Asburied ...an Asbury Park memoir 

Great video, thank you for sharing it with us.

used to there all the time. waffles & ice cream too! was an amazing place. saw so many concerts there too!.

Beautiful work, Steve. What a lovely slice of what once was…

I used to love playing Fascination in the Casino. When I was a bit older in the late 70s I used to race my ‘78 Firebird on the Circuit. Grew up in West Long Branch. Thanks for posting!

I so remember going to the casino and riding on that Carousel play in the arcade games

Heartbreaking

Nicely done.

So many great memories of AP in the sixties.

My grandmother lived in West Allenhurst, so I spent many summers in Asbury Park in the 80's. I have so many good memories of that place. Skeeball, the arcade, the funhouse with the slides and hall of mirrors...

Thanks 4 posting and I enjoyed watching and hearing this very much. I would have liked to make my own videos of past but good times. I never knew about the salt ocean pool so thanks 4 that info.

I grew up in the 1980s, I'd come down on weekends and in the summer. My mom ran the Horizon Motor Inn on 4th St, right by Asbury Lanes and the old Baronett. I really miss the old Asbury Park.

Do you remember the NJ Transit station (greyhound busses). My grandmother’s luncheonette was next store on Cookman Ave. My first job was here and along with my mother. The swan boats were there too. It was great to experience Asbury park the circuit the Hullabaloo convention Gall concerts salt water pool. Fond memories for sure!

I makes me so sad to see what Asbury became. My dad owned a tv store and 2 hotels on 3rd ave. My grandpa ram the mini golf and my best friends dad ran the Casino and Palace. We got to do everything for free. I rode the circuit life was great! Thank you for this.

The best for me was the 1950s .Great downtown and movie theater's. The biggest little town in America.

Have not been there for five years, but the inevitable comeback is alive and well. Go Asbury Park! Grew up there in the 60's.

Watching this video makes me so happy that Asbury Park has rebuilt itself. It’s so sad to think that back in the 90s, no one wanted to go there. Today, it’s a destination again. There are sections that still need rebuilding like there’s a building on the other side of the convention center that is still abandoned but overall everything else looks great. If I have one critique of Asbury Park is they need to bring rides back again. The place has the feel of a boardwalk park. And it doesn’t have to be anything major. Point Pleasant has a small park so it can be done. It doesn’t have to be Morey’s Piers.

I'm glad I stumbled upon this video. Thank you.

Great job Steve. I saw Joey Dee and the Starlighters at the Rainbow Room as well. Remember the Espresso House on Kingsley Ave before it moved up to West End in LB?

Best ice cream 🍦🍦 I ever had Kohrs , convention hall concerts, does anyone remember the Sunshine Inn? I remember how crowded and lit up everything was. Hard to believe how that all has changed, for all those who were lucky enough to live through those times, wasn't it fun.

It was great in the 70's!

It was two days ago, I just have some seafood sampler platter at the restaurant where Monte Carlo Pool used to be. Maybe one day, the glory and prosperity will be back, to the Asbury Park await.

I remember the merry-go-round when you could get the brass ring and get a free ride.

wow thank you. i am from this place. love and respect. love you love you

I'm crying at this film. I recall going to Asbury Park as a kid

You did a nice job in my opinion. I have been working on a documentary video of Asbury Park myself with old family footage. You shot a lot of good footage just in time! Thank you for sharing this precious historical footage. I subscribed because of this one.

Thank you

Being a 17 year old kid growing up right next to Asbury this was really cool to watch, the city, especially the boardwalk and downtown area has come a long way since this was filmed. I can remember when I was little Asbury looked very similar to this video but now it's back and running with new restaurant's and other businesses. Plus during the summer the boardwalk gets so packed you can barely move. A part of me wishes I could go back 20 years and see how much Asbury has changed over the years.

grew up there and in Neptune City. Gosh..what a shame. It was definitely the place to be. You just can't understand the feeling of loss unless you knew it for yourself. I went back for a brief visit a few weeks ago after leaving back in 78..still enjoyed it even though it was mostly gone. Nice to see that peole are trying to put it back together. I live in NC now and have for the past 20+ years but Asbury Park will always be a part of me. Thanks for the video..loved it.

One of the best videos on RU-vid. The black & white. The reverent yet alive narration. Truly appreciated. I'm the same age with the same memories. And still find myself drawn to AP. Travel across the state from Trenton on my motorcycle just to have lunch at The Wonder Bar. AP may not be what we knew, but it is what it is and I've seen some improvement over the past couple of years. Slowed down in the economy, but there's only so much shore down the shore. It will be back. Thanks again.

Thanks for posting this film. My mom used to tell me stories about Asbury park and many of the other 'shore belt' resorts and my grandmother used to go fishing on the old pier at Keansburg. I remember visiting Asbury Park with a friend of mine about 20 years ago and it was in much the same condition as in the film. Very sad. Suburbanization and the building of the interstate system is what destroyed many of the great cities and attractions of the 20th century.

Thank you for this video. I moved from Neptune when I was 10. This brings bittersweet memories. The merry go round had full size horses with real horse hair tails. Or that's what I remember. And seaside park. What childhood memories!

I was there the summer of '02 for Holidays in the Sun, a 3 day punk rock music festival. It seemed the perfect setting for such an epic event in my life. 18 years old on my first big road trip from Texas with friends. Here in this small corner of the world the punk community from across North America and beyond converged, finding a ruin in which to run amok. It seemed like the only things open in town were the Stone Pony where the show was being held, the hotel where those who could afford something better than their car or under the boardwalk stayed, and a small deli where we bought our cigarettes and food. Being so entranced by urban decay I was in love. You could sense the energy that lingered in the tattered boardwalk. You could imagine the bright vivid colors that once were painted on the brick buildings, now washed out by the sun and salt, peeling away slowly. I only wish I'd have had the wherewithal to document it all better. I mourn the ruin.. that I can never again return to this magically despaired place now that it has been all fixed up. My memories of Asbury Park are the polar opposite of yours, however somehow still as precious and magical.

Thank you for sharing.

amazing how much has changed since this film

Lived near there in 1992 and it was very run down. It has come back to life in last 5 years or so, this video captures the down times very well. Check any newer videos and you will be pleasantly surprised.

There’s a wonderful gay community there that has really cleaned up Asbury. Renovated many of the older large homes, and opened some nice shops!

Back in the 50s I lived summers in Ocean Grove and spent a LOT of time at Asbury Park. In the later 50s, a buddy and I from Irvington came down to see Louis Armstrong at the convention center (I think). I sure am glad that I have had so many wonderful experiences at Asbury Park to remember.Thank you for posting.

I have fond memories of Asbury Park. It's sad to see it so run down.

very nice job.

1968 Convention Hall,summer. Saw Frankie Valli and the 4 Seasons,Jay and the Americans,and Professional Wrestling featuring Earl Maynard. In the Movie Theater there,I saw:"Wild In The Streets". One of the Best summers I've ever had.

Wow, I lived in Asbury during this time period. Despite all the noble ruin, I was captivated by the magic of this place. Everywhere you went you could almost feel and hear the ghosts of the past. Running (and walking) on the boardwalk always felt special. Even though it might have been thought of as a wasteland, I consider myself lucky to have lived there.

My Aunt and Uncle lived in Ocean Grove, right next to Asbury Park. We lived in Red Bank and went to see them a few times a year. My most enduring memory is of the Fun (haunted) House with the crazy clown leaning over the top and the balcony you had to walk across that had air jets to blow up the girls skirts!! I was last at the boardwalk in 1968 with my then fiancee and we still have the pictures hung on our wall that a boardwalk artist did for us. I would love to find a picture of the fun house. Anybody know of one?

very well narrated

Thank you so much for those memories,

The time I spent here was in late 40 as a kid and through the late 50’s. The Merry go Round with the big arm that held a brass ring for a free ride was my favorite. One had to have a outside horse to try & grab it. It is sad that Asbury is not being rebuilt.. Last time I seen it in good shape was in 1957 when I went to the Convention Center to see Bobby Darin, When I got back to Jersey in 1960’s a hurricane tore up the boardwalk bad right after it had already been rebuilt a few years earlier.

The MORRO CASTLE BEACHING!!!!

Such a sweet and heartfelt memoir. And Asbury Park is an amazing story of belief against incredible odds. Gratitude to the heroes, all, of her redemption! Maybe, one day, a Ferris wheel!

I filmed a music video and short film in Asbury Park spring 1993.

My dad was born on Bangs Avenue, and worked the Fairbanks Scale "guess your weight" booth as a kid. In the 70s I was there every night: Stone Pony, El Morocco (anyone remember Ernie, Michael, & the incomparable Alan Lozito?), the Rainbow Room, walk the boardwalk, ride the carousel, finish up at the Inkwell in Long Branch, a second finish up with Libby at the Raven in Sea Bright, watch the dawn on Sandy Hook, then shower change and commute to midtown for another productive day of work.

I worked At the Casino as the skeeball operator and the next year at the Palace and finally I worked on the Kiddie rides in the early seventies. The one year they had the riots...

The NYT wrote in the summer of 78 that Asbury park was the Fire island of the jersey shore! We had 14 gay bars 2 bath houses and 4 gay hotels... ah what short memories...

Thank you so much for those memories, That was a fitting tribute to a town that meant so much to the youth of so so many.

Memories just came flooding back! It's hard to explain to someone who never went, the funhouses with the crooked floors, the carousel with the option to grab the metal hoops, I was always too chicken to try, awesome indoor amusement park didn't matter if it was a rainy day, unless you went on the Ferris wheel which used to stick out of the building! Best and most unique games!! Convention center at the car shows, a few years ago got to go for sons of Sandy! Sad really. I liked Asbury so much more than seaside growing up. I'm 52yrs old now.

Beauty and pain all wrapped up into one! Very nice documentary, but as others have noted, the pain comes from the lack of knowledge about the struggle to close such a beautiful place. I have fond memories of being there when I was young, my brother ran the bumper cars at the Palace for awhile at the end of its dynasty. Still the inequitable truth in the ruins is somewhere in those black and white photographs, and the shore still echoes with the nightmares and dreams of the past.

How about the fun house and the room that was tilted, also the bumping cars. It was great and ashamed that it died. But I believe Asbury Park went through a rough period and that caused its collapse. Is Wanamassa still a nice place or does anyone know.

A very evocative video of Asbury Park, thanks for posting it. As a tourist I visited the town a couple of years back & it appeared to be well on the way to a successful future, with the wonderful old convention centre now spruced up & operating as a thriving market / community centre type space. The stunning building that housed the carousel looked like it might be saved for future generations to enjoy, it would be so sad to lose such an amazing, historic landmark. The beach was the real star turn of my visit, its absolutely pristine white sand stretching out to the beautiful deep blue Atlantic was indeed a wonder to behold!

Was anyone at the Madame Marie event on top of the Howard Johnson Building one summer night? She maid the clouds over the Wonder Bar begin to Pinwheel, all the people in attendance began to run from the event off the building at one time. Many people were injured trying to flee. I never questioned her powers, someone ask Bruce Springsteen. Some people don't go to the cross roads.

Worked on the roller coaster (and Sandy's Arcade) in 1980 as a a saisionaire from the UK. Happy memories. The ferris wheel was still going then, but the resort was in decline already. I was shocked to see how far down it as gone. I'm glad that things are improving and wish the town well. Hopefully I'll call in on my planned grand tour!

What year was this made? Year 2000? It’s hard to imagine that in 20 years the place is completely different. I was assume this was recorded in 1980s?

I worked on the carousel and the bumper cars for one summer. My memories of a wonderful childhood there. Thanks for the video.

I visited Asbury Park in 2000 after reading about it in "weird nj". I ate at the now defunct "Howard Johnson's" and spoke with the owner about the towns decline. It was a surreal experience..

I remember going there as a kid right after the last day of school and loved the casino and palace amusements. I went there about 8 years ago with my wife and the memories came flooding back and it is a shame what asbury did or didn't do to try to bring it back to it's hay day. I would of loved to bring my kids and show them that this was rides that I went on when I was you age. Now the town and all those that did nothing to keep asbury a nice place to go during the summer i have no respect for

Lived in Long Branch, my kids enjoyed Asbury Park and Long Branch, and photographed many many of the sites for the Star Ledger

As a child of the 60's Asbury Park was our go to shore place. I remember it all so fondly. Thank you for the memory.

Wonderful perspective. Just emailed this to my 15yr old son who is probably bored to death with "Dad's stories about Asbury".... what I wouldnt give for ONE more day huh?

it was a beautiful magical place to me as a kid in the 70s. I miss what used to be thanks for the memory

Thanks Steve great video brings back some old memories... I lived on Grand Avenue in 1969.

Everything dies, baby that's a fact, But maybe everything that dies, someday comes back. -Bruce Springsteen - Atlantic City

Thanks for the video. . I grew up in Ocean Grove and, before moving to California in the early 1980s, watched the gradual destruction of the area - and it was all unnecessary destruction. . First came the demolition of the beautiful Mayfair Theater on Wesley Lake in Asbury Park in 1974; then there was the destruction of the historic North End Hotel complex in Ocean Grove in 1978, then it was only a matter of time before the rest was destroyed. They even demolished the beautiful Asbury Park train station - and for no reason. . All these locations now feature empty lots. . The combination of Ocean Grove, Asbury Park, the Shark River boat basin in Belmar, plus easy travel to Manhattan., made it a magical place to live.

I remember when i was a kid Asbury was so great. When I got older I remember the circuit driving my car. Now that I am older and seeing the start of a recovery on East side.

I remember a movie theatre with a ceiling that looked like the clouds were literally moving. But I don't remember what it was called. Saw Yellow Submarine but I was watching the clouds more than the Beatles:)

The last comment two years ago..It's totally changed

Thank you for sharing! I grew up going here and Seaside Heights park. I couldn't remember much because I was very little. I do remember the Palace amusements building. I'm glad you showed and talked about the kiddie rides.

you wouldn't happen to have any pics of the palace building from back in the day like this video that you would share would you? I'm from AP myself and then moved to Neptune City and then moved away in 1978. Thanks so much for sharing!

wow..! Surprised to see The Mayfair. . my good friends own the Mayfair Grill (2:40) the longest running food place on the boardwalk! (3 generations) :) (I grew up in Long Branch in the early 60's during the 'glory days' you speak of)~

Great video. Thanks for sharing.

My stomping grounds back in the day

beautifully done .... spent many a summers down there mid late 70's early 80's ... grandfolks had a place in Wanamassa (spell?) ... Thanks for the post ...

on the boardwalk they're gettin' ready for a fight

I grew up here for 6 years of my life. I was born in Neptune City now residing in Sherman Oaks, CA :)

great video and very well narrated. make a part 2...

@pukenshette It's changed even more in the past three years...quite remarkable really... I'm so glad, too. I was down there this weekend for Memorial Day and the boardwalk and beach were mobbed!!! Good times, thank God the town is coming back.

Thanks for my favorite childhood memories. Wasted buildings from late 1800'S,1900

Great video! I'm writing a novel that takes place in the late 50's. I just loved this. Loved your narration. Seeing how AP has restored it's luster since your film is a real treat!

it's a shame the places don't exist anymore, it must have been fun for everyone who lived around, they are nothing but pieces of the past now, nothing but apartments or parking lots, but i bet it was a great memory.

I am actually thinking about moving there.....

It's nice to watch a real movie on RU-vid for once...

born and raised in long branch till i was 14 then moved around the NE states ,been to AZ then made the supreme fuckup of moving to florida where i am now which is a boring as all hell cesspool..(which i'm moving out of and back up north soon btw)been to the palace many times as well as the boardwalk rides ,carousel pretty much everything around the area.i remember the roller coaster cars on the side of the building lit up with neon that would lightup in succession making it look like they were rolling then going in and seeing that big ass plaster/rubber gorilla on top of the ride i think it was kongs castle or something like that i was too young to pay attention to the name but i know the thing creeped me out lol..and of course the big alfred e neuman looking face on the side was always weird to look at as a kid but man it just seems like a lot of the shores attractions are either purposely being torn down or 'accidentally" burning being stripped away to make room for all the fatcat condos and whatnot..cool vid.nice short trip down memory blvd

This is a great short video! Thank you for the insight. I'm a millennial on the Chamber of Commerce, and the vision for the future is exciting.

It is ashame that there is no date for the recording of this video as it had to be in the 1980's -90's as it has come back tremendously. Just moverd from NJ 2019 and way better than this portrays. Also living there for over 65 years I can say that Asbury Park is way bigger than a square mile as that is the size of Red Bank, and you could fit at least 2 Red Banks in Asbury Park. Just sayin.

Thanks, this is awesome. This place is the closest real beach to NY, it should be the jewel of the Jersey Shore. Morons have run the city for the last 30 years. Particularly remember watching the fireworks from the ramp leading up to the Howard Johnson's.

I went there on family vacations in the late 70s there was nothing like it, just as he described

Being from Youngstown, I understand the loss you feel. You can still sea the beauty of the resort. Great architecture.

Great video. It brings back so many memories. Will Asbury Park ever rise again?

If you love something, don't break it down and sell it.

Happily, this memoir is dated. Visiting Asbury Park (as I did today) one comes across al fresco eateries along Cookman Avenue, Jazz concerts on Press Plaza, a crowded boardwalk and an umbrella-littered beach. The post-Sandy Asbury Park is great!

What year is the video taken again

Lots of memories; especially of the Circuit; first place I headed to burn some rubber and meet the lady's when I got my license & first car in 67. Used to indoor ice skate across from the Palace in the mid 50's before the fire gutted that building, and later the three old movie theatres were discovered for first dates starting in 63. Always wondered where my then 13 year old girlfriend, Peggy Colby has been all these years, & nope, never found her on Facebook. Moved to my dream state of Florida in the 80's. Nice to hear the city has been on the path back but I'm sure for many of us, it will never be the same.

This was an amazing look into 2 different eras in AP...loved the juxtaposition of narration w/ imagery. glad this exists (john from the winnebego)

great video buddy. don't worry asbury park is coming back I was just there last night and it really is coming back to life