Ghosts Of Playland At The Beach - The Amusement Park at the End of the West

Send us Fan MailThe fog rolls in, the surf pounds the seawall, and a laugh echoes across the Sunset—Playland at the Beach is gone, but its spirit refuses to fade. We head back to San Francisco’s Ocean Beach to unpack a park that was equal parts wonder and chaos: the glassy grandeur of Sutro Baths, the Cliff House’s many lives, and a bohemian streetcar village that set the stage for a century of seaside amusements. From Charles I. D. Looff’s menagerie carousel to the towering Big Dipper and the splash-happy Chutes at the Beach, this was the wild west of parks as far west as you could go.Our old friend Laurie Hollings (Frontier Village) makes a return appearance to the show.Laughing Sal cackles relentlessly, Orson Welles' shatters mirrors, and one of the first Disney Imagineers invents Woody the cowboy... in San Francisco... a half century early.Join us as we stroll along one of the most beautiful and daunting places in America, San Francisco's Ocean Beach, and we try to find traces of the park that lived there for most of the 20th Century: Playland-at-the-Beach.-------------------------------------------------------If this history hit you in the nostalgia, subscribe, share with a friend who loves old-school amusement parks, and leave a review. What artifact or ride would you bring back to a hands-on Playland museum? We’d love to hear your ideas.Thanks for listening!We'd love it if you would give us a review on your podcast platform of choice: iTunes, Spotify, etc... They're really helpful.And get in touch and let us know about YOUR Plus-Ups for the attractions we've talked about!  We'd love to tell them on the air.Come visit us on Bluesky, Mastodon, Instagram, or whatever social media you like. Just look up Lowdown on the Plus-Up and you'll probably find us.  Or drop us a note to [email protected] and let us know any questions or comments about how YOU would like to plus-something-up! We are a Boardwalk Times production.Boardwalk Times, https://boardwalktimes.net/Boardwalk Times store, https://boardwalktimes.store .