Here's the cover of the now-infamous POP auction when the whole place was liquidated from the carpets on up. If faced with a choice between attending this auction or the big MGM auction from the 70's...it would be a toss-up. That "P.O.P. Goes POP!" slogan makes me want to punch the copywriter in the teeth. It's so frivolous and smug.
Here is a ticket to the opening festivities of POP's 2nd year of operation, when the place still looked (kinda) clean and smelled (sorta) fresh.
And lastly, some photos. I don't really collect "folks at the park" photos, although I marvel at what Matterhorn, Major P. and Daveland have managed to assemble. But, I do have a few B&W and color tourist snapshots at POP. Here is one of each. The B&W photo shows a mom and anxious kid posing in front of the queue for the Banana Train ride. The color one was shot, I guess, from the sky-ride and gives a nice shot of the Diving Bells and the Fun Forest walk-through in the background. For some reason, when the park was being torn down, that old "tree" in the Fun Forest was one of the last things standing; you can see it in lots of "broken down POP" photos.
3 comments:
Great post. WOW that ad is funky! Is there a line forming to punch out that copywriter? The Smug SOB! The whole ad is weird, a little too festive given what's happening. I vote for the MGM auction, I think some of that stuff has become priceless! Thanks for POP stuff, cool photo's too!
p.s. the pop color guide book is great, post it sometime, I bet not that many people have seen it.
Great snapshots. I would still like one of the auction catalogs.
I still feel a sense of disappointment that I never got to see POP in person. Even in its later, seedier state! It seems strange that they obviously worked pretty hard to make this park a pretty amazing and unique place, but it only took a few years for it to seriously decline. They must have just assumed that they were going to have the same crowds as Disneyland!
I wish we could see your pictures a bit bigger (to see the details)....
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