NORTH READING — Did you know that just a few miles down the road from our humble hometown stood Pleasure Island – billed as “Boston’s answer to Disneyland” – which was once one of the top-grossing amusement parks in the nation?
Tonight at 7:30 p.m., the public is invited to learn all about the facts and lore of Pleasure Island during a free talk by Bob McLaughlin, special guest of the North Reading Historical and Antiquarian Society.
The event on Thursday, February 8 will be held at the Flint Memorial Library’s lower-level Activity Room, located directly off the rear parking lot at 147 Park St.
McLaughlin, co-founder and president of the Friends of Pleasure Island, established in 2000, presents “Pleasure Island in Wakefield.” Opening on June 22, 1959, Pleasure Island rose from the wetlands off Route 128 and transformed them into an 80-acre theme park. Through photographs, McLaughlin, who has an avid interest in theme park history, will recall Pleasure Island memories of boat rides to Pirate Cove, searching for the great white whale, driving a Jenney car, getting dizzy in the Slanty Shanty, and taking a ride on Old Smoky.
At the amusement park, children and the young-at-heart entered into a world that traditional amusement parks could not provide, where character actors continually put on a show and the entire park was the stage. With state-of-the-art attractions combined with national and local live entertainment, Pleasure Island became one of the top-grossing parks in the nation.
Pleasure Island opened four years after the opening of Disneyland in Anaheim, California in July of 1955. The park was enjoyed for 11 seasons – until its closing in 1969 – three years before Walt Disney World would open in Florida on October 1, 1971. (See one of McLaughlin’s vintage postcards advertising Pleasure Island on page 2 of today’s Transcript.)
McLaughlin’s presentation will follow a short business meeting of the Historical Society at 7 p.m. For more information contact the Society at info@nreadinghistory.org or 978-664-1066.