I thought I'd scan some more vintage travel decals. The ones you soaked in warm water to stick on the window of your Ferrari, you know?
This Universal Studios decal is one of the greatest works of art I've ever had the pleasure to see. You have to admit that it has a certain je ne sais quoi.
Here is the venerable RMS Queen Mary plowing through the seas. Well, her plowing days are over, bub! Now she's sitting in Long Beach, missing her pal the Spruce Moose.
The Long Beach Pike is gone (removed in 1979), but I wish I could have seen it in its heyday; Back in the day there was a string of amusement parks up and down the California coast, like a "bizarro" version of the California Mission Trail. The Pike had a roller coaster, a Ferris wheel, and other carnival-type attractions, and by all accounts, had gotten very run down; In the 1950's it had been renamed "The Nu-Pike", could this decal predate that?
This is one of a series of Freedomland decals, celebrating that short-lived park in The Bronx. I wish I had the whole set!
I love this supremely cheesy decal for "Alpine Village" in Torrance. The Village is still with us, and apparently you can celebrate "Oktoberfest" there all year 'round. I dance a mean polka. Don't eat that mushroom, kids!
The Pike was an amusement park like no other. At least for me anyway. I remember it being kind of like the amusement park in Pinocchio and much more like the park in the AI (Artificial Intelligence) movie.
ReplyDeleteI remember a lot of sailors and a lot of cute girls. Humm! I wonder what the girls were doing? (No seriously, they were cute) OK, some were cute. OK!!! There was one really cute girl. LOL
Anyway, I had some friends who worked for the Quinn Martin Company, so I went there a few times in the early 70' to watch them film the TV show, Cannon starring William Conrad. Nice guy by the way.
No matter how sleazy or crummy the place looked, it had character man, again like no other I had ever seen. Great post Major!
Great post, these decals look to have held up well, I have some that are brittle and yellow!
ReplyDeleteSaw the Pike in 1978, yes it was run down & sleazy, but had a certain vibe to it, great (fast) bumper cars & a super funky fun house!
Thanks for sharing!
p.s. to Viewliner, I loved Canon, always wanted his Lincoln!
I was at the Pike in '62 and '64. It was all you said and more. There was a string of shops behind it on the backside of buildings. I saw my first nekkid post card in one, and about that time my dad walked in. Oops! And even then, there were sailors everywhere. And even at ten, I knew those women were, well, real pros.
ReplyDeletethese are gorgeous, and love the fun stories! :D
ReplyDeleteMy grandparents took my brother and me to the Pike in '76. We never went again. Yep, it was rundown but I agree with VDT...it just had a certain vibe. Very unique. Very vintage.
ReplyDeleteRemember when they found a real mummified body in the "Laff In The Dark" ride? It happened while filming an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man. I remember the news reporting on this as a kid and thinking it was pretty freaky:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmer_McCurdy
TokyoMagic!, yes I had heard that story before. If it didn't really happen, it would sound like a dumb TV show plot!
ReplyDeleteThese are really great. Have never seen the top Universal Studios decal. Nice!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteVisited the Pike once as a kid in the late sixties. It was already shopworn. The roller coaster was of course, one of the rickety old wooden ones that was a really rough ride. Our neighbor (SoCal native) warned all of us kids that riding in the last car was like "surviving a car wreck". Urban legend around Anaheim/Garden Grove was that a sailor was decapitated on it once, further enhancing it's notorious reputation with the denizens of the schoolyards.
ReplyDeleteGotta agree w/Nancy. :)
ReplyDeleteThat isn't innuendo on the Alpine Village sticker... lady bug, mushroom, girl, boy, looking at each other... all righty I'll go wash me brain with soap LOL