Decades before corporate theme parks took over America, a former Disney visionary tried to build the "Disneyland of the Northeast" in Wakefield, Massachusetts. What followed was Pleasure Island, a surreal fever dream of donkey rides, live product endorsements, bizarre pop-culture crossovers... and a 70-foot animatronic sea monster that still rests at the bottom of a lake in our latest installment of weird theme park history.

In this episode of Park Peeps, Joey Nolfi and Demi of Magical Hijinx plunge into the bizarre, scary, and submechanophobia-inducing history of Pleasure Island—a 1950s theme park designed by C.V. Wood, the rogue visionary who helped Walt Disney build the original Disneyland.

In this episode, we cover:

• The Disney DNA: How C.V. Wood brought Disney-style dark rides, Wild West towns, and immersive environments to Massachusetts.
• The Weird IP Fever Dream: Inside the park’s bizarre character roster, featuring Popeye, Bozo the Clown, and Pepperidge Farm endorsements.
• The Moby Dick Hunt: The infamous water attraction featuring a massive, 70-foot mechanical whale rising from the depths as guests passed by in boats.
• The Sunken Animatronic: The horrifying true story of how Pleasure Island closed in 1969, abandoned the giant whale underwater, and how modern urban explorers found its rotting remains half a century later.

New episodes of Park Peeps premiere every Tuesday!