Pacific Ocean Park (Pt. 4) - Who Will Buy?!

I can´t believe that I never found this one before! Nancy Sinatra performing a song in the closed down Pacific Ocean Park! She even poses on the top of the "Sea Serpent"-coaster and the camera moves around with her in a great panning shot. Sometimes things just fall together...




I am not too wild about the song "Who will buy" from the musical "Oliver!" (it must be a musical if it´s got an exclamation mark) but everything is well when the hilarious dance break sends the "West Side Story"-ballet into wild dance routines inside the coaster´s wooden structure.

Here is the whole thing:

Pacific Ocean Park (Pt. 3) - In Ruins

After Pacific Ocean Park closed it´s doors forever in late 1967 the era of the so called "Coney Island if the Pacific" came to a sad end.
Due to urban re-development the area around the pier became a seedy place. With the closing of P.O.P, the decay of the neighbouring area called Dogtown got worse.


All sellable assets of P.O.P were auctioned off (parts of the Hawaiian tiki decoration of the "Mystery Island Banana Train Ride" later turned up in one of Germany´s first theme parks). Since some rides were too old and too heavy, they were left to rot on the pier. So the massive "Mahi Mahi"-Tower, which had served as an impressive backdrop for the showdown of "The Fugitive" a few months earlier became an eerie landmark of the abandoned funland.


The dilapidated pier was not only dangerous because of the crumbling wood, it was also a hide-away for several outcasts. Among them were the surfers of Dogtown who would later move to the empty canals and swimming pools of Venice Beach to famously swap their surfboards for skateboards.


As far as I know, Hollywood had also lost its interest in P.O.P. Only a 1972 French/American co-production used the ruins of the pier for an effective showdown: Une homme est mort (aka "The Outside Man") featured Jean Louis Trintignant as a French contract killer who is lost in L.A while trying to do his job. Sadly the movie, which also features Anne Margret, Angie Dickinson and Roy Scheider, is not available on DVD. As mentioned before, the quiet showdown in the sun drenched ruins of the amusement pier us very haunting.


Finally the city of Venice decided to get rid of the "eyesore" and by 1975 all traces of the pier had disappeared. Since debris and stilts are still lying in the water, it is still forbidden to swim and surf where the pier once stood.


Check these great sites about P.O.P: Rest in Peace - Pacific Ocean Park and The underground website of P.O.P..
Part 1&2 of my P.O.P-trilogy here and here

Get Smart Fugitive - Pacific Ocean Park (Pt. 2)

Pacific Ocean Park (P.O.P.) was the last incarnation of the big amusement piers which once gave Santa Monica´s Venice Beach the title of "Coney Island of the Pacific".



The piers used to be a welcome open air background for the nearby Hollywood studios. There was hardly any silent movie star or slapstick-icon who wouldn´t use the rides and the lively atmosphere as a vehicle for their films at least once.



In the 1960s Disneyland was off limits for TV-productions so they went to P.O.P whenever a carnival was needed. By the mid 60s, the park, which started out as a serious competitor to Disneyland was already in serious decline. This might be the reason why two prominent series used the park as a spooky and empty stage-set for their respective episodes.



"Get Smart" used the park for the usual antics, but the final episode of "The Fugitive" used P.O.P. as a star attraction for the showdown between Richard Kimble and the one-armed man.
Aired in august of 1967, the episode "The Judgement" made TV-history as the most watched fiction program ever (a record that was only broken by the "Who shot J.R."-episode from "Dallas".)

Before the final showdown on the massive "Mahi Mahi" ride, there is an extensive chase that uses the bizarre and strange architecture to an almost surreal effect. Sadly even this media exposure didn´t help the struggling park. Only two months after the show aired, Pacific Ocean Park was shut down forever.

Here is the whole sequence in two parts:



Click here for P.O.P. pt 1. A place that kept my imagination despite I have never been there while it was in existence.
Part 3: In ruins

Pacific Ocean Park (Pt. 1)

I can´t think of many places, which haunt me like Pacific Ocean Park. Of course, I have never been there. The year I was born, 10.000 kilometres away, Neptune closed his lair forever. The remains of P.O.P lay dormant for years. A playground for the salty waves, beach-bums, film/tv-crews and arsonists, turned into a surreal and dangerous netherworld on rotting stilts.

The photopraphs above were taken by Nick DeWolf in 1958.
P.O.P. part 2 - TV days and part 3 - In ruins