Worlds Collide

Though he contributed to the early designs of Magic Kingdom, it’s probably fair to say that Rolly Crump quickly became disillusioned with the increasingly corporate structure of Disney after Walt’s death.

In Disneyland, Walt had recruited animators, background artists, and painters who were given the freedom to pursue passion projects and make up the rules as they went. Rolly often described Disneyland as a project where each WED designers’ touch could be seen in the attractions he or she lead; where projects overseen by individuals with different styles came together as a beautiful whole – what he called a “gorgeous salad.”

To his thinking, Magic Kingdom was doomed to be less a salad and more a melting pot, adhering to a corporate style book and downplaying each artist’s credit in favor of the increasingly-generic “Disney." Crump said of the Floridian park in a 2018 interview with the LA Times:

“It had no feeling of Disney. […] Disneyland has charm. Disneyland freaking hugs you and kisses you. […] When you go to Disney World and you see the castle, you want to genuflect. And that disturbed me. […] I helped design the rides at Disney World, but we lost the charm. […] The whole thing fell apart. I quit.”

By the early 1970s, Rolly Crump was a free agent.

And wouldn’t you know it? Right about then, back at Knott’s Berry Farm, Walter and Cordelia’s daughter Marion Knott had stepped up and overtaken the family business. With big plans for her father’s Ghost Town, she set out to find talent that could usher in a new era of attractions, including a spectacular new dark ride...

Fortunes and Fires and Bears

Given that attractions outside of Disney’s realm aren’t usually as well documented in their design and construction, many of the best stories about the making of Knott’s Bear-y Tales could easily have been lost to time… if Crump himself hadn’t told them! In both More Cute Stories Vol. 6 and a storytelling interview chronicled in Chris Merritt’s 2010 book Knott’s Preserved, Rolly recalls the unusual circumstances that lead to the ride’s design.

We know that in 1971, Marion Knott decided the time was right to expand the park with the addition of a third themed area. Joining the original Ghost Town and 1969’s Fiesta Village was the new Gypsy Camp. (Note: Today, “Gypsy” is considered a pejorative term to describe the traditionally-nomadic Romani people. The term has been used as a slur given that it’s frequently used to connotate illegality and thievery. It’s used here in the context of the park’s historic themed area.)

A multi-level land built into sculpted cliffs, the nomadic camp invited guests to into flea markets, bazaars, vardo wagons, and mystical fern grottos where traveling performers, organ grinders, fortune tellers, and musicians brought the land to life. Given the success of the Calico Mine Ride and Log Ride, however, Marion reportedly felt that Gypsy Camp needed a dark ride of its own...

Though disguised behind a rocky facade, the land’s largest building offered two arcades (the Gypsy Faire on level two and Thieves Market on level one), either of which offered 20,000 square feet of potential showspace. Crump was personally recommended.

Rolly told Chris Merritt, “I had grown up with Knott’s since I was 9 years old! I remember when it really was a farm! I even remember before the Ghost Town, when my grandfather would take us down there for the chicken dinner and boysenberry pie.” By September 1974, Crump was on the project.

Working with an idea proposed by young Knott’s designer Wally Huntoon (a story of a young boy and his donkey heading to a fair), Crump concepted a dark ride passing through a frog forest and into nomadic Romani camp filled with dancers, artists, mystics, and fortune tellers. Crump recalled that of all his sketches, a favorite among the Knott family was one showing a fortune teller dancing with a family of bears. That’s what lead the family to consult with an outside marketing firm. “I said, ‘You know, Walt Disney never test marketed anything. If he felt it was a good idea, he just went ahead and did it,'” Crump recalled.

Ultimately, though, Crump concedes it was “probably a good idea” given that when the results came back, the crew was tasked with transforming all the human characters into animals and the “Knottsenbear-y” family was born.

As luck would have it, new concepts added to the ride – like the bear family and the idea of an opening scene passing through a boysenberry jam factory – were good complements to a much larger transformation taking place. Coinciding with the arrival of the world’s first modern inverting roller coaster (Arrow Development’s Corkscrew), Marion decreed that the entire Gypsy Camp area that had only debuted four years earlier ought to be redesigned as an ode to the heyday of her parents’ generation: the Roaring 20’s.

With about half the ride installed in the second-story space in April 1975, an overnight fire destroyed nearly everything that had been constructed. (It’s believed that the ride’s destruction was an act of arson related to a union dispute. Marion Knott can be seen surveying the damage in the Orange County Archives image below.) 

Despite the massive setback, it was “full speed ahead” for Knott’s Bear-y Tales. With just six weeks until the ride’s planned opening, setpieces were rebuilt and final touches installed. Crump recalled to Merritt, “It took Chris [Crump, his son and Disney Imagineer,] 3 months to build the Chug the first time—because he did it from scratch—and the next one he did in 6 weeks!”

Amazingly, the ride was delayed less than a month, ultimately opening just after the rest of the Roaring 20’s area on July 4, 1975. The old, two-story arcade of the Gypsy Camp didn’t clean up too badly, with Knott’s Bear-y Tales taking up residence in the reclad building resembling a streetcar substation and red car trolley garage.

Ready to head inside? Read on...