Portable Universe # 114 - Welcome to the Jungle: The Forgotten Tale of Long Beach's Oceanfront Slum
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- Опубліковано 8 чер 2016
- Matt Cohn likes to dig beneath the bucolic seaside facade of Long Beach, and he often finds a dark, eerie, and sometimes sinister layer, steeped in forgotten aspects of the city's colorful history. Enjoy this tale of The Jungle, a mysterious, long-forgotten oceanside neighborhood. The Jungle existed right next to the Long Beach Pike, and its story parallels that of the legendary, decades-old amusement park.
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Fascinating material. Appreciate you sharing the historic images and stories of the downtown area.
Great - I vaguely remember it from the 60s when as teens we would boldly walk the Pike!
Loved the pike, yes navy, my dad was stationed in long beach, The eating places and walk under the street, love it there. Used to collect old post cards of long beach, still have a few left, most were on the pike and the old Virginia hotel, not longer there. I don't remember much of what you talked about. even grew up there.
Interesting
Thanks!
LOVE my city!!! Thank you for this. I walk in downtown all the time and constant day dream of the photos of what it used to be and look like. I've stared at vintage lb photos for long periods of time, ha.
Glad you like it! As an older LB resident I can tell you that it was way different back then. Thanks for the good words.
This is the second viewing of this presentation and I can happily say it is well done, but am not sure it is just a tad overly lurid. In the mid and late 1950's I was in grammar school and I lived in the areas highlighted here. My parents were divorced then and I lived with my mother at the Caldwell Apartments, which was located east of the Pike on Seaside Walk. My Dad lived in the Venetian Square Apartments in a unit overlooking the ocean, also on West Seaside Walk; the Venetian is shown on a slide in this presentation and is in the area known as the Jungle. I spent a lot of time at his place.
The Venetian Square was pretty and well-kept and I have no recollection of tawdriness in the immediate area. I may have not been made aware of its dangers. But as a single-digit aged child I roamed between the two dwellings and to and from a hot dog stand my parents operated across from the Municipal Band Shell on Seaside Walk, not far from the Cinderella Ballroom and the Municipal Auditorium. I knew a lot of the characters inhabiting the Pike amusement zone I have always felt fortunate I was able to be raised in such a uniquely appointed area and in such an open society as we had back then in Long Beach.
I grew up in LB I remember "The Jungle". Not fondly.
Me too. About 1964 when I was 4. I have memories of bad things.