Knotts Berry Farm celebrates 75 years of Chicken Dinners

America’s first theme park started with chicken.

At the height of the Depression, Walter Knott convinced his wife, Cordelia, to sell her delicious fried chicken at a berry stand outside of their farm in Buena Park to earn some extra money.

Soon the lines outside the Knott’s berry farm were so long that Walter Knott began adding old ghost town buildings to the farm to keep customers entertained while they waited for his wife’s chicken and pies. The Knotts named the restaurant, appropriately enough, the Chicken Dinner Restaurant.

Eventually, Walter Knott added a covered wagon show, a narrow gauge railroad and the Bird Cage Theater, where comedian Steve Martin got his start.

Thus began Knott’s Berry Farm, recognized by the National Amusement Park Historical Assn. as America’s first theme park.

On June 13, Knott’s Berry Farm will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Chicken Dinner Restaurant. The guest of honor at a rededication ceremony at 1 p.m. will be Marion Knott, the last surviving daughter of Walter and Cordelia Knott. For more details, go to the park’s website.

– Hugo Martín, Times Staff Writer

(Photo: Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant with staff and children, 1956. Credit: Orange County Archives.)

Permalink | E-mail | Print | Add to My Trips

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 6, 2009 at 7:05 am by Hugo Martin and is filed under California, Family & Kids, Knott's, Orange County, Theme Parks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.