Knott's in Beautiful Black and White
As much as I love a vibrant color photo from the past, there is a lot to be said for a nice black and white photo too - thanks to a lifetime of old family photos, historical images from books, and old movies.
Today's photos were scanned from negatives, so I don't have a date, but I'd say that 1955-ish is probably a safe guess. First up is this nice shot of locomotive #41, the "Red Cliff", as it sits near the depot and next to the water tower. Look at the size of that headlamp! In fact the whole locomotive his impressive; and thanks to the black and white, we aren't subjected to the loco's colors (red, yellow, and chocolate brown) that some find to be so unpleasant (hi, Chuck!). I'm sure Walter Knott in his younger days could have never imagined owning such an amazing machine.
I believe that this next photo was taken looking toward Main Street, since that appears to be the U.S. Post Office sing above the man with the fedora. I love the clothes and hats, and the jumble of old wagon wheels and other parts. This photo surely predated attractions such as the Calico Mine Train, so Ghost Town was THE attraction for visitors (that and Cordelia's Chicken restaurant).
For those of you who'd hoped that today's post was about Don Knotts - I'VE GOT YOU COVERED!
31 comments:
Major-
Ahhh.... Ol' #41 in monochrome. Gotta love the resolution. And speaking of resolution - is Don Knotts pictured here as the before picture for Head and Shoulders Shampoo-?? Is that supposed to be a "Hollywood" publicity shot - and the 'handlers' couldn't brush-off those 'white speckles-??!! For shame.
(We love Don "Mr. Cool" Knotts, after all).
Thanks, Major, for the odd juxtaposition.
It's been quite a while since your last Don Knotts retrospective, Major. I believe the first two photos were from his movie "The Shakiest Gun in the West".
In the second photo there is a partial sign the reads "POPGO", which is of course, in reference to Poppa Gorn" or just PopGorn as he was affectionately known. He was the head of the Gorn Clan here on Earth, and spawned 1,752 little Gornlings. When they weren't at war with the Federation of Planets they spent their time farming; which they excelled at. So much so, that our word 'popcorn' is derived from the founder's name, "PopGorn". A little known fact that is mostly forgotten these days. Just doing my part to keep history alive.
Thanks for the Don Knotts and Gorn Clan retrospectives, Major. (I'm allowed one of these nonsense comments every year, so tomorrow I'll be back to my usual informative, high quality postings.)
Love those B/W photos of Knott's, but Barney Fife is a favorite of mine! Also, as a kid I loved Don Knott's in "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken" and "The Incredible Mr. Limpet" to name a few. And then of course there was Mr. Furley on "Three's Company". He was truly one of a kind.
Thanks, Major.
And here I thought this post would be about a black and white episode of Knot's Landing.
In the second pic, we can see part of a mine car belonging to Old Betsy, the Borax Mine Train (which we saw in the "special guest post" on Saturday). She was located just across the street from the POPGO building.
Thanks, Major. These are exceptionally nice black and white images!
Thank you, Major; the monochronicity of the first image allows me to enjoy the gorgeous lines of #41 without suffering from acute chromodissonance, which causes nausea, severe headaches, projectile vomiting and ocular diarrhea. It’s a real pain to clean up afterwards, and I just had these pajamas dry cleaned and pressed. Plus - look at all of those beautiful eucalyptus trees in the background!
See if you can find the drinking fountain in the first picture. Many of you will find it quickly, but I’ll bet more than a few of you will be stumped.
I believe that sign in the second photo actually read “POPGOESTHEWEASEL.” Inside was a display of cobbler’s benches from various mining towns in California, Nevada, and Arizona. This is why Knott’s employed a monkey and his organ grinder for many years.
Note the slight lump in Mr Knotts’ coat over his shirt pocket, betraying the fact that he was carrying Barney Fife’s bullet.
Thanks, Major, for today’s historic record of light and shadow.
Today, we're sailing at two Knott's! (I got nothin'.)
These are great pictures; lovely summer clothes in #2. I'd wear Mrs. Foreground's dress today.
I remember being dragged to see The Apple Dumpling Gang at the drive-in when there was something on TV that night I wanted to watch. Memory is weird - I can't remember what it was I wanted to see, but I remember the annoyance I felt at missing it. It was probably something awful. But I was one of those kids who didn't like surprises, even if they turned out to be good ones. I cringe so hard at those videos of kids being upset at surprise visits to the Disney parks, because I know that would have been me, too.
"Red Cliff" was such an evocative name. And was actually associated with the engine when it was actually in service in Colorado. A truly magnificent machine. As you can see, you could get as close to the engine as you wanted. This allowed me to study the inner workings of the locomotive's valve system between the frames when it was moving. The headlight, while large, is just a cover, of course. The front number plate is not original, but at least gives the correct year of construction: 1881.
Unlike the Disney engines, the Knott's engines kept a lot of their original operating equipment out in the open, along the sides of the boiler. No polished copper piping or brass boiler bands here. Aside from a few things to make them look more like the movie-inspired "old West" steam engines, like the pointy "cowcatcher" pilot or the box headlight, these engines were pretty "farm-fresh," as they say.
Oh, and a neat detail are the two small lanterns just below and to the sides of the headlight. These are called "Class" or "Classification" lights (or lamps), and would indicate to railroad personnel on the ground the status of the train (scheduled train on the timetable; an "extra" train...). Green or white lenses were most commonly used.
The lenses used here on Red Cliff were probably red or amber, which, while not quite authentic, did provide a railroady ambiance.
Only one Disneyland Railroad engine ever featured class lamps: the Ward Kimball, for a very short period after she entered service in 2005. They were removed permanently not long after.
Well, there goes my train of thought for the day…
Reminds me of a kid I went to school with, name of Will Knott. Always signed his name “Won’t”.
Thanks for an unusual post, Major, and to Steve D for the added info.
JG
These photos would have snapped around the time the Farm got a plug on "I Love Lucy"; the gang was in Hollywood, Fred wanted to go to Knott's, and Lucy said "The only knots will be on Ricky's head!".
The group center right in the second pic are in front of Goldie's Place, which is behind Popgo; respectable women hurry by without a glance, while one is pointing out a shady lady in the upper window: "It's a fact of life, son!"
Thanks Major, Knott's is wonderfully suited for B&W film, and Knotts is too.
No one has mentioned yet that, for some in the UK, it's referred to as "∅∅ Berry Farm".
Along those lines, I read once that a "donut" is so named because it is a "dough naught". Makes sense, but I've never heard that anywhere else.
Nice photos!
Don Knott's Berry Farm Landing...I think I got it all in there. This is where Don Knotts plays the role of Walter Knott, in a "Falcon Crest" style nighttime soap, about a cul-de-sac in fictional "Baleauena Grove" where the Knott Family AND the Disney Family (why not) wrestle over control and domination over the infamous Naranja County, Oregon. circa 1955. A missed opportunity for a great series. Love the black and whites. Disneyland was so much more refined, but there is something very authentic about a train just rolling through a park without the pomp and circumstance of "ride". Mr. Knott built the park with a discernible amount of authenticity and history and had the "edge" of being a co-habitable neighbor of the Mouse down the road without really being in direct competition. There is quite the soap opera itself with Knott's claim to fame with the Boysen Berry. Mr. Boysen was superintendent of Parks for the City of Anaheim (since 1921) , and died in 1950 prior to Mr. Disney coming to town a few years later. The parks in Anaheim had some status and notoriety themselves long before THE park opened, and that was due to Mr. Boysen's talents. Boysen started his berry hybrid in Napa Valley, then planted some plants on the edge of his mother in laws property in Fullerton after he moved to the OC. It's a long story, but the short one is that the few Berry plants (then without a name) fell into disrepair, the USDA eventually became interested in this "new" hybrid, hooked up a local farmer, a: "Mr. Knott" with Boysen...who took the then spindly little plants and rejuvenated them into a monolithic Berry Empire. At that point the farm on which the Boysenberries were located did not even belong to the mother in law anymore, and Mr. Boysen had moved on spiritually and operationally to other things: like running the Anaheim park system. He didn't even think about these berry plants, nor did he care that much (apparently). Mr. Boysen, nor the family did not benefit financially from the invention of the mother plant, which Mr. Boysen ultimately bred on his farm in Napa decades prior. There was no animosity between the Boysen's and the Knott's (apparently). After all, if Mr. Knott did not revive these plants, the Boysenberry would have disappeared into obscurity, or would never been known about at all. And Mr. Knott, for all intents and purposes, could have called this berry a "Knottberry" and no one would be the wiser. You can still pick "real" "of the mother vine" Boysenberries at the Boysen Farm in Orland, CA, who's plant DNA is the exact same of the original Knott's Berry Farm Boysenberry. And that is your Orange County history lesson this am.
Correction on dates: Rudy Boysen moved to Orange County in 1930 and at that time started his work life with the Anaheim Parks Department...In 1921 Rudy moved to Napa, where he started to develop his berry, with the end result of hybridizing a raspberry/blackberry/dewberry/loganberry combo occurring in 1923.
When I was a kid, I thought they were called "Poison Berries."
Ya gotta love the resolution of black and white film. I mean- you just GOTTA! (It's a law) It's perfectly suited for these pictures too- making them seem perfectly authentic "old-Western-y."
My favorite Don Knott's movie is The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, which actually scared the bejeepers out of me as a kid. You see, my parents were watching it on TV and I was ordered to bed (it being my regular bed time). I snuck back out of bed to keep watching and rejoined the show (from my vantage point hiding in the hallway) right at the "garden sheers stuck in the painting with blood flowing out" moment. I probably didn't sleep for the rest of the night! Served me right, really. I've since watched it a jillion times and I love it Every. Stinkin'. Time.
By the way Vic Mizzy was a musical genius!
Thanks, Major!
Stu, Three's Company was on after my bedtime when I was little, and I used to do the exact same watching-from-the-hallway thing. I think Mom caught wise because she rearranged the living room furniture so the TV wasn't facing the door anymore. Don Knotts: inspiring kids to sneak out of bed all over the USA.
Ah, in the first photo we see a tank of ghosts to fill the train. I like the bush-on-wheels in the second. Looks like a nice day at the Farm. When I look for Knott’s Pitchur Gallery photos for sale online, I usually add “ghost town” as search terms, and many promo photos from The Ghost and Mr. Chicken come up. Thanks, Major.
Kathy!, they had to label the tank "GHOSTS;" if it had been marked "SPIRITS," they would have needed a liquor license.
Well, I was only able to finally check in today at 9:30, to find 17 comments?? Amazing.
Nanook, yes, these black and white negatives are sharp and clear! They are larger than 35mm, but not sure what exactly the format is called. Also, Don Knotts had just eaten a scone before his portrait was taken!
JB, this was originally going to be a Don Knotts blog. All Don, ALL the time! But then I realized that others might not be big fans like I am. “Poppa Gorn”, on the latest episode of “Picard”! The Gorns are misunderstood, and just want to be good parents and maybe have a nice foot rub. Is that too much to ask? Also, ONE nonsense comment a year? Hmmmm…..
K. Martinez, the black and white almost makes it feel like a still frame from “The Andy Griffith Show”, or some similar program. Who wouldn’t want to step into it! I loved those classic Don Knotts movies too, but man it’s been a long time since I’ve seen any of them.
TokyoMagic!, I was pretty checked out on those prime time soap operas, but they sure were huge for a time. I did not care who shot J.R.! But I did care who shot Mr. Burns. Seeing Old Betsy in that photo makes me glad that they got rid of that unsightly old wreck. They could replace it with a nice shiny fiberglass train that moves up and down when you put a quarter in the slot.
Chuck, I am always looking out for my readers, especially readers who experience synesthesia. “Ocular Diarrhea”, that’s the name of my punk band! I do love those big old eucalyptus trees, they used to be everywhere in parts of SoCal. Not so much anymore. I wonder if that drinking fountain was sculpted by Claude Bell? “Popgoestheweasel” reminds me of “America Sings”, and not in a good way. I wonder how long Barney Fife carried the same bullet around?
Melissa, I’ve still never seen “The Apple Dumpling Gang”, or the sequel, “The Apple Dumpling Gang Kills Everybody”. I remember Tim Conway and Don Knotts were on Merv Griffin’s show, and they showed a clip of TADG, and it looked like the sort of movie that Disney was churning out back then… not my thing.
Steve DeGaetano, it is pretty amazing that guests could get so darn close to those big locomotives, and that the track went right through Calico Square. A different time! I’ll bet you were like a kid in a candy store, getting to really look at the mechanics so closely. I did not know that the headlight was not operational! How hard would it be to wire it up? Hard for ME, but not for somebody with some brains. I love Disneyland’s trains of course, but I love the Knotts trains too!
Steve DeGaetano, thank you for pointing out the Class Lamps. Any idea why the Ward Kimball’s class lamps were removed, and what happened to them?
JG, “Won’t”, hey, that kid was pretty clever!
Stefano, I can’t tell if you are joking or not about the “I Love Lucy” plug. Anything is possible in TV land. I think its so great that Walter Knott, who was by all reports a very conservative man, was willing to have Goldie’s Joint in his ghost town!
LTL, you get all the credit for "∅∅ Berry Farm”! This is the first I am ever hearing about “dough naughts”, I will have to do further research!
Bu, oh if only there was a TV movie with Don Knotts as Walter Knott. Would it have cheesy musical numbers? It will if I have anything to say about it! I’ve always been so surprised that my friend Mr. X loved Disneyland so much, but had zero appreciation for Knott’s Berry Farm. I sure loved them both, going back to as far as I can remember. I’m so glad that the introduction of Disneyland did not mean the demise of KBF, what a tragedy that would have been. I’ve read the story of Walter Knott and his role in popularizing the boysenberry, it’s hard to believe that there would be no boysenberries without that unusual confluence of events.
Bu, I was about to report you to the Boysenberry Board of America (the BBA) for that erroneous date, but I guess I won’t do it now!
Steve DeGaetano, I’ve mentioned this before, but we had family friends in Santa Paula who had an avocado grove, and the drainage ditches were full of boysenberries, just growing wild apparently (I guess they must have been planted by somebody. Our hosts had three daughters who insisted that the berries were “girlsenberries”.
Stu29573, I DO love the resolution! I think as a kid I particularly loved “The Reluctant Astronaut”, though I am sure it is corny has heck. I liked anything that was remotely scary, so of course I loved “The Ghost and Mr. Chicken” too. And “The Incredible Mr. Limpet”. I don’t think I’ve ever seen “The Shakiest Gun In the West”.
Melissa, I know I watched “Three’s Company” for a season or two, but by the time Don Knotts came along, I’d moved on to something else. Who knows what!
Kathy!, ghosts are an efficient, clean, and renewable source of energy! Are you telling me that you DON’T want pictures from The Ghost and Mr. Chicken??
Chuck, OUCH
Major, yes, that running gag from America Sings started repeating in my head right after I typed the words and has been with me all day. Not my favorite part of that soundtrack. It's not all bad, though - I used to sing the Stephen Foster medley to my oldest as I rocked him to sleep when he was a baby. Not sure why that popped into my head to sing; my sister and I must have listened to The Official Album of Disneyland and Walt Disney World on our parents' stereo a couple of hundred times and it just stuck.
Reminds me of a kid I went to school with, name of Will Knott. Always signed his name “Won’t”.
Shades of Wilkins and Wontkins.
Major, the headlight is operational. It's just not an actual kerosene lamp, as suggested by the large square housing. It's an electric lamp, powered by on on-board steam-powered electric generator (its vertical steam exhaust pipe pointing skyward over the cab roof).
The conjecture is the Kimball's class lamps were removed to better resemble the other engines in the fleet. They were hand-made, and no doubt "disappeared" into the collections of one or two of the trains CM's collections.
Yep...all those years ago you could walk right up to the locomotive if you wanted and feel the heat coming off the boiler. Touch it if you dared. Of course there were no warning signs that it, like coffee, is hot. For some reason folks back then understood that it was appropriate, if not darn logical, to move away from the tracks when the locomotive was moving. KS
Those were the days.
The sound the generator makes when starting out and running is certainly one of the more unique sounds one can hear at either Disneyland or Knott's. Its high-pitched whine is very distinctive (The DL engines run their electrical devices, including lighting, off of very silent batteries).
Another interesting little detail is what appears to be lighter-colored material on the ground around the engine. This appears to be sand that can be spread on the rails by the engineer from the sand dome (the first bulbous protrusion right above the left--as we view it--class lamp), to aid the locomotive with traction when starting a heavy train on greasy, slippery rails.
Major and Melissa, I confess, "Will Knott" is Cub Scout Humor, not a real person.
(hangs head, scuffs shoes, twists hat)
JG
Bu, I knew about the Boysenberry being a cross between the blackberry, raspberry and the loganberry, but I didn't know about the dewberry's involvement! However, I did know that Dewberry was a Lady. And on very rare occasions, I will watch the Dew Berrymore show. She was great in E.T.!
Major, Stefano was telling the truth. There is a reference to Knott's Berry Farm in an episode of "I Love Lucy." There is also a reference to Knott's in my other all-time favorite television show, The Golden Girls. I thought you might know about those references already, since you are such a huge fan of both shows. ;-)
JG, I have told so many terrible jokes in these comments over the years that I have NO room to cast aspersions on Will Knott!
@TM!-
"Dewberry was a Lady" That's just too, too much-!
Nanook, I was hoping that it wasn't too obscure of a reference and that somebody would get it. Plus, it's another L.B. reference, and we can never have too many of those! Right, Major? Major? Major? He's ignoring me now, isn't he?
Melissa, I’m just pleased you noticed.
JG
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