The first time I met Joe Barbera was in 1979. He came into a meeting to discuss a show I'd been hired to write, flopped down in a chair and began talking about how exhausted and overloaded he was with Things To Do. The list went something like this: "I have to pick out new carpeting for our living room at home, I have to give a speech at a luncheon tomorrow, we just bought Marineland…"
I laughed but it was almost true. Marineland was an aquatic amusement park out in Palos Verdes, California. You could see trained seals, a trained whale or two, lots of fish in a huge, multi-level aquarium…and that was about it. Not your most exciting day out with the family. The business opened in 1954 and thrived for about twenty years before business fell away. Around 1978, it was sold and for a time, producer Irwin Allen was going to take it over. Then that fell through and for a year or so there, you could pick up the L.A. Times each week and read about hostile takeovers and lawsuits and the new management team of the week. Finally, Hanna-Barbera got involved…and as I understand it, they didn't actually buy the place. Another company did but they made a deal with H-B to lend its name and operational skills.
The park had been losing money for years and J.B. was expected to change that. It was on his mind that day so before we got around to talking about what the meeting was supposed to be about, he talked about that for a while. The problem, he said, was weekdays. Saturday and Sunday, the place did okay…not great but it turned a decent profit. Monday through Friday, however, it took in almost nothing…but it had to be kept open and operating with a nearly-full crew of employees. "It would be great if we could shut it down those days," he said. "But you can't. If you want the trained seals to do six shows on Saturday and Sunday, they have to do six shows every day. On holidays if the place is closed and it's pouring rain, you still have to pay a staff to go there and have the seals do their act to empty seats."
He asked me if I'd been to it. I said yes, my parents took me there once…
Mr. B interrupted. "There's the problem right there. No repeat business. You can see everything there in about three hours. There's no reason to come back. It sure isn't like Disneyland."
I continued, "…and then when I was in elementary school, they took us there a few times via bus for field trips."
Joe nodded. "They used to do that. They had some deal with the city to bus classes there. The city paid them almost nothing but it was mid-week income they otherwise never got. The city won't do that now."
Soon after, Marineland of the Pacific was rechristened Hanna-Barbera's Marineland and they had walk-around costumes of Yogi Bear and Fred Flintstone. They also tried adding some rides but it didn't make a lot of difference. After a few years, the H-B logos were quietly removed and by 1987, the doors were closed and the fish, mammals and amphibians were acquired by Sea World in San Diego. If you want to search — and I don't recommend this — you can find some sad photos and videos on the 'net of the lovely building falling to vandalism and neglect before it was finally razed.
Here's a short TV commercial from '81 by which time they'd given up the Hanna-Barbera branding. It'll show you a little about what was fun about Marineland of the Pacific. There were a number of things but they just weren't enough to keep the place afloat…