Knott's Berry Farm - Calico Print Shop

Once upon a time, visitors to Knott's Berry Farm could purchase a souvenir newspaper with custom headlines, or an old-time "wanted" poster with their name on it.

The photo below shows an example of one of the "wanted" posters that were printed and sold in Knott's very own Print Shop. (By the way, the name "Bad Barlow" is a nod to Max Barlow, who was the "Marshall" and Manager of Ghost Town for three decades!)

In this publicity photo of actors Mike and Judy Farrell, Mike is being presented with his own personalized wanted poster.

The Calico Print Shop was located on Main St. in Ghost Town, between the Drug Store and the Sheriff's office.

Unfortunately, the Print Shop closed years ago. Since it's closure, the space has had various tenants, including a Teddy Bear shop. This photo was taken in 2007.

Note the banner that reads, "Celebrating 100 Years of Teddy Bears." (Incidentally, the first Teddy Bear was created in 1902 and was named after then-president, Teddy Roosevelt.)

Later, the space changed to "Inspirations" and sold wind chimes, flags, painted rocks, and hand-dipped candles.

Today the shop is called Miss Doolittle's and sells make-it-yourself necklaces, bracelets, keychains, "princess wands", and a variety of other crafty-type items.

I wish I had thought to photograph the Print Shop myself, at some point before it's closure. Here are two photos showing the exterior and interior of the shop, courtesy of Major Pepperidge over at Gorillas Don't Blog.....thank you, Major! Both photos were taken in 1960. Note the two sample wanted posters hanging on either side of the doorway to the shop.

Compare this pic to the current interior shot and you will see the same overhead beam in the upper right hand corner of both photos. (Or maybe it's a new beam that replaced the older one at some point?)

And lastly, here is my very own souvenir poster from the Print Shop. My aunt and uncle had gone to Knott's in the early seventies, and brought back custom-printed wanted posters for my brother and me. Before giving them to us, my aunt tacked them onto wormwood planks to give the effect that they were posted on a rustic fence.

My poster hung in my bedroom from about the time I was 5 years old, until I was in my teens. Unfortunately, the posters started to "crumble" as they became brittle with age. I eventually mounted mine on a piece of poster board to keep it from completely disintegrating, which is basically what happened to my brother's. His was the "Stage Robber" poster like the one in the first photo. Many years ago, I removed the poster from the wood mount and tucked it away for safe keeping, but I recently found the wood in my mom's garage, so I tacked it back up for this photo. Actually, I think I will just keep it this way! I wish I could go to Knott's today and purchase a replacement poster as a gift for my brother! :-(

Here are some close-ups of the artwork:

We will end today with this small tribute to actor Dean Jones, who passed away earlier this week. Mr. Jones acted on the stage of the Bird Cage Theater at Knott's back in the 1950's. He is pictured below with Walter Knott, standing in front of the ticket windows of the Calico Railroad Station. Note the reflection of the train's water tower in the windows. I believe this photo would have been taken some time after he became established on the stage and screen, rather than at the time he would have been working at Knott's.

Of course, Dean Jones eventually went on to make over a dozen movies for Disney, including two of my favorites, "That Darn Cat!" and "The Million Dollar Duck."

Rest in peace, Mr. Jones!

"Berry Patch Kids" Dolls at Knott's Berry Farm

In 1982, Coleco signed a deal with Xavier Roberts to begin mass producing his "Little People" line of dolls. The next year, they were introduced as "Cabbage Patch Kids" at the International Toy Fair in New York City and were such a huge hit that by Christmastime, they were causing rioting in stores across the country, by parents that were determined to get their hands on one for their children.

Flash forward two more years to 1985, when Knott's Berry Farm was revamping the Ghost Town area of the park for it's "Ghost Town Alive in '85" summer promotion. It was at this time, that the Knott's Berry Kids were "born."

These hand-sewn dolls were an obvious attempt to get in on the Cabbage Patch Kids phenomenon, which was still going strong at the time. (Incidentally, Xavier Roberts' first Cabbage Patch dolls were also hand-sewn and originally had cloth faces and bodies.)

A convoluted backstory was created, to explain how the Berry Kids were discovered by Walter Knott in his "magical berry patch." This was similar to the "discovery legend" that accompanied every Cabbage Patch Kids doll, explaining how Xavier Roberts found the kids in a "magical cabbage patch." This legend was printed out and included with each purchase of a Knott's Berry Kid.

I remember these dolls being pretty popular with guests that first summer and on into the Christmas season. I bought several sets of these as Christmas gifts for family members. This is a set that I bought for my mom.

Knott's Berry Kids were made exclusively for Knott's Berry Farm by "Carleen."

I wonder if that's "Carleen" in the photo below. It's interesting to note that the dolls in the basket appear to be wearing a purple or "boysenberry" color and that the dolls being sold were wearing more of a maroon color.

The woman seen above, is sitting on a porch next door to the Doll Shop, which was located across from the Ghost Town Grill on Main Street. The dolls were actually sold at both the Doll Shop and the Bonnet Shop, which was located on School Road (currently the Halloween Haunt Museum and formerly Mrs. Murphy's Boarding House, among many other things).

I hope everyone enjoyed this short little trip to Walter Knott's magical berry patch. I leave you now with this pic of the Berry Kids as they go off into the patch to look for the boysenberry-colored caterpillar, butterfly, and bird....and the elf carrying a miniature pail of boysenberries....oh, and "Rhubarb" the scarecrow! What the heck? I wonder who came up with that story?

Knott's Kingdom of the Dinosaurs - Mega Post

With the grand opening of Knott's Berry Farm's "Voyage to the Iron Reef" taking place today, I thought it would be fun to revisit one of the rides that used to exist in that same attraction space.



Kingdom of the Dinosaurs opened in 1987 above the Buffalo Nickel Arcade, in what was then called "The Roaring 20's" section of the park. Out in front of the attraction was Rocko, a Triceratops that was sculpted out of serpentine marble by artist John Cody. The sculpture was started in January of 1988 and was completed the following month. During that time, visitors to the park could watch Mr. Cody sculpting Rocko out in the open, over near the Wheeler Dealer Bumper Cars.



After the closure of Kingdom of the Dinosaurs in 2004, Rocko was moved to the center of the Huff 'n Puff attraction in Camp Snoopy (pictured below). Unfortunately, he disappeared from this location not too long ago, and is currently nowhere to be found inside the park. I certainly hope he is being stored safely somewhere backstage. Maybe he is resting comfortably with the large chicken that used to sit in front of Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant.



This mural was located in the attraction's loading and unloading area. It was supposed to represent Los Angeles/Hollywood in the 1920's.



Unfortunately, I don't have any pics of the attraction's first scene, which was the professor's laboratory. After leaving the laboratory, guests would see images from the Renaissance and Byzantine eras flash briefly across a cave wall. Following that, riders found themselves in the scene featuring Early Man.



I somehow also missed taking photos of the Sloth and Wooly Mammoth animatronics, but I did get a pic of the Saber-toothed Tiger.



Here's Dimetrodon.....



Stegasaurus....



I have to say that these figures looked MUCH better in the dark under dramatic show lighting, and without the harshness of the camera flash on them. This was especially the case with the flying Pteranodon that would circle above the riders below.



Two young Triceratops....




Tyrannosaurus Rex with the adult Triceratops on the far right.....



Apatosaurus.....



Next door to Kingdom of the Dinosaurs was the Dinostore Digs shop. This shop later became the Ride Warriors shop and also the seasonal Elvira's "Boo-tique." (I found these exterior and interor pics of the store on the internet and wanted to give credit to whoever took them, but I was not able to locate the "owner" of the images. If these are your pics, please leave a comment below and I will either remove them or give you credit.)





Here is a park merchandise bag from around the time that the new ride and shop opened.



A postcard from the same time period:



This graphic of Snoopy with a Triceratops was from a souvenir T-Shirt.



I bought this pin in the Dinostore Digs shop back in the summer of 1987.



This button was also sold in the park during that first summer.



These next two buttons were exclusive giveaways for employees only.



The button below, shows a Triceratops clinging to the new "Slingshot" attraction that opened in Fiesta Village that same summer. That attraction's name was later changed to "WaveSwinger" and is still operating in the park today.



This T-shirt was also an employee exclusive and was given out at the 1987 Employee Summer Kick-off Meeting. These pre-summer meetings were held every year and a T-shirt was usually given to employees at that time.





The Berry Vine was an employee newsletter that came out every Friday (which also happened to be payday). This issue shows the Tyrannosaurus Rex figure sitting outside the attraction right after it was delivered to the park, as well as a pic of it being lifted into the air by a crane. There is also an article about the park's new "Five-Year Plan." The "major new attraction" that was alluded to for 1988, would have been Big Foot Rapids.



When I was working at the park, I had heard that the T-Rex was dropped on the ground while they were lifing it up into the attraction, and that supposedly it's complex movement was compromised because of that. Does anyone know if this was true? I do remember riding it during an employee preview and thinking that it's motion seemed pretty limited.



Cathy Rigby, who played Peter Pan on a semi-regular basis at the La Mirada Civic Auditorium, brought her production to Knott's for a couple weeks in May of 1987. I had already been fortunate enough to see Sandy Duncan play the part of Peter Pan at the Pantages Theater in 1981....with Christopher Hewett (Mr. Belvedere!) as Captain Hook.

Note that tickets for employee night at Disneyland were only $12! Also, the Knott's employee bowling league was meeting at the Aztec Bowl. This bowling alley was located just up the street from Knott's, in the spot where the Pirate's Dinner Adventure is located today.



The ACM Awards used to be held every year at Knott's in the Good Time Theater. Also, the bucking bronco in The Pitchur Gallery was being replaced after 20 years. Another 28 years has now passed. I wonder if it has been replaced since 1987? And Knott's was selling a mule?



Here is the press kit for Summer of 1987....or at least the part of it that pertains to Kingdom of the Dinosaurs.



The graphics on the upper right of the Fact Sheet below, show silhouettes of the three new attractions that were opening in Fiesta Village that summer, Slingshot, Tampico Tumbler, and Gran Slammer. This was the year that the Tijuana Taxi was taken out and the Merry Go Round was moved to it's current location by the lake, in order to make room for the three new attractions. I scanned this press kit quite a while ago and did not scan the pages with the info on the Fiesta Village rides. I'm not sure why I did that, but I will try to get them scanned and posted soon.