PARK MONSTER,
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, 1967
This is what happens when a playground equipment designer watches the movie Frankenstein one too many times on the late, late show. The screws are a dead giveaway.
It’s a playful tribute to the sci-fi superstar stylized as a cross between a giant toy robot and birdcage with googly eyes, and long reaching arms that double as side-by-side slides.
Beautifully finished in a striking shade of bright orange the monster stands out in the master planned suburban scale sandbox his feet are stuck in.
Three floors up two children play inside his head while a young lady is hunched over on the first floor of his two-story torso. He is part observation deck, part thrill ride, part jungle gym, and part pop art for the park.
By any playground standards, artistic or otherwise, before or since, this park monster is amazing!
Here’s to he monster, the playful pop art in the park and YOU!
January 16, 2010
Los Angeles
Hey Charles,
There was a robot/monster slide exactly like this in Reseda Park in the 70s, but, judging from the background scenery, I’m not too sure this is the one. Any idea which park this is?
I still have vivid memories of a “field trip” to Reseda park and watching my kindergarten teacher fall flat on her butt after shooting down one of these slides. Let’s just say she had a lot of gravity on her side
Cheers,
Chris
Her name is Giganta! The old catalog page has been making rounds on the internet lately:
http://daddytypes.com/2009/03/29/giganta_the_playground_robot_automatically_produces_fun_nightmares.php
When I saw this slide, my first thought was Carbon Canyon Regional Park. I can just imagine burning buns while sliding down on a hot day! From the looks of the worn paint on top of the arms, many kidlets tried to climb on the outside of the structure. Now, with all of the safety laws in effect, this “monster” was probably torn down years ago and replaced with a safer version.
They just don’t make playground equipment like they used too! This is super fun!
When I was a kid, there was a really, really steep slide in the park near my house, and we used to slide down it on waxed paper when it got covered with pollen, etc. to speed up the ride. It has since been removed. Something about a kid falling over 10 feet off the top. Sigh.
Here is the original advertisment for this playground equipment…
Delicious isn’t it?
http://marcywrites.com/2009/10/adtalk-my-playground-nightmare/
We miss the classic metal playground equipment.
Vic
http://www.synthetrix.com/mpe/intro.html
Oh, what memories this brings back! I had completely forgotten about the Park Monster! I grew up in Placentia, and there was a monster just like this in the park by our house. Thanks for sharing this slide with us, and giving me a trip down memory lane!
This reminds me of the slides at Wells Park in San Gabriel (now Vincent Lugo Park or something like that) where I spent many days during my childhood. How simple life was back then and how easily entertained were we. Thanks for a truly fun memory!
We had this same monster at La Cienega Park in Beverly Hills! The day they removed him (in the early ’80s) was one of the darkest days in my life.
“VIA” the monthly magazine for the AAA, had a picture of the ROCKETSHIP PLAYGROUND TOY that’s in Torrance, California (the cousin to “PARK MONSTER”). IT BROUGHT BACK ROCKING MEMORIES OF…
the one that USED TO RESIDE IN THE APPROPRIATELY NAMED, “FANTASY PARK” IN DOWNTOWN LAS VEGAS! It, the only other Frisbee Golf Course, a skating rink, old steam locomotive (now at the Nevada State Museum… BEHIND A ‘KEEP-OFF’ WIRE FENCE!!!), and F-86 Super Sabre jet fighter WERE A NEVER ENDING SOURCE OF EXERCISE AND IMAGINATION FOR KIDS OF ALL AGES.
The STATE BUREAUC-RATS lies of “the homeless taking the park over” led to the destruction of this VERY HISTORIC PARK (“So THEY COULD STEAL IT FOR NOTHING”).
The HIDEOUS LOOKING Governor Grant Sawyer State Building was slopped down in place of THAT WONDERFUL PARK.
GENERATIONS OF CHILDREN got a lot of VERY HEALTHY EXERCISE CLIMBING THE 3 FLOORS TO THE TOP OF THE BUCK ROGERS/FLASH GORDON ROCKET… THEN SLIDING OUT OF ITS 2ND FLOOR “ESCAPE HATCH”!
Now you can get your butt “slid out” of THE INTRUSIVE & UGLY SAWYER BUILDING THAT STOLE THE PARK OUT OF THE LIVES OF TODAY’S NOW OVERWEIGHT AND UNDERSTIMULATED CHILDREN.
“Yeah. I know. JUST SHOVE A FEW DOZEN RITALINS DOWN THIER THROATS AND THOSE CHILDREN WILL COME BACK ‘INTO THIER RIGHT MINDS’ IN MINUTES.”
“Nope. Homey DOESN’T DISPENSE THAT POISON ANYMORE.”
God Bless Rocketship Park in Torrance, California!!!
That is so cool. I totally loved stuff like this when I was a kid – could spend hours climbing around on a contraption like that. Too bad you don’t see playground equipment like this any more, of course now it would be considered “unsafe.” I guess we were just a much tougher breed – we made it through the Darwinian filter of big hot metal playground sculptures, not to mention the ride home jumping up and down in the back seat or letting the wind blow through our hair in the open bed of the pick up truck (another personal favorite)!
I remember the playground equipment of the space age fondly.
Monkeybars shaped like subs and Saturns! Giant bugs. Weird slabs and cylinders of concrete (see Synthetrix’s link for the concrete ones). And the jumbo robots and rocketships.
A few years ago there was a big flap in Torrence about the removal of a giant rocketship from a hilltop park. It was something of a landmark. There was such an outcry that the city reinstalled it a few weeks later.
I have to second Paul. I have fond memories of grandparents taking me to La Cienega Park and playing on, in and around the giant robot! Years later, when I was too big to slide down his arms, it would still put a big smile on my face just to see him in the park. R.I.P. Giant Robot!
I love and absolutely miss old school playgrounds with metal and concrete play equipment. I even miss getting blisters on my hands from swinging on bars and the funky metallic smell of the equipment itself. I grew up in Orange County during the 70s and 80s and Atlantis Playground in Garden Grove was my favorite park, besides Adventure Playground in Huntington Beach and the park that used to be across the street from Knott’s Berry Farm. Here is a link to Atlantis:
http://www.funorangecountyparks.com/2009/08/atlantis-play-center.html
Hi Charles!
Just had to let you know that this park is actually La Cienega Park on La
Cienega and Olympic! I knew when I saw the subject line of last week’s
slide, it might be my childhood park, and IT WAS!!! I have such fond memories
of that park and especially of that slide. It was no picnic in the hot
sun…all that metal, but I was so sad when they tore it down! That park has
NEVER been the same!
Thanks for reminding me of my childhood!!
Sarah
I can’t believe it! There was a robot/monster slide exactly like this in my country Argentina, Parana, Entre Rios at the “Patito Siriri Park”! when I was young at the 70th we played, and we love it! Now it is still there! Thank you! I sent your website to my sisters