z-boys & the "mystery island" at the p.o.p. in santa monica?

Just watchin "Dogtown & Z-Boys" dvd for the 100th time. Just caught my attention during a flashback of the ol P.O.P (Pacific Ocean Park) that there was some kind of Enchanted "Mystery Island" at the end of the pier. Did a quick Google search & came across these killer images. Anyone have any info or collectibles from this "Mystery Isle?" I grew up there circa '68 & never heard a dern thing. Dag nabbit!! Check the link below...

http://theimaginaryworld.com/POP.html

1000 apologies to those if this topic was covered already.

I'm not sure if that link has been posted before, but Pacific Ocean Park is a favorite around here.

Here's a link to a search I did for "Pacific Ocean Park"

http://www.tikicentral.com/search.php?term=%22pacific+ocean+park%22&submit=Search&srch=both&frm=all&usr=&srt=newest

enjoy the threads!

Yuze quick bruddah with the comeback. Thanks for the linkage. I'll check it...

P.O.P. closed in '67 - that may be why you never heard of it - although the ruins stood until the early 1970s... I'm sure I have posts elsewhere here on TC that show more images of the Banana Train Ride (Mystery Island).

I have some very vague recollections of it as a little kid. I remember POP well into the mid 60s and my family used to go there a lot in the early 60s, probably more than Disneyland (POP was closer and cheaper). The last time we ever went there was probably around '66, maybe '65, but the Island at the end was long gone by that time. It was one of the first attractions to be closed in one of their mainy "remodels", so I was probably still a pre-schooler the last time I was on it. I remember the tikis and the waterfall, the train, a cannibal village and a volcano, but some of these memories could easily be confused with the Jungle Boat ride at Disneyland. I wish there were more images of it to spark my memory. I work with a guy who was a Barker at POP way back when, and he gave me a bunch of nice images of the park in the early days, but none of them were of the island.

There's an episode of the old "I SPY" series with Robert Culp and Bill Cosby (now out on DVD) which was filmed at POP... it's listed in the credits. A very young Ron Howard stars in the episode entitled "Little Boy Lost." My part-time job had it on a loop on a monitor for awhile, and in the background of a shot or two you could make out a tiki.

A bit more info on the episode here:
http://naid.sppsr.ucla.edu/venice/articles/movies.htm

They have a lot of info on other shows filmed in POP and other locations around Venice. Very cool!

cheers,
Rupe

Wow. Thanks to all of you for hittin the reply button on this subject. I really appreciate it. This subject has really ignited something in me...or maybe it was those chicken tacos from Trader Joes. Anywho, I now feel the need to find out any & all on this subject matter. God help me...I'm goin in!!!

PS-How do you add pics to these replies. Some HTML code? Do I need ITT Technical training?

"Adding Photos to your Posts"

Saw a few old photos, architectural renderings of the Polynesian ride at POP a few months back at the UC Santa Barbara Art Museum as part of a bigger exhibition about Linesch + Reynolds and the oil islands in Long Beach. First time I had ever seen them and they caught my eye. The exhibition will be in Long Beach in the fall if you want to have a look.

Betty -

Can you give me some more information on the architectural renderings of the Banana Train ride? Were they blueprints, or conceptual paintings?

On 2006-06-08 13:54, rupe33 wrote:
There's an episode of the old "I SPY" series with Robert Culp and Bill Cosby (now out on DVD) which was filmed at POP... it's listed in the credits.

I think the final episode of "The Fugitive" was filmed there too (or was it at the Pike?)

I bought the z-boy DVD, the one before the movie when it was a documentary. Bought it after the movie cause I watch the movie more than any other movie I own Ever. In the doc., they show what the pier once was and show the tiki huts. That was the first time that I heard about it.

_In the movie, look on the shop desk and you will see a tiki mug, green. Later

On 2006-06-10 08:00, Tangaroa wrote:
Betty -

Can you give me some more information on the architectural renderings of the Banana Train ride? Were they blueprints, or conceptual paintings?

The original exhibition (called Fantasy Islands: Landscaping Long Beach's Oil Platforms) was organized by Kurt Helfrich, Curator of the Architecture and Design Collection at the University Art Museum at UC Santa Barbara. They hold the Joseph H. Linesh archive. I checked with Kurt about the exhibition and the archive but he responded that ... "unfortunately there are only construction slides for the South Sea Boat Ride that Joe Linesch helped design for the Pacific Ocean Park project while working with Morgan Evans. No working drawings have survived."

The upcoming exhibition, Fantasy Islands, opening at the University Art Museum at Cal State Long Beach in late August, has two of the construction images: Pacific Ocean Park South Sea Island Ride: Aerial View and Ocean Park South Sea Island Ride: Detail Tahitian Gate (both iris print mounted on gator foam, 16 x 24). The brochure mentions only a bit about the P.O.P ... [excerpt] Completed in 1958 as part of a multi-million dollar renovation, the Pacific Ocean Park Pier featured a banana boat train and included a specially designed Tahitian gateway set amid elaborate tropical plants with animated monkeys, an erupting volcanic crater and a tropical storm accompanied by lightning and thunder as atmospheric effects.

[ Edited by: BettyBleu 2006-06-12 11:25 ]

Back at the UCLA website, Jeff Stanton sells a fantastic history book about the Venice area. An entire chazpter is devoted to POP. PLenty of great pictures of Mystery Train.

As an aside, it was designed and built by Arrow Dynamics.

Just wait and see what we come up with if my friend Dave and I can covince a publisher to do a P.O.P. book! We've got a lot of great stuff very few people have seen....

http://www.rippop.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=29

Here's some concept art from another Dave Constable/Fred Harpman P.O.P. attraction - the Deepest Deep.

I have yet to find a photo of it - only concept art seems to exist!

[ Edited by: Tangaroa 2006-06-19 01:06 ]

Those of you who are interested - someone modeled P.O.P. in an extremely lo-rez 3-D modeling program. Some of the interpretations are really wrong - but still, it is interesting.... especially his interpretation on the Banana Train Ride & the whole Mystic Isles land.

http://www.sebar.com/rct3/popshots/index.html

On 2006-06-29 08:27, Tangaroa wrote:
Those of you who are interested - someone modeled P.O.P. in an extremely lo-rez 3-D modeling program. Some of the interpretations are really wrong - but still, it is interesting.... especially his interpretation on the Banana Train Ride & the whole Mystic Isles land.

http://www.sebar.com/rct3/popshots/index.html

Tang, this is very cool. Thanks for pointing it out! Now I need to get Roller Coaster Tycoon (and all the specified expansion packs) and go for a walkthrough.

I found a You Tube video part of which was filmed on the Mystery Island ride at POP. Interestingly enough, it was from a Lawrence Welk TV show that was shot at the ballroom next to POP in 1959. This features the exotic tune "Yellow Bird" (which a cocktail was named for - you can get it still at Tiki Ti). Lawrence Welk versions of exotica are not very exotic, but it was filmed on Mystery Island at POP. The rest of the video turns into an extended commerical, but it is funny to watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxRi1Wyjc_8