There is a new documentary playing at the Balboa Theatre now called "Remembering Playland at the Beach". Reading the review in the paper this week, I had an "aha" moment. Those hazy memories of Dr. Caligari spinning wood floors and long long wooden slides in a place darkly -turned out to be real - memories of Playland circa about 1955 when I was five.
It was scary! Scary Howling Clown faces two stories tall! -
Cackling Gypsy woman statues!
Circling, spinning wooden platforms that would spin you right off and onto the "floor". It was weird, but it was real. It was right there on the Ocean, near the Cliff House.
Our family came up to Playland and the Fleishhacker zoo from So. Cal. several times in the early 1950s,
before Disneyland came along and "cleaned up" (carnival rides) in more ways than one.
Here is one SF native's memories of Playland.
It was a cheap weekend for my family. Dad drove us up here, we all piled into a cheap hotel room off Market St. The Zoo was free. Never forgot the pink popcorn that they sold at the zoo.
We rode the electric cars. My folks wore us out, walking to Fisherman's Wharf and then the zoo and Playland. Then the Sunday drive back home to Lynwood. Mission accomplished - we three kids asleep.
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