Hump-Day Dumpty-Week 6

This week’s humpty joins us from Holiday World, where he hopes you like his fancy his prince costume, and asks that you please not bring up his pock marks.

Holiday World’s Humpty is part of the scenery on the park’s Freedom Train ride, and he’s been teetering on his wall since the 1950s when Fairy tale Goose statutes were added and the train was renamed the “Mother Goose Land Train”. Until 2012, you could still ride the original “Freedom Train” which was the last remaining ride operating continuously since the park’s 1946 opening. The original train has been retired and replaced with the Holidog Express Train, which still tours Mother Goose Land daily.

All Aboard for a Happy Hump-Day!

 

Memory Lane-Santa’s Village-Scotts Valley, CA

In the redwoods of Northern California, the first franchised theme park was born. The first Santa’s Village opened in 1955 in San Bernadino, where it operated until 1988.  The park was so successful that Santa’s Village opened it’s second location in Scott’s Valley in 1957. Franchising was a relatively new concept, and something that had never been done before in the theme park industry. Using his formula for successful franchises, Glenn Holland opened a third location in Dundee IL in 1959. This location still operates today, and is on my shortlist of parks to visit!

Sadly, in 1979, Santa’s Village in Scott’s Valley closed its doors forever. ACE Norcal visited and filmed the remnants of the park, and found some amazing history there, including some buildings that are standing, and amazingly tickets and maps from 1979 that are still on the property but have since been reclaimed by nature!

K. Gordon Murray Fans will recognize the parks as the inexpensive backdrops for new scenes he had shot and inserted into Mexican films before turning them into cheap kiddie matinees for American children in the 196s. Santa and his Helpers, Santa’s Enchanted Village, and Santa’s Magic Kingdom all include new Santa’s Village footage cut into the original Mexican films to make for a schlocky record of the parks (and the awkward acting abilities of the park employees).

You can watch Santa and His Helpers here to see some of the park elves making toys, the Easter Bunny riding the train, and some great shots of the park.

If you want to experience a bit of this park’s magical history yourself, hope is not lost. Macdorsa park is home to 2 original mushroom statues from Santa’s Village! But in order to fully immerse yourself in the memories, Sorensen’s All Seasons Resort now owns 2 of the original buildings which have been converted to cabins. You can actually stay in Santa’s House and the Chapel overnight, and they are working on construction on the Elves Workshop! I sense a trip to Northern California in my future!

Although Santa’s Village is gone in CA, it is nice to see Californians saving a bit of their history. For a walk down memory lane, don’t miss santasvillage.net where a rich history of the parks can be found; or you can always join up with the Santa’s Village Memories facebook group to share some of your own photos and help keep the park alive!

Definitely don’t miss the opportunity to visit the still operational Santa’s Village near Chicago, where you can step back in time and still enjoy the park today and make new memories.

Do you have any memories of Santa’s Village? Tell us about them in the comments!

 

 

 

Spring Cleaning! (Time to put your mittens away)

The harsh winter snow has finally melted here in the northeast, and since the sun is shining, and the birds are singing, it’s probably time for a little bit of spring cleaning. I think it’s safe to put away your mittens, kittens.

This mother kitten from Storytown USA is finishing up her sweeping, and has a pie cooling just for you. Sadly, when I met up with mama, It appeared that her 3 little kittens no longer live with her, as evidenced in this photo. Maybe they were just out looking for their lost mittens?

However, while she was cleaning up, mama kitten found this old slide from 1967. (credit: Flickr user chuckthewriter)

The house is much more demure today, don’t you think? (Though I tend to like the older garish one much better!)

 

Hump-Day Dumpty! – Week 5

This Wednesday, our patriotic Humpty joins us, not from a park, but from a quirky bakery in New Jersey, Del Buonos. He just hopes they don’t run out of eggs in the kitchen!

Funspot, World’s Largest arcade and Former Home to Storybook Forest

Anyone who has seen the 2007 documentary King of Kong has heard of Funspot in Laconia, New Hampshire. This famous arcade museum now holds the Guiness Book of World Records as the largest arcade in the world with over 600 games! It’s where Billy Mitchell breaks high score records, and if you’re lucky you might even see Steve Weibe reach a Donkey Kong “kill screen“.

I bet what you didn’t know is that at one point Funspot was home to a Storybook park of it’s very own! When Bob Lawton opened the “Weirs Sports Center” in 1952 with $750 borrowed from his grandmother, no one had even heard of video games! In fact, for 25 years, Funspot operated as a family fun center offering little more than a mini golf, a penny arcade, and a snack bar. However, by 1964 Bob had expanded to a larger 21 acre location and renamed his business Funspot. After the expansion, in 1971 they added a new theme park called “Indian Village”. Five years later, Bob opened his first kiddie park, a walk through attraction based on fairy tales, and called it “Storybook Forest”.

The park featured walkaround characters like the Gingerbread Man and the Big Bad Wolf, fibergass figures made by Peter Hall, and housed a famously gingerbread shaped lake!

A promotional video from 1982 shows us everything the park had to offer, including some great shots of Storybook Forest and it’s shows.

By the following year, Indian Village would have closed, followed by the closure of Storybook Forest. Now the only remaining structure from the park is a lone  red schoolhouse which still stands on the property.

But lucky for us, Bob still works at Funspot every day and he respects his history because 60 years of memories can be found on display in the snack bar, the “Braggin’ Dragon“. While you enjoy a slice of pizza or some nachos between games, we encourage you to stroll around the restaurant and take in the history that Bob has lovingly preserved here. You’ll find old park maps, menu boards, costumes, props, and signs from the park’s history. Nearby, you can still find some of Storybook Forest’s figures rescued from the trash heap and on exhibit for the enjoyment of future generations. We never like to see attractions close, but what a wonderful way to pay tribute to a fallen park! Here are some of the items I found on display. (Do you recognize anything?)

Old King Cole, Hansel and Gretel, and the witch, Farmer in the Dell, and the Gingerbread Man costume head are all on display.

Closeup of Peter Hall figures, Walk-around Gingerbread Costume head, and some more great signs!

My favorite figure is this evil Frog Troll! (Does anyone know what he’s from?)

Thanks for saving these things for us, Bob! Keep on playing!

 

 

Hump-day Dumpty! – Week 4

 

This week’s Humpty joins us from Egg Harbor, NJ. Looks like we caught him before he put his bow tie on! How embarrassing! He’ll remind you where you are and also remind you to blend your makeup.

Do you know your Elfabet?

You are probably familiar with Dasher, Dancer, Prancer and Vixen, right? Well I bet none of you have heard of “Vollymolly, Alphy, Quantam, or Xixie?” These are some of the names of Santa’s 26 elves according to the Elfabet Game at Santa’s Village in Jefferson, New Hampsire!

The Elfabet game is a scavenger hunt style game which begins at “Elfabet University”.  Here, you are given a personalized card on a string, intended to be worn during your day at the park. The card has a Christmas tree made up of every letter in the alphabet.  As you walk around enjoying the park, you’ll encounter little elves, each of them holding a gift box. The box has a lever on it and a punch mechanism inside that lines up with the letters on your tree card. Once you complete the punch card and return to the Elfabet University, you will be rewarded with a personalized diploma, and a prize! And trust me when I say the prizes we got were pretty great!-Skylar chose an Elfabet magnet, and I chose an Elfabit enamel pin; Neither of which could be purchased in the gift shop. You just had to earn them! The great thing is that even though we were 2 adults in our 30s, we were not only allowed to play the game, but encouraged to participate. Park staff seemed excited to see how many we had found and hinted at the location of letters we were still missing. Before we left the park, we were sure to  find them all and collected our diplomas and our prizes!  As we discovered them, I also snapped a photo of each elf! Alphy, Betty, Carol, Danny, Emo, and Fournier Goodenbread, Hans, Icy, Jollybelly, Kringle, and Lucky Mr. Medee, Norma, Olaf, Peanut, Quantum, and Raymond Sharyn, Tonio, Upsy Daisy, Vollymolly, Whistler, and Xixie   Yuleo, and Zulema!

 

Santa’s Village opened in 1953, and this game is a wonderful update to a vintage park! You can see the love in this park, as everything looks well maintained and new. Our little Elfabet friends fit right in with the theme and were a fun activity for kids of all ages! It was free to play, and kept us amused all day. Plus, who doesn’t love to get a prize?

Now you know your Elfabet, from Alphy to Zulema! Have you ever played the Elfabet game? Did you find them all? Show us your completed punch cards in the comments!

I Wouldn’t Want to Walk a Mile in These Shoes!

Perhaps no one image epitomizes kiddie park architecture more than the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe.  Here I’ll be looking at a few different shoe-homes in the themed lands I’ve visited!

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.
She had so many children, she didn’t know what to do;
She gave them some broth without any bread;
Then whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.

At Storybook Land in NJ, You’ll find a familiar yellow shoe with a nice toe-front window, 2 ankle windows, and a protective roof.  As shoe houses go, this one is pretty luxurious! They’ve got a full kitchen and bedroom, and have even put up curtains! Step inside though, and you’ll find that the kids have run amok. If that isn’t bad enough, the stork is back again to bring mom yet more trouble!

Storybook Forest in Pennsylvania seems to have used the similar layout for their shoe, same roof covered boot with laces hanging down, just enough to tempt little Timmy to climb up and harass his sister who is dangerously hanging out of the 2nd floor window. Ugh. Kids. The old woman here is played by a live actress, who frankly, wasn’t very old…but on the plus side, she did have a live baby goat in her lap! You can walk through this shoe, and as shoes over-run with kids go, this one is relatively tame.

 

The shoe that has seen the most renovation is definitely in Storyland. The original shoe seen below in black and white, was a lot boxier, with doors and windows for children to climb inside, and to dangerously climb to its upper windows dangling appendages out! In the 1960s, the fiberglass shoe appears to have taken it’s place (maybe built around the original structure-does anyone out there in Kiddieland know?). The shoe that stands today has no laces, like most others but it does have sweet little overhangs, and window detailing. Unfortunately, some of its best architectural details (like a white picket fence around the toe, and a stork  flying overhead) are now gone. Colors have stayed relatively faithful to the vintage look, but it looks like some new shingles may have been added at some point over the years.

Storyland The Old Woman Who Lived In the Shoe

 

Next up, Holiday World (Indiana) brings us a differently shaped shoe! A shorter apartment sized boot for a smaller family of 6. Still, the smiling mama seems like she has her hands full with 2 babies, one toddler (who can’t seem to stay dressed), and 2 older kids sliding down the side and throwing balls around. Mom lives in this very tiny home with no roof, and no windows. With these troublemakers in such a small space, it’s no wonder she has grey hair!

Not to be out-done, the Magic Forest in NY has a giant red shoe in teh middle of the forest. Mom wisely sits in the top of the boot, keeping a close watch on her annoying little brats below. In an interesting choice, they have used real wigs on this figure. In 2009, she had a strange brown bob. By 2012, it looks like she let it grow out a bit, and something scared her so badly it turned her hair white. Maybe it is the LIVE SPIDERS LIVING IN HER WIG!!! Creepy as can be, and I love them for it.

Storytown USA once stood nearby in Lake George. The park is now owned and operated by Six Flags, and most of the 1960s era kiddie attractions have been re moved. The vintage postcards on the left are from the fantastic site “The Imaginary World“. (used with permission). On the right is the shoe structure as it stands today. I would have loved to have seen it in it’s glory day, but I am happy it still exists and is relatively unchanged. Steps to the upper level have been removed, flower pots are gone, and there is no more bow peep to greet you. Still, I’m so happy it remains!

Lastly, Our friends at Gooney Golf in Lake George  have added a simplified version of Old woman and her kids to their 19th hole.

I am pretty disappointed in myself because I know of another giant shoe at a golf course in Ocean City, NJ, but I have somehow never snapped a photo of it! Thank goodness for the internet! I’ll make that right for you and snap a photo on my next visit!

 

Which one is your favorite?

Hump-Day Dumpty! – Week 3

Happy Wednesday! Today’s comb over, kissy lip, Humpty joins us from Storyland in Glen, NH, where I beg you not to look directly into his eyes!

The Not So Magic Kingdom

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and these parks figure if you’re going to imitate anyone, why not imitate the greatest kiddie park that ever existed! Although they aimed high and wished upon a star, they missed the mark in these unlicensed Disneyland inspired displays.

We know that Disney didn’t invent the fairy tale and some stories had been interpreted for over a hundred years before Walt came on the scene. In fact, many of the parks I visit predate Disneyland’s opening in 1955.   However, there is no denying that some of these works were a little more than inspired by the Disney animated features and attractions that came out of Disneyland in the 1950s. Here are a few of my favorites.

The first is an incredible series of paintings on wood decorating a bumper car ride at the Jersey Shore. Goofy manages the line, while Mickey, Donald, and the Big Bad Wolf have some fun in their cars. Something is not quite right about them, maybe they’ve been bumped one too many times? Giggle if you want, but I bet most of you would hang these in your house if you came across one somewhere!

Take a train ride into the woods at the Magic Forest and keep your eyes out for these guys. Here you’ll find a decapitated Donald. YIKES, and two wooden signs on trees likely repurposed from another attraction. Something about Donald’s dead eyes on the sign are not right. I’m not even going to discuss the perspective used on Mickey’s ears, or that sassy finger wagging pose he’s in.

Although Snow White has been represented in various renderings since the 1800s when Storybook Land built this Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs house, the costuming of our heroine and the sculpts of her dwarf pals is a little more than reminiscent of the Disney princess seen in the 1937 film. Decorating the set with plastic cups from Disneyland and a 1970s Snow White trash can that probably once belonged to an employee’s kid doesn’t help matters much either. I commend them for the details on the costumes and the set, as someone who is clearly very talented put a lot of work into these.

We’ve done a entire feature on  Kiddie Park versions of Alice, but I couldn’t leave this out, as our White Rabbit, Tweedldee & Tweedledum, The Chesire Cat, Red Queen, and Alice herself all appear to be lifted from the Disney flick. I’ve seen a lot of Alice movies in my day but this one is unmistakably inspired by Disney.

And finally, standing 10 feet tall and made of real wood is Gepetto’s toy son who just wanted to be a real boy. Pinocchio had existed for 57 years before the Walt Disney company put him in film in 1940, but this park definitely took their inspiration from familiar source material when they designed him from the tip of his hat to his little red lederhosen!

 

Although these are sometimes funny, I am featuring them out of love. Park owners know that they need to stay current if they will continue to keep kids interested and if that means the occasional unlicensed character shows up from time to time to keep it relevant, so be it. Look at these as works of art and you’ll see a real love of the Disney characters here. After all, when I say “Snow White”  do you think of a black and white lithograph in a Grimm’s Fairy tale book, or do you think of a black-haired princess in a blue, yellow and red dress? If I ask you to picture “Pinocchio” do you see a wooden boy, or do you see a smiling cartoon character in red  lederhosen and a yellow alpine hat? The truth is, these characters are firmly ingrained in our collective subconscious. It is no wonder then, that when a park needs to decorate their bumper cars, or add a little bit of character to their train ride through the woods, that these familiar faces pop up…licensed, or not.