L.A. as Subject's latest contribution to KCET's SoCal Focus blog revisted three classic tourist attractions from Southern California history: Marineland of the Pacific, Knott's Berry Farm, and the California Alligator Farm.
Recently, scenes from L.A. history have been reappearing a few dozen miles to the south, as the Walt Disney Company completes a makeover of the entrance to its California Adventure theme park. The main entrance now bears a striking resemblance to the Streamline Moderne Pan-Pacific Auditorium, which L.A. lost to fire in 1989. Just behind the entrance's fin-shaped towers, the Disneyland Monorail will soon glide over a replica of the Glendale-Hyperion Bridge, which connects Atwater Village with Silver Lake.
These reconstructions of L.A. architecture recall the city Walt Disney encountered when the aspiring cartoonist first arrived in California in 1926, but they also remind us of the place that theme parks and other tourist attractions occupy in Southern California history. With its international stature, Disneyland may be the best known of Southern California's tourist destinations, but the region has been home to several popular attractions, from ocean-front amusement parks to Busch Gardens in Van Nuys.
Keep reading the full post at KCET.org.