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LAistory is our new series that will take us on a journey to what came before to help us understand where we are today. We began with Val Verde, the "Black Palm Springs", then journeyed to Thelma Todd's Roadside Cafe, then to a house in Beverly Hills and then to Echo Park's Bonnie Brae House. Now we're off to Palos Verdes to a water park closed for twenty-one years and the strange wonder that closing made necessary...
UPDATE: Reader Whinemaker has disabused me of the urban legend of flying whales. He even quoted a NY Times article: "Orky and Corky were trucked to Sea World without warning one night, ostensibly for breeding." I guess sometimes the urban legend is stronger than the need to run it through the NYTimes archives! It lead me to wonder, where would such a story come from? The ending of Marineland was so awful and heartless and corporate -- companies taking wonder from the world, destroying our childhoods. Maybe we just wanted a fairytale to comfort us as we looked out on a whale-less night.
The Park
Once upon a time, some people really liked creatures from the sea. The people decided that these creatures lived too far away and that it would be nicer if they lived nearby, where they could all visit each other whenever they wanted. These people decided built Marineland of the Pacific on a cliff overlooking the sea in Palos Verdes, CA. It was a picturesque location, whose cove-ridden coastline once gave shelter to Spanish and Portuguese sailing ships -- pirates and whalers mostly.
When Marineland opened its doors in 1954. At that time, it was the largest Oceanarium in the world. Its exhibits housed animals from all over the world, changing on a semi-weekly basis. Everything from dolphins to walruses to sea otters had homes there. It pioneered a swim through aquarium called the Baja Reef.
The Closing
Almost as noteworthy as its existence was the way that Marineland closed. In 1986, it was purchased by Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, who also owned Sea World. At the time of the sale, papers were full of promises that the park would not be closed, nor would any of its occupants be moved. However, in January of 1987, employees showed up for work to find Marineland gated and padlocked. HBJ released a statement claiming that the location was unstable -- the park was falling off of the palisade and had to be closed for the sake of both animals and workers. Now, websites that mention the incident say that HBJ closed the park only because it was financially expedient to do so. The animals were transferred to other parks, or simply released with no knowledge of how to survive in the wild.
In the mid-nineties, there was some talk of building a resort on the Marineland site, though that seems to have faded. Like so many landmarks from mid-century Los Angeles, Marineland exists in limbo -- closed to the public, it is used for filming, most recently, it has appeared in Fear Factor.
Marineland still holds a firm place in the hearts of many as the first place they saw a manta ray or an anemone . In 2003, the Marineland of the Pacific Historical Society was founded to preserve its memory. The last remaining buildings on the site were demolished in 2006.
The Orcas
Corky, was captured near British Columbia in 1969 when she was approximately 5 years old. She was placed in a circular pool with another orca, Orky, a male captured the year before. In 1977, Corky became the first orca to give birth in captivity, though the calf was stillborn. She gave birth 6 more times, but the longest any of the calves lived was forty-seven days.
In January of 1987, the whales were moved to Sea World, where they were immersed with the many whales there, who live in a series of large pools. Corky, pregnant at the time, bore her last calf a few months later, stillborn. Within the year, Orky, her companion of seventeen years, (longer than most celebrity marriages) was dead.
Now, Corky is approximately forty years old, and partially blind in one eye (though essentially healthy and about halfway through the natural orca lifespan.) She performs at Sea World daily, under the Sea World brand name, Shamu.
The Flight
They don't move Orcas in tanker trucks or strange contraptions built with nets at sea. They airlift them in hammocks, the ends of which are held by helicopters. Obviously, they have to be massively sedated to do this. They can only be moved at night so that the whales don't get dehydrated. It might be difficult to make out from the ground, but it interferes with reception -- antennae, the occasional satellite dish. (Few people had mobile phones in 1987.) And of course, it's pretty dangerous.
Imagine what they thought, sedated, drifting, thoughts coming in waves, one over the other. Did they think they were swimming? If they were, the water felt curiously... thin, and the surface, instead of mirroring their own faces back at them, swam with tiny specs of light. And all around... this strange whirring noise, a chugging sound so heavy and physical, it almost seemed as though it would hit them, instead of just brushing by.
There's a whole scene in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy where a bomb turns into a whale that thinks it's flying for a brief moment before hitting the ground. That whale wasn't even traveling over part of one of the most populous areas in North America. What a spectacle it must have been. These great beasts gliding through the night, for a moment freed from the normal constraints of breeding and performing. For once able to swim among the stars instead of just below them.
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i loved marineland as a kid. my parents when i big let's go to amusement park kick when i was three in 1983. At least there will always be sea world.
Wow. I can't wait for you guys to do an article on the Pacific Electric Railway.
Actually, they DO move orcas in big tanker trucks! I have first hand knowledge of this very incident, as I happened to live in Palos Verdes when the sale of Marineland to HBJ took place. Coming home late/early morning (refer to above story about the lack o' nookie in LA - it was different back in the day...just sayin') anyhow, about 3:30 a.m. or so, I ended up behind two gigantic trucks hauling God knows what. The tractor/trailer/tank rigs were the size used to haul houses when pried from their foundations. Anyhow, these trucks were crawling at a snails pace - literally maybe 10 mph, tops - down Pac. Coast Hwy (PCH and Calle Mayor, when I encountered them, to be exact). It took me a few moments to notice water sloshing out over the tops, and then I saw the 6 or 8 guys in wet suits sitting around the top of the tank perimeter. I have NO idea how they managed it, but it was the most bizarre/surreal thing I'd ever seen. It immediately dawned on me what was going on, because the sale/talk of moving the orcas was such a big deal - if I remember correctly, there were protesters out at Marineland every day, and the whole thing was very emotional. So there it was, they were moving them covertly, under the cover of night. It was something I'll never forget - obviously!
That's interesting. I'm pretty sure I sourced this though. Could they have been moving something else? Dolphins, maybe?
Either way, what a great contribution to the comments!
I went to Marineland with the Girl Scouts, pretty soon before it closed. '86, maybe? I was really sad to hear about it.
While I haven't been in LA long enough to remember this place, it certainly seems like another one of the numerous ghostly relics that seem to inhabit this city.
I really enjoyed the last segment of this article.
Here is the story ...
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEFDC143DF932A35750C0A961948260&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
Sorry about the post above - I don't know if that link above worked. Here's the article from the NY Times - and a bit about moving Corky and Orky in the trucks is six paragraphs down. It was really sad, and I doubt the original orcas lived - I can only imagine how traumatized they were ...
NATIONAL NOTEBOOK: Rancho Palos Verdes; Harcourt Sinks Marineland
By JOHN NIELSEN
Published: March 1, 1987
LEAD: WHEN Harcourt Brace Jovanovich bought California's oldest aquatic park last December, admirers of Marineland hoped that its past glories might soon be restored. At the time of the purchase, the Florida-based conglomerate said it had no plans to close the 33-year-old oceanarium, even though it was run-down and barely breaking even.
WHEN Harcourt Brace Jovanovich bought California's oldest aquatic park last December, admirers of Marineland hoped that its past glories might soon be restored. At the time of the purchase, the Florida-based conglomerate said it had no plans to close the 33-year-old oceanarium, even though it was run-down and barely breaking even.
But on Jan. 30, Harcourt abruptly canceled restoration plans on the ground that the venerable park here was more decrepit than expected. Improvements could cost as much as $25 million, the new owners said, and without them the park would lose $2 million a year.
The speed and style of the decision left a bitter taste in Rancho Palos Verdes, an oceanside city about 50 miles southwest of downtown Los Angeles. Since it was opened in 1954, Marineland had been the city's largest employer, with 300 workers, and main tourist attraction. Over the years, it had drawn tens of millions of visitors, who came to see everything from sea sponges to Orky and Corky, a pair of trained killer whales. Attendance fell off badly in the 1970's, in the face of stiff competition from San Diego's Sea World, but in recent years it had risen slightly, raising hopes in turn.
Best known as a book publisher, Harcourt owns the Sea World Company, which includes four aquatic theme parks and a fifth under construction. When it bought Marineland for an undisclosed sum from a Hong Kong developer, it was hoped that Sea World expertise might prove useful here.
But the City Council became suspicious of Harcourt Brace's motives a few weeks after the purchase, when Orky and Corky were trucked to Sea World without warning one night, ostensibly for breeding. At a hastily called meeting, the Council passed an ''urgency'' ordinance requiring Harcourt to maintain the Marineland site if it were closed to keep it from falling into disrepair. It also required the company to maintain access to public beach areas adjacent to the 96-acre site, widely considered extremely choice real estate.
Harcourt said it received bomb threats after announcing its change of heart, prompting it to lock the gates three weeks before the announced closing today. Asked about the future of the site, Marineland officials referred a caller to company headquarters, which has been unresponsive.
Cari Cooper, spokesman for the City Council, conceded that Harcourt had every right to close the park, which is currently zoned for commercial and recreational purposes. But she added that the Council was annoyed.
''It's private land and a private company and they can do what they want,'' she said. ''But they've lost a lot of credibility. What the Council and the city feels is they should have been a little more open.''
Actually, they are building a resort at the site. It's called Terranea and here's a link:
http://www.terranea.com/
I wonder if the resort will have any sort of recognition or memorial for Marineland.. That would be great!
I'm very happy to see this one posted. One of my old friends used to live by there. The place was extremely run down. It was known to have a lot of homeless people living there in the 'ruins'.
I went to a wedding next door to the park a couple of years ago. And the sets to "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" were up. Such a weird sight to see Dr. Seuss like houses in an empty lot!
I was involved with the Cetacean Society and PETA in Redondo Beach at the time. It was our opinion that the owners of Sea World were unusually cruel to their animals/mammals.
Marineland was also a rescue center, saving any sick or beached sea lion, dolphin, etc and nursing them back to health before releasing them in the wild. I used to go over and unofficially volunteer with the sick animals.
Harcourt-Brace were no longer allowed to capture any more orcas in the wild, and from the beginning we believed they were buying Marineland simply to get the orcas. It was awhile ago, but if I remember correctly, it was a pattern with them.
We felt like our beloved sea animals/mammals were being taken from a compassionate environment and put into the hands of an evil conglomerate. The closing of the rescue center was also a terrible blow.
In the years since, Sea World cleaned up its act and began providing better care an habitats. I haven't been involved in those organizations for many years now, so current members may have a very differet take on Sea World's care of its inhabitants.
But the loss of Marineland will always be a personal loss for me.