A History of Children's Fairyland

Bay Curious

KQED

History, Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.9 • 999 Ratings

🗓️ 4 May 2023

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For generations, parents have been taking their young kids to Children's Fairyland, a storybook-themed amusement park next to Oakland's Lake Merritt. So what's the 'Once upon a time...' of this beloved East Bay cultural gem, which may even have inspired Walt Disney? Reporter Pauline Bartolone takes a journey with her own little one to learn about Fairyland's 72-year history. Additional Reading: The Future Looks Bright for Children's Fairyland, as It Seeks to Better Reflect Oakland's Cultural Rainbow Read a transcript of this episode The Bay Curious book is out now! Get your copy. Enter our Sierra Nevada Brewing Company monthly trivia contest Your support makes KQED podcasts possible. You can show your love by going to https://kqed.org/donate/podcasts This story was reported by Pauline Bartolone. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Amanda Font, Christopher Beale and Brendan Willard. Additional support from Cesar Saldana, Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Jasmine Garnett, Carly Severn, Jenny Pritchett and Holly Kernan.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From K-QED.
0:03.0	If you have a little kid in the Bay Area like I do, you're probably always on the lookout for fun weekend activities.
0:11.0	Things that can let the kid burn off some energy without driving you bonkers.
0:15.7	And if you live in the East Bay, it would be hard to miss children's fairy land.
0:20.5	A 10-acre storybook-themed amusement park on Oakland's Lake Merritt.
0:26.6	You might have seen the giant rainbow-colored fairyland letters emblazoned on the North
0:31.4	Lake Merritt lawn. It's like an Oakland
0:33.8	kids version of the Hollywood sign. There's something about the like the font
0:38.0	and the big shoe that are really whimsical and just playful. Rose Gelfand went to children's fairy land
0:44.8	regularly as a kid.
0:46.5	She grew up in Richmond, but now lives in Portland, Oregon.
0:50.1	She says even as a teenager,
0:51.7	the outside lawn was a destination to meet friends and make art on a picnic blanket.
0:57.0	Sort of always had this presence in our lives even past the point where I was going as a kid. It seems like it has
1:04.8	existed outside of the bounds of time. Rose reached out to Bay Curius because she
1:09.5	wanted to know the history of this 50s era amusement park that she considers an iconic East Bay institution.
1:16.0	I'm just curious about the stories of the place over time.
1:21.0	I'm sure it has many if it has always been this sort of like beloved
1:25.8	community institution. I'm kind of curious like what their plan is moving into
1:31.0	the future and if it will continue to exist as it is.
1:35.8	Rose's question was picked by you, our audience, in a public voting round at baycurious.org.
1:41.9	So on this episode of Bay Curious,
	...

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