The long-lost Playland Amusement Park comes back to life in Earl Shores’ new book Playland: Greetings From Ocean City, Maryland. All the sights, sounds, and smells of this defunct, yet still beloved Eastern Shore landmark can be experienced in Shores’ intimate on-the-ground account of the park’s final summer.
Want to take a last ride on the Hurricane, the only wooden roller coaster ever to exist in Ocean City? Or sit next to your wide-eyed child as they “drive” the spoke-wheeled Antique Cars? Spin majestically into the bayside night air on the Airborne ride? Hit the green gas pedal and throttle out onto “Ocean City’s largest go-kart track?”
Then step into the pages of Playland and back to the summer of 1980 as Shores skillfully puts the reader to work in the park for its fateful final season.
“Playland takes you back to a time when Ernie’s Donuts were always hot and delicious, the Admirals played at the Pier Ballroom, and a great amusement park existed on 65th Street. It’s a great beach read!”
– Hunter “Bunk” Mann, author, Vanishing Ocean City and Ghosts in the Surf (2019)
Ocean City, Maryland was a very different place in 1980. Undeveloped lots existed along the beachfront, working “down the ocean” was still a summertime rite of passage…and a monorail-ringed amusement park sat on a westward pointing finger of land at 65th Street.
That park was Playland.
For the young people lucky enough to land a job at Playland, summers were pretty sweet. Running the rides on warm sunset nights as the park’s flashing lights and the squeals of happy children filled the air was the stuff of fantasy.
At least most of the time.
Some rides, however, presented more challenges than others. This was something that author Earl Shores discovered quickly during his early days at Playland. And what seemed like the most perfect job in the world turned into something quite different – the summer-long roller coaster ride of his life.
“Weaving two stories together, one from his childhood, the other as a young man working during the summer, Earl Shores brings Ocean City, Maryland to life, vividly, as it was during the 60s, 70s, and 80s.”
– Sandy Hurley, curator, Ocean City Maryland Life-Saving Station Museum
“Playland far exceeds all expectations by transporting readers to a simpler time in Ocean City history. All OCMD local residents and tourists alike will get a kick out of reminiscing while enjoying this truly great body of work.”
– Brandon Seidl, founder, Trimper’s Haunted House Online, co-founder, The Bill Tracy Project, co-author, Trimper’s Rides and Ocean City Oddities (2020)
“Earl Shores take us back to his special summer in 1980 when he lived in Ocean City, Maryland and worked as a ride operator at Playland Amusement Park. It turned out that this would be the final summer that Playland operated and Shores takes us back to the park with his vividly descriptive style of storytelling. The rides, the co-workers and the customers provide a rich tapestry of a lost place that provided so many memories and shaped a person’s life forever.”
– Jim Futrell, historian, National Amusement Park Historical Association, author, Amusement Parks of Virginia, Maryland and Delaware
“Playland transports us back to a time when summers were magical and friendships were renewed year after year. The words put into motion an emotional ride that allows us to check-off a bucket list item that ceased to exist long ago. Read the book, close your eyes, and realize that ‘Playland’ still exists.”
– Rick Machado, Playland alumnus 1976-80
“Anyone who has ever worked at or visited an amusement park will appreciate Playland. As a former ride operator, I quickly related to the stories Earl had at each ride. The difficulty operating the Spider, knowing the best rides to run, and arguing with parents when their child wasn’t tall enough to ride. Upon completion of the book, I quickly wanted to know how the next chapter of Earl’s life unfolded as he returned to school and reflected on his Ocean City summer.
– Joshua Litvik, National Amusement Park Historical Association
Available in paperback and ebook formats on May 14, 2019.
