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Moved to LB in 1999 so I never saw all of this, but I would have really love to.

I lived in Long Beach in 1976 for a year, and I remember hearing about The Pike. I went down looking for diversion and was saddened to see its best days were far behind it. I don't know if there were even 3-4 rides open. The rest was just tattoo parlors and a couple food stands. I still kind of enjoyed it in a poignant, sad way. On the weekend, if I didn't take the bus to L.A., I would go down to Belmont Shore and shop, have breakfast

I was there as a Navy wife in the early 50's. Pike was full of Sailor's. There was a park and fabulous beach. Torn out for the Queen Mary. Sad. Also, there was a a outdoor Roller Rink. Loved skating there.

Thank you for making this 💜 💓

I can't believe how many people actually remember this !

Went to the Pike in the early 70s. Was a bit dirty and nauseating, but fun. Was deteriorating, but interesting.

back in 1965, my mom used to play "Clock-A-Line" there. it was a pinball-like, game only for money. I would roam around there 3 or 4 days a week , I was 8years old, did that for about 2 years. Thank you So very much !

Im 21 feel sorry for me to be born in this day and age this makes me dreams better simpler kinder times

These are the same photos as another’s

YUP, THE PIKE 🥳. A VERY HAPPY PLACE. GOOD'OL MEMORIES DURING THE GOOD'OL DAYS ✌️

So disappointed this wasn't kept in Longbeach. Just shopping and boat parking lots now. I really don't get it.

I wish I could have seen the Rainbow Pier!

Playing skee ball in the arcade and playing all the boardwalk games at the pike ....the pike was a real amusement park...great video...you should sell copys of these photos...they would look good in a gameroom or pool hall...

I walked--very briskly---through this abandoned Pike midway in 1979, en route to the Long Beach Arena to see AC/DC for the Highway to Hell tour with the late Bon Scott. :)

COMPLACENCY is the enemy ! ! !

Industry shifted.... Mexican gangs took over... by the mid 80's it was a shadow. By 1990=5 that was a good place to get cocain/heroine.

I heard that I got lost there when I was one or two years old. Thank God, my parents found me.

Well he works can’t beat that that’s not a bad Toy

My mom rode the cyclone racer she grew up in San pedro 50s and 60s she said it was scary but it was fun best roller coaster that she been on

i have one this engine smoking robot.

What happened? Disneyland

Gee.... I remember as a little girl. MY parents would take me there. I loved it. I still would have flash backs.

Loved this place in the 60s. Night there was magic. especially on acid (LSD in case you don't know the slang.)

It was a amazing place..still sad it closed

I think it was laugh in the dark had a real dead guy in there

Oh how I loved the Pike. The Cyclone Racer was amazing!! Tthe tilt a whirl. And the carousel are the rides I loved best. Went back several years and there were memorials of the cyclone. The carousel was tgere but not original. Great time growing up there.

Wasn't this the amusement park featured in "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living And Became Mixed-Up Zombies"?

My youth was spent at The Pike

Many fun memories taking the Red car to long Beach to ride the Cyclone, bumper cars and spending the afternoon at the YMCA

It's not "year's"... it's "years"

I used to go in the 1960's. The old-timey piano music is lost on an audience that might have remembered the Park in the 1930's and '40's but are probably long-since dead.. For me The Pike was a dangerous place to be. We were forbidden by parents to use public restrooms or public indoor showers since there was such a high incidence of sexual assaults on unaccompanied young boys by pedophiles. We were told to pee outdoors around a corner or something.

How cool, I remember the Pike from being a small child in the late 1950s. I was not allowed to ride the Cyclone Racer or any of the scary-looking rides, but the carousels and the small ferris wheel. I swear there was a second carousel where the horses didn't go up and down on poles but were attached to a platform underneath them that went in a circle on a sort of circular track that went over roller-coaster like hills. The horses on that one were a lot prettier than the ones on the other carousel, at least little me thought so. But I have never seen any pictures of it. I also remember going into an underground walkway with my dad where we went to a stamp shop. I learned that was the Jergens Subway that went under Ocean Avenue, but now it is closed forever.

Great memories of the Pike! We wore out the Cyclone Racer!!! What great times we had!

Thank you Meli for your comment. My favorite ride was LAFF IN THE DARK.

awe the bumper cars was my favorite then !! Now nothing is the same :(

Sad

Bring back the Pike.

I was in Long Beach I think 78 and the roller coaster was still there.. I went on it. There were still shops in the tunnel under the buildings. The " Great Race" I think that was the name with Burt Reynolds, they had clips or it before they ended at the Queen Mary.

what happened you asked.. well drugs for one. LSD and the funhouse..not such a good combo. navy left, and took their money with them, Roller Coaster was the big deal and with it gone.. the place died. after the 50's it was considered " seedy", and it probably was. America quit taking trollys and did everything in cars. Notice the talk about "malls" by the younger folks. When the breakwater was built, the beach wasn't much anymore. America was glued to the TV and the Car.. and being outside walking and in crowds didn't fit anymore. Culture shift. Same reason you will look at it here, but not actually go. Glad to see the pictures and remember . Sorry to see the decay..but it's a good document Alex.

I grew up in LB in the 1940s and 50s, and remember the Pike just before it became the Nu-Pike. That was the place to go for everyone. LB had a big Navy base at the time, so the Pike was overrun with sailors and marines. Several biker gangs such as the Hell's Angels and Nomads were there as well, but they caused no trouble. It was always the sailors and marines that caused the trouble. Several movie and TV shows were filmed there too. Sad to think of the old place as gone forever.

Those little devil holding the pitchfork tats! I see those all the time now, ran into a guy years ago 500miles from LA saw that tat went up to him put my finger on it and said "You got that at The Pike in LB!" He stated I was correct. Turns out he grew up around here etc. etc. etc. LOL My stepdad had the same tattoo on his arm.

I spent many days at the Pike in the 40's and early 50's. My dad worked at the ocean center building. Also he owned a ride at the pike. Even then, the Pike was kind of run down.

I grew up in LB ...1960 through 1970 about 2 miles from the Pike, so was always there. I rode the cyclone racer when I was 8 or 9 and was nearly killed. It made violent, jolting left turns, which nearly threw me out of the car. I returned to live in LB again in 1978, just in time to see the Pike and Downtown Long Beach in ruins.....Just like this video....what a flashback!

I can see the fun people had but for me it only brings tears as my mom died on the cyclone ride in 1978. Her name was Sandra Magana, her maiden name was Sandra Motley. I am Ken Motley and besides her tragedy I woulg love to find my grandfather James william Motley, My uncle Rich Larmen and my dad John Adrian. It swas a beautiful park but I Miss my mom, I never got to spend much time with her as she was so young when I was born and there might have been many friends and family that were unaware she had a son, I Love You mom, where are the rest of my family?

When I was kid probably around 10 or so, we would walk down to where the Pike was and some of the OLD stuff was still there. I remember the bumper cars still there (but not running) and the Arcade was still open but everything else was gone or closed. I remember all the shops on Pine Ave. were either closed down or barely open. I remember Newberry's was open and during Christmas you could go to the second floor and get a picture with Santa. Downtown Long Beach was a GHOST TOWN in the early 80's. But life was good. America was good. People were good. Not pre-occupied with phones, technology, computers, etc. It was about family then.

Have you visited the facebook page for Long Beach nostalgiacs? That's a made up word for all of us who beat LB memories to death, but it's really entertaining. Come play. You're within our age range. It's called Born and Raised in Long Beach.

Breaks my heart. The music added as the pictures of the Pike before and after made it even more touching. Manipulative, and well done. I loved the Pike growing up. It was magical. Long Beach made a huge mistake not keeping it up. I think they wanted a more sophisticated aura, and that wasn't it. But it would have added to its being a great beach town.

Thank you so much for your comment.

Thank you so much for your comment. I'm so sorry i didn't respond to you sooner. I been having problems with my computer. My parents took me age 7 and my three sisters to the Pike back in 1967. I know it was before 1968 because my mother and i were in line to ride The Cyclone Racer. We got to the loading dock and I chickened out! Damn!lol They tore down The Racer in the year 1968. Thanks again for great comment!

Very well done.. thank you.