Long Beach Pike | Visiting with Huell Howser | KCET
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- Опубліковано 20 лис 2018
- Join Huell as he visits one of the last remaining buildings from the great old Long Beach Pike Amusement Park. For over 40 years the LITE-O-LINE has been going strong as a sort of ‘pinball bingo’ game; but, the history of the building goes back even further, as it used to house the famous Loof’s Carousel.
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The pike is now a corporate hellscape. I wish it was this cool now.
Time marches on and the loss of great locations as the Pike are gone. Thank you Huell Howser. Rest in Peace.
I use to swim at the plung in 1957. Walking down the midway you could hear Art calling in customers, " Hot Dogs, Chillie Dogs, Ice Cold Lemonade, Peanuts, Pop Corn, Get em While There Hot ". Dropped alot of dimes in the skeyball game at Lou's arcade. Loved thoes bumber cars.
I wish Long Beach was still like this and we could go in the water.
My family went to the Pike a few times back in the 60's. It wasn't Disneyland, but it was still lots of fun. And I remember lots of sailors walking around.
@Auggie Not to pry, but did you grow up in the Los Angeles area? 1950's? 60's?
I used to hang out at the Armed Forces YMCA, right next door to the Pike, in the 60s.
In 1968 when I returned home from Vietnam I had an apartment across the street from the old police station and we would go to the Pike every night...for some reason I always referred it as the Queen’s Pike. I wonder how many meals I ate there.
That rickety old roller coaster was a great one on level with Ocean View that was destroyed in a movie.
It was great! I visited and was so excited whenever I did, loved the funhouses and darkrides and pinball arcades. I went there in the mid to late sixties, I was about 12
I went there one time in 1963 as a thirteen year old with a small group because we had sold subscriptions to our small town newspaper and "won" an afternoon and evening there. I don't remember much about it except I wasn't very impressed with the place. Disneyland was a much better and fun place to go at that time. It was called Nu-Pike in those years and when the city bought the Queen Mary and moved it there I think I remember the name changed to the Queen's Pike.
I snagged a few brass rings on the caramel and tossed them right in the clown
Me my brother and cousin would take the rtd bus from cudahy to the pike back in the 70s once we got there we would smoke cigaretts and check out all of the bikers and sailors. Then look for trouble and we found it. Those times where so much fun. And i remember the rides and the sounds in the air and the sun on my face and the smell of the ocean. We felt so free i loved that place.
Check out all the bikers nd sailors sounds so gay ... lol
Any trouble stories, you can tell???
@@famousbowl9926
Nope it was back in th 70s not today.
@@adamhackbarth1772 .no troubles just living American exceptionalism the best times of all world history.
That was a good description. I lived in Long Beach for 3 years back in '58-'62. Visited it with permission...but more often...without.The theaters were great too.
I absolutely loved the Pike, I went on to paint funhouses and darkrides.I loved the ones they had at the Pike. I lived in Seal Beach at the time. Around 1966
Seal Beach was fun, I went there quite a few times, tried to learn to surf, but couldn't get the hang of it, so stuck to boogie boarding! LOL :) OH, and how about Balboa Island?!?!?!?!? FUN place!!!!! :)
Long Beach blew it when they tore The Pike down, they should have maintained it just how it was, I’d definitely go back
you obviously havent been to long beach because theres still a pike lol
@@fanlbc I’m talking about the original Pike. Is THAT still there?
@@thelords4691 I’m young to know this but there isn’t original Pike anymore.
@@fanlbc Whats there now is basically a crappy shopping Mall. I dont even think Gameworks is there anymore. The Aquarium is cool, Queen Mary is cool, but the area is completely different. Even the shoreline is different.
Imagine taking Sunset Bvld, putting that in the middle of DisneyLand, and then putting all that on the edge of the Ocean in Long Beach.
That was the Pike. It was cool something for your little sister, something for your grandpa and everyone in between.
@@mjriemen the pike was never the area around game works and stuff it was always the area around the boardwalk near gladstones or chili's. Technically not the pike till you get to the actual pike sign
Does anybody remember the "LAFF IN THE DARK" ride? with "Laughing Sal" who stood atop the entrance to the ride Laughing all the time? Ah, the memories!
Whitney's Playland at the Beach in San Francisco had a Laff in the Dark ride in the late 30's thru 1952. Also a Laughing Sal that stood in the front entrance of the Fun House across from the Looffs merry-go-round building. She's was there laughing from the 1940's thru Playland's demolition in 1972. But she was moved to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and still entertains people to this very day in 2022!!!!!!!! 👍
Because of him I never rode a fun house ride. He spooked me as kid and it somehow traumatized me.
Yes it was creepy when I was a kid but it was fun and had a weird smell in there. Do any of you remember the glass house maze. I used to run into windows. lol And the mirrors that you would look in would make you look like a midget and tall. lol
Food, bars, dancing, rides, beaches, waves, sunshine, festivities replaced by chain restaurants and trinket shops.
Why do cities tear down those historic places that hold the memories for so many people. I guess it always comes down to money. I remember going there when I was about 11. At that time you could pay one price and go on the roller coaster as many times as you want. I remember riding that about 20 times. My dad rode with me every time. What a wonderful dad, I love him and miss him.
I miss the America that I grew up in. In the 60"s, my mom used to take us there three or four times every summer. It was in Long Beach California.
She would give us all $10 each, my sister, my brother and I.
And it would last us from 10:00 in the morning to 8:00 at night.
Some of the rides for 15 cents and, some of them were a quarter. The salt water taffy was amazing! The caramel apples were so delicious!
Those were the days my friends we thought they'd never end... 💔
From '62 through '65 my high school buddies and I (all Jordan High class of '64) would begin a night out with a few circuits on the Cyclone. Our mutual competition was to see who could ride 10 times in a row without upchucking. Going off to college, or to war, in '65 broke us up, finally, and by the time I made it back to Long Beach in 1986, the Pike and the Cyclone were gone. We had a great time, though, and all of us are still around.
Great reminder of what the Pike really was. I had heard of this place when I was a kid. Nice update 👍
I was 2 years old in 58. My Dad took me on the coaster. Mom couldn't go ,she was pregnant with my brother. I screamed the ride, the gentleman sitting in the seat in front of me turned around and talked to me the whole ride. I ran down to the bench Mom was on and told her I wanted to go again. My Dad just busted up laughing. Thanks for the memories.
Living in Long Beach now is quite sad to see how far it’s fallen over the last fifty years
I miss Huell Howser. I always look forward to his shows showcasing cool places in Southern Cali. I looked forward to my road trips thinking about places he's introduced that i want to visit. Long Beach is still my fave city in southern cali and i'm privileged to have lived there. I still hope to maybe live there again. The pike is still there across the Shoreline Village but unfortunately Lite a Line closed in 2022, probably due to the pandemic. I'm surprised Huell never married cuz he was a handsome man. We miss him and all the cool places he's visited that's now closed.
So good someone came and documented this before it was gone. I've lived in Long Beach for 8 years and I don't even recognize that area, its now shopping center and apartments.
Loved the pike, beach in the morning rest of The day at the pike remember the mummified outlaw and i was there the last week it was open
My paternal grandmother from Norway owned an apt bldg near the pike in the 1950s she used to walk me down there..
😄😄
We had so much fun at the Pike!!! That roller coaster was great!! The games and rides were so awesome.
I vividly remember the Pike. There was an out-side roller skating rink at the west end of the Pike which I visited many times. The Cyclone Racer was scary but fun. Gone but not forgotten...
The turret atop the roof of the Lite-A-Line building was still just lying on the ground by itself behind a construction fence for awhile after I moved to LB in 2007.
Loved going in the 50s lived in north long beach
the pike! where my mother & father met. she with her girlfriends out for a fun time, and he with his army buddies on a 24 hour pass. summer, 1942.
It's sad the city had no shame and destroyed history and museum pieces and sold out, rather than preserve things that later generations will never be able to experience.. all they have are pictures and memories that will fade in time
It’s unfortunate to know that, but not all can survive.
They did the same thing up in San Francisco when they demolished Playland at the Beach in 1972
And the Old Bunker Hill...not a shame ?
I agree with you...
Another example of City Government gone wrong!
I never knew of the Long Beach PIKE Amusement Park. Thank You Huell and KCET.
Miss the Pike and Huell.
My brother and l would go hang out on Rainbow Pier and feed the sea gulls. Our dad drove a motor cycle inside a steel sphere at the Pike.
Omg! My 2nd Mom and Neighbor spent hours in there! That was in the 70's. I was wondering where she gambled. ..and I opened this video. I saw the chairs and remembered. RiP Rosemary. 🙏 ❤️
I rode the coaster once and I too said...no mas!
Wow
I was born in Long Beach in 1941 when my parents rented an apartment on 7th St. When I was 2 they bought a house in Seal Beach where there was -- ocean -- sand -- boardwalk -- then our house. My bedroom was upstairs and when it stormed surf ran down my window after hitting the roof. The pike and the roller coaster became a familiar sight since my dad had his chiropractice office in what is now an historic building on Pine Ave a few blocks up from the beach. When I was 10 we moved to Anaheim in the middle of an orange grove so we kids could live in the country. My husband and I moved to Oregon in 1967 to get away from California traffic. I had ridden the roller coaster about 6 times up to high school. In my mind's eye I can still see parts of its wooden frame and the ocean below as it took that wide sweeping curve to the right. And even now, 70 years later, I'll have an occasional scene of a piece of Long Beach in a dream.
I grew up going there young with my family. I can definitely can say the pike was great.. many memories. Miss that place. How time Flys by
whats real sad is i wonder how many people in this program are still alive, time marches on,i dont know about progress but its sad to think all of the pike is gone, the people that where here years ago are gone too.
My grandparents lived in Long Beach, and I vaguely remember going to the Pike a few times. I rode a merry-go-round (that probably was NOT the Looff) and my uncle sent me over to look in the funny mirror where the air jet came out of the ground and blew up my skirt. I saw the Cyclone Racer, and I remember my grandmother telling stories about how sailors would fall off into the water. My older sister and our cousin rode it (I was far too scared to do so) and I remember them walking eagerly up the entrance ramp into the maw of the beast. I wondered if I'd ever see them again. Much later my sister told me it was so much fun our cousin dug some change out of his pocket so they could ride it again.
huells fit is fire
Long Beach blew it when they got rid of the Pike. The only thing they have is the aquarium and that is not a lot to talk about . Disneyland wanted to open in Long Beach not that long ago and the city did not make it happen. Can you imagine the revenue? Instead they have no more roller coasters, just homeless everywhere.
I live here, but remember older brothers and sisters getting home to Paramount late and talking about the pike in the mid 70's, reminds me of that song, "Come Dancing" "The day they knocked down the Pali, my sister stood and cried."
Great video! I have so many fond memories of The Pike. I loved the little zoo with the monkeys on display. The small train that would go around the kiddie area and the many wild peacocks. The pony rides were always a treat. The ocean water plunge where you could rent bathing trunks for a nickel! The sea diving bell where you encountered sharks and manta rays. The colossal twin basket ride rose 200 feet in the air. The double Ferris wheel that spun around from top to bottom. It was one of the first sights you'd see as you and the family drove towards The Pike. It always brought such excitement in anticipation. The indoor dark rides where spooky characters lurked around every corner. The House of Glass where I broke my sunglasses as I inadvertently walked face-first into one of the glass doorways. I learned my lesson that day and from then on out kept my hands outstretched as opposed to my face! The rigged carney games, lol. The maze where you encountered sliding floors, spinning wheels, and shifting walkways while trying your best not to land flat on your rump. The shooting galleries. All of the wonderful arcade games. The penny pitching machines where you attempted to contact the electrode points and win more pennies as the entire enclosed table would lift up on one side and slide all the pennies into the collection area with a pay off of up to 5 pennies. A great reward for a kid at the time. I loved watching the Magruder's saltwater taffy machine work its magic every time I visited. In fact, they used the same visually stunning machine's operation in an early episode of the television show called "ARREST and TRIAL -- Isn't It a Lovely View?" My family enjoyed watching them film the episode on the beach. I met one of the stars, Barbara Nichols. I got her autograph but lost it somewhere at home over the years.
We once operated a table tennis and pool hall next to the Virginia Bowling Alley at the foot of Chesnut Avenue. My Mom and I would stop at the little pink cafe with green booths across the street for a treat before opening the establishment in the mornings. Fun memories even though we only ran the place for a few weeks. The owners claimed it wasn't making any money. I think we spent enough on the soda machine ourselves! Haha! On another occasion, I noticed that they were filming an episode of "Charlie's Angels: To Kill an Angel". I snuck my way into the filming much to their chagrin. I'm sure they were cursing my visage as they were trying to match up shots in the editing room, lol. I eventually was found out, but I at least had a nice free meal. I loved the two competing "games of chance" located at The Pike on opposite ends, Clock-A-Line and Lite-A-Line. The first time I played Lite-A-Line in my 20s, I won $5. I quit while I was ahead. It was a nice return for a 25-cent investment. I was in good company, as an article released later in the Press-Telegram described how Jack Nicholson, while filming "Man Trouble" near The Pike, won during his first attempt at playing the game, too. Well, those are just a few of my many escapades and fond remembrances of The Pike. It is sad that the fun zone is no longer, but my wonderful memories will last a lifetime!
You have a great memory
@@passadonut Thank you!
I thought I had memories of the Pike! You've got Crocodile Dundee memories compared to mine! Absolutely fantastic comments. Thanks.
@@johnfritts7910 You're welcome and thank you, too!
Travel around the world with Bertrand Smith’s Acres of Books. Now another crappy Long Beach Mall. Thank you. No bookstore.
I saw that Looff amusement building when I visited LB in 1983. It caught my attention because we had the last Charles I.D. Looff Carousel that Charles And Brother Arthur worked on. It operated at Playland at the Beach in San Francisco. There’s also a Looff Carousel at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
It's now a museum 25 blocks north. They host game nights and private parties.
@@BradThePitts on the new building, did they keep or use the old turret that was on the original building? Built by the Looff brothers, they were called Hippodromes in the 30’s that housed the fancy Carousels that were built by Charles and brother Arthur Looff
Someone should make a video of before & after , at the various locations
Bring back The Pike!!!!!! If it still existed, it probably would've been as good as Cedar Point.
I'm a native of long beach CA I grew up going to the pike they had the most exciting Rollercoaster on the west coast best rides hot dogs corn dogs cotton candy bumper cars the beach I remember the sailors having fun I remember when they began demolition of the pike I moved up north to turlock been to the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz it's much smaller but those redwoods up on the hills is something else been to Disneyland in Anaheim, Knott's Berry farm and majic mountain.
Fools tore down the original Pike, big mistake. breaks my heart.
Good 👍 job Body. 👏.. I miss,long ⛱ Beach.!!!!saludos from the vegas nv.!!..
I got both my tattoos at the pike back in "74"!
I remember the Pike in the 70s! It's historical..They should have left it alone!😉
Was the Pike the same as POP?? Which was pacific ocean park.
LongBeach had the best amusement park, best surfing, beautiful Auditorium, etc.. Idea!!!!!!! Let's tear it down and put up a break wall and put up lots of boat parking, shopping, restaurants, and let the trash from LA River drift on in. Great!!! Who made this choice!;2022 and there's nothing really to talk about in the erea. Oh yeah, LongBeach Gran Prix is 1 day a year.
I worked for a lady that was born in a tent on the beach...way back then and there!
Thanks for the memory By Frank Sinatra
Of things I can't forget, journeys on a jet
Our wondrous week in Martinique and Vegas and roulette
How lucky I was
And thanks for the memory
Of summers by the sea, dawn in Waikiki
We had a pad in London but we didn't stop for tea
How cozy it was
Now since our breakup I wake up
Alone on a gray morning-after
I long for the sound of your laughter
And then I see the laugh's on me
But, thanks for the memory
Of every touch a thrill, I've been through the mill
I've lived a lot and learned a lot, you loved me not and still
I miss you so much
Thanks for the memory
Of how we used to jog even in a fog
That barbecue in Malibu, away from all the smog
How rainy it was
Thanks for the memory
Of letters I destroyed, books that we enjoyed
Tonight the way things look, I need a book by Sigmund Freud
How brainy he was
Gone are those evenings on Broadway
Together we'd go to a great show
But now I begin with the Late Show
And wish that you were watching, too
I know it's a fallacy
That grown men never cry, baby, that's a lie
We had our bed of roses, but forgot that roses die
And thank you so much
The lyrics are incredible. so many memories in Long Beach and then & now some happened ..Thanks so very much for posting this.
That barbecue and beers at the pike Long Beach .
Our small single family lived in the Mariner apts for the first 4 years of my life. I still have vivid memories of that time and the prople who bonded together to make the best family safe neighborhood possible. My Moms nic name was Dot. She worked for Jimmie and Mary the Greeks who owned a walk in burger/diner inside the Pike. Any one who knew Dot can reply here on youtube
Is Long Beach better now or back then?
Based on the interviews, this documentary looks to be filmed around mid-2001.
I was curious about that. Lite a Line moved locations in the early 2000’s I’m pretty sure.
after it was all mostly gone, they still had a freak show next door to the giant indoor pool, and I saw some pretty cool stuff waiting for my mom to pick me up from the pool, as they pitched the show, with a small preview of what you could see on the inside, which you could attend for maybe twenty five cents. I'm surprised I remembered, because my mom only gave me money to use the pool. The lady sward swallower was better than anyone I have seen on TV. Most shows she just swallowed swards and knives, but once in a while she would swallow a three foot neon lightbulb, electrified and glowing to prove it was real and just how dangerous the act was.
one thing I do remember clearly was frog girl, who cost an additional ten cents to see, payable on the inside , the woman who breathed through her skin underwater. . She was rarely a part of the show, I only saw her pitched once. For a frog girl, she looked pretty nice to me, like a model or something. naturally , putting any clothes on a woman who breathes through her skin underwater would be like putting a wet washcloth on your own face and trying to breathe, , and you can see her underwater on the inside for an extra ten cents.
Man I really wished I had the price of admission, plus a dime, as I waited there to return to the care of my mom, and away from the carnival's edge.
Although it survived 20+ more years after the move from the site of this episode, Lite-a-Line also seems to have closed as of June 2023. Will it rise again somewhere else or …?
Has this lady been sitting here since 1941? 😆 Miss HH
My parents remembered Rainbow Pier.... so sad.
A buddy of mine were there for the last night of the Cyclone Racer, we rode it 8 times trying to ride the very last run, ( we didn’t make it )
Never understood the bathhouses. They had them at Venice beach for a while too I read.
Does anyone know if a midcentury modern building called Sea Winds was there? Maybe a hotel? Mid sixties.
What year was this filmed? Line a Light moved locations a few decades ago right?
This was filmed in 2000, right before they closed and moved.
anyone know the year this was filmed?
What year was this filmed?
Wonder “ where “ that location is , in case we want to go see it. In fact I was living in Long Beach when they filmed this
wonder how this place looks now,is lite a line still around.
Lite a Line is still open, they do have some Covid restrictions currently tho. You can easily find more specifics elsewhere online. They moved locations, more inland from the Ocean.
What year was this filmed? Looked like the early 90s.
Late nineties or early 2000s as they mentioned the two days they ever closed were half-days in 1990 and 1997
Well that sucks. So they said they were going to use part of the old building as a visitors center. Doesn't look like they did, and can't find any info. What happened?
They moved the top of the roof to an adjacent parking lot to the north where it stat there for years. The developer that said they were going to repurpose it decided they didnt want it anymore. They then reduced the roof down to just the cupola and who knows where that ended up.
Think not to long after Disneyland opened in 1955, that might have taken business away from the Pike to a certain extent
I'll tell it like it really was, The Pike, during the 60's. As a young seaman stationed on a Destroyer in Long Beach I was warned by my Shipmates to stay away fm the Pike, it was a Cess-pool of Pimps, women of ill repute, druggies and all trying to take advantage of young Sailors. Sadly there was a Bar there Named "George's Roundup" with a Big Gold Harley MC in the window. All the Unfaithfull Sailors Wives would flock to once a Destroyer Division got underway overseas. The Pike was a Cesspool of Evil Corruption. Period.
They bulldozed The Pike?! Man that SUCKS. I thought SoCal had finally learned their lesson about tearing down their history. Guess not 😢
it was long gone when they bulldozed it
What year did he go there ?
I don't know, but it drives me nuts they don't date when they aired. I basically have to guess based on what Huell wears and how big his arms are.
This was filmed in 2001.
I'd really like to know the 1st idiot who came up with the idea to tear the Pike down, put up a break wall and get rid of the waves, Just imagine if a Amusement Park was still there. .
Gentrification
Boyle Heights / LA
Y'all know what everyone called Ken Larkey's mother, don't ya? Ma Larkey!
Good Joke :-)
24:39,two older gentlemen,wasnt one a woman?
Sadly it would be so unsafe and trashy now if they would bring it back. It isn't as safe as it use to be
They paved paradise then put up a parking lot 🇺🇲. Thanks for nothing.
Way to destroy your city culture Long Beach.
who cares?
You, bc you're here. :)
I would be a dream to be alive and living in Long Beach during the best years of the pike! When was this video made?
In mid 60s I was one of the sailors who came to the Pike and enjoyed relatively cheap and enjoyable fun. At the time I was stationed on a ship at Pier 9 Long Beach on Terminal Island. Base is gone but the pier is still here. Fond memories playing Skeeball and a few times in 66 when I walked into a bar and listened to Tommy Cash (John's brother). Good wholesome fun.