Pacific Ocean Park (1958-1967)

[bert425]

I'd never heard of this park, which makes sense - since it shut down the year I was born.

but Turner Classic Movies (TCM) had a feature last night on Nancy Sinatra and showed 3 of her "best". . and one of which was the 1967 special "Movin' with Nancy"   I knew it would be cheesy as hell, but I'd heard some of her songs (my Mom was a fan) and it was filmed in 1967 so I wanted to see the fashions (and Sammy Davis Jr. as a dancing photographer in an infamous scene I had seen previously).

and oh. . it didn't disappoint - awful and incredible at the same time.

but the final song in the special "Who Will Buy" was filmed at what looked like an abandoned Amusement Park.

took some digging, but was able to find out it was filmed at Pacific Ocean Park - that yep, shut down the year the special was filmed.

very interesting footage, and the park really looks rather charming with some pretty big areas for Marine shows!
 

 

some great rides listed too, if we are to trust the wiki page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Ocean_Park

 

did anyone ever go to this park when it was open?  (us oldies, I mean), or know much about it?

[bert425]

ooo. .just found some footage from 1959 as part of a documentary about the Pacific Coast

 

really cool:
 

 

[Nrthwnd]

I was there around Easter time in 1963 (ten years old), with my mom. After visiting Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm, plans were to hit P.O.P. (which also stood for Pay-One-Price, one of the first parks to do that.) But - the times as they were - the park was closed on the day we visited, with an uncle we stayed with in N.Hollywood. I was so crushed, standing at the fence looking at that waterfall entrance. I cried and cried in the car, until Uncle Cy and my mom found a Mini Golf place for us all to do. It worked. I stopped crying, lol.

There is a book out about the park. called "Pacific Ocean Park - The Rise and Fall of Los Angeles' Space-Age Nautical Pleasure Pier." I have a copy. And at the time, the Entrance Fee for all the rides and shows?   99 cents. Times have certainly changed since then, heh.

EDIT TO ADD: By the way, "back then," Disney and Knott's actually closed for two days each week (I believe it was Monday-Tuesday for Disney and Wed-Thurs for Knott's) as a good will courtesy to the other park, etc. Truth! That's how we planned visiting both parks, with ease.

The front of the hard cover book.

...And the back of it.

[JT325]

POP is before my time, but thanks to the excellent (and way out of print) Gary Kyriazi book "The Great American Amusement Parks," I got to look at pictures when I was a kid.  The Paige/Miller Sea Serpent coaster looked awesome, and in the last days was painted 3 colors: red, yellow and green.  Great colors for a Sea Serpent indeed!  There is a record cover for El Pito* with a great picture of the ride, which I cannot locate.  POP was the movie star park and Sea Serpent a movie star coaster, before Magic Mountain and Revolution/Colossus.

*El Pito does the song "I'll never go back to Georgia" on the Crooklyn soundtrack.  Great movie, great song.

Sea Serpent was originally called "High Boy."  To go back in time for a day...

Herman's Hermits at POP!  Go to 4:10 for coaster shots.  The good old days when you could take your ice cream cone on a ride.  As a young coaster enthusiast in 1990, I at an ice cream cone on the original Zippin Pippin... probably not smart, but things were more relaxed then.