A new steel and concrete theater was constructed, opening on New Years Eve 1909. In August, 1910, Irving took a chance on a performer from New York who had been black-balled by Flo Ziegfeld. Sophie Tucker was unknown outside of New York, but when she did her one week run at the Chutes Theatre during August 7-13, 1910, she brought down the house. In her ghost-written, sometimes less than accurate, autobiography, Some of These Days, she tells of hanging around town, visiting the Barbary Coast joints, where the hot jazz and new dance steps were the craze. Ackerman gave her another week in September and she packed the house every night. Sophie’s confidence was re-ignited and she returned to the East Coast, full of new vitality and new rhythms and dance steps she’d learned in the clubs on Pacific Avenue.
Closed for the winter of 1910-1911, the Chutes on Fillmore again underwent a remodeling, reopening on Memorial Day weekend, 1911. The May 26 San Francisco Chronicle, stated:
“The grounds of the Chutes, which has been closed for some months, were thrown open for the summer season yesterday. The water chutes has been taken down altogether, but the tower, from which the boats used to glide, still stands and is utilized as a point of observation. The lake has been filled up and that part of the park which it formerly occupied has been transformed into a beautiful lawn and garden.”
At the end of that weekend just after closing at one in the morning on May 29, 1911, a fire started in a faulty water heater in the barber shop and quickly spread. The fire jumped to the roof, spreading to other structures. It destroyed the entire park with the exception of the newly built concrete vaudeville theater. The Fillmore Chutes was gone. San Francisco would not see another permanent amusement park until the unrelated Chutes at the Beach officially opened on October 31, 1921.
The Fillmore site, opened in 1909, lacked the space of the Fulton site but drew large crowds due to its location. —John Freeman collection
PLAYLAND AT THE BEACH
Playland at the Beach—San Francisco’s last amusement park—entranced three generations. Mention it to a San Franciscan over 50 and you’ll get a glazed-over look and a story. “The slides in the fun house—my stomach always dropped over the second hump.” “The Missus and I used to dance at Topsy’s on Saturday Nights. Half a chicken for four bits and that slide to the dance floor.” “Didja hear about the sailor who stood up on the Big Dipper? His head was cut off by a brace and it fell into a lady’s lap in a car below.” It was the source of dreams, tales, and urban legends though the 1945 story of the sailor, Edward Tobiaski of Chicago, whose head was crushed by a beam, proved to be correct.
Chutes at the Beach was later renamed Playland at the Beach. —Photo courtesy of San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library
Playland didn’t begin as a planned amusement park. Seal Rocks and the far-off Farallon Islands attracted visitors, as did the Seal Rock House hotel and the Cliff House. Ocean Beach was “The Beach,” just as San Francisco is “The City.” A few independent concessions sprung up at the end of the trolley line at Ocean Beach. Arthur Looff, whose roots were in Coney Island, New York, ran the now famous merry-go-round, the Hippodrome. John Freidle operated a shooting gallery and a baseball knock down game called Babyland. Knock down a baby, win a prize. The two formed a partnership. Freidle had the money and Looff, whose father built the Hippodrome, the expertise. A dance hall and theater were quick to spring up.
There were ten rides by late 1921, including the Shoot-the-Chutes water ride. That main attraction inspired “The Chutes at the Beach” as the name for the park. In 1922, the famous Big Dipper was born, with its cars traveling its 3,000 feet of track in one minute, seven seconds. The drops were phenomenal, including the long drop, claimed to be eighty feet. That roller coaster ran until 1955, when new safety regulations forced its replacement by a tamer German-built wooden coaster, the Alpine Racer, a Wild Mouse type of ride. The Chutes at the Beach continued to grow.
The Whitney brothers, George and Leo, took over the park in 1929 and renamed the park Playland at the Beach. George had been an early concessionaire and in 1926 became the manager of the park. Ownership of most of Playland was still held by the various concessions, including the Friedle brothers.
Playland’s Shooting Galley. It hadda be rigged! The real question was, “Who would win, the skunk or the bobcat?” —Author’s collection
Playland at the Beach grew to nearly one hundred concessions. It soon featured such attractions as the Midway, the Bug House (Fun House), restaurants, and eateries of every type. The Sideshow sported the usual exhibitionists and short acts. It has been claimed that the sideshow was the first to present Major Mite, Clarence Chesterfield Harden, who went on to be a headliner for the Barnum and Bailey Circus. “The Eden of Wonder Museum” was an attraction similar to a modern-day wax museum. The hand-carved figures were not made of wax but a special resin mix. George Whitney took special pride in the scene of “The Last Supper.”
The Roller Coaster at Chutes at the Beach, later renamed Playland. —Author’s collection
The Whitney Brothers’ version of Topsy’s Roost opened on June 29, 1929 in the Ocean Beach Pavilion Building, and was another of the adult attractions at Playland. A fried chicken house and dance hall, it served fun as the main entree. In spite of Prohibition, Topsy’s was the place to be, accommodating up to one thousand guests at a time. The building housed a large dance floor and tiers of lofts, called roosts. Fried chicken, hot biscuits and waffle fried potatoes served in the roosts were eaten by hand, without utensils. Dancers rode slides from the roosts to the dance floor. Music by Red Lockwood and his Musical Roosters, and later by Ellis Kimball kept the house swinging. A menu from the late-’40s (see following page) illustrates the flavor of an evening at Topsy’s Roost.
Charles Coryell on the Fun House Turntable with a group of children from his neighborhood at Playland at the Beach. If you sat dead-center, you could stay on until someone nudged you off. —Photo courtesy of San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library
The year 1929 brought the Great Depression and Playland took it hard. The Whitney brothers began buying up the concessions as they folded. By 1942, the Whitney brothers owned it all, over a million square feet of amusement park. The park survived the Depression under the Whitney brothers’ guidance and flourished during World War II and the Post War Era. San Francisco was both an Army and Navy town and became a tourist stop for a country looking for fun after a hard couple of decades. The Beach was on everyone’s agenda and Topsy’s swung at night.
Playland at the Beach with owner George Whitney showing a life-sized reproduction of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Lord’s Last Supper” to Harold A. Meyer. —Photo courtesy of San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library
Menu
