The encyclopedia · Finance & Accounting · Financial decision · 1958–1967
Pacific Ocean Park drew 1.2M guests in six months — bankruptcy in nine years
CBS's pier amusement park opened off Santa Monica in 1958 to record crowds; urban renewal, a defaulting owner and collapsing attendance sank it by 1967.
Pacific Ocean Park · CBS · 1967-10
What happened
Pacific Ocean Park opened on a rebuilt pier in Ocean Park, Santa Monica, on 28 July 1958: a CBS–Santa Anita joint venture pitched as a Disneyland-by-the-sea. Opening day drew 20,000 people, the next day 37,262, and by January 1959 the park had recorded 1,190,000 visitors; 1964, its best year, brought 1,663,013.
The park changed hands three times, and each sale loaded it further down. In 1965 the Ocean Park urban renewal project demolished the surrounding district and closed the streets that fed the pier; attendance collapsed from 621,000 that year to 398,700 in 1966. The last operator stopped paying his bills — including $17,000 of rent owed to the City of Santa Monica since 1965.
The park closed on 6 October 1967, and creditors forced it into involuntary bankruptcy; the city sued to take control. In June 1968 its 36 rides and 16 games were auctioned off to pay the debts. After a string of fires the pier was demolished in the mid-1970s — today only underwater pilings remain.
Why it happened
- Urban renewal demolished the neighbourhood and cut the streets the park depended on for walk-in traffic.
- A change of owner in 1965 brought defaults: rent and taxes unpaid from 1965 onward.
- Attendance halved in two years; a pier park with no catchment could not survive that curve.
The lesson
Pacific Ocean Park opened to record crowds and 1.2M guests in six months; then urban renewal cut off its streets, the owner stopped paying rent, and nine years in it was auctioned.
Aftermath
The pier site later became part of Santa Monica's Dogtown; fires in 1970–73 took what the auction left, and demolition finished the job by 1975.
Sources
- Wikipedia — Pacific Ocean Park (opened July 1958 as a CBS–Santa Anita Park joint venture on a rebuilt pier at Ocean Park, Santa Monica; opening day 20,000, next day 37,262, 1,190,000 visitors by 5 January 1959; 1965 Ocean Park urban renewal demolished surroundings and closed streets; attendance 621,000 in 1965 and 398,700 in 1966; new owner from 1965 owed back taxes and rent since 1965; closed 6 October 1967; creditors and city sued to take control; 36 rides and 16 games auctioned 28–30 June 1968; fires 1970–73; demolished October 1974–February 1975)
- Westland — Pacific Ocean Park (1958–1967) (opened 28 July 1958, owned by CBS and the Los Angeles Turf Club; sold for $10M to John Morehard after its second season, then Irving Kay for $7.5M in October 1963, then Roberts for $2.5M; attendance 1,216,000 in 1963 and a peak 1,663,013 in 1964, collapsing to 621,000 in 1965 and 398,700 in 1966; Ocean Park urban renewal from 1965 demolished nearby buildings and closed streets leading to the park; Roberts paid bills rarely, owing $17,000 back rent to Santa Monica since 1965; creditors forced involuntary bankruptcy at the end of the 1967 season; 36 rides and sixteen games auctioned 28–30 June 1968; fires and demolition in the mid-1970s)
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