A round-up of Kennywood mascots past and present

If you’ve been to Kennywood this season, you might have noticed some new larger-than-life characters around the park. As part of its 125th anniversary, Kennywood brought two mascots out of retirement: Jeeters, a fluffy pink creature in a green bandana and Grapes of Wrath esque hat, and Colonel Bimbo Fraudwater, a mustachioed clown-man wearing a blue hat and most of a striped barbershop quartet suit.

The pair of mascots first returned in person last August as part of Kennywood’s annual Fall Fantasy Parades and have since appeared in signs and art throughout the park. Jeeters has even helmed his own bar, Jeeters’ Pub, opened in April and billed as “a hometown bar” that is “themed” to the “popular pink mascot from the 1970s.”

Not having heard of Jeeters or his genteel friend from 50 years ago — or almost any of Kennywood's mascots of yore aside from Kenny Kangaroo — I had to know more. With a lot of help from Heinz History Center, who maintains Kennywood’s extensive archives, Pittsburgh City Paper attempts to index Kennywood mascots past and present.

Austin Jeeters (aka Geeter or Geeters), ca. 1975-1990s, 2023-?

Along with his companion Colonel Bimbo, Austin Jeeters began life inauspiciously, picked as a generic option out of a mascot catalogue in the 1970s.

A throwback social media post from Kennywood last March, months before Jeeters’ resurrection, sheds light on his origins, and even suggests the park itself was wrapping its head around his reappearance.

“He’s BIG, SCARY and PINK!” Kennywood wrote. “Okay, maybe not all that big and scary, but Jeeters is definitely pink!”

Archival photos show Jeeters generally wandering around Kennywood, waving, patting kids on the shoulder, and striking up conversations.

A Pittsburgh Press article from 1981 also provides a rare look behind the scenes at the mostly teenaged Kennywood employees who portrayed mascots including Jeeters, described as “fuzzy pink hillbilly [who] wears patch yellow overalls and a green Keystone Cops hat.” Apparently, back then mischief abounded, with children at Kennywood trying to prank, chase, and “bedevil” the mascots.

According to Kennywood's throwback post, ultimately “random pink guy” Jeeters, along with the “infamous” Col. Bimbo, simply didn’t “resonate” with parkgoers as much as “the cute kangaroo.” Both mascots were placed in “semi-retirement” sometime in the 1990s, still making the occasional appearance, including at the Fall Fantasy Parade for Kennywood’s centennial in 1998.

However, some Kennywood fans remember Jeeters and Bimbo from the park’s mural art and its height requirement signs for rides, giving both mascots an air of nostalgia.

Tasha Pokrzywa, Kennywood’s communications manager, tells City Paper that, decades on, “it’s funny that [Jeeters] has become such a unique and original thing” given his generic origins.

The decision to bring back Jeeters was tied to ongoing park improvements, and Jeeters’ Pub is part of an array of updates and new dining options intended to blend the old and new. The pub features Kennywood’s signature 50-year-old Potato Patch fries — also honored with a bumper car ride debuted this season — and new draft beers through a partnership with Penn Brewery, the oldest in Pittsburgh.

Jeeters was chosen as spokes-mascot, says Pokrzywa, because he fit “this whole idea of [a] Pittsburgh steel mill blue-collar little bar in the park.”

“Nothing really shows [Kennywood’s] quirky and playful past more than a large pink, fuzzy guy in overalls and no shirt,” she laughs.

Despite making a scary impression previously, Pokrzywa believes Jeeters is now entering a softer era.

“All in all, he’s big and pink and fuzzy-looking, and I think that he’ll come across as huggable and lovable,” she says.

Colonel Bimbo Fraudwater, ca. 1975-1990s, 2023-?

A bowtie-wearing dandy of questionable military association, Colonel Bimbo Fraudwater has already lived quite a life as an entertainer at Kennywood. Archived photos and newsletters show he was previously a singer, perhaps accounting for the barbershop quartet outfit.

A 1975 Post-Gazette article places him in a Sunday entertainment line-up alongside magic act Lodini and his “Calvacade of Magic,” with Bimbo’s act adding something “for the youngsters” to the bill.

A team player, Bimbo seems to enjoy appearing with his fellow mascots, tipping his hat to visitors and occasionally joining them on park rides. A much-shared photo circa the late ’70s or early ’80s show Bimbo digging for a needle in a literal haystack with Kenny Kangaroo as part of a Pepsi promotion. At last year’s Fall Fantasy Parade, he rode on the Jack Rabbit float with Jeeters, and may soon do the same at the annual event next month.

Though he might not relive his crooner days, “I would like to see Bimbo make an actual comeback as well,” Pokrzywa tells CP. “I think that that would be really fun and interesting.”

Cookie Eater or Purple Monster and Yellow Bird or Giant Bird, ca. 1970s-1980s

A look back at Kennywood mascots quickly reveals a time with looser intellectual property laws, with many appearances by a blue, fuzzy cookie-eating chef and a large yellow bird. In the same Pittsburgh Press story featuring Jeeters and Bimbo, the “Muppet-like” characters also traipse through the park.

Pokrzywa points out that Kennywood was family-owned then and “it probably wasn't as big of a deal at the time to just kind of take a famous character and kind of replicate it for your park … I'm sure that was probably happening everywhere.”

Parker the Arrow, ca. 2015-present

CP has previously recognized Parker as one of Pittsburgh’s oddest mascots, ranking among Pennsylvania Lottery mascot Gus the groundhog and the giant pierogis who run the Great Pierogi Race.

Parker is a yellow fuzzy arrow “shaped like the park's iconic road signs, but, honestly, who thinks about cuddling up with a road sign?” CP wrote.

Nonetheless, Parker has appeared at Kennywood for at least a decade, even showing up to support Jeeters’ and Bimbo’s recent big debut.

Mr. Fanatic, (aka Patrick “The Kennywood Fanatic” Fisher of McKeesport), 2015-2017

Ongoing research is needed into the story of Mr. Fanatic, who Pokrzywa confirmed was “short-lived” as a Kennywood mascot.

As far as I can tell, Fanatic was a generic screaming Kennywood fan — shown maniacally yelling at park guests and other mascots alike — with a black-and-yellow mohawk and face paint. He was introduced in 2015 to promote the Kennywood Fanatic Club, rode the Jack Rabbit, and had his own Twitter account, before disappearing or retiring in 2017.

Kenny Kangaroo, 1974-present

This brings us to the unofficial mayor of Kennywood, the beloved Kenny Kangaroo. Introduced in 1974, Kenny is celebrating his 50th birthday this season with events including weekend dance parties.

Though Kenny is associated with the park’s Kangaroo Ride, first opened 1962, Pokrzywa says, “in a lot of ways Kenny represents Kennywood… it's just all kind of tied together with this image of him.”

Though kids love to hug Kenny and flock to his “stuffed animal presence,” Pokrzywa notes that in her experience adults react just as emotionally, and she’s always inviting the kangaroo to events. Looking through archival photos, it’s fun to see Kenny in his ’70s era, where he seems more ethereal, suggesting that he changes with the times.

“I think that Kenny is going to be around for the long haul,” Pokrzywa tells CP. “And one of the greatest things is seeing these [multiple] generations visiting the park and experiencing it with their grandchildren as they experienced it as a child themselves … That’s what all these things are all about, like Jeeters’ Pub, Potato Patch, whatever it might be. It's just another way that we're bringing some of our past into today … and keeping Kennywood the playful place that it's always been.”