The Best Picture Book About the Historic Long Beach Pike

The Best Picture Book About the Historic Long Beach Pike

I’ve been studying the historic Long Beach Pike, and working on a project I call “The Long Beach Jollyball Machine”.

The project is a Great Ball Contraption in LEGO(r) bricks.  We visualize the balls going around the Historic Pike, taking rides and going up steps to the next ride.

The historic Pike developed sometime in the late 1800’s and continued to morph and change until the City Council denied the lease renewal in 1979.  There’s much to be told about the Historical Long Beach Pike… about it’s role in Long Beach history, surely, but also about its role in amusement park history.

The Pike developed at a time when even rides such as Carousels were new.  The first carousel was made in 1861, and was steam powered!

There were rides with names such as The Parachute Ride, Bisby’s Spiral Airship (a one-of-a-kind ride) and the Bamboo Slide.

There are many stories to tell, and we’ll be working on a summer art show that will bring out original works of art and instruction in a variety of media.

For now, I would like to refer to you what I believe is the best book on the historic Pike.  It’s no longer in print, but it has a great collection of photographs from the old Pike.  It was printed by the Long Beach Historical Society in 1982, shortly after the Pike was closed.  The books show up periodically. As of this writing, there are several available on Amazon.

I purchased my second and third booklets yesterday! I’d buy all if I could, but… you know… budget.