Friday, September 24, 2010

Knott's - 30 Years Ago and A Goldie's Update

Today, we have another Los Angeles Times newspaper advertisement from thirty years ago. This one is for three different events that were held at Knott's Berry Farm back in 1980.


First we have Jubilation, which was an annual event that focused on contemporary Christian music. Then there was the Knott's Country Music Party. This particular year featured Debby Boone who's humongous hit song, "You Light Up My Life" was the most successful single of the 1970's, reaching number one on the Billboard charts in 1977 and staying there for 10 consecutive weeks! (I'm still looking for those TV commercials which featured her father, Pat Boone promoting Hoffy Hot Dogs as "the official hot dog of Knott's Berry Farm".) And then there's Halloween Haunt, which is still going strong today. Back then, the Haunts were held only on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and for only two short weeks. Now, the Haunt nights begin in September (tonight marks the first Haunt of the 2010 season) and are scheduled Wednesdays through Sundays for the entire month of October. Notice the price of the Haunt tickets back in 1980. Haunt tickets for this year are $56.00! To see some photos from a Halloween Haunt in the '80's, including a shot of Elvira performing live on stage, (click here).

Next, we have a Goldie's Place update. My last Goldie's report showed demolition photos and then new construction photos taken one, two and three weeks later. Well, I missed out on getting any photos at the four week mark, but the following photos were taken last weekend, only five weeks after demolition had begun on the original structure.




Is that an original window being used on the ground floor?


The two windows upstairs (on the side of the building) also appear to be older. Would they use the original window frames on the new structure?


Well, this answered my question from my last post....the outhouse is being rebuilt! And it looks like at least one of those wooden panels laying around a couple weeks ago was from the original structure and is being reused as well.


That roof might even be original! Perhaps blogger OutsideTheBerm can tell us for sure.

5 comments:

Major Pepperidge said...

It looks like they are doing a great job of recreating the original Goldie's... I'm glad it will be there for years to come, although some of the magic of the old structure will be gone, if you know what I mean.

Dan Alexander said...

Great vintage Halloween ad there--and I like learning more about "old school" Knott's.

I have to say that I'm old enough to remember singing "You Light Up My Life" to my parents and their friends in our living room when I was much, much younger. Ha ha!

outsidetheberm said...

You are correct, Chris. You have pointed out a number of original building elements being re-used. Additionally, I understand the original front upstairs windows could not be used due to current building codes which prevented their placement near the roofline. You'll note they are not in the same place anymore if you compare old photos.
That said, the rebuild looks pretty nice, dontcha' think?

Vintage Disneyland Tickets said...

WOW!!! Looks great all things considered. NICE to see some of the old elements were retained, kind of surprising.

Major, I do know what you mean - at least we saw it one last time in April!

TokyoMagic! said...

Major, I know EXACTLY what you mean!

Dan, so you're and artist AND a singer! Talented!

OTB, I thought something was different about the windows, but I thought it was just because they were new. Now I see that they are shorter and placed higher up. Thanks for pointing that out. I do think it looks pretty nice.

And VDT, yes, it is kind of surprising. This gives me just a little shred more of hope in Cedar Fair. Now rebuild the Haunted Shack!!!