Under the Boardwalk

The Drifters' song you are hearing is from 1964, but like these photos from 1959 and before, for us, its lyrics evoke many of our fondest summer memories from an earlier time when we were still kids.

Although not actually in Oceanside, easy access to the beach and the boardwalk was among the many benefits we enjoyed growing up in our little town; they were only 3½ miles to the south. We could get there by bus or train, by bicycle or by hitchhiking, and once we were 16, many of us went there in our own cars (wow!). Admission to the boardwalk, with its array of games, its arcades and food, was free, and the beach (if you couldn't sneak in) was only a quarter.

In the book based on his hit, 2005 TonyÒ award-winning, one-man, Broadway production, 700 Sundays, Billy Crystal (Long Beach High School, '65) reminisces about the Long Beach boardwalk in the late 1950s as follows: "The boardwalk stretched the length of town and featured some amusement park rides ... games of chance [he later mentions SkeeBall and Fascination, specifically], and a batting cage, a soft ice cream shop, a knish place (Izzy's) [several of these features are pictured below on this page], and a large municipal swimming pool."
And on the way home (day or night), it was always Roadside Rest in our little town, of course, for the "hot dogs and french fries they sell."

What could be cooler on a hot summer day or night?

The two photos just below and the one at the upper left were taken in 1959:

These are older:

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For an incredible online collection of photos of Long Beach over the last 125+ years, assembled by Chuck Jacobi (LBHS, '73), go to http://www.ilovelbny.com, where these photos (used with permission) appear, the first four of which were provided courtesy of Joe Behar (LBHS, '60) and the others of which are of unknown source.

According to Chuck Jacobi, who might best be described as Long Beach's pre-eminent online historian, "The boardwalk is 2¼ miles long, construction began about 1914 and elephants [yes, ELEPHANTS] were used to haul some of the timbers!* It was originally a wood deck structure but because maintenance was a constant problem due to the sun and salt air the decking was replaced with concrete sometime in the 20's or 30's [sic] .... In the end, the concrete just didn't have the feeling of a 'boardwalk' and so [certainly by our time, as it is apparent in the photos above] the wood came back to stay. Now, synthetic wood is being used in some locations as it is almost indestructible."
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The legend held that it was P.T. Barnum's famous elephant, Jumbo, that was used to haul and lay the timbers for the Long Beach boardwalk, but according to Newsday research, the year was 1907 (not 1914), Jumbo was already dead, and other Barnum elephants were used primarily for publicity. There is no evidence that Barnum had anything else to do with the early development of Long Beach. Moreover, the popular belief that Barnum was the namesake of Barnum Island, the original name for Island Park, is likewise untrue (a case of mistaken identity), according to Newsday. For Newsday''s summary account, visit http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-past418,0,5407611.story?coll=ny-lihistory-navigation.

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	Under the Boardwalk	*Another Fond Memory*

Photographs of the Long Beach Boardwalk