Pacific Ocean Park Stuff

I have a few scans featuring souvenir items from Pacific Ocean Park (in Santa Monica, CA), a place that was designed to compete with Disneyland. It opened on July 28, 1958, and things looked good. At first.

Souvenirs from this park are not super common, not surprising since it was only around for about 9 years, so I am happy with the relatively few items that I own. This first example is a souvenir "fun photo", much like the kind you'd find at both Knott's and Disneyland. A family of four has been thrown into the hoosegow for jaywalking and expectorating (at the same time). Crime doesn't pay! 

Do you want to know more about this photo? Just read the back! It's a Polaroid print, probably still something of a miracle in 1960(ish). Knott's used conventional negatives for their fun photos, but Disneyland used Polaroids, though they didn't advertise the fact like this POP souvenir did.

Next is this brochure from 1961, a somewhat typical amusement park brochure from that era, printed in orange and black ink on yellow paper. The cover art represents the iconic "Ocean Skyway" attraction, in which guests were suspended in "bubbles" that passed above the pier and the ocean. We also see "Neptune's Gate", the entry structure that resembles a skeletal barnacle (or something).

Maps! I love maps. This one is not dissimilar to one that we saw in another brochure in THIS POST from 2016. Looking at the many details, it makes me a bit sad that I never visited POP, though it was in serious decline by the time I would have been old enough to remember it. It's astonishing to consider that there is not so much as one tiny portion of this park remaining today - not even a plaque to commemorate where it used to be.

And here's the flip side; admission was a mere $1.75. Such a bargain! In fact, the bargain is so amazing  that I am surmising that low attendance was already a serious issue only three years after the park opened. 

I hope you have enjoyed today's POP souvenirs!