The Bookshelf: Pacific Ocean Park, pt 1
The Concept
I’ve been looking at my shelves full of park books. Much of it is about Disney, of course, but there are other gems I’ve uncovered along the way. Every so often we’ll pull one down and dig in.
Many of you have probably never heard of Pacific Ocean Park. This little gem was built out over the old Ocean Park Pier in Santa Monica, CA. In 1956 Charles Strub and his company, the Los Angeles Turf Club (racetrack), decided they wanted to build their own amusement park to rival Disneyland. This, after attempting to partner with Walt on his own dream a few years prior. But we need to back up a bit…
Word had gone around that Walt was looking to build some sort of amusement enterprise in the region. Around 1953 Strub loaned him a couple of his guys to help out with early planning and even promised to fund half of the project…if Walt would build it on the ocean and let them operate the place. Obviously that didn’t go over well—Walt famously made it clear in both California and Florida that he would never build his parks near the ocean. And he would absolutely never relinquish control over anything.
So Strub and Company set out on their own, seeing Ocean Park Pier as an opportune location for realizing their own dream. The pier had featured decades of amusements before this, including major rides, ballrooms, and various attractions that were not unlike Coney Island in New York. Lawrence Welk even set up shop to host his hugely popular television show from the Aragon Ballroom. But by the mid-50s the pier had gone downhill, suffering from declining attendance and a general turn-for-the-worst in the surrounding area.
After being rebuffed by Disney, Strub began planning a park that followed many of the ideas from Disneyland. Along with his small team, he contracted Pereira and Luckman to handle architectural designs. This was the same company who had tried to help Walt out, before realizing he needed to use his own film people to flesh out the unusual ideas roaming around in his mind.
We’ll get to the park’s unique design and attractions another time, but the overall idea was to create a nautical-themed environment. This would not be a chaotic collection of rides and games, but would (loosely) feature themed lands and storytelling attractions (along with the other, regular fun stuff). Existing rides, including the Hi-Boy roller coaster, would be renamed and themed accordingly. New attractions, such as Neptune’s Kingdom and the Mystery Island Banana Train, would take the idea of a pier park to new heights.
Meantime, Strub had landed a deal with CBS to become a partner in the venture, throwing $4 million into the pot. Transformation of the pier began in 1957 and they were off to the races…and would hit the usual snags, anxiety, and time constraints typical for these types of projects. We’ll start looking at the design of the park next time—it was quite the place!
Pacific Ocean Park: The Rise and Fall of Los Angeles’ Space-Age Nautical Pleasure Pier. Christopher Merritt and Domenic Priore. Photos here are from the awesome, beautiful book.
