Knott’s Builds Pavilion for Its New Dog and Dolphin Show

Traveling circuses and carnivals used to ballyhoo their performances with “dog and pony shows.” Knott’s Berry Farm is neither a circus nor a carnival, it does not travel and it has no dog-and-pony show. What it does have is a “dog and dolphin show.”

Two new features are showing in Knott’s new Pacific Pavilion: “Splashdance ‘86,” consisting of agile aquabatics by two dolphins and a sea lion, alternating with “Snoopy’s Diving Doggies,” called by the park’s publicity department “a madcap carnival of cavorting canines.” It consists of six pups playing pool-side pranks and plunging from a 10-foot board.

The $1-million Pacific Pavilion seats about 1,000 people on three sides of a 54-by-45-foot pool, 14 1/2 feet deep, shading them under bright canvas. The fourth side is a proscenium stage. Behind the pavilion is a 28-by-12-foot pool, six feet deep that serves as a “green room” for the dolphins to rest in between performances.

The pavilion is called a “bright example of exposition architecture” by Knott’s resident architect, Jon Pugh, who directed its conception and design by the park’s design and planning department. He amplified:

“In planning the Pavilion, we went back to the classic Beaux Arts-style, adding a few touches of our own to bring it into the 1980s. We looked at existing Beaux Arts classics for inspiration--particularly those magnificent buildings erected in San Francisco for the Pan-Pacific Exposition of 1915.”

Knott’s Berry Farm, 8039 Beach Blvd., Buena Park, is open every day except Christmas. The new shows are playing several times daily.