Kennywood Postcards - Then and Now!

I have gained a small collection of Kennywood postcards within the last few years, so I thought that it would be a fun time to look back at a few of them! Some are older than others, but I like them all. I will also be attaching the back of the postcards when they have messages, as it's cool to read these impressions from the era... some are related to the park, but most are not. I got the oldest of these at a little transportation museum in the northwestern Pennsylvania countryside for only a few bucks apiece. I was thrilled to see a rack of old cards there, and the owner was once a Kennywood employee himself in the 1960s.

Let's start at the very beginning of the park's history. As the postmark below shows, this card was written in 1912!

"We have had April, May, March and December all squeezed into the last 24 hours. This surely has been "some winter." Am en route for Shakespeare, thence to grant, to Mr. Georgis and this evening we take in the (?) Auto show. That ought to fill up my holiday alright. Geo. has the machine torn to peices (sic.) and I am going to give him a lift. The boulevard is not any too good for Mr. P or me, if you please. - E.M.S." Pretty great stuff! "The machine" - that's 1912 for you!

Well, that tells us nothing about Kennywood, but given that this card was sent in February, who knows if the writer ever visited the park. The cool thing is that both of the buildings shown are miraculously still in the park today! The Parkside Cafe, then known as the Casino (though it was never a gambling hall...) is seen in the foreground. Here's the same side of that 1900 (!!) building now, although this is facing in the opposite direction compared to the view on the card. Both levels have been enclosed, but it's otherwise remarkably similar to back then.

In the background, you can barely make out the park's original carousel building. This is the only park structure from Kennywood's opening year, 1899, still intact today. The first two Kennywood carousels were in this structure, but when the park gained its current, much larger model in 1927, it necessitated a larger building. The original pavilion then became a food stand.  Later, it was enclosed and turned into a Johnny Rocket's in 2014.

Next up is the massive Kennywood swimming pool, seen in this card postmarked 1938. From 1925 to 1973, Kennywood had this 350 x 180 ft pool, capable of holding 2.25 million gallons of water and 4,500 swimmers. Its large size led to excessive maintenance costs, causing the pool's closure after the 1973 season, when it was turned into a parking lot. It remained that way until 1995, which marked the opening of the 6-acre Lost Kennywood, a tribute to closed amusement parks through turn-of-the-century architecture and the largest expansion in Kennywood history.

"Pittsburgh Promotes Progress"
"Dear Maryon, When are you going to write me? I was expecting a letter a couple of weeks ago. Anyway, I am sending this postcard with the picture of the swimming pool I go to. It's at Kennywood Park. I go to our school picnic to another one there (?) times a year""

Kennywood included a rough replica of the pool fountain shown in this card when Lost Kennywood was built in 1995.

I purchased this card in one of the park's gift shops very recently, and it's a genuine old card. It has to be at least 25 years old, and I'm betting that it might be older. The Enterprise opened at Kennywood in 1978, and you can clearly see that from its decorations!

 In 2003, the Enterprise became the Volcano when the surrounding area was lightly re-themed into "Volcano Valley." It was plagued with problems, though, and I only ever saw this model operating (and rode it) once before it was removed in 2016. That season, Kennywood received an identical model from Lake Compounce, one of their "sister parks," as they were removing theirs to add a coaster. It remains at the park now and is open every day once again.

Last up for today is this semi-current collage of four of Kennywood's classic attractions: the Turtle (1927; one of 2 left in the world), Jack Rabbit (1920; famous for its "double dip"), miniature train (1945; came from 1939-40 New York's World's Fair), and Auto Race (1930; the last of its kind). 

All of these attractions still operate, but the miniature train was turned into "Journey with Thomas" in 2018. The framework of the two locomotives was kept, but one was refitted.

Yeah... I'm not a fan.

On that note, I hope you've enjoyed this trip through Kennywood history!

1968 Disneyland Fun Map

 

 

Today we're taking a look at my Disneyland Fun Map, copyright 1968. This style of map was sold in the park for years, and even when newer versions were released, they often built upon the base earlier maps such as this provided. It was drawn by Sam McKim, the master of this type of souvenir. Anyway, let's take a closer look at what's pictured! I apologize for the okay quality of these images, as I wasn't up to try and piece together larger pictures with our tiny printer scanner!

Just as almost every similar map ever produced, there's a transcript of Walt Disney's opening day speech and a great old-school variant of the familiar Disneyland logo in the bottom right hand corner.

Before we enter the park, take a quick look at the Disneyland Hotel. You can ride the elevator to the Top of the Park lounge, play several types of golf, and even ride a Helicopter to and from LAX! 

The old arrangement of the entrance leads straight under the train station and into Town Square. One of the many minute details is the trains of the Disneyland Railroad, which are all labeled by their names and function (in this case, "passenger train").

Journeying up Main Street, USA, we get an accurate listing of all of the shops present during the era. I like how the more important listings are bolded (hence Candle Shop vs. Silhouette Studio), and attractions, like the Main St. Cinema, get a star by their name.

Sleeping Beauty Castle is nicely lined up with the Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship, but the King Arthur Carousel and Mad Tea Party have been slightly rearranged for some artistic license. There's also no Big Thunder Trail at this time.

Moving to the left at the Hub, we come across the Jungle Cruise. You've got to love the boats with their festive, striped canopies! In the Adventureland shopping area, iis really a shame that the "Big Game Shoot" has gone to Yesterland. :-)

Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion are two of the most interesting components on this map, for the reason that they show the attraction "show buildings" in the proper location behind the railroad tracks. The Haunted Mansion is marked with a blue X as a "future attraction," but Pirates has all of its scenes labeled.

Panning out a bit, we see the grand expanse of the Rivers of America. There's also Nature's Wonderland in the upper right, and you can really see how the waterways of both areas were connected here. Still, though, you have to appreciate the extensive labeling, right down to "Catfish Cove" on Tom Sawyer Island. I understand that some of the earlier maps went even more in depth! Check out the neat line art and Indian Village.

We've already glimpsed Fantasyland, so let's jump across the park to Tomorrowland. The second of the two "future attractions" on this map is the "Spaceport and Rocket Flight," which of course evolved into Space Mountain. But unlike the Haunted Mansion, this process was over a much longer period of time, as Space Mountain didn't open until 1977.

 

Here's the rest of Tomorrowland. There are some slight differences in this upper corner of the park today: the Motor Boat Cruise and Skyway have been lost, along with the Fantasyland Autopia. The Peoplemover also isn't running to tie everything together any longer.

These souvenir "Fun Maps" are literally so cool, and I wish that all theme parks had artists on hand that could have designed something like this. I can say that I, for one, would be able to pour over them for hours, especially if they included such a sheer amount of detail as this one.

 

I hope that you have enjoyed your trip to Disneyland, c. 1968!

The Great Movie Ride

Picture taken in 2018, after ride closure

The Great Movie Ride was a trackless traveling theater darkride located at Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World. Opened in 1989, it was one of only two rides when the park debuted as Disney-MGM Studios. The entrance was through the park's iconic replica of the Hollywood Chinese Theater.

I got to ride this "spectacular journey into the movies" on my first visit to WDW in 2014, and my dad took these pictures. They aren't of the best quality (I'm not kidding, 'kay?), and I'm missing images of some of the key scenes, such as the theater at the opening...

...and the Alien sequence, as well as some of the more minor dioramas like Mary Poppins and Casablanca, but I'm still glad to have these images!

Footlight Parade was the first movie showcased. There's some spectacular footage of when the pyramid rotated and there was a fountain at the base - watch it if you get a chance!

Singin' in the Rain featured this memorable Gene Kelly figure and a water curtain raining down. I remember being fascinated with the way this animatronic "hung" off the lamppost, for some reason.

Of course, one of the coolest factors in the Great Movie Ride was the interaction that the live tour guide on every group of two cars had with the scenes. When the attraction was operating at full capacity, riders either had their tour "taken over" by a gangster or cowboy, depending on which setting their tram stopped in.

I was lucky to see the more scarce western scene, complete with a flaming bank!

 If you squint, you can make out Indiana Jones in this set of Raiders of the Lost Ark. 

When your "bad guy" tour guide was tempted by the jewel here, your original guide (the "oracle" scene here that warned against a curse) was restored in short order, with a skeleton appearing in place of the gangster/cowboy.

 Tarzan's trademark call accompanied him swinging to and fro in this display.

 An animatronic Jane was also present.

The grandest - and by far most memorable - tableau in the attraction revolved around the Wizard of Oz. The ride vehicles were surrounded by a munchkin village with lots of little animatronics, all singing happily.

However, the Wicked Witch of the West just has to come and spoil the party. Soon after, though, the munchkins return for a cheery singing of "Follow the Yellow Brick Road," and the cars advanced to see this scene:

Following this, you pulled into a theater for a montage of clips of classic movies before returning to load.

Of course, the Great Movie Ride closed in 2017 and was replaced by Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway, which just opened this March. I've purposefully been avoiding videos of the new attraction, so I can't speak for its quality, but I hope that it's good, as the Great Movie Ride truly was great! With such an abundance of projections, however, I don't have high expectations. I hope you've enjoyed these pictures!

The Old Mill is Coming Back!

 The event that fans of Kennywood have wished to occur for years has finally come to pass: Garfield’s Nightmare, the amusement park's Day-Glo boat ride with a slightly spooky twist, has been announced to be closing. For the upcoming 2020 season, the ride will be redone in a more traditional darkride style that will be evocative of the attraction that formerly inhabited the space, the Old Mill.

   Garfield’s Nightmare, based off of the popular comic strip cat, opened in 2004. Upon its debut, it instantly garnered much criticism over various issues; among them were including product placement throughout its passageways and the infusion of a popular character such as Garfield into Kennywood, which has always prided itself on maintaining a traditional amusement

park atmosphere over the years.

 The main gripe with Garfield, though, has always been that it is a dramatic departure in feel from the ride that preceded it. The Old Mill underwent numerous redesigns and name changes over its last few decades of operation, but constant throughout was a theme revolving around skeletons and the old west. Although not overly complex, many longtime Kennywood fans lamented the loss of the ride’s vintage aesthetic to a ride that was greatly considered to be too tongue-in-cheek and not focused enough on atmosphere. Overall, Garfield's Nightmare was simply an extremely cheesy ride that did not feel "right" in a park like Kennywood.

 

The pre-Garfield theme was also one that was much more in keeping with the ride’s history from the early 1900s. “Mill Chute” rides were once commonplace throughout amusement parks all across the country, but Kennywood’s is one of less than five surviving examples throughout the nation.

Kennywood has long encountered resistance against Garfield’s Nightmare, and park visitors have been crying for years for the park to restore the Old Mill to its former glory. Now, only after 16 seasons of operation, the Old Mill will finally be returning.

The refurbished ride's newly-released logo

This restoration of a classic Kennywood accordance goes nicely in accordance with the 100th anniversary of the Jack Rabbit coaster, which will also be celebrated in 2020 (As a side note, most historians consider the Jack Rabbit to be Kennywood’s oldest ride, but some make a case for the Old Mill, although it held a different structure before being completely rebuilt around 1926).

The refurbishment of this ride will likely be fairly simple and not very elaborate, but if it turns out to be anything like the work done to Noah's Ark, another one of Kennywood's vintage dark attractions, a few years back, then I think that we will be in for a treat. My expectations certainly aren't set too high, though, because I want to be surprised! I can't wait to check out the "new" Old Mil this upcoming season at Kennywood!

Vintage Knott's Berry Farm Souvenir Book Pt. 4 - Final

This is part four of an epic series of posts on the Knott's Berry Farm souvenir book that I started quite a while ago. There's not as many photos of the Farm itself this time around, but that doesn't mean that there isn't lots of great info!

 The Wagon Camp was the scene of many live performances over the years, chiefly the type of event exemplified below. The idea of having the audience sit in covered wagons around the perimeter of the theater is genius!

 I commented before on the posed nature of the publicity stills in this souvenir, but these two shots are the best. The Railway arriving at its station (or lack thereof) and all of the Ghost Town residents chilling inside the rail car itself give off great classic feelings! Even the Butterfield stagecoach got in on the action. The "only narrow-gauge passenger train in the United States operating on a year-round daily schedule" claim seems like it would be false to me, though. Maybe that was true before 1955?

The Calico Mine Ride was open at this point, so I guess that this dates this book as at least from 1960. However, beyond two pictures, there is no mention of it in the text, so that makes me think that the majority of the descriptions were probably recycled from earlier publications. No Hangtime or Xcelerator in the background of this picture! I believe that the picture of the Ghost Town and Calico Railway is where the Pony Express coaster sits today, which I understand gets quite a bad rap for being a short and weak ride.

Speaking of the Mine Ride, check out this awesome diagram from the Orange County Register!

 

 Walter Knott also purchased a real ghost town in the Mojave Desert, Calico, and it gets some publicity in this book. I can guess that some of the more imaginative structures (the bottle house?) were likely constructed during the Knott years. I hear that you can still visit the Haunted Shack here!

Even though they were featured more prominently earlier on in the brochure, the Knott's "Specialty Shops" don't fail to get another word in.

 

I'm very glad I have this map to help me find Knott's Berry Farm when I want to go there. Can anyone tell me where Pennsylvania is located on it? Notable is the fact that the spots representing such foreign, insignificant places as "Disneyland" and "Marineland" are barely half the size of the picture of the Chicken Dinner Restaurant. 

And that will do it for this series of posts. Thanks for coming along on the trip!

Vintage Knott's Berry Farm Souvenir Book Pt. 3

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