Some of you GetBiggers will find the following to be boring but it is a part of the history of the Muscle Beach area …. Which in my mind includes the two (2) mile stretch of beach and beach front properties from the Santa Monica Pier (a mere few yards north of the original Muscle Beach lifting area) and down south to what is now called “Venice Muscle Beach”.
Half way between the original Santa Monica Beach area the present Venice Muscle Beach area there was a rather large pier and this pier is what this post is all about …..
I should add that I was an avid roller coaster fan as a kid and would beg, barrow , and sometimes steal a car or two and head on down the coast to ride every roller coaster I could find. You had to get off your ass and look for them because there was no such thing as the internet back then and gas was something like 30 cents a gallon so any kid could afford to drive a car back then if he was industrious enough.
Hell! We could drive a few hundred miles just by using the loose change we’d find under the back seat.
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Pacific Ocean Park was a twenty-eight acre, nautical-themed amusement park built on a pier at Pier Avenue in the Ocean Park section of Santa Monica roughly a mile south of the SM Pier which was intended to compete with Disneyland.
"And Disneyland and POP is worth a trip to L.A." is a line from the Beach Boys' song "Amusement Parks U.S.A." from their 1965 album Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!).
After it closed and fell into disrepair, the park and pier anchored the Dogtown area of Santa Monica.
Pacific Ocean Park opened on Saturday, July 28, 1958 with an attendance of 20,000. The next day, the park drew 37,262 which outperformed Disneyland's attendance figure that day. Admission was ninety cents for adults which included access to the park and certain exhibits. The term "POP" was also used as a clever acronym for "Pay One Price", though some rides and attractions were on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Like Disneyland, Pacific Ocean Park found corporate sponsors to share the expense of some exhibits.
By January 5, 1959, Pacific Ocean Park had attracted 1,190,000 visitors.
In 1965, Santa Monica really began its Ocean Park urban renewal project. Buildings in the surrounding area were demolished and streets leading to the park were closed. As a result, visitors found it hard to reach the park and attendance plummeted to 621,000 in 1965 and 398,700 in 1966.
At the end of the 1967 tourist season, the park's creditors and the City of Santa Monica filed suit to take control of the property because of back taxes and back rent owed by the park's new owner since 1965. Pacific Ocean Park closed on October 6, 1967. The park's assets were auctioned off June 28 through June 30, 1968. The proceeds from the sale of thirty-six rides and sixteen games were used to pay off creditors. The ruins of the pier became a favorite surfing area and hangout of the Z-Boys of Dogtown fame. The park's dilapidated buildings and pier structure remained until several suspicious fires occurred and it was finally demolished in the winter of 1974-75.
Other than a few underwater pilings and signs warning of them, nothing remains of Pacific Ocean Park today. A few miles north, the original Santa Monica Pier features a newer amusement park, similarly called Pacific Park. Today, the rides and attractions of the Santa Monica Pier include the Carousel that is featured in the 1973 Academy Award -winning film,The Sting.
Thanks to WIKIPEDIA for most of the above.
Keith once told me that one or both of the Barbarian Brothers used some of the pier to build a home …. But that’s another thing I did not see with my own eyeballs and never did discuss it with either of the bros.
