Knott's Berry Farm - Before & After part 1

A strange thing happened last week on my way to the Park, I got diverted to the Farm. It just seemed like a trip to Knott’s Berry Farm was over due, so I did the unthinkable and bailed on Disneyland and went to the farm.

Using my AAA card, I was able to get a nice discount. It wasn’t crowded at all, so I was able to get quite a few photos. At first I was totally lost among the monster rollercoaster’s, but as I began to scratch the surface I was able to see a surprising amount of vintage Knott’s remains. There are a distressing amount of things that are gone, but we’ll get to that in a later post.





Since I was able to find so much Vintage Knott’s, we’ll break down these Before & After segments into a few posts. So let’s get started, keep in mind I didn’t have any of these before photos with me at the time, but that said, you’ll get a good idea of what remains.

The Chicken Dinner Restaurant from a 1960 guide book.






The Chicken Dinner as seen today - it smelled so good, truly amazing. Neat old Lincoln out front.







One of the entrances as seen in this April 1958 from Daveland.






The main entrance today. Very different.






Entrance to Ghost Town in July 1961, thanks Daveland.







Entrance to Ghost Town today, I like the old sign better.






The Gold Trails Hotel in an old black and white postcard.






The Gold Trails Hotel today looks very much the same.





Goldie’s Joint from an old postcard.






Goldie’s Joint today is remarkably similar to yesteryear.






Goldie’s leg in the 1950’s






Still kicking strong!






The Blacksmith shop in the 1950’s.







Still a functioning Blacksmith shop in 2008, even if it’s roped off now.






Check out the inside, talk about authentic! Even the phone is 100 years old!






Here’s a street scene from the 1950’s,






As seen today, the Livery Stable is gone and the Silver Dollar is now a shooting gallery.





This row of building contains a museum now.






The Museum was closed, but the row of building hasn’t changed much.






Hop Wing Lee’s Laundry as seen in an old photo from Stuff from the Park.






Hop Wing Lee is still pressing shirts inside!






Sad Eye Joe in the 1950’s.





Sad Eye Joe today. I was having a hard time taking the picture when Joe started talking to me, I thought it was a recording, but it was really someone! He told me to come up front to Goldie’s and get a good picture since I was having such a hard time!






Here’s the little card he gave me, who says’ Knott’s doesn’t do Vintage?





Just over from the jail is where you’ll find these gamblers as seen in a 1975 Souvenir Guide.






They are still playing today.





Come back tomorrow for part 2, more of Ghost Town Before and After.

Bonus Sunday

Welcome to Bonus Sunday. From Friday's Vintage TV Guide post, here is the entire TV Guide from January 8-14, 1955.


TV Guide January 8-14, 1955 - 66mb





From Wednesday's post (link) here is the compelte Vacationland from the Summer of 1980.


Vacationland Summer 1980 - 55mb

Disneyland Album - TV Guide January 1955 - Part 2

From January 8-14, 1955, this TV Guide has part two of a four part series called “Disneyland Album”. You can see part one from last weeks post here (link). Check back next Friday for part three.

Arthur Godfrey sure was popular in the 1950’s, here’s a great Normal Rockwell portrait of Godfrey on the cover.






“As we see it” Just think, before TV everyone was “running in all directions vainly seeking amusement”… And the TV Teletype – New York page: "Sammy Davis Jr. will do his first TV entertaining since his recent auto accident”.






Here are the Disneyland pages, Fantasyland – Second of a Series. I know, these really have very little to do with Disneyland the park, take it up with TV Guide!






Something for the girls - Hair-Do’s Ahead. Channel listing for New York City – January 1955.






Wednesday’s listing showing the Disneyland TV show, part 2 of Treasure Island. There were a total of four shows in Color for the entire week (hey, that's twice last weeks count); two of them are on this page!






Friday night’s listings, for those of you who are only a couple of decades old, TV used to simply end late at night, the screen went to static and snow for several hours. The static and snow was actually more entertaining than some late night TV these days… George Gobel, I remember him from Hollywood Squares.






And last, the TV Teletype for Hollywood. Lucy and Desi sign a multimillion dollar deal with CBS to continue their show thru 1957. Check out the deal James Mason made with Disney to star in 20,000 Leagues.





Come back on Bonus Sunday for the complete issue.

$99 Annual Passport - 1989

Here’s a neat little flyer from 1989. It’s not dated, but looking at the block-out dates on the back, it matches up to the summer holidays of 1989. It’s interesting how you can still get a (Socal Select) annual passport for near this price.  When did the annual passport start? I've heard it was 1987?






The Premium Passport has nearly doubled in cost, still worth it, especially if you use it 17 times, 18 counting today – yes I’m at the park again today!






And for some color, here’s the cover to version 1 of the “Your 1989 Souvenir Guide”. Those of you (Progressland) who watch the blog closely will recall I posted version 2 of this guide back in September (link).





Check back on Bonus Sunday for the entire 1989 version 1 guide.

National Association of Realtors Night at Disneyland

Since Monday was November 10th, technically this post should have been on Monday, but the Magi-Pak tickets seemed more fun for an anniversary post so this post is a couple days late.

From November 10, 1980 it’s the National Association of Realtors Night at Disneyland! 6:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., odd start and end times? “Our Private Night”, this must be one of those parties where the park was closed to the general public, that sounds like my kind of night at the park!







Free parking and lots of legal mumbo-jumbo… PLEASE LOCK YOUR VEHICLE, this is 1980 ya know!







I don’t have a Winter 1980 Vacationland (there’s a few I don’t have – yet) but here’s a classic cover of a super Vacationland from the Summer of 1980.





Come back on Bonus Sunday for the entire issue, its got some great articles; Pyrotechnics with a Personal Touch; Summer Music in the Park; Welcome to the Tahitian Terrace from Kikkoman; Columbia, Gem of the Ocean and more.

Disneyland Magi-Pak Tickets - Part 2

Let’s take another look at some Magi-Pak tickets. The tickets in today’s post are all lettered tickets; yesterday’s post had tickets that were good for any attraction. Just as with the Magic Kingdom Club (that series post is coming soon) Disneyland generally issued the “good on any attraction” tickets in the winter months and the lettered tickets in the summer months.

Up first is a partial Magi-Pak lettered ticket book, oh boy do I wish I had a complete one of these!






Here’s the “B” & “D” tickets from the above book. It’s difficult to date based on the attractions, but I would place them around 1964.








Slightly newer “A” & “B” tickets, 1968???








This “Star & Castle Paper” “A” Ticket is from late 1966 or early 1967. I sure do dig that paper!






These last two scans are from my copy of the grand Disneyland Ticket Binder. There is no other information than what you see here. Looks like the back to a mid 1960’s Magi-Pak book with an “Early Bird Special” coupon!






Lastly a nice mix of Magi-Pak tickets and back of the book.





Thanks for all the nice comments on my “one year” post yesterday, I really do enjoy the blog and the comments!