WHERE WE LIVE | AS YOU WERE
Where there’s a will, there’s a whale. Locals work to transform Marineland’s forgotten entrance sculpture from beached to beautiful. WRITTEN BY CHRIS
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RIDGES
SOUTHBAY, SUMMER 2014
oursouthbay.com
PHOTOGRAPHED BY JEFF BERTING
Sea Change
F
amilies, ocean-life enthusiasts and other visitors found it a bit of an ordeal traveling to and finding Marineland of the Pacific in 1954. The world’s largest oceanarium of its time was located in a spectacular setting deep in the south end of the Palos Verdes Peninsula coastline. It was worth it once you arrived, though, and was like nowhere else on earth. It was another world. Marineland beat Disneyland by a cool 365 days, making it California’s first major theme park. It cost nearly $3 million to build. The park had been having its ups and downs financially after its first few years and needed something new, exciting and fantabulous to bring in the crowds. Enter Bubbles. Bubbles became a huge, instant hit for the park after being caught in 1957. At 13 feet in length, the first female pilot whale ever captured and displayed in public found immediate and worldwide attention. She was drawing them in. So popular and long-lasting was the whale’s success, a monumental likeness was ordered, designed and cast—twice her size at 26 feet long and 7 feet wide. There could have been worse ways to exploit the worldwide popularity created by the loveable phenomenon. The captivating sculpture was designed by Leonard Bessom and installed permanently at Marineland’s updated 1975 entrance, welcoming visitors while looming over their cars as they (finally!) ended their long drive finding the place. The statue was beautifully produced in black-hued fiberglass and from every angle looked as magnificent and overwhelmingly powerful as its subject—while still retaining the lighthearted and elegant playfulness Bubbles’ fans had grown to love. The solid and sturdy installation and placement was