Saturday, January 21, 2012

Anything Goes Saturday - Atlantic City

Today we're going to spend some time in Atlantic City, New Jersey!


AC's famous boardwalk opened in 1870, and was one of the first of its kind. It's over four miles long! That's a lot of boards. As you can see from the photo (circa June 1962), it was quite a place; sort of a cross between old Las Vegas and Times Square - except that there was an ocean right near by. To the right you can see some signs for attractions on the famous Steel Pier, including "Ripley's Believe It Or Not!", and the Diving Horses. Check out the enormous sign to the left, for Planters Peanuts...


There's Mr. Peanut himself, looking lightly-salted and elegant. Apparently there used to be a bench in Atlantic City with a sculpture of Mr. Peanut... you could sit next to him, touch him, confess your sins to him, and have your picture taken with him. But he's gone now...


From a different lot comes this bird's-eye view, taken from a nearby hotel (I assume). You can see lots of assorted carnival-style rides, including bumper cars, a Ferris Wheel, a carousel, a "spook house" (oh, how I wish I could see the spook house!), and much more. Notice the rows of pilings that probably helped to absorb the energy of storm waves in the winter.

6 comments:

Adam and Andrew said...

The steel pier has an exact twin to Walt Disney Worlds Primeval Whirl attraction...built by the same company. Scary, scary shit. You go out over the ocean. :/

Vintage Disneyland Tickets said...

That is a lot of boards!

Oh man, Spook's Shangri-La looks like a ton of fun so do the Dodgem's!

That's an interesting Carousel (Merry go round?) its missing its top!

The Ferris wheel looks like the one I build from an erector set!

Do I see the Astro-Jets?

Melissa said...

I was so flipping scared of Mr. Peanut when I was a kid.

Nanook said...

Depending on what you read, carousels only have horses and the merry go round having many animals; or carousels have all moving horses; or one turns CW, the other CCW; or the names have become interchangable. Whatever the answer, it was more common in Europe and the UK for these "devices" to rotate in a CW direction and here in the States, more likely CCW, so one could "toss the brass ring" - as most of us are right-handed (sorry, all you southpaws, wasn't my idea).

One thing's for certain, tossing the brass ring on the few 'carousels' with that option is a bunch of fun and requires some skill to get a bulls-eye, not to mention those capable of firing-off two or even three rings at once.

Connie Moreno said...

Those were great pics!!! But...diving horses??

Nancy said...

we have been there twice and its pretty cool. I wish we lived closer. took my daughter in 2001 to see a concert and we spent the weekend, it was a lot of fun. only bad thing is that it was in March and i do remember that there was some sort of carnival set-up but it was not yet open for the season