Saturday, March 13, 2010

Busy Day at Knott's April 1956

The family that had the very un-busy day at Disneyland also went to Knott's Berry Farm on the same trip. Knott's at the time was very busy, probably due to the free admission and the lure of a great fried chicken dinner. It appears the park was beating Disneyland for attendance. First up is a shot of Old MacDonald's Farm with the goat on the roof. (Try that in today's society and someone would get sued!)

A nice overview of the Gold Panning attraction. Check out all the folks in line and watching.

Of course everyone must pose with the two cowpokes hanging out at the Wagon Trails Hotel.

But the big draw was free musical entertainment featuring both kinds of music...country and western. The band looks like a great 1940's Western Swing/Hillbilly band.

7 comments:

Vintage Disneyland Tickets said...

Wow - the Gold Panning attraction is packed!

Oh boy, that goat on the roof is something else! Were you supposed to throw food up there for it?

In the last photo, that tree looks perfect for hanging!

Major Pepperidge said...

Every group of Knott's photos has at least one featuring those cowpokes (or their female counterparts). They were amazingly popular!

Anonymous said...

Actually you can still find happy goats grazing on the roof of Al Johnson's restaurant in Door County Wisconsin

Anonymous said...

Man, I miss Knott's the way it was. Hopefully, the pending sale will still preserve what is left, and maybe even restore some of the former great theming.

(That band looks like a family.)

Jay Jennings said...

That band looks alot like Shirley Beeman and the Beeman Brothers, one of the very first musical groups to perform at Knott's.

Anonymous said...

The shot of the gold-panning area is just how i remember it.

Wonder how they manage wheelchair access to that pit today...or did they just fill it in?

JG

WmTodd said...

Knott's just isn't the same. :^( There is a family picture of me as a five-year old from the mid-60's, looking downward, shy and frightened, as Mom is trying to coax me into sitting on the bench between the two cowpokes. It's really quite funny.