Long Beach, CALIFORNIA - Cyclone Racer & Beach Crowds - 1956

Description: Long Beach, CALIFORNIA - Cyclone Racer & Beach Crowds - 1956: The Pike was an amusement zone in Long Beach, California. The Pike was founded in 1902 along the shoreline south of Ocean Boulevard with several independent arcades, food stands, gift shops, a variety of rides and a grand bath house. It was most noted for the Cyclone Racer (1930–1968), a large wooden dual-track roller coaster, built out on pilings over the water. The Pike operated under several names. The amusement zone surrounding the Pike, "Silver Spray Pier", was included along with additional parking in the post World War II expansion; it was all renamed Nu-Pike via a contest winner's submission in the late 1950s, then renamed Queen's Park in the late 1960s in homage to the arrival of the Queen Mary ocean liner in Long Beach. 1979 was the year Long Beach city council refused to renew the land leases and demolished all of the structures and attractions it could that weren't trucked away. The Pike museum is located in Looff's Lite-A-Line at 2500 Long Beach Blvd, Long Beach, CA 90806. One of the best-known historic coasters, the Cyclone Racer was built in 1930 to replace the Jack Rabbit Racer. The Cyclone Racer was a dual-track (two trains could launch side-by-side at the same time), racing wooden roller coaster, the brain child of Fred Church and built by Harry Traver. To increase thrill, the new coaster was built on pilings over the ocean, several hundred feet beyond the shore. Eventually the entire pier stood over sandy beach, not water, because of the sand deposition due the slowing of water caused by the new harbor expansion and breakwater. Over 30 million riders rode on the Cyclone before it closed in 1968. It was removed to clear space for a Shoreline Drive cloverleaf to the Magnolia Bridge in anticipation of the RMS Queen Mary's imminent arrival (a connecting road which was later demolished when found unneeded, proving the Cyclone Racer was removed unnecessarily.) The Cyclone Racer was the last remaining seaside dual-track roller coaster of its kind in the United States until it was disassembled and cataloged in September 1968 with the promise to Long Beach citizens that it would be rebuilt elsewhere. Enthusiasts seeking to re-create this roller coaster have made a three-dimensional model and are looking to perhaps have it rebuilt in Southern California. The last remaining Cyclone Racer roller coaster car is located in the Pike Museum. This Linen Era postcard's image, published in 1936 but mailed in 1956, is clear, but there is edge wear and a crease across the card on its right side and in its right corner. CT Art Colortone. No. 6A-H2626. Western Publishing & Novelty Co., Los Angeles. Calif. LB-89

Price: 8.5 USD

Location: Brooklyn, New York

End Time: 2025-01-05T02:12:39.000Z

Shipping Cost: 0 USD