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# Pier looks to next 100 years
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/pier-looks-to-next-100-years/
- Published: 2008-09-10T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T20:58:25.000Z
- Author: Melody Hanatani
- Tags: Entertainment, Pier, #archive-import

*Pier promises to have a blowout centennial*

SANTA MONICA BEACH It wasn’t the kind of blowout party often expected from celebrities of this caliber, but the 99th birthday of the world famous Santa Monica Pier on Tuesday set the stage for what promises to be a one-of-a-kind centennial.

As the city’s iconic landmark — featured numerous times on film and television — approaches the century mark, the Santa Monica Pier Restoration Corp. (PRC) on Tuesday kicked off a year-long celebration that will be filled with events building up to the big day next fall.

“The Santa Monica Pier Centennial will look 100 years in the past and 100 years in the future by creating an atmosphere of fun, festivity, and fitness that will last for another 100 years,” Ben Franz-Knight, the executive director of the PRC, said during the news conference.

The festivities surrounding the anniversary will include everything from performances featuring theater troupes and master drummers, to the release of a new history book in January, all concluding on Sept. 9, 2009 with one of the biggest fireworks show at the pier in more than 14 years.

PRC officials also unveiled the prototype for the new Sand Tram which will shuttle visitors to and from the pier and the new Annenberg Community Beach House, located a few blocks north, when it opens next year. The 60-foot-long trolley will travel on the sand alongside the bike path and has the capacity to carry approximately 100 passengers. The natural-gas powered tram can travel up to 15 mph, taking about 12 minutes between destinations.

An ad hoc committee, headed by actor Robert Redford and singer/songwriter Joan Baez, has spent the past several years putting the pieces of the centennial celebration together.

Both honorary co-chairs say they have fond childhood memories of the pier.

“It is a landmark that has endured when so many others in Los Angeles have disappeared,” Redford, who has visited the pier since the age of 4, said in a statement.

Baez, who gave an unscheduled performance during the Twilight Concert Series last month, recalled in a statement the fond memories she has of spending time on the merry-go-round.

“I can see it and hear it, and I wish on the golden ring that the merry-go-round will, during the next 100 years, continue to be a source of joy and splendor to little kids, their moms and dads, and grandmothers like me,” she said.

The 1,600-foot-long pier opened to the public in 1909 after 16 months of construction, originally erected to service sanitation needs for City Hall.

Charles I.D. Looff, a carousel manufacturer, purchased the land south of the pier in 1916 to develop an amusement park, building the Blue Streak Racer roller coaster and the Hippodrome, which houses the famous carousel.

After Looff died in 1918, his family operated the pier for five years, ultimately selling it to the Santa Monica Amusement Company, which would later build the La Monica Ballroom.

The area south of the pier was also once the home of Muscle Beach, which saw the likes of bodybuilders Joe Gold and Jack LaLanne. Gold would later open the famous brand of gyms bearing his name, Gold’s Gym.

The pier faced the threat of extinction in 1973 when the City Council condemned it for destruction in order to build a man-made island that would hold a resort. The plans were defeated after residents led a campaign to preserve the pier.

Another threat posed itself in 1983 when a storm wiped out more than one-third of the pier, taking with it several cafes and shops and the harbor patrol station. In order to save the pier, the Pier Restoration and Development Task Force — later known as the PRC — was formed.

The pier was designated as a city landmark in 1976.

Allan Lipsky, the president of the PRC Board of Directors, said the events over the next year will honor the history of the pier.

“This will be an event celebrated not only by the people in this city, but all of Los Angeles,” he said.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 10, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/091008.pdf?ref=smdp.com)