Concrete Pals, Knott's Berry Farm
I realized that I had a Knott's Berry Farm theme going in my folder of Knott's scans. Concrete pals! It might not be the most exciting blog post ever, but this way I get to use them all up in one go.
There are two of the pals (from April 1958) - Handsome Brady and Whisky Bill. They are pleased to meet those gals. Handsome Brady has a sack that might be full of unwashed underwear, or maybe it is gold dust from his successful week of panning. Whisky Bill doesn't look as dissolute as one might expect with a name like that, in fact he looks downright respectable.
Next it's January, 1961, and a mom and her kid are posing. The kid is gnawing on a big lollipop, while mom laughs at one of Handsome Brady's naughty jokes. Only a little naughty, don't worry.
Now it is September 1962, and the boys have met their match in these two ladies! The gals are not shy, to put it mildly. The woman with the yellow shirt admires Whisky Bill's luxurious whiskers, and I could swear he is blushing.
The boys are without companionship (not counting each other of course), possibly because they haven't taken their once-a-month bath yet. It costs 50 cents at the saloon, which is pretty expensive.
The boys are just fine, but sometimes you just want to be in the company of some classy ladies. In this May, 1958 photo, we meet Marilyn and Cecilia. A pair of saloon gals with hearts of gold! They don't mind the occasional bawdy remark, but don't go too far! Marilyn has no interest in that ice cream cone, it's covered in that guy's spit after all. Yuck. Even the kid from Deliverance (to the left) is disgusted by the idea.
Just two months later (July 1958), we see another photo of Marilyn and Cecilia, with a greenhorn from back east. He's getting pretty handsy, Cecilia is this close to slapping him! "That might be acceptable behavior in St. Louis, but not in the Ghost Town!".
And finally, from September 1962 comes this photo of two men who might have had too many bottles of Doctor Mal de Mer's elixir. It's good for what ails you, but MAN, it packs a punch. Don't worry, in about five minutes they will both be sleeping like babies. And when they wake up, they are going to regret ever being born.
I hope you have enjoyed visiting some Concrete Pals!
NOTE: I already have more of these rascals to share.
19 comments:
Major-
That haircut on the young "gentleman" in the 5th image is grounds for an arrest. But first, he'll have to complete his 'ballet pose' - it kinda looks as if he's achieved the '4th position'...
Thanks, Major.
1) The young lass cozying up to Handsome Brady thought she was gonna get his sack of gold dust by telling him how... well, how handsome he was. And it worked! Unfortunately, the sack did indeed contain unwashed underwear.
2) Handsome Brady is telling Mom how he finagled a date with the lass from the previous photo, and all it cost him was his sack of unwashed underwear. (Are you sensing a theme yet?) I bet the big lollipop is cherry flavored.
3) The lady in the yellow shirt is asking Whiskey Bill, "Hey big fella, have any unwashed underwear you wanna get rid of?" (OK, this is getting a little kinky... sorry.) The lady's shirt looks like it might be made of cement as well.
4) Handsome Brady, "Hey, Bill. D'ya have any use for a sack of unwashed underwear?" Whiskey Bill, "shuddup."
5) Marilyn, "Honey, I ain't gonna lick that there ice cream cone; it smells like a sack of unwashed underwear!" (I grossed myself out with that one.) Meanwhile, Cecilia is saying, "Don't even think about it, Buster.)
6) The greenhorn, "Want a Walnetto?" Cecilia, "Don't do it, Marilyn. They taste like unwashed underwear". (Actually, I love Walnettos; although I haven't seen any for several years now.)
7) Marilyn, "These guys have more hands than a clock museum." Cecilia, "Yeah, but they seem harmless enough. Say, maybe we can get them to take that sack of unwashed underwear that Handsome Brady dropped off for us to wash."
Sorry for all the unwashed underwear, Major... But you started it! Thanks for the fun photos.
I think Whisky Bill looks a little plastered in all four pics.
Geez, speaking of getting a little handsy, that guy in the last pic (on the right) looks like he's getting downright grabby. He's definitely trying to cement his relationship with Cecilia.
Handsome's secret is that he washes his underwear right in the gold pan. All that grit buffs the stains away.
That is clearly a young Queen Elizabeth in the dark glasses in the first picture. Prince Philip ended up challenging Whiskey Jack to a duel and losing.
I love posts like this and the many poses of the Mark Twain from a few days ago, that show us the same thing on different days.
Looks like the best puns are already spoken for. It figures.
Note how the sign above the boys changes over time. And I love the “THIS IS PICTURE SET #2” sign. I wonder what “PICTURE SET #1” was…and if there were more than just two?
Marilyn and Cecilia are cute, but they’ve got nothing on these ladies.
Based on what TM! has told us, I wonder if that’s the same popcorn visible through the wagon window in the 5th & 6th photos?
Thanks, Major!
Chuck, Ha, ha! I wonder if Walter and Cordelia were as cheap about such things, as their children were? Not only did we have to save the popped popcorn at the end of the night, and resell it the next day (mixing in a freshly popped batch, to try and fool the guests), but they also made us do something disgusting at the end of the night with the unsold corn dogs. I'm not sure if I've ever told that story before.
Oh, I remember these concrete scamps, and the saloon ladies too. Great idea for a post, Major.
Interesting to see the colors change over the years. I seem to remember the ladies in pink and blue.
I wonder why Disney never did anything like these figures? Seems much cheaper to maintain than a flock of CMs in expensive suits. Now you could book an “experience” on the bench through Genie+ for a mere $25 and get a zinger included.
Yes, it’s undoubtedly the same popcorn in all the photos.
Tokyo, you did tell that story before and it’s why I will never eat anything from a vendor at Knotts.
Thanks Major!
JG
I may have talked about this here before, but I learned a lot about humanity working in an art museum. If I had a nickel for every time I witnessed a grown adult climb over the ropes to grope a sculpture of a naked human, I'd have at least a good sockful of nickels I could swing around to drive a couple of perverts off the ancient Roman statuary. Folks is folks, I guess.
On a related note, I am on the edge of my seat for the disgusting corn dog story.
JG, Disney finally has done it. You can sit next to a statue of Walt at Epcot. No upcharge, though.
Nanook, I’ll have you know that I have the same haircut as the kid in #5! I did it myself!
JB, I feel like I’ve negatively-impacted your impressionable young mind with the “unwashed underwear” thing! For which I apologize. You’ll never sing a merry tune again, never dance the mambo, never skip down the lane. Meanwhile I want to make an anthology TV series using all of your story ideas. We’ll get Tom Cruise as Whiskey Bill, and Brad Pitt as Handsome Brady; Jenny Ortega as Celia, and Dua Lipa as Marilyn (ya gotta be a little trendy to get the kids to watch) Each episode will be directed by one of our great directors. James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, and so on. The bag of unwashed underwear will be CGI, but we will spare no expense to make it impressive. I’m calling Netflix right now!
TokyoMagic!, I was going to try to come up with my own plaster-based joke, but it hurt too much. This is why I need to call my friend Bruce Vilanch, who has never written a stinker in his life.
Melissa, the idea of underwear washed in the same pan with gold dust sounds heavenly. Of course, Knott’s used to have that inappropriate photo op of the Gold Dust Twins, the finest washing powder in the land.
Chuck, I think there were signs around Ghost Town, akin to Disneyland’s “Picture Spots”, where guests could take photos that would turn out better than the dreck they usually produced. Somebody had already figured out the best views! I was reluctant to click on “these ladies” - and now I’m sorry I did!
TokyoMagic!, “they also made us do something disgusting at the end of the ngiht with the unsold corn dogs”… the mind reels.
JG, you make a good point, why didn’t Disneyland have similar setups? After all, we know that they did photo-ops with plywood cutouts for a few years. That being said, it’s much more fun to pose with a living breathing, tax-paying character. Not that I ever do it.
Melissa, there are many photos of bronze statues with certain, um, parts, polished to a high gleam by thousands of fondling hands. It’s disrespectful - and kind of funny, I have to admit (my sense of humor is still at the 5 year-old level).
Dean Finder, whoa, I’ve never seen that before. I wonder if a CM is always nearby to prevent shenanigans??
The new statue of Walt is fully dressed, but I have complete faith in the creativity of parkgoers to figure out absolutely filthy poses for pictures with it.
I almost started collecting photos of these pals instead of Pitchur Gallery pics — there are a lot on eBay over various years. They do look fun all gathered together, and you can see location and clothes color changes. I like the lady’s hat in the first picture. And the little boy’s engineer overalls and huaraches in the next one. Is that a park map or flier under the bench by the lady with blue pants’s foot in Pic 3? And what’s in the white bag on the bench in Pic 5? Thanks for sharing these Major, and I’m looking forward to the next installment!
That new Walt statue needs a magazine basket and a toilet paper roll.
@Dean Finder, (!!!)
@Chuck, yes indeed.
@Melissa (2), yes indeed, there is no longer a bottom.
JG
I love the second can - that mom is fun[!] and the little boy is adorable!
Chuck, I couldn't agree more, regarding the saloon gals.
TokyoMagic! What IS the corn dog story?? Did they make you remove the breading and then re-use the hotdogs, the next day??
Dean, you are right - there IS a sitting Walt statue. The one of him sitting on the pot. Do you remember when that statue was first announced online and it had Walt on that small platform that looked EXACTLY like a toilet? From what I understand, because people made a joke out of it, 'they' then decided to instead place that Walt statue on a bench [the one that it's now on] so that it wouldn't look like Walt was on the pot. BUT, the bench was too high for the WALT statue (Walt's feet were dangling freely) and 'they' had to add that step that's now under his feet. It looks absolutely ridiculous.
HERE'S a small version of that original Walt statue - sold as an ornament. You have to admit it looks like he's on the throne. Look at the side view and note where they placed the end of the ornament hook. I purchased one of these when they went on sale, and now have it sitting in my bathroom, on an extra roll of TP. I took the hook and twisted it down so that it nicely slides into the roll of TP and holds Walt in place so that he doesn't fall off.
Sue, that is BRILLIANT.
TokyoMagic! What IS the corn dog story?? Did they make you remove the breading and then re-use the hotdogs, the next day?
Sue, that is EXACTLY what they made us do. We had to do that to the unsold corn dogs and then "re-dip" them and "re-cook" them the next day. And as with the day-old popcorn, we all knew that it was horribly wrong.
Sue (again), that looks like an outhouse "bench seat." I would be tempted to build a little Popsicle stick "shed" around him. With a crescent moon-shaped peep hole in the door. And this "miniature" placed next to him:
ebay miniature
Whee, this thread went everywhere…
JG
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