Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk's lively history lives on
When you're in show business, you've got to stay fresh to keep the crowds coming. And for more than a century, the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk has worked to keep up with the times, constantly adding new rides, foods and entertainment.
But even as it strives to stay current, the boardwalk has proudly held on to its past - founded in 1907, it is the state's oldest surviving amusement park.
In a corridor above the boardwalk's Cocoanut Grove ballroom, recently retired archivist Bonnie Minford flicks on the lights in a windowless office crammed with binders and boxes and papered with vintage posters, handbills and photographs. The office is one of three secure repositories of the boardwalk's historical items, ranging from 19th century newspaper clippings to a 9-foot-long neon sign from the casino souvenir shop.
Only a handful of people have access, and everything that leaves has to be signed out. Minford slides an archival box from a stacked shelf, and slips off the lid to reveal a white towel with the words "Property of Seaside Company," the boardwalk's parent company, woven into the fabric. It's a relic from the saltwater Plunge, a boardwalk attraction for 55 years. It closed in 1962.
Larger boxes hold a flugelhorn and bass drum from Professor Hastings Band, a popular beach-area attraction at the turn of the 20th century. A paper parasol in a protective sleeve was one of hundreds sold to complexion-conscious beachgoers in the early 1900s.
The company's winding office corridors are dotted with larger items from the archive's hoard; arcade games, carousel horses, a delicate wicker beach chair. Vintage machines dare players to withstand escalating electrical shocks ("Electricity - The Silent Physician!"), or enjoy a session with a vibrating mechanical hand ("Drop coin in the slot, and apply the rubber to any part of the body, or face!").
A device for playing tunes recorded on large metal discs stands in the corner of a conference room. The technology, while ingenious, failed to catch on.
"Some of these items are extremely rare," said boardwalk spokeswoman Brigid Fuller, gingerly opening a drawer holding a half-dozen additional discs. "This is where the 'Antiques Roadshow' guy would have a heart attack."
On the boardwalk itself, there are dozens more historical sights for casual visitors.
A large video screen shows vintage film clips, and Laffing Sal, one of the first animatronic figures ever made, waves at passersby from a glass display case. The upstairs game room in Neptune's Kingdom features historic photographs of the amusement park, from the Edwardian era through the Jazz Age, two world wars, and the psychedelic '60s. Items from the Plunge, including a woolen bathing suit and vintage lifesaving ring, are also on display.
The boardwalk itself is a California registered historic landmark, and two still-functioning rides - the Looff carousel and the Giant Dipper roller coaster - are national historic landmarks. Inside the Carousel building, three perfectly restored, century-old band organs take turns belting out classic amusement-park tunes.
Many other items still in daily use, like the taffy-twister at Marini's candy shop, or the carnival games on the boardwalk, have also been there for generations.
Not every piece of memorabilia originated at the boardwalk. Laffing Sal was originally a fixture at San Francisco's Playland-at-the-Beach, and two of the Carousel's band organs were rescued from other venues.
"We feel that we are stewards of a very special type of recreation," said Marq Lipton, vice president of marketing and sales for Seaside Co., the boardwalk's parent company. "At one time there were seaside parks like ours up and down the West Coast." The boardwalk is the lone survivor.
According to Matt Twisselman, whose family has operated food stands on the boardwalk since the 1930s, history and nostalgia are huge draws for many visitors.
"The boardwalk spends millions on new rides, which is great," Twisselman said. "But every day I talk to people who come here to relive happy memories, family trips, vacation days at the beach. They're here to share the experience with their kids and grandkids."
Photo-illustrated panels along the park's self-directed walking tour depict the Miss California Pageant (founded in Santa Cruz in 1924), the history of bathing suits, Hollywood movies filmed at the boardwalk and hair-raising publicity stunts.
Beginning in 1940, strongman Don "Bosco" Patterson performed the "Slide for Life," which involved zip-lining 750 feet from the top of the casino to a pleasure pier in the ocean. Patterson would launch from a balcony, hanging from his knees, and go zinging oceanward, dangling 12-year-old assistant Harry Murray by one ankle and one wrist. The two would dive into the ocean seconds before the trolley slammed into the pier, a stunt the state eventually banned for being "too hazardous for minors."
Set himself on fire
Patterson traded in young Harry for an adult stuntwoman, and when that act grew stale, he livened things up by doing the slide at night, after setting himself on fire.
That stunt, and scores of others, was dreamed up by the founder of the company archive, Warren "Skip" Littlefield, who got his first boardwalk job at age 11. He returned to the park after graduating from Stanford University in 1927 with a history degree and a Pacific Coast swimming championship.
For the next 58 years, Littlefield performed, produced, emceed and promoted events ranging from the Venetian Water Carnival to the Miss California pageants. In his spare time he put his historian's training to work by cataloging thousands of promotional photographs and anything else he thought might be of historical value.
Littlefield's collection ballooned over the decades, and, when he died in 1985, the company took steps to formally safeguard the archive.
Littlefield's wooden desk and nail head-studded leather chair are now artifacts in the archive he created. The wooden shoeshine box he used to buff his shoes before every public appearance is also preserved.
Minford, a longtime company employee, was tapped to manage the archive in 2004, as the Seaside Co. prepared to publish a book commemorating the boardwalk's 100th anniversary in 2007.
A lasting impression
"The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, A Century by the Sea," published in 2007, holds hundreds of photographs. But the hardest part of researching the book was narrowing down the options. "We had enough material for another book, easy," Minford laughed. "Maybe two."
Sifting through the abundance of photos and artifacts left a lasting impression on everyone who participated in the centennial project, Lipton said.
"We look at ourselves as links in the chain of history," Lipton said. "It changed my perspective.
"Now when I consider whether to send at item to the archive, I think, 'What should I write down to make it easier for the person organizing the bicentennial? What peek of the past will they find interesting? Are we doing anything today that is important enough to end up in the 2107 edition of the book?' "