… there was Marineland.
Located on the tip of the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles County, Marineland of the Pacific opened to the public in August of 1954. I don’t know when Marineland closed, but I’m guessing that it happened before Sea World opened. (UPDATE: Sea world was established in the mid 1960’s in Mission Bay, San Diego, and Marineland closed in 1987, so both were open for more than two decades.)
Diver feeding fish at Marineland of the Pacific
Dad took these photos in black & white on our 1956 trip to Los Angeles. We met up with his half brother and paid a visit to Marineland. His brother’s name was Paul, but most people knew him as “Monty,” and he was quite a character. He worked as a color editor in the movie industry, and rumor had it that he worked on The Ten Commandments. Some say he even did the special effects for the parting of the Red Sea, but his name doesn’t appear in the credits anywhere, for anything, as best I can tell.
Shark
You may not be able to tell from these photos, but back in 1956 this place was da bomb!
Me, fascinated with fish
That’s the back of my head in the center of the photo. Mom’s giving me a ride around the aquarium. We’re flanked by two of my sisters, and my dad’s half-brother is at the left edge of the frame. If you think he looks like he could be sixty, that’s because he was.
This particular vacation also marked my first trip to Disneyland (pretty much everyone’s first trip to Disneyland, since it first opened the previous year), but, as you can tell, I’ve already got my “E” ticket. For those of you who don’t know, for many years Disneyland sold books of tickets for their rides and attractions, each ticket sporting a letter code of A, B, C, D, or E. The “E” tickets were for the most desirable rides, and they were priced accordingly.
Main pool at Marineland
This is, by far, the best of these photos. Uncle Paul, AKA “Monty,” is looking straight back at the camera. My three sisters are standing to his right, and it’s quite obvious that something very interesting is going on in the water — well, interesting to everyone except my uncle.
I’m guessing that Dad took these photos before he sprained his ankle at the beach. He hurt himself pretty badly, and he still had to drive our stick-shift car all the way back to Oklahoma.
