Uploaded February 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
Another snippet of a video we will release sometime that documents new footage of the Knott's Bear-y Tales ride at Knott's Berry Farm. The new footage of the Bear-y Tales showcases what the ride looked like in the blacklight and the incandescent spotlighting that was placed onto the characters as Disney Imagineer Rolly Crump intended when designing the ride...
Although taken sometime in 1985 during a time when the ride was experiencing a bit of jank. Its still no wonder this stuff exists and is a great documentation of the attraction.
Here we have the Card Reader known as Theda Bear (Rolly's reference to film actress Theda Bara) performing a Card Castle trick in the Country Fair scene. Which was one of the many special effects that was developed by a magician who worked at Disney named Leo Behnke. Leo was responsible for helping make many of the illusions in Knott's Bear-y Tales and was contacted by Rolly Crump to do so.
Leo Behnke passed away sometime in November of 2023 and we have documented his exact words regarding this effect:
"Card Castle - some tarot cards are laying on a table, and then they rise up to form a card castle. Two seconds later they collapse"
But yeah, seeing things like this makes you really wish Knott's could just do a new version of this ride rather the glitch filled mess that is there now. Don't get me wrong, Return To The Fair is cool (Plus it gave us the Coyote Pups who are the best new Bear-y Tales characters) and has a great idea of how Bear-y Tales would be done these days with the scenes involving a lot of the physical set pieces it has. But imagine how things would be if it had the animatronics, special effects, and whimsy of the original ride? It would be even better!
If you're interested in the history of Knott's Bear-y Tales and want to learn more about Disney Imagineer Rolly Crump's iconic ride! We have a history book for you to purchase here!
fantasy-funwheel.com/store/p/manual-j6fna
Another snippet of a video we will release sometime that documents new footage of the Knott's Bear-y Tales ride at Knott's Berry Farm. The new footage of the Bear-y Tales showcases what the ride looked like in the blacklight and the incandescent spotlighting that was placed onto the characters as Disney Imagineer Rolly Crump intended when designing the ride...
Although taken sometime in 1985 during a time when the ride was experiencing a bit of jank. Its still no wonder this stuff exists and is a great documentation of the attraction.
Here we have the Card Reader known as Theda Bear (Rolly's reference to film actress Theda Bara) performing a Card Castle trick in the Country Fair scene. Which was one of the many special effects that was developed by a magician who worked at Disney named Leo Behnke. Leo was responsible for helping make many of the illusions in Knott's Bear-y Tales and was contacted by Rolly Crump to do so.
Leo Behnke passed away sometime in November of 2023 and we have documented his exact words regarding this effect:
"Card Castle - some tarot cards are laying on a table, and then they rise up to form a card castle. Two seconds later they collapse"
But yeah, seeing things like this makes you really wish Knott's could just do a new version of this ride rather the glitch filled mess that is there now. Don't get me wrong, Return To The Fair is cool (Plus it gave us the Coyote Pups who are the best new Bear-y Tales characters) and has a great idea of how Bear-y Tales would be done these days with the scenes involving a lot of the physical set pieces it has. But imagine how things would be if it had the animatronics, special effects, and whimsy of the original ride? It would be even better!
If you're interested in the history of Knott's Bear-y Tales and want to learn more about Disney Imagineer Rolly Crump's iconic ride! We have a history book for you to purchase here!
fantasy-funwheel.com/store/p/manual-j6fna
