Nu-Pike neon sign on the "Walk of 1000 lights", 3D stereograph, NU-PIKE amusement zone, Long Beach, Looff's Carousel, Cyclone Racer roller coaster, circa 1960's

[crosseye stereograph, see 3D with your right eye on the left image, and left on right.]

That's "The Pike" in Long Beach, California, circa mid 1960's. The Pike was one of the reasons Disneyland was created. Although Walt is quoted as having been sitting on a bench near Griffith Park's carousel when the question of "Why isn't there a place where parents and their kids can both have fun (together)?" This is the place he was thinking of what NOT to do, from among several like it, such as Pacific Ocean Park, Santa Monica Pier, and Newport. The pike was full of trash everywhere, barkers, rotten old dark rides (It was later discovered that the mummy in Laugh in the Dark, contained actual, recent, human remains.) There were swearing sailors pissing in public corners, and vomit that had been in place so long it had become part of the pavement. In the photo is Looff's carousel on the left and, on the right, the famous twin racer coaster, Cyclone Racer. It was famous for sending trains full of people to their untimely demise, their last drink, a watery ocean drowning, when the poorly maintained track gave way.

Although before my time, the Pike in Long Beach was fed by the sailors on leave from the Naval Ship Yards on Terminal Island to the West beyond the mouth of the Los Angeles River. War time saw The Pike in it's heyday, and wartime was it's greatest contribution. In the Post-War fifties, The Pike faced an economic downturn, and with direct competition for the family pass-time dollar from Knott's Berry Farm (and nearby Alligator Farm) and the splendidly new Disneyland, the independent operators either banded together with, or, (the smart move) sold out to the new management. New management, new name, NU-PIKE! And the name du jour was just as imaginative as it's implementation - sparse. The Long Beach city council contracted all of the owner/operators to maintain standards, patched the old road that was now a pedestrian walkway, hired custodians, tore out The Plunge, and slapped (more slopped) paint hither and yon. The RTD 36f bus (f for Freeway Flier) to LA was no match at bringing as many gleeful revelers as the high speed interurban electric railroad of the Pacific Electric (of Who Framed Roger Rabbit fame) had been. I was born 5 days before the last one of the Big Red Cars rolled down Long Beach Blvd. I have been told I was on the last one, but, as an infant, I couldn't have remembered my first and last ride, home from the hospital. The new zoo was a petting pen full of mangy goats. The fun zone (seen in another picture) was an alley cluttered with tourist trap shops mixed with buildings containing a hall of mirrors, bumper-cars, stick your head in a hole souvenir photographer, and the side show guy that would spurt stage blood pumped from his chair through his piercings after driving a spike through the one in his hand - the guy that taught me to smoke cigarettes.
Kiddy-land was a collection of lame traveling carnival truck rides running in 30 foot circles - 16 motorcycles, 8 cars, 8 boats, 8 helicopters (as seen in the introduction of "The Courtship of Eddie's Father" - before their move to the NU-PIKE - while still at Pierpoint Landing.)
The miniature railroad who's cars later went to Gene Autry's Melodyland before winding up circling today's Travel Town was near the picnic grounds. Hobos and the homeless camped near the cinderblock restrooms that were locked at night, so folks just peed on the walls, NU-PIKE, same old smell.

Charles I.D. Looff built the carousel seen on the left and lived above it in the roof.

The Plunge was like other plunges along the California Coast, for bathers, like the Redondo Beach Plunge, filtered ocean salt water warmed by the cooling towers of the nearby power-plant.
There was another attraction just East of the Dual Ferris wheel, which was the most interesting way to execute exotic saltwater fish ever. It was a UFO shaped diving vessel ringed by porthole windows and a water tight door. Attached at the top and bottom was a loop of cable wound around a motor pulley and through some lead weights. Moments after the door was closed, the floor dropped as the whole vessel plunged into a tank of pressure shocked fish that would suddenly behave like none of their kind ever would in the wild, knocked the sense right out of 'em. Other attractions were considered and dismissed, but The Queen Mary was re-fabricated (read gutted) into Jacques Cousteau's Living Seas as well as a convention center, and an historic tour above. Trying to loose the looser image they quickly renamed the pike "Queensway Park" and fabricated a London-esque town called "Queensway Village" at the base of the gantryway to the ship. This was soon followed by the construction of Queensway Bridge extending Magnolia across the mouth of the Los Angeles River and creating a loop convenient to the southern end of Interstate 710, the Long Beach Freeway. That began the landfill happy wanton destruction of the entire area. Today the Shoreline Drive hosts the Long Beach Grand Prix precisely on top of where bathers would toe test the temp on the shoreline.

This Pictured Sign represents the neon shiny small moment in history, of the repackaged, same ol', same ol' NU_PUKE.

Re-packaged as Crosseye-Stereograph from Curious Hanman's Nu-pike-Neon a Parallel Stereograph.

It is important to note that Disney Seas was supposed to go here when Disney Corp., in order to own the Disneyland Hotel, bought the Wrather Corp., who was the contractor operating the Queen Mary. Instead Disney Seas opened in Tokyo, Japan.

Taken in: United States / California / Long Beach (show map)

Taken on: May 19, 2008

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