Monday, June 16, 2008

Orange, Art Hansen, COPH, Knott's & Pink Floyd

On this day, 121 years ago (1887), the town of Orange had its first "Grand Auction Sale" of town lots. Seventy-five lots and five acre tracts were for sale. Today's image is a detail of a larger bird's-eye view of Orange as it appeared in 1886. For the entire illustration (in much higher resolution) click on the image above.
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I need to catch up on some old news from CSUF's Center for Oral & Public History (COPH). For starters, Art Hansen retired from teaching last month (after 42 years), and also stepped down as COPH's director. Natalie Fousekis will begin as the new director in August. Cora Granata will be associate director, and Ben Cawthra and Ray Rast will be associate directors.
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This week, my continuing search for vintage O.C. video on YouTube turned up footage of Knott's Berry Farm's now-defunct Kingdom of the Dinosaurs. This dark ride opened in 1987, replacing the Rolly-Crump-designed Knott's Bear-y Tales. It closed in 2004. This ride-through footage comes from 2001. (Am I the only one who thought the music - especially in the Ice Age areas - sounded like Pink Floyd's "Terminal Frost"?)

5 comments:

outsidetheberm said...

Oh my gosh, Chris - now I've got to go dig out the old Pink Floyd albums -Because I think you're right!

Chris Jepsen said...

It's on "A Momentary Lapse of Reason." In fact, a lot of the instrumental passages on that album sound like Kingdom of the Dinosaurs. But they aren't. They're just very similar.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I already know how cynical this will sound, but here goes:

Um, we need some Knott's Bear-y Tales music and YouTube vids! Not "modern" stuff like this...

Anything post 1981 in Knott's is fake! Icky, gross and for the corporate tools!

RIP Walter.

Chris Jepsen said...

7th Grade: Start watching about 23 seconds into this video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjQM_3WKgNI

colony rabble said...

I got my first "real" kiss in Knott's Beary Tales...cried when it came out and never did go on the new ride.