BLACKPOOL

Hokitika Guardian, 23 August 1929, Page 2

BLACKPOOL

A PLEASURE CENTRE

There are a hundred and one ways of starting this article. You could begin with the Pleasure Beach and the side-shows, like Noah’s Ark, whore there are squeals in the dark and sudden blasts of winds and rattling boards; or the Glacier, Ride which might be described as the tailor’s heaven, where you are suddenly shot out of a lift and precipitated—veiling—down a slmte 0111 the seat 61 your troupers; or the Nonsense House; or the place where you can. easily) break four windows for 3d.

Or again, you could start with the orescent shaped terra-coua bathing pool one hundred and ten yards lung, with tiio'usunus of bathers in gaudy costumes splashing and swimming ai u diving in me transparent green water, clearer by far than it is on tJio itivie. a '

You might start with statistics. One huiiuied and twelve special trains arrived on Saturday and ijunuay alone. That moans 70,0 R) visitors. Another 70,0dd came by motor coaches. l*or this is Boltcn week and uii around you hear the cheerful }J 1. chum,” and “Hey, Maggie” and “Bt-e, laad” of the , mill hands anti, their wives and their, sweethearts.

But statistics are dull. So 1 will content myself with only one more, anu inis is tne secret of Blackpool’s success; 2d in Blackpool goes as far as la iri London, 2s ut Outend, 3s at Nice. 4s in Paris, 5s at Le. Touquot. Deauville, Cairo, Biarritz, and Monte cl no, ana Zil in Aberdeen. One cannot say fairer than that. Actually the monetary entertalament- .unit' at Blackpool is Is. But what you can do with Is is incredible. At the Tower, the almost fabulous great red brick building on the front, \ou can see lor is an aquarium lull of Japanese salamanders and other odd fish: you can inspect the menagerie with its lions, monkeys, and other animals; you can dance m a ball room'about twice-the size of any London palais de danse; you can watch a child’s ballet with 150 performers; and you , can go up to the roof gardens and see the liiiilgots’ entertainment. Another Is here will enable you to. see one of me largest and best circuses in England. Take your shilling to. the Winter Garden Theatre, Probably it gives you even more, here. It enables you to see Julian Wylie’s spectacular revue “Tlio .Show’ of, Showsto dm.ee in tlio biggest dance hail in the world—2,(KA) couples can 'lance 111 it and not jostle one’another; to listen to a red-coated orchestra from Napless and to visit the, Indian lounge. Another shilling—or is it tid ? wnl enable you to see Mi* H. A. Snuusimiy playing Sherlock Tlolmes. Yes, Blackpool is flabbergasting. You are,,like .a. cheerful straw in iui oiganised whirlpool 'of fn.iculoufcl.v inexpensive gaiety. 8.-i -kp »r tarn s oil its jacket to give you' l guo-l time and give if. it does.' It huV.' u»-«n described as a pleashre factory. That ap. But what a factory! It has even built its own cliffs and its own rocks. You can measure its dance floors by the aero ami its bars by the' furlong.

Blackpool has also been described as ' “interiiuptive”—a strange word, but a good one to; describe the sensation you get of never having time to probe one attraction completely before you. are diverted by another. Blackpool’s population lias doubled since the war. It has pulled dewn its giant wheel. But it has eighteen cinemas and five golf courses and forty public tennis courts and a county cricket ground. Here 1 am being ■ driven back to statistics aace more. 'Well, it cannot be helped. The miners and mill hands and other visitors who come to Blackpool in their thousands for their annual holiday have each saved up about £2O. This they deliberately spend in a week. That is at the rate of £I,OOO a year for the seven days. Then they go back, having spent their last penny, take a cab home, give the driver ds' 6d which they left behind/ the clock for this very purpose,, and start saving for next year again next day.

But what a week it is! I have never seen so many people having so grand a time at the same moment and in the same place. Whoever or wherever they are, none of the pretty ladies or smart young men, the gigolos or the millionaires, the poloplaying crowd or the gamblers in the casino towns has one-quarter so good a time as they, though the price they pay is out of all proportion. Blackpool is overpowering. Ds air is so strong,' its places of amusement so gigantic, its enjoyment of life so terrific, its colours so bright that you grope for phrases to describe it adequately. But' this is certain. Blackpool is no place for weaklings. The flabby pulse of Continental resorts only begins to beat at 11 p.m. At Blackpool by that time everyone is in bed. The pace is too tremendous.

Looking out over the Mediterran-ean-blue sea, with <*!«»,• golden sands and the broad promenades, it is difficult to remember coherently hi w yesterday was spent. There lingers in the mind the memory ’of gigantic gilded ball rooms, enormous carpeted corridors, vast cafes, jazz bands, thousands of'.bareheaded mill girls in short pVintejd frocks, thousands of young men in flannel trousers or plus fours, rapt audiences, multicoloured clowns, jugglers, ballot girls, Indian conjurers, Italian orchestras, automatic machines by the hundred, staggeringly long piers, the best icecream in the world, “Alderman Tom”