Abandoned - Marineland of the Pacific

[Music] what's up guys my name is jake and welcome to abandoned episode 64. situated on the beautiful southern californian coast was a marine theme park unlike anything in the area just 12 miles away from another tourist attraction that i've covered before the rms queen mary marineland predated many other big attractions in the los angeles area opening just a year before disneyland with its stunning vista as a backdrop to its popular attractions and shows marineland of the pacific became an iconic tourist attraction in los angeles now this is not to be confused with the also named marine land in canada which is in niagara falls but unlike that marine park which still operates today marineland of the pacific had its popular run cut short by its biggest rival and for almost 20 years had been left abandoned on arguably the most beautiful piece of real estate i've ever covered so join me today as i find out what happened to marineland today's topic has actually been chosen by my patreon supporters marineland was suggested by jennifer macias and voted to the top by the subsequent poll this episode has also been made possible by skillshare the first 1000 of my subscribers to click the link in the description will get a one month free trial of skillshare it all began in 1954 when marineland opened as the largest oceanarium in the world it was designed by esteemed californian architect william pierra and was the culmination of something that actually began in florida back in 1937 what was dubbed as the marine studio was built in a town which is now called marineland florida the idea was to build a movie studio of sorts to which producers would have the perfect facility to fill marine life in what ended up happening however was the immense draw the studio had in public interest fast forward back to 1954 and these developers took this popular florida destination and built marineland this was the californian successor to the destination that florida proved to be so popular construction soon began across their vast 63-acre parcel on the palos verdes peninsula this included two massive aquatic tanks one oval and one circle with the grandstand surrounding it each tank held more than 500 000 gallons of water along with three levels of underwater viewing the property also featured a hotel restaurant and pier and lots of room for growth attractions like this were rare across the us and marineland made it into a destination and a site to behold rather than just a roadside stop on its first day open more than 15 000 eager visitors had experienced the park and by the mid-1950s over a million people had been walking through the gates annually through the next decade the popularity of marine land of the pacific took off it was only a matter of time before it grabbed the attention of nearby hollywood thanks to the beautiful landscape the park was perched upon and their unique sea life tanks really it was the intended purpose of the florida marine land which marineland of the pacific began to receive attack of the crab monsters was one of the first major productions to utilize the park as a filming location and that opened the door to hundreds more over the years the park appeared on magazine covers and tv specials and used by several feature films with photographs of celebrities enjoying the amenities at marineland including elvis presley with the immense popularity and well over a million and a half people continuing to visit annually the park began to expand along with legacy shows that made them so popular like the afternoon orca feedings and sea life displays by the late 1950s marineland had constructed another amphitheater with an oval tank to host dolphin shows capable of holding around 3 000 people however the popularity of this park prompted even more expansion the world's largest collection of walruses were given an exhibit to great fanfare but perhaps even more exciting was the addition of a 240 foot high observation tower called the sky tower suddenly marineland could be seen for miles around and it became the icon of the park it seemed like the success of the park was almost indefinite however these glory days of marineland of the pacific were coming to a close and by the late 1960s it was the beginning of the end disneyland in anaheim had been open for over a decade by now and was by far the most popular tourist attraction in the area to make matters worse yet another big attraction opened around this time that being sea world san diego attraction began to drop off as these bigger theme parks drew more visitors away financially the owners had found themselves in a tough spot they had just spent over five hundred thousand dollars on the sky tower alone which is about 4.5 million dollars today and you would think that once attendance began to drop off they didn't have enough money coming in in 1971 they were forced to sell to the owners of the hollywood park race track they operated marineland for a short time until bizarrely they leased the park out to 20th century fox yes the studio who themselves operated and managed the theme park until 1977. once marineland was reverted back to the original owners however they decided they were going to sell in october of 1977 a joint venture between kroger and taft broadcasting purchased the park taft also owned the intellectual property of hannah barbera and closed the park soon after for a major remodel which would now include those ip characters in may of 1978 hannah barbara's marine land opened to the public now with renovated facilities characters from popular cartoons like scooby-doo and yogi bear plus entirely new facilities like a research center and a really interesting attraction called baja reef essentially a themed aquarium where you could snorkel down a winding path filled with sea life what these considerable investments made attendants slowly crept back up however it soon leveled off to around 700 000 visitors annually much lower than anticipated in 1981 taft ate up their losses and ultimately gave up and sold their park to a hong kong-based company that managed hotels and theme parks they did little to keep the park in good condition and ultimately found another buyer for the property however this one had wildly different arguably nefarious plans hbj the corporate owner of the sea world theme parks had purchased marineland in december of 1986 for a little over 23 million while they owned sea world essentially marine land's main competitor they claimed there would be no day-to-day changes at the property and that marine land of the pacific would continue to operate as it was however behind the scenes this was essentially a lie as just a month later the key attractions and stars of marineland the killer whales orky and corki were put onto trucks in the early morning hours and transported to sea world san diego this move went behind the back of not only the public but the city officials sea world had been communicating with and ensuring situations like this wouldn't happen once this move was made however the future of marineland seemed less and less stable finally and unsurprisingly to many who worked there seaworld announced they would close the park on march 1 1987. in reality and a slap to the face to all of their dedicated employees marineland was actually shuttered on february 11th due to an alleged bomb threat these supposed threats however were never made public in the end marine land had been opened for over 32 years and after sea world purchased the park they had closed it in just a month and 12 days ultimately seaworld and their parent company claimed the cost to renovate the park would have been too great for them to keep it open however that's kind of an awful excuse since if that was the case why did they buy it they kept it open for a month and obviously that's not enough to do their supposed due diligence i think it's safe to say that it was their plan from the beginning to close marineland with the tanks empty and the iconic sign disassembled sea world swiftly found a buyer for the land at the price of 24 million dollars an arizona-based developer purchased the massive plot of land and right out the gate confirmed he would not reopen marineland the park from this point on was dead instead his vision for the site called for a luxury resort and demolition on certain buildings then commenced the massive tanks which once held the orcas were now gone as were other various structures apart from some key assets that the developers intended to reuse for the resort which included the baja reef by late february of 1988 only the tanks had now been demolished leaving other structures like the sky towers still standing and that's how they would be left for several years the property sat abandoned including that 250-foot tall tower as it slowly became vandalized as you could probably imagine there aren't many photos from this time other than satellite but even this just shows how much of the park was left abandoned finally in 1995 the sky tower was disassembled just as other new developments began populating the abandoned park surroundings still the remnants of marineland continue to sit abandoned all apart from one banquet hall still operating called the catalina room otherwise as the 2000s crept in the now decades-old abandoned structures continued to sit there small buildings were still standing and scattered across the property yet one of the largest remaining assets was the baja reef which was still intended to be used for the future resort's development completely drained and over the years sustaining heavy vandalism the swim through aquarium remained in place with its heavy theming and underwater viewing windows still in place it is crazy to see these structures in such a state of disrepair juxtaposed to the incredible cliffside views they had with prime oceanfront property like that however it was only a matter of time before it was put to use this was confirmed in 2003 when developers submitted plans for a 200 million dollar luxury resort after changing hands a few times and finally a concrete financial backing the resort was approved by city council and demolition of the existing marine land structures began in 2007 in their final plan this new resort would be built completely from scratch meaning the entire plot of land would be completely leveled and as construction continued through 2008 the terrenia resort officially opened to the public on june 12th 2009. today terrenia operates as the largest los angeles coastal resort one with a nine hole golf course nature trails four restaurants a spa three swimming pools and vacation homes all packed into this five-star resort starting at around 570 a night it's a beautiful resort utilizing this nearly perfect plot of land today however almost all traces of marineland of the pacific are now gone the only substantial prop that i know of that's left is the former bubble statue that became the symbol of the park's front entrance now i won't get into the moral quandaries of what places like this represent and i truly think marineland was the product of the era it was from perhaps theme parks like this should only last for as long as they are deemed morally acceptable but then again the only reason why marineland was shuttered was because of another marine park so i'll let you draw your own conclusions but i think it can be universally agreed that marineland of the pacific had the charm that only something built pre disneyland could have for millions it was the beautiful marine park on the ocean that was unrivaled that was at least until its rival quite literally killed them off i want to thank skillshare for sponsoring this video i've been using skillshare for years actually ever since 2017 and for good reason too i'm always asked by friends and family on how to do certain technical things whether it's video editing or even programs out of my comfort zone like the always evolving and very annoying adobe products for instance emmy just completed her first big video essay and when it came down to her making a good thumbnail i told her to try skillshare cat coquillettes has a fantastic photoshop course which even i've learned a lot from she covers all the basics and for emmy it gave her the fundamentals to create a pretty good thumbnail now of course there are thousands of other courses to explore from entrepreneurship illustration marketing business photography and my personal favorite video editing youtuber marquez brownlee has a fantastic course on there which is especially great for people who are first starting out on youtube so if you're a creative and curious person who is looking for an ad-free curated learning experience skillshare is absolutely fantastic if you're interested in signing up the first 1 000 of my subscribers to click my special link in the description below will get a one month free trial of skillshare my name is jake and thank you very much for watching [Music] you

Channel: Bright Sun Films

Views: 870,987

Keywords: marineland, pacific, abandoned theme park, california, sea world, abandoned marine park, palos verdes, what's left, urban exploring, footage, commercial, HD, documentary, clean, family friendly, marineland today, abandoned rides, shows, vintage theme park, history, bright sun films, terranea resort, la hotel, los angeles

Id: 82LG30EG5KQ

Length: 14min 27sec (867 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 24 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Maddox121]

I always knew there was more than one SeaWorld, but more than one Marineland? wow.