The Pike

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The Pike is an entertainment zone in Long Beach, California. Pike was founded in 1902 along the southern coastline of Ocean Boulevard with several independent arcades, food stalls, gift shops, various rides and a large bathhouse. It's most famous for Cyclone Racer (1930-1968), a large two-lane wooden roller coaster, built on a pole above the water.

Pike is operated by several names. The entertainment zone surrounding Pike, "Silver Spray Pier", is included along with additional parking in post-World War II expansion; it was all substituted by Nu-Pike through the submission of the contest winners of the late 1950s, later renamed to Queen's Park in the late 1960s in honor of the arrival of Queen Mary ships in Long Beach. 1979 is the year the city council of Long Beach refuses to renew the rent of the land and destroy all the structures and attractions that can not be transported. The Pike Museum is located at Looff's Lite-A-Line at 2500 Long Beach Blvd, Long Beach, CA 90806.

Video The Pike

History

The first major attraction to the beach at Long Beach is a recreational bath, long before the train and car, when the only roads are dusty rutted streets littered with horse dung. The inhabitants of Southern California escape the summer heat by swiping beaches and beaches to enjoy the cool sea breeze and the Pacific Ocean that is cooled by the Aleutian currents. With a surge of health-conscious new citizens and easy access to the beach near local merchant services, Willmore City becomes a destination. In 1888, Long Beach Land and Water Company purchased the failed William E. Willmore work from Bixby's Rancho Los Cerritos and changed its name to Long Beach in 1892. The entertainment zone began in 1902, as a beach and big rest house in Long Beach. the tip of the Red Car the commuter inter-commuter electricity system of the Pacific Electric Railway commuter expansion south of Los Angeles. A large bathing house built on the beach, scheduled to open Independence Day, 1902. The opening of the bathhouse, known later as The Plunge, coincides with the inauguration of the first "Red Car" from downtown Los Angeles to Long Beach on the morning of July 4, 1902 - which formed a service that connects communities along the lane to offices and shopping in downtown Los Angeles as well as bring baths and families south to the Pacific Ocean beach recreation.

Long Beach Municipal Pier

Stretching Pine Avenue to the south from Ocean Avenue to the Pacific Ocean, the Long Beach Municipal Pier has an upper and lower deck for building services at the end. Sheltering at the mouth of the Los Angeles River, the public pier serves many purposes, especially for trade and commerce, serving goods and passengers, but also caters for fishing and pedestrian walking. A simple wooden sidewalk is placed right on the sand along the coastline connecting the dock to the new baths.

Pike, simple sidewalk

"Pike" is the name of a wooden boardwalk that connects the Pine St slope of Long Beach Pier to the west along the shoreline to The Plunge's bath house. It gradually grows long, widened again and again and then poured in concrete and illuminated with string electric lights as "The Walk of a Thousand Lights", amidst a widespread attraction attraction and "The Pike" changing the context from the original wooden board to entire entertainment zone. Growing from simple boardwalk access to the center of the concession, it includes a waterfall bath (photo), Sea Side Studio souvenir photography, Looff carousel, saltwater McGruder, field and skill games, pony, goat carts, fortune tellers , weight gainers and a variety of dark and thrilling rides, entertainment and attractions big and small.

Rainbow Pier

For a short time, Long Beach Pier and Rainbow Pier are both there, sharing a combined beach access on the Pine street slope. Rainbow Pier is actually a horseshoe breakwater (rainbow) with a road built along its summit, connecting Pine St. and Long Beach Pier to the east to Linden. In the early 1920s, the original Long Beach Municipal Auditorium was built on 20 acres (81,000 m ²) of the tidal zone landfill located south of the current Ocean and Long Beach Boulevard intersection. After the construction of the auditorium, there are problems created by hurricanes and coastal erosion in the area. To protect the auditorium from these problems, horseshoe horseshoe and roads are built around it. Because of its shape, it was named "Rainbow Pier".

In the late 1940s, Long Beach City began filling water areas surrounded by Rainbow Pier breakwaters, creating Rainbow Lagoon and Wilmore Park [sic. Supposedly Wil l more, for William E. Willmore, original developer from Long Beach - Willmore City] - additional public trust becomes a larger place, a modern auditorium built. The filling of the coastline area continued in the late 1950s and early 1960s with the Tidelands Filling Project.

Nu-Pike

In 1954 there were 218 entertainments in the park, but during that time the zone began to face intense competition from Knott's Berry Farm and then Disneyland (both less than 20 miles (32 km) and roughly "free for all" reputation The Pike might have made some families were reluctant to be present.In the 1950s, the area was experiencing another facial tightening.The advertisements with coupons that appealed to the family appeared in the local newspaper.Kiddieland collection of carnival rides, mini train 'Bud' Hurlbut and the zoo is installed in new sand and public toilets built of concrete and cinder-block near the new picnic area, giving it a modern look after World War II, and the park was renamed "Nu-Pike" as a result of the naming contest.

Queen's Park Queen's Park

In 1969, the name changed again to "Queen's Park", to coincide with the public opening of the historical ocean liner RMS Queen Mary , which the city had purchased as a combination of attractions and hotels. The park retains this name until its closure and demolition (1979-1980). Most locals keep calling it "The Pike".

Maps The Pike

Attractions

Entertainment and show

The Plunge

A large bathing house built on the beach scheduled to open Independence Day, the first 1902 day Pacific Electric Railroad established a service that connects communities along the lane to offices and shopping in downtown Los Angeles and brings baths and families to the south for a shoreline vacation. Indoor freshwater swimming pool and dressing room behind rows of columns and sundeck worn into its 'vacuum' swimming pool and water sled. An interior balcony that surrounds the pool and pool overlooking the beach offers people watching in the sitting room. The name was later changed to "The Plunge". When closed, it was converted to the Strand Theater.

Lido Ballroom

Until 1902, the main access for bathing was on a road that was not paved by horses and chariots. A large livery and cage has been built to care for bathing animals. Opening the Pacific Red line Big Red Car to Long Beach reduced the importance of livery, which was closed when the Southern California automotive culture flourished. It was converted into a skating rink in 1906 then a dance hall in 1911, "The Majestic" featuring big bands, and in the 1950s it changed hands and was named "The Lido Ballroom". [2]

Theater pictures and direct motion

Downtown Long Beach features several theaters, many of which are along the "Walk of 1000 Lights". Start East of Pine Street with access at Ocean Bl. and The Pike is Lowes, known for the first major release. Several small theaters in front of the store, showcased independent side performances and movies, came and went along the Walk of a Thousand Lights, but the big one (and very high), Virginia, was transformed into a dark whispering river journey. The Strand Theater offers a double feature, after being converted to a home image when The Plunge is closed.

A Pike's pull from 1909 to 1930 was the "Wall of Death" - Reckless Ross Millman, among the first American motorcycle rebels, built a motordrome near Jack Rabbit Racer.

Shell Band

The Long Beach Municipal Band plays most Sundays and holidays. The band is led by Herbert L. Clarke, who has been a member of John Philip Sousa's Band.

Amusements

Starting from the entrance to the "Walk of a Thousand Lights" through the arcade entrance (architecture) of the last surviving building associated with The Pike, and the unique, Ocean Center Building that contains the Hollywood Pike in a cabaret and arcade entertainment. One can wander west along the previous storefront games, such as a field and shooting gallery, as well as outdoor entertainment machines such as fortune-telling scales, and several collections of electro-mechanical entertainment room operated by coins - pinball, merchandiser prizes, penny -pitch, nickelodeon viewers, love and power testers, fortune tellers, House of Mirrors and more. Among the most popular entertainment machines and coin-operated entertainment devices is a redemption game that provides tickets, like a skee ball.

Tattoo room

The distance to the Navy Shipyard and many of its sailors on leave is extended during retrofitting in favor of the ink economy. Collection of dense tattoo shops made next door neighbors and cross-paths of many small and famous artists in the world. The most famous are Bert Grimm's tattoo shop and Rick Walters tattoo artist. The store is the oldest in the US. Kari Barba bought the store in 2003, and it still operates to this day under the name "Outer Limits Tattoo". This is the last remaining business from the original Pike. Lite A Line is one of the last businesses to be closed on Pike Midway.

Drink and eat

From low brows like Rudy (cocktail) and opening a liquor store in front for a top-class cabaret featuring girly shows like Hollywood on Pike, there are plenty of opportunities available visiting sailors and drunk locals - which they do, are often excessive. The side effect of inebriation and mass intoxication is that every pocket and corner of the zone of entertainment ever exists on a single amount of body fluid.

Various places to eat ranging from snack outlets with corn-dogs, cotton candy, popcorn and hot beans, or people can sit in soda-pop fountains and counter service restaurants like Lee's Barbecue with chicken, ribs and fish food, to a remote booth with table service on the linens.

Rides

Laff in the Dark, Dark ride featuring three animated ballyhoo characters above the center of the facade, Laffing Sal, Laffing Sam and Blackie the Barker, the first to deteriorate from weathering.
River Ride, [a dark ride] drive by car. Spy, converted to walk through attractions. Voodoo Hut, walk through the attractions.
Round Up, Frank Hrubetz Co. 30 single passenger model rider tires 18-18.5 RPM, 45 Ã‚ Â° slope, with binder chain.
Model rotor trailer with preview platform. Sold to Magic Mountain as Spin-Out in 1979.
Alpine
Wilde Maus aka Wild Bobs
Loop-O-Plane by alias Hammer
Roll-O-Plane
Loop Trainer, aka Looper
Scrambler
Looff Hippodrome (1911-2005) with Carousel (1911-1943) see below.
Carousel (1944-1979), three lanes, open air.
Niagara Barrel (? -?), a wooden spiral slide (often misguided as Bisby Spiral Airship.)
Horse Racing, W.F. Mengels Galloping Carrousel, two course, carousel style rocking.
Space Capsule, observation crane, also known as Moon Rocket and Kiddie-land Hi-Ride.
Octopus.
Crazie Maize, House of mirrors storefront.
Scooters, Bumper cars inside.
Dodgem, Reverchon rides a flat bumper.
Fun House, storefront from a challenging path.
Tilt-A-Whirl by Sellner, later renamed to Tilt.
Super Trooper, take an umbrella.
Life Shark, bell chimes, shark tank views.
Sky Ride, Watkins chairlift.
Snowmobile.
Kiddie Land - a collection of flat-sized carnival-style children and truck rides, such as miniature boats and sport utility vehicles.
- Giant Slide.
- Go Karts, Briggs & amp; Stratton gasoline engine powered go-kart.
- Miniature Train (? -1979), steel coach "Bud" Hurlbut with a gasoline-powered 'steam form' locomotive.
- Wheel of Pleasure, son of Ferris wheel, 6 enclosure.
Sky Wheel, Double Ferris Wheel: Built by Allan Herschell Company from New York. Two wheels of eight cars each connected with haunted. Armature will allow the loading/unloading of the lower wheel while the top is rotating, then the top and bottom wheels will be swapped and when both are loaded and spun, some armature rounds give a serious sensation.
Davy Jones Locker-a dark ride, in a car.

The Looff Carousel Hippodrome

Charles I. D. Looff is considered the first major American carousel sculptor, who installed the first successful carosel on Coney Island, and developed entertainment, merry-go-rounds, and roller coasters around the US; examples of carousel at Santa Monica Pier Looff Hippodrome (1922) and Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk with brass ring feature (1911) still standing. In 1911, Charles ID Looff installed a carousel at Pike in Long Beach, and he lived with his son, Arthur Looff, and his entire family on the second floor above shops in the carousel hippodrome building that would later become home. to Light-a-Line. The original Long Beach Looff Carousel horses carved in 1911 were destroyed by fire in 1943, a new outdoor carousel was built nearby, and then the building was used as a game room for a "Lite-A-Line" bingo/pinball ball game. and over the years is the last remaining building to survive the Pike dismantling that began in 1979. The roof and dome structure has been stored in the parking lot west of Pine Ave and the Ocean Center Building on the Seaside Way awaiting conservation by Mike Cincola, who married the Looff family and has preserved much of Pike's history, some of which can be seen on his display at "Lite-a-Line". The dome was removed with a peak of popcorn balls and kept intact by Cincola in 2010, but the roof was dismantled, it remained the original last structure of The Pike.

Roller coaster

According to the incorrect entry "Queens Pike" in the DataBase Roller Coaster, The Pike has the following roller coaster:

Bisby Spiral Airship (steel) (1902 -?)
Comet Jr. (1949-1959)
Cyclone (4 Galaxi trailers, steel) (9/1969-1979)
Cyclone Racer wooden twin (5/30/1930-9/15/1968)
Figure 8 Roller Coaster, twin wood racer, replaced by larger Jack Rabbit Racer (6/1907-1914)
Jack Rabbit Racer wooden twin racer, replaced by a larger Cyclone Racer (5/1 1915-1930)
Wilde Maus/Swiss Bobs (wood) (1959-1979)

Bisby Spiral Airship

Bisby Spiral Airship, built in 1902, has a car suspended under a steel monorail track and can swing freely. The cars took the sloping lift to the top of the curved conical steel tower and the spiral. As they begin their spiral derivatives, the centrifugal force causes them to swing out before returning to the station. This is generally recognized as the first tough-type roller coaster ride. This tall steel tower stands out in an early postcard from Long Beach Pier (Pine Ave., then joins the western side of Rainbow Pier.)

Often confused - Many of the photos and postcards seen on the web are Spatial Airship incorrectly written baseball. If the structure has one long thin approach from steel to the top of the cylinder and camel back, that is Bisby Spiral Airship. If the structure depicted is a spiral spiral of a thick wood cone, Lee Barbeque's east entrance with a switchback ladder to a hut above it, the title should read "Niagara Barrel".

Picture 8

Pike's first traditional wood roller coaster was opened for business in June 1907. Built by Fred Ingersoll and named after Figure 8 after the rails. Built on poles looming over the water.

According to an editorial in 1966 at High Tide, the Redondo Union High School newspaper, a rider met a tragedy when he disobeyed a sign that ordered the rider not to stand: "He seems to think this will ruin his pleasure, so he went on to stand up.Unfortunately, his head was thrown off. "

Figure 8 was closed in 1914 and destroyed to clear the way for new development.

Jack Sparer Racer

In 1914, the Pike Amusement Zone made several improvements and a new roller coaster named Jack Rabbit Racer opened in May 1915, becoming the second largest racing coaster in the country. It was again designed by Fred Ingersoll, this time with the help of John Miller. It is part of the Silver Spray Jetty which includes several new rides and concessions. One can look down through the rails and see the water. In the mid-twenties, several expansions were made to the area and Jack Rabbit Racer was rebuilt, boosting the dip up to higher altitudes and steeper. An elevated band shell is built into the coaster with tracks running on it. Jack Rabbit Racer was moved in 1930.

Cyclone Racer

One of the most famous coasters, Cyclone Racer was built in 1930 to replace Jack Rabbit Racer. The Cyclone Racer is a dual-track (two trains can be launched simultaneously), a wooden roller coaster, a brain child of Fred Church and built by Harry Traver.

To add to the tension, a new mat is built on a pole above the ocean, several hundred feet offshore. Finally the whole pier stands on a sandy beach, not water, due to the deposition of sand due to the water slowdown caused by the expansion of new harbors and breakwaters. More than 30 million riders drove the Cyclone before it closed in 1968.

It was removed to clear the room for the Shoreline Drive clover onto the Magnolia Bridge to anticipate the imminent arrival of RMS Queen Mary (the connecting road that was later destroyed when found unnecessary, proving Cyclone Racer was removed unnecessarily.) The Cyclone Racer is the last remaining dual-track coastal roller coaster of its kind in the United States until it was disassembled and cataloged in September 1968 with a promise to the Long Beach residents that it would be rebuilt elsewhere.

Fans who want to re-create this roller coaster have created a three-dimensional model and are looking for ways to make it rebuilt in Southern California. The remaining Cyclone Racer roller coaster car is located at the Pike Museum at 2500 Long Beach Blvd, Long Beach CA 90806.

Ferris Wheel at The Pike in Long Beach CA. USA Stock Photo ...

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In movies and television

In the 1970s, the city of Long Beach began to rebuild the area, expanding into the Pacific Ocean, eliminating the beach bathing recreation by pouring a landfill onto it. The city bought RMS Queen Mary in 1967 and permanently docked at Long Beach across the mouth of the Los Angeles River from the Nu-Pike shoreline area where a new road circled the parking lot. and the Londontowne shopping-dining complex is served by Omnibus London Double Deck to Downtown Long Beach. The Nu-Pike was renamed "Queens Park" when Queen Mary was opened to the public in 1971 as a self-guided maritime museum tour on the upper deck and second-hand engine room, the hotel utilizes a luxurious stateroom from the middle deck and Jacques Cousteau Living Sea . Focus and attention were diverted further from Queens Park with Shoreline Village and Rainbow Harbor marina, served by Shoreline Drive, built to connect to the Long Beach Freeway in more landfills just south of Pike, as locals continue to call it. Planning for Shoreline Drive and cloverleaf connections to the new Magnolia Bridge was the reason to destroy Cyclone Racer in 1968. Since 1975, this area has become a major part of the Grand Prix route of Long Beach.

In 1979, Pike's entertainment zone was officially closed and destroyed. By the time the lease with the city ended, The Pike had fallen into disrepair and most of the business was gone. The city of Long Beach then removes the remaining structures. Plans for the development of the region took shape over the next twenty years. In 1999, the Coastal Commission of California approved a plan for construction of The Pike's entertainment and commercial complex at Rainbow Harbor in the downtown coastline. Its name is simply a nod that refers to the original entertainment zone, beaches and sidewalk pools - outdoor shopping centers have no resemblance to its historic predecessors.

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After the entertainment zone

With much debate in the area, and its use as part of the Grand Prix Grand Beach track, the main development of the area did not occur until the construction and opening of The Pike at Rainbow Harbor (Replaced as The Pike Outlets in 2014) in 2003.

Pike at Rainbow Harbor is located between the Long Beach Convention Center and the Aquarium of the Pacific. The tourist-oriented development has a large number of restaurants and Cinemark Cinema theater megaplex 14 theaters. The keystone of GameWorks is closed and reopened as Kitchen-Den-Bar, which is also closed. There are also four levels, parking-structure costs, street parking meters, pedestrian supports supporting tempting artwork resembling a steel rollercoaster, outdoor amphitheater, antique Spillman carousel (1920) and solar powered Ferris wheels.

Although the area has been developed into a retail entertainment center that honors its past as an entertainment zone in name only, it has not yet become as successful as expected. There is controversy about the lack of nearby recreational bathing beaches and solutions have been sought to bring back the regional glory of the region.

The Pike Outlets is the shopping center of today. These include several outlet stores including Nike Factory Store, Forever 21, H & amp; M, and Gap Outlet. There is hope that the redevelopment of The Pike will attract more buyers. Cinemark Cinema and most restaurants stay open during rebuilding.

Long Beach California The Pike Hooters restaurant. On Aquarium Way ...