Garner Holt Productions – Opening Our Doors for a Worthy Cause

The coolest part of this special event to raise funds for the preservation and restoration of the house Walt Disney was born in will be a unique VIP opportunity preceding the GHP tour. At 9am, Knott’s Berry Farm will usher 15 guests through the backstage gate and to the newly-refurbished Calico Mine Ride. There, in the hour before the park opens, Bill Butler and I will lead guests on a tour of the inner workings of Bud Hurlbut’s masterpiece. We’ll walk through backstage areas of the ride to see what it takes to transport guests back to a working gold mine in the 1870s. If you aren’t already, seeing the Mine Ride from this perspective will make you a big Bud Hurlbut fan—the ride’s layout, operational workings, and thematic achievement are simply incredible. Plus, we’ll share with you all the challenges we faced in bringing a ride that hadn’t changed much from its 1960 opening into a modern attraction filled with sophisticated animatronics, special effects and lighting, and an amazing audio system.

Then, we’ll board a train for a lights on trip through the mine, where we’ll point out all the wonderful detail to be found in the attraction, and where we added new magic to Bud’s original work. Lastly, we’ll flip the switch to “show conditions” for a final ride through as guests experience the attraction every day. After the Mine Ride tour, we’ll head over to Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant for breakfast before heading back to GHP for the afternoon events. While at Mrs. Knott’s, we’ll present our VIP guests with a special memento from the event: a real piece of the Calico Mine Ride created by GHP for the attraction. Knott’s has VERY generously allowed us access to the attraction for this exclusive, once-in-a-lifetime event. I’ve said it before: Knott’s is the most generous, supportive, and friendly park I’ve worked with, and we are grateful to them for allowing us to share the secrets of the Mine Ride with you.

I hope to see you at GHP on February 28th—it’s not just a wonderful event, it’s all for a very worthy cause that we can all support!

Read all about it at MiceChat