucking bronco was right up there. Especially if you happen to have three cute girls with curly locks and gingham dresses. Pop cowboy hats on their noggins and let them all climb aboard Smokey, the only horse who was able to stand for long periods of time on just his two front legs.
Another day (probably from the 1960s, I'd guess), another horse. Smokey had to retire, but his son Tartar Sauce could stand on his front legs, having learned from The Master.
Hmm. Well. This photo is labeled "Knott's Berry 1948", but I am very skeptical. If I had to guess, I'd say that this could be from Olvera Street in downtown L.A., or maybe even Tijuana. My money is on Olvera Street. But I'd love to be proven wrong!
Nearly every Pitchur Gallery souvenir photo has a stamp on the back with instructions on how to order duplicates, I've never seen another that was printed with a postcard back. BUT... it's still a fun photo, so why not share it?
I have more Knott's Picture Gallery photos for you!
Hmmm. I'm trying to decide if Smokey and Tartar Sauce are actually one-and-the-same. Yeah, they have different colored hair, but they're posed so similarly! As in, exactly the same. And it's interesting how the backgrounds are also very similar, but different. I think maybe they used the old background as a template, painting the newer background over it. Oh, and the kids are cute.
ReplyDeleteIn the donkey cart photo, the donkey (I'll call him "Donkey", like in Shrek) is looking a might worn out and moth-eaten. And it looks like he has broomsticks for front legs! I'm guessing there is a stack of sombreros just out of frame, for the tourists to wear while getting their picture taken. Hmm, that sounds familiar. Didn't we see a similar donkey cart here, taken in Tijuana, with a stack of sombreros nearby?
Thanks for the Pitchur Gallery photos, Major. They're always fun and interesting.
Lots of super cute kids!
ReplyDeleteI never really thought about it before, but sitting on a dead horse or donkey—and smiling—sounds kinda strange, doesn’t it??
Thanks, Major, for more fun photos.
Sue
They shoot horses, don't they?
ReplyDeleteSue, I agree....it's a little morbid when you really stop to think about it.
Major, I recently came across a similar problem with a family photo. It's an early 1930s pic of my great great grandparents, my great aunts and uncles, and a cousin, posing with a live burro. The back of the photo is labeled "San Diego," but there is a large sign in the background that looks like it says, "Mexicali." To further confuse things, my great great grandfather is wearing a sombrero that has "Tijuana" written on it.
Thanks for the "pitchurs," Major!
Tokyo : what about the sombrero that says “ Schenectady” ??? That’s the giveaway!
ReplyDeleteMike, ha, ha! I had to look up Schenectady. I had heard of it before, but didn't know where it was, exactly. Is that just one of those names that sounds funny when used in movies or TV shows, like Hoboken, Yonkers, or Cucamonga?
ReplyDeleteTokyo: i actually almost said YONKERS!! Lol
ReplyDeleteIn pic #1 the middle girl has a young Marilyn Monroe resemblance.
ReplyDeleteFor pic #2 I'm in the it's-the-same-horse group. Besides giving Smokey a fresh paint job the backdrop was repainted.
In pic #3 the man in the white shirt is a Bob Hope look alike.
Neat photos today Major! Always love Knott's Pitchurs!
What a bunch of cute kids!
ReplyDeleteAnd moth-eaten horses. I hope they lived long lives in the pasture before their conversion to model status.
I agree, it must be the same horse, why get another one if you can get the first one re-upholstered?
They probably should have gotten one of those clear plastic covers, like one of my Mom’s friends had on her couch.
Pictures like these must have been in vogue for a while, I have a picture of my Mom on a bronco (different one) that Dad carried in his wallet for probably 50 years. Must have been taken in the 40’s.
Thank you Major!
JG
Yay, pitchurs! I never noticed that the backgrounds were different when the horses changed, but like JB and Grant said, it looks like they painted on top of the first one since those mountains line up exactly. What an odd angle the front boy’s hat is on in the second pic. It’s a bit of an engineering marvel that the horse could support 3 people at once on two legs. Did it have a weight limit? I haven’t seen that tableau with the donkey before either. I saw a live white donkey painted with black stripes like a zebra in Mexico with sombreros for photo ops. Thanks, Major.
ReplyDelete@ TM!-
ReplyDeleteI thought every school boy knew that Schenectady [is in New York] and was first home to the Edison Machine Works (1886) and then in 1892, when General Electric was formed, it became a 'company town' - or The City That Lights and Hauls the World. At the start of the Great Depression, about 30,000 people worked on their sprawling campus, and following WWII it was close to 45,000. By 1950, 32,000 folks were still there. NOW... it's maybe 3,000.
Great pictures from another time. What struck me is that none of the kids seem destined for the NFR. They are sitting on a bronc...and are preparing for launch. No appropriate reaction from them at all in the proper balance techniques. One of the first things any rider should learn! Trust me!! KS
ReplyDeleteIn almost every childhood picture, my mother and her twin are wearing matching plaid dresses and saddle shoes like the front two girls in #1. The ladies in #3 also look like they could be sisters.
ReplyDeleteYeah, we've got some interesting town names in New York, and the pronunciation isn't always what you might think. For example, Skeneateles is pronounced "skinny atlas."
JB, Here’s what I assumed re: the horses… after a number of years, Smokey “wore out”, and they replaced him with Tartar Sauce, using the same form. I’m also assuming that the backgrounds eventually got dirty or yellowed and needed repainting. We did see similar donkey carts in Tijunana, but that had a real donkey, painted with zebra stripes. I should look for Olvera Street souvenirs to see if I find any more photos like the third example!
ReplyDeleteSue, it IS strange, but that’s kind of what makes it great!
TokyoMagic!, they didn’t shoot those horses, they made them watch the “Boba Fett” show in Disney+ and they died of boredom. Hmmm, that photo of yours does sound confusing, but I’m going to say that the hat with “Tijuana” on it is the best clue. it’s possible that the “Mexicali” sign was supposed to be a “this way to…” sign.
Mike Cozart, now THAT would be something.
TokyoMagic!, Schenectady is known as “The Paris of the East”. Just like Oxnard is “The Paris of the West”.
Mike Cozart, you do love Yonkers!
Grant, the middle girl does seem more like a kid you might see in ads or commercials. I wish my job at Knott’s had been “horse painter”! I can see the Bob Hope resemblance, and maybe a bit of Ray Milland?
JG, I do wonder about those horses, and how they wound up as props for the Pitchur Gallery. I’m hoping they died natural deaths, but… maybe they were from the glue factory. I think somebody on this blog mentioned that one of the older horses was missing at least one ear, I’m sure over the years there is just wear and tear from thousands of people grabbing and holding on. I love the idea of slip covers for stuffed horses, and am going to make millions! We have a funny picture of my grandparents in San Francisco, in it, my grandma is bending over while grandpa admires her legs (or something). Pretty racy!
Kathy! that is kind of an odd angle on that one boy’s hat, but I guess it gives him a certain devil-may-care look. “My hat is weird, and if you don’t like it you can lump it!”. I was thinking the same thing about the weight limit on those horses; there must have been a steel framework underneath. I’ve seen two adult women on one horse, and that seems like a lot (sorry ladies, no insult meant to your figures!).
Nanook, I have several 1930’s pinback buttons advertising General Electric’s Schenectady plant, including one from the 1939 World’s Fair. Imagine, 30,000 people at one plant! Hard to believe. And that was at the start of the Great Depression, crazy.
KS, OK, you got me… what is the “NFR”?? I have some other Pitchur Gallery examples that have ladies with one arm up in the air to counteract the “wild movement” of the horses!
Melissa, I’ll bet that style of dress, shoes, and hair were probably on nearly every little girl during the time that that particular photo was taken. It always makes me wonder if there was a child actor that every mother was trying to copy? “Skeneateles”, now that’s a name!
Major- Knott's Pitchur Gallery photos are always a welcome sight. NFR= National Finals Rodeo. I don't think there is actually a team bronc riding category. As others have mentioned, a lot of cute kids. In photo #1 the girl in front looks like she is missing a few of her front "teef". Maybe the boy in the 2nd photo with the odd angled hat is portraying one of the 3 Musketeers? In photo #3 (of possibly "Aloe Vera" Street), the kids look so somber & the adults are all smiles. I agree with Melissa, the 2 women must be sisters.
ReplyDelete-DW
Yep, that's the acronym. Thanks DW! Major, the arm movement is one of the signature moves...in conjunction with the legs and lean-back! Not to mention a little luck thrown in to help. KS
ReplyDelete@ Melissa-
ReplyDeleteI'm certain Washington state and New York state could have a "pissing contest" to see who has the more odd pronunciations for names.
Some of the better ones from Washington are: Sequim (pronounced 'skwim'); Puyallup (pronounced 'pew-AL-up'); Guemes (pronounced 'GWEE-mis'); Pend Oreille (pronounced 'PAWN-do-RAY) and Steilacoom (pronounced 'STILL-a-cum'). There are seemingly a million of 'em.
Nanook, you forgot Walla Walla. Made famous in a Warner Bros. cartoon, "Little Giant Vacuum Cleaner Company of Walla Walla Washington".
ReplyDelete^ Not odd pronunciation, just odd.
ReplyDelete@ JB-
ReplyDeleteYeah, but anyone can pronounce Walla Walla.
And don't forget...
... Every summer we go away to Baden-Baden-Baden
Every winter we come back home to Walla-Walla-Walla ... (That's "Triplets" from The Bandwagon).
Nanook, Puget Sound is another one.
ReplyDeleteSue
Alas, I am forever creeped out over "Pitchurs". Have no idea why. Clowns/Pitchurs...all the same thing to me. Horse and Donkey taxidermy adds to my "I'm going to have nightmares tonight" malaise. I often drive through Yonkers, and will always say out loud to whoever is sitting next to me, or whoever I'm talking to on the phone with: "Hey....I'm in Yonkers... and I'm lost". (just a little Neil Simon humor.) Yonkers isn't bad, but I'd rather be lost in nearby Scarsdale, even if not searching for a weight watchers meeting (and that... is another story.) Scarsdale and the Pelhams have lovely Tudor styled buildings/homes lending a rather magical quality to the towns. Nothing to particularly to see in these places, but not bad to be lost in. Scarsdale ranks #2 in wealthiest towns in the US, with Atherton in CA #1. Atherton is lovely with large old houses, and mature CA trees...with Stanford nearby. The Peninsula of Nor Cal is far preferred over SF (by me anyway)...where Mark Twain said "the coldest winter I've ever spent, is a Summer in San Francisco." Thanks for the Pitchurs Major!
ReplyDelete@ Bu-
ReplyDelete"We'll go to Yonkers
Where true love conquers
In the wild
And starve together, dear
In Childs"
"Manhattan" by, Rodgers & Hart
The only time I ever rode a horse was with two other kids at somebody's birthday party. Pretty sure that one was alive.
ReplyDeleteNanook, I didn't know that about Schenectady! I will tell you that I learned about Hoboken from the Bugs Bunny cartoon, where he tries to return a lost penguin back home to the South Pole, but then after doing that, finds out that the penguin is actually from Hoboken. And I learned the names of places like Wichita and Yonkers, from them being mentioned in episodes of I.L.L.
ReplyDeleteMajor, I was the one who mentioned in the past, that the current Pitchur Gallery horse has a broken ear. An employee told me that they try to keep the horse's mane combed over it to hide the damage. She also mentioned that they can no longer get "new horses" so they are trying to make that one last as long as possible.
I think in the past, I had provided a link to this article, but here it is again. It's a story from the Knott's employee newsletter (The Berry Vine) and it tells about how the current horse at the time was being replaced after 20 years, because it could no longer be repaired. I'm sure all the years of abuse from guests, takes it's toll on the poor thing. The story is from April of 1987:
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qG2pDTCqd_k/VUwH7bPPrZI/AAAAAAAAK00/fNbhoORy5qY/s1600/KOD%2BPost%2B(25).jpg
And I probably should have included this link earlier. It's the pic that I mentioned, of my great great grandparents, and my great great aunts and uncles, posing with a donkey. The back is labeled "San Diego," my great great grandfather's sombrero has "Tijuana" written on it, and I'm pretty sure the sign in the background says "Mexicali." It's from the early 1930s. Maybe they were all vacationing San Diego, and from there they decided to go on down to Tijuana, and the business in the background was something like "The Mexicali Cafe." Note that the little girl on the donkey is holding a horse or donkey-shaped piñata.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg04eCfd4nUAFsyvOrSAFD0w-DCyjF2aSXCZFNTruyzXkQ6FyQ1z6Z2PPmcRb71MgbbjKdezad_euakJ_gTI4BBLPwvu9VrMZFbC1_pB3bJ1rrcpZ2JbHV0BvNmIuRti_psjlB0Yei-ypMtBxQz26mINczypG-4BrtmCn2KFo5V45FFApsWbY8Q7qJE/s1759/Mexicali,%20Tijuana,%20or%20San%20Diego%20-%20Early%201930s.jpg
What I knew of Yonkers was how it appeared in HELLO DOLLY…. A beautiful riverside update New York community …. But later always heard jokes and comments about how bad it was … then I learned the Yonkers in Hello Dolly was really filmed in Cold Spring New York .
ReplyDeleteActress Joan Blondell always made jokes about Yonkers … even on an episode of the Twilight Zone she was on. Was knocking Yonkers her “gimmick”??
@ TM!-
ReplyDeleteI barely recognized your great great grandparents and great great aunts and uncles - NO white ovals...
Nanook, ha, ha! I guess I don't feel any obligation to protect the privacy of these family members. I never met any of them, so I'm not sure how they would feel about it. Last April, I did share some images of my great grandmother, who I had in my life until I was in my mid-thirties (the people in this pic are her parents and her brothers and sisters). I asked my brother if he thought she would mind me sharing her photos. He said, "go for it." However, he has asked me not to share pics of him, so he suffers from the same "privacy" issues that I do, I guess.
ReplyDelete