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San Francisco's Playland at the Beach, The Golden Years is the follow on to The Early Years, offering great photos taken by those who were there and remember. Color photos of Laffing Sal, the Merry-Go-Round and the Fun House bring fond memories back to life.

Comprehensively documented and illustrated, this is the definitive and authoritative look at one of America's landmark amusement parks, Playland at the Beach, a glamorous park that is still revered by San Franciscans more than 40 years after it closed. A dearly loved part of old San Francisco, the park incorporated rides, dining, sight-seeing, socialization, and its pioneering attractions inspired the designers of the amusement parks that followed. A companion piece to San Francisco's Playland at the Beach: The Early Years, this keepsake covers the years 1945 to 1972, showcasing both the height of Playland's postwar popularity and its decline, closure, and destruction during its final years. Illustrated by a huge collection of rare black-and-white and color photographs, it lets the reader experience the rides, attractions, restaurants, and behind-the-scenes operations of the great amusement park during its best-remembered period.




In 1913, Arthur Looff and John Freidle formed a partnership to create an amusement park, located at Ocean Beach on the Great Highway, called Concessions at the Beach. Looff owned the Hippodrome, housing the first of San Francisco's three famous carousels, and Freidle owned a shooting gallery and a baseball knockdown game called Babyland.

That meager start grew to ten major attractions and countless arcades by 1921, including the Shoot-the-Chutes water ride. By then the park had taken on the name of its top attraction, billed as Chutes at the Beach. The remaining nine attractions were the Bob Sled Dipper roller coaster (Bobs), the Aeroplane Swing, the Whip, Dodg `Em, the Ship of Joy, the Ferris Wheel, the Looff Carousel, Noah's Ark, and the scenic railway Figure 8 gravity coaster. (Read More)





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