Greetings family, friends and theme park buddies! Today's vignette tells the brief backstory of Knott's Berry Farm's first Art Director Paul Von Klieben who was primarily responsible for creating "Ghost Town".....Bill
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MUSINGS OF A THEME PARK FAN
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GHOST TOWN STREET
Knott’s Berry Place, Buena Park, California
Ghost Town here is one of the most interesting landmarks to see. People from all over the States know about this place for it’s excellent Chicken Dinners and the many exciting free attractions. Ghost Town, we understand, is growing, and will soon sport two streets of buildings, showing how our forefathers lived in the days of ‘49.
Disappointed by the slow progress constructing the Covered Wagon Cyclorama Show honoring his grandmother’s trek to California, Walter Knott hired commercial artist Paul Von Klieben to complete the lagging project. Knott was so impressed with the results he created an adobe chapel to display Von Klieben’s second assignment, a portrait of Jesus that at the appointed time, with the use of black light and a simple timing device, appeared to open his eyes. “The Covered Wagon Show” and “The Little Chapel by the Lake” were the farms first show attractions and earned Von Klienben a promotion to Ghost Town’s Art Director where he established the western ambiance in the 1940’s as well as designing many of the signature buildings and attractions. He assisted Knott with reconstruction of Calico Ghost Town near Barstow and is also known as a fine artist creating paintings and murals of Native Americans and frontier scenes that appeared on Knott’s Berry Farm promotional materials, menus and postcards. Paul Von Klieben retired to Sonora, California and operated an Artist Studio near Columbia State Park for a brief time before passing in 1953.
Circa 1940’s Private Edition Paul V. Klieben Postcard from the collection of Bill Ralph
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