In the late 60's, I slept in my 1949 Chevy woody at Ocean Beach. I had lots of fun at playland in those days. Later on in the early 80s', I set all the paving stones for the condo complex park that is there today. Those days, and all the 60's Haight Ashbury days are the real SF gold. These days.. not so much. SF these days is wannabe's that work for big money, and have weak job gratification other than material things they can buy with the money. They are 'here for the money' and personal gain,..only. Few, if any, appreciate the great city SF once was. A far cry from those golden days. These kids will never.. ever, know what the real SF was really like. They are trying to make it what they fantasize it should be. RIP SF. Your future is fucked and not at all what it deserves to be, or will ever be again. It has become a hollow wasteland of wanderers searching for their identity and the real meaning of life fulfilled.

I wish Playland could have been saved. My favorite attraction was the diving bell. They had mics on deck so people waiting or walking by could hear passengers in the bell. The bell captain would scare us with stories of sharks and leaks. He'd point to the water on the floor of the bell and said he hoped we were strong swimmers. We'd scream our heads off not realizing drowning was a lesser problem. We'd scream even louder as we shot up from 30 feet down and everyone walking by could hear,

@victoriamayo5774

5 жыл бұрын

What a loss

I remember going to playland with my parents and grandparents when I was a child. Many fond memories. I used to enjoy hearing their stories of playland during the war and when my mother was a youngster. thanks for the video.

Thanks for the kind words, folks. I have more Playland footage up my sleeve, some (home movies) even going back to the late 1920s!

@331Grabber

3 жыл бұрын

um..... Share?

@bartonpercival2147

3 жыл бұрын

I grew up in the inner sunset Dist in the mid 50’s. I remember many journeys to Playland before it became run down in the 60’s. Loved the Looff merry go round with the 68 animals and the 4 working band organs. Loved also the many good eating places there. Bull pup enchiladas, the chicken range, It’s it, The Hot House. Gosh what a lost treasure.

@michaeltwomey4800

3 жыл бұрын

My dad and I were the last ones in the Funhouse on the last day as we got chased out after hiding and getting busted we were the last customers to ride that slide... True story...

@bartonpercival2147

3 жыл бұрын

@@michaeltwomey4800 That’s amazing!!!!!!! I was 18 when they demolished Playland. I remember my brother and I rode our bikes from Lincoln Way and Funston ave maybe around December of 1972, and we were disappointed to see it was gone, and only 2 blocks of empty land remained. So sad that Playland didn’t survive the changing times

As a young teenager I used to go there in the 1960's.What a fun place!!! It's a shame it was never preserved as a National Historic Site! For us teen- agers it was heaven on earth.

I agree with you!!

@CulturePeaceForever documentary coming out on this friday just about playland. its a full length documentary. called "remebering playland at the beach." with over 200 rare photos and over 20 min of footage its the "mini version" you asked about.

I remember when it closed. I was 14. One afternoon a few of my friends and I, after seeing the movie Harold And Maude, walked through Playland. I felt sad that a part of my childhood had died and lay there in ruins as the wind blew shreds of trash and dust around the empty grounds. So many awesome memories of the place when it was so full of life, laughter, bright blinking lights and the aroma of all the food from the vendors, and that f’n amazing slide in the Funhouse...now just an empty, ghostly, deteriorated wasteland. Now from time to time, I watch Harold and Maude on dvd and hear that message Maude gave us; “Well, some people get upset because they feel they have a hold on somethings. I'm just acting as a gentle reminder, here today, gone tomorrow so don't get attached to things”.

@carbonplastic

Жыл бұрын

And the "She took my head!" Scene was shot nearby at Sutro Baths.

❤San Francisco the way it was ❤

and look at us now..in 2019...worse off than ever...

The Fun House was terrifying. Evil, haunted, steam punk rotting giant cathedral. Probably constructed from wrecked 1906 quake buildings. Laughing Sal was super loud as you approached. She seemed to be a hooker, and she was with a little sailor about a third her size. Once you paid you had to find your way through an extensive mirror maze where you'd get seriously completely lost. There was a huge turning wooden barrel to try and walk trough for "fun". Stuff of nightmares. The stairs to the top of the slide were steep and scarier than the slides. My friend burned off a big patch of arm skin on the slides. There was a raised stage that had rows of horses to ride. They were all the same and unpainted and ugly. They hadn't been in used in decades. Iron rods came through huge slots in the stage to move them back and forth. It seemed your leg could go down a slot and get smashed by the mechanism. There were hand cranked movie machines probably from the 1890's that flipped photographs. One was like an erotic dancer. There was a huge pit with a giant wooden turntable. 20 kids would get on it and they'd start it up and speed it up untill all the kids flew off. I refused to get near it both times I was there. I read that the place was made for adults, but only kids ended up going there and it was overwhelming. And you never saw an adult in there so you felt unprotected. There was a spacious balcony you could walk around, but there was nothing there but a few distortion mirrors and some broken games. Big eerie empty deserted space up there. And there were clockwork lifesize dummies somewhere up there that entered in and out of doors as you looked at the building from the outside.

I was wearing my keds -- they told you not to - and on the wooden slides you slid w gunnysacks, my shoe soles connected and I made several somersaults at the bottom of the hard, wooden slides. Never cared to go there again. By the way, how do you work the 'brass ring"?

@michaeltwomey4800

3 жыл бұрын

What a wuss, shoulda kept your feet up. The brass ring was when you grabbed the rings from the holder from the outside row on the MGR and threw them at a bullseye for the fun of it, if you got a brass ring you got a free ride...

Progress sucks.

Awesome i liked this so much! Excellent video! I cant wait for more videos! thanks! I subscribed to your channel! Don't forget to check out my channel too, I think you'll like it!

In the sixty's gangs from the city would fight there alot,

@michaeltwomey4800

3 жыл бұрын

That is what ruined what was a great thing for the city that should still be here like Santa Cruz...

@bartonpercival2147

2 жыл бұрын

@@michaeltwomey4800 Well at least Laughing Sal (from the Playland Fun House) And 1 of the Wurlitzer band organs from the merry go round survived and are now at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Also the Charles I. D. Looff Playland Carousel was restored and operated at Yerba Buena Center at 4th & Howard Street in San Francisco