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in search of lost hobbits
Upon learning that he was headed for a vacation in the redwood forests where it was located, I gave the world's foremost scholar of The Hobbit, Dr. John D. Rateliff, Ph.D., directions to the world's tackiest Hobbit souvenir, Hobbiton U.S.A.
I carefully expressed my information in the conditional - if it's still there - because my own visit had been over a decade ago, and Googling it today had produced the kind of results I associate with restaurants that have gone out of business. (Though you never know. The last restaurant that gave me that kind of vibe on the web - its website was dead, the reviews were all old, and the various phone numbers were all wrong when I called them - turned out to be alive and thriving when I tried visiting it.) My suspicions were right, alas - John reports that Hobbiton U.S.A. is no more, or more precisely that the physical remains are still partially there, but it's quite closed and derelict.
Too bad. I actually found it disarmingly charming, enough so that I kept copies of the brochure and gift-shop postcards. Hobbiton U.S.A. was a set of diorama scenes outlining the plot of The Hobbit, set among the trees in a short walk through the redwood forest. At each display, you could press a button and a loudspeaker would emit a summary of that part of the book's plot. These were, as I recall, fairly accurate, and as I noted in commenting on John's blog entry, the last line of the last narration was unforgettable: "And so Bilbo returned safely to his hobbit hole, just as you will soon return to the parking lot."
As art, the diorama scenes (sculpted by Frank Dunn, according to one of the postcards) were sub-Rankin/Bass and indeed somewhat influenced by them, but they were cute to see nestled in the forest. Being considerably smaller than life size added to the effect. Were I truly dedicated, I would scan the cards and brochure and post them here, but here's one image from online. Feast your eyes on Gollum, whom I recall as being not much bigger than this photo, though this close-up doesn't show the context of the toothy little concrete-rock cave he's sitting inside. Laketown is actually located on a small pond, with a jolly Nesbitian Smaug with big fluffy wings sitting upright on the hill above.
Over the years, I've occasionally told people that I'd visited Hobbiton U.S.A., but when I try to describe it nobody believes me. Videographic evidence of its existence, however, may be found in the 2005 DVD documentary on Tolkien and Jackson fandoms, Ringers: Lord of the Fans. Like Titus rediscovering Gormenghast, I can assure you that it was really there. Trust Gollum, yes preciouss.
I carefully expressed my information in the conditional - if it's still there - because my own visit had been over a decade ago, and Googling it today had produced the kind of results I associate with restaurants that have gone out of business. (Though you never know. The last restaurant that gave me that kind of vibe on the web - its website was dead, the reviews were all old, and the various phone numbers were all wrong when I called them - turned out to be alive and thriving when I tried visiting it.) My suspicions were right, alas - John reports that Hobbiton U.S.A. is no more, or more precisely that the physical remains are still partially there, but it's quite closed and derelict.
Too bad. I actually found it disarmingly charming, enough so that I kept copies of the brochure and gift-shop postcards. Hobbiton U.S.A. was a set of diorama scenes outlining the plot of The Hobbit, set among the trees in a short walk through the redwood forest. At each display, you could press a button and a loudspeaker would emit a summary of that part of the book's plot. These were, as I recall, fairly accurate, and as I noted in commenting on John's blog entry, the last line of the last narration was unforgettable: "And so Bilbo returned safely to his hobbit hole, just as you will soon return to the parking lot."
As art, the diorama scenes (sculpted by Frank Dunn, according to one of the postcards) were sub-Rankin/Bass and indeed somewhat influenced by them, but they were cute to see nestled in the forest. Being considerably smaller than life size added to the effect. Were I truly dedicated, I would scan the cards and brochure and post them here, but here's one image from online. Feast your eyes on Gollum, whom I recall as being not much bigger than this photo, though this close-up doesn't show the context of the toothy little concrete-rock cave he's sitting inside. Laketown is actually located on a small pond, with a jolly Nesbitian Smaug with big fluffy wings sitting upright on the hill above.Over the years, I've occasionally told people that I'd visited Hobbiton U.S.A., but when I try to describe it nobody believes me. Videographic evidence of its existence, however, may be found in the 2005 DVD documentary on Tolkien and Jackson fandoms, Ringers: Lord of the Fans. Like Titus rediscovering Gormenghast, I can assure you that it was really there. Trust Gollum, yes preciouss.
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I was totally ignorant that such a thing ever existed. When I started reading, I thought the reference might be to something I read about some years ago, which was a proposed development of actual hobbit-style houses. Semi-underground. Actually pretty environmentally friendly from the description. In Washington state, maybe? I think a couple had been built, but it didn't go anyway apparently.
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