www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2007/June/10/local/st -
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Published on: 6/10/2007
Last Visited: 6/11/2007
Charles CanfieldCharles Canfield, president of the Seaside Co., rides the Giant Dipper rollercoaster at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. (Shmuel Thaler/Sentinel)
SANTA CRUZ
At 12 years of age, Charles Canfield traveled with his father as he visited amusement parks across America, looking for the secrets to their success.
When they returned home in the summer of 1952, Canfield's father embarked on ambitious plans to rebuild his amusement park and keep the family owned business going.That strategy has proven to be a winner.
This summer, the Beach Boardwalk is celebrating its 100th birthday.
At 44, Canfield inherited the mantle of his father, succeeding him 23 years ago as president of the Seaside Co., which runs the Boardwalk.It's a record for longevity few executives can match.
Think you could do better than Charles Canfield as the boss of the Boardwalk? What's the one thing you would change about Santa Cruz's family-owned tourist attraction?
From his second-story beachfront office decorated with posters and photographs of bygone days, Canfield can see the Giant Dipper roller coaster, strollers on the sand, sea lions in the surf and waves that roll incessantly toward shore.
As in his father's era, the Boardwalk offers free admission, with visitors paying for rides, food and games.But the summer entertainment world has changed dramatically over the past two decades.
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To keep visitors coming back and attracting new ones, Canfield must walk a fine line between providing a nostalgic atmosphere and keeping the Boardwalk up to date.
"We're fighting for people's time and the leisure dollar," he said.
He doesn't see a need to carry a cell phone, yet he recognizes the growth of the commerce on the Web, selling ride passes online.
At 67, Canfield has no desire to retire.
He's spurned overtures from Six Flags, the second biggest theme park operator in America, and football stadium concessionaire Ogden Foods - turning away offers "in the millions" to buy the Boardwalk's prime beachfront real estate.
"I don't entertain them," Canfield said."Venture capitalists are prowling around.
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Canfield remembers his father had two questions when he visited amusement parks around the country: What did you do right?What did you do wrong?
He remembers visiting Paragon Park in Massachusetts.The owner had installed a "dark ride," carrying visitors through a spooky indoor environment, but the location was unfortunate, allowing light to enter at an inopportune moment.
"When you make a mistake, it can be very expensive," Canfield said.
He recalled how another park owner had to redo the track for an "AutoRama" sports car ride because the rough surface left tires in shreds.
The lessons he learned seem fresh in his mind as he ponders creating a new "Haunted Castle" ride.
Canfield explains that the ride is being designed from scratch, with artists from Anaheim putting concepts on paper.He's not sure exactly what it might look like or when it might go in, so details are under wraps, like a secret mission known only to a few loyalists.
As for Paragon Park, it no longer stands like a sentinel on Nantasket Beach.It was torn down in the mid-1980s and replaced by condos.
Taking a risk
Canfield hasn't spent his entire life at the Boardwalk.
As a teenager, he was a ride operator, manning Bulgy the Whale, a kiddie ride.After two summers, he advised his father that he was ready to try something new.
He spent a very hot summer in Felton working as a lumberman.It wasn't an experience he wanted to repeat.
He came back to the Boardwalk and he's never worked anywhere else.
At age 33, Canfield bought the game concessions at the park from a longtime operator who was retiring.
Many of the games were old-fashioned, like the Cat Rack, where the goal is to knock a cat figure over with a ball to win a prize.
Canfield was interested in buying an Indy 500 game, based on the famous raceway.The eight-player game cost $35,000, a significant sum for the 1970s.
Yet Canfield's intuition proved to be correct.The game paid for itself the first year.
Spending with care
Canfield describes his father as "a neat mentor," someone who would give you a lot of latitude but step in when he felt the need.
In 1982, the Boardwalk's 75th anniversary year, Canfield saw that firsthand.At the time, he was vice president; his father had been president for 30 years.
The Casino was getting a much-needed face-lift.The project was three-quarters finished and over budget.Interest rates rose daily, hitting 21 percent, and executives from Bank of America, which had loaned the Boardwalk $7 million for the project, came in to look at where their money was going.
"For the size of the company, it was very difficult," Canfield recalled.
His father, having experienced the Great Depression and fearing the company couldn't make the payments, wanted to stop the work.
"We couldn't do that," Canfield said."We had to see it through"
He recommended postponing some parts of the project instead.
"I will never forget walking in the basement [of the Boardwalk] with my father, and he noticed a pipe-fitting on the ground," Canfield recalled.
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Canfield, who drives to work in a hybrid Toyota Camry from his home in Swanton, voices concern about global warming.
"Anybody with half a brain should think about it," he said."We're all part of the planet"
In Canfield's office, meetings are held at an 80-year-old oak table, an heirloom from his father.An antique "Puss in Boots" penny arcade game stands in the corner - "damn near as old as the company," Canfield said.
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"Those are hard to invest in because you get no return," Canfield said.
Nevertheless, he pursued the project, knowing that anything on pilings has to be replaced.
The words of his father no doubt echoed in his mind.
Tapping experts
The Seaside Co. has stockholders, most of them from Santa Cruz, but it's a closed corporation, which means the stock is not traded on the open market.
As president of the Seaside Co., Canfield sits on the company's five-man board of directors.The composition of the board hasn't changed since 1984, which is when Canfield took over the president's spot after his father's death.
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"I keep them abreast of where we are," Canfield said."They look at the financial side.It's good to have an outside read.It keeps me on my toes"
Canfield alerted the board when he heard about a 1918 Wurlitzer band organ on the market in Indiana for $250,000.Members agreed it was worth a look, and Canfield flew to the Midwest with webmaster and sound specialist Donaven Staab.
The 1918 Wurlitzer is now delighting visitors at the Boardwalk's merry-go-round, which has been entertaining young and old since 1911.
"This is what I like to do," said Canfield, stopping to listen to a marching tune as he walked past.
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When Southern Pacific Railroad opposed the configuration of the ride over its train track, threatening to put the kibosh on the project, Canfield tapped then-general manager Dana Morgan to intercede.
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Canfield made a similar observation: "The corporate philosophy doesn't always work"
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Charles Canfield sees value in providing a family entertainment venue by the seashore even as times change.Asked if the Boardwalk can last another 100 years, he is optimistic.
"I think it can," he said.
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Charles Canfield's Boardwalk milestones
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