Think
of the carnival midway at the Kern County Fair. Add a stiff ocean breeze. Mix
in the smells of popcorn and fried food. Imagine the colliding sounds of
competing street musicians. And picture strolling lovers passing by bait trays
filled with fish heads.
That
just about sums up an average day on the Santa Monica Pier, a century-old
Southern California landmark that is one of the few surviving entertainment
piers on the West Coast.
Just
a two-hour drive south from Bakersfield, the Santa Monica Pier can provide an
exciting memory-filled day for families and individuals who want more than sand
and a sunburn when they go to the beach.
It
also provides a glimpse into an earlier California, when entertainment was a
bit simpler, and gives visitors an appreciation for what a community can
accomplish when its heritage is threatened.
The
Santa Monica Pier began in 1909 as a long, narrow municipal pier built to
support a pipe that flowed city sewage far out into the ocean, beyond the
sunbathers who frolicked along the shoreline. In 1916, Charles I.D. Looff, a
master carver from Denmark and the creator of elaborate wooden carousels and
amusement parks, and his son, Arthur, built a shorter entertainment pier next
to the municipal pier. Eventually, the two piers were tied together.
On
his pier, Looff built a large Byzantine-Moorish style "Hippodrome,"
where a carousel filled the first floor and Bohemian rental apartments lined an
atrium on the second floor. Looff's pier also featured the Blue Streak Racer
wooden roller coaster, The Whip and the Aeroscope. Today, Looff's Hippodrome,
as well as the carousel and roller coaster he built at the Santa Cruz
Boardwalk, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In
the heyday of the 1920s and 1930s, several entertainment piers poked out into
the Pacific Ocean, said Jim Harris, deputy director of the Santa Monica Pier
Corp. and a pier historian. And while the Santa Monica Pier may be the only
survivor today, back then it was not the most prominent.
Looff
died in 1918, but his family continued to operate the pier until 1923, when it
was sold to a group of local investors. Additions included a breakwater, yacht
harbor and the La Monica Ballroom, from which Western swing band leader Spade
Cooley broadcast his live television show in the 1950s. On the sand next to the
pier, famous body builders like Jack LaLanne and Joe Gold worked out on
"Muscle Beach." And for a short time, the pier served as the base of
a shuttle service to illegal offshore gambling.
Tougher
times
In
1943, the pier was sold to amusement park operator Walter Newcomb, but its
future began to dim. One by one, entertainment piers disappeared -- the victims
of raging fires, competition from inland amusement parks, such as Disneyland,
and bankruptcies. For a time, even the Santa Monica Pier was slated to be torn
down by the city of Santa Monica, which in the early 1970s became its owner.
Developers
had cooked up a plan to demolish the pier, replacing it with a manmade island
that would serve as the site of a resort hotel.
"The
plan was met with outrage," recalled Harris, who writes about the
community campaign to save the pier in his book "Santa Monica Pier: A
Century of the Last Great Pleasure Pier."
During
a recent interview, Harris also recalled how city residents and longtime pier
fans, including actors, writers and artists who once lived in the Hippodrome's
apartments, stepped forward to fight the demolition. In addition to raising
money for restoration, they targeted three council members who had voted to
demolish the pier. The trio was soundly defeated in their bids for re-election.
Demolition plans were dropped.
Despite
a setback in 1983, when a vicious winter storm destroyed more than one-third of
the pier, the pier has come back to life. Harris contends it is attracting more
visitors today than ever -- even during the peak popularity of entertainment
piers. An estimated 4 million people visit Santa Monica Pier each year to eat,
shop, play and fish.
By
1990, the storm-damaged pier had been restored, the Harbor Patrol station at
its end rebuilt and the 44-horse carousel in the Hippodrome painstakingly
restored. Two full-service restaurants -- Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. at the entrance
and Mariasol Cocina Mexicana at the end -- now anchor the pier.
In
1996, Pacific Park reopened, bringing back the first full-scale amusement park
since an earlier one was closed in the 1930s. The Playland Arcade, which has
been operated by the Gordon family since the 1950s, is the pier's longest
continuously running enterprise and still offers entertainment at a cost as low
as a quarter.
Below
the Hippodrome, at beach level, is the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium, which Harris
calls the city's "best kept secret." The aquarium, part of the city's
Heal the Bay program, offers hands-on interactive exhibits to educate the
public about a wide range of environmental issues.
In
1983, pier supporters began a tradition of hosting free summer evening concerts
that continue today. Mark Havenner, who handles publicity, said the Thursday
night concerts attract tens of thousands of visitors to the pier and
surrounding beach.
And
if the street (or pier) entertainers, arcade games and carnival rides were not
providing enough of a circus atmosphere, four years ago a trapeze school opened
at the pier.
"It's
been a great addition. It adds to the fun. It's its own sideshow. It's a real
crowd pleaser," said Harris, describing the Trapeze School New York's
location as being "the old Sinbad Building."
Brad
Smith, office manager of the school, said for most of the students, it's
"their first time doing flying trapeze. People come for many different
reasons. Some want to face their fear of heights; some want to check it off
their bucket list; some are looking for an adrenaline rush. But most are
looking for something different and fun."
The
trapeze school offers morning and afternoon outdoor classes beginning at $47
for a two-hour session. A $22 fee also is charged to enroll in the school.
Rescued
from the threat of demolition, the Santa Monica Pier, which once was better
known as a great place to fish, continues to be immortalized in Hollywood
movies and television shows, used as a backdrop for tourists and seen as a
symbol of California's resilient and quirky spirit.
This
article appeared in The Bakersfield Californian on July 13, 2012.
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