Children's Fairyland facts for kids

Entrance to Children's Fairyland.

Children's Fairyland, U.S.A. is a special amusement park located in Oakland, California. It sits right by the beautiful Lake Merritt. This park was one of the very first "themed" amusement parks in the United States.

Fairyland covers about 10 acres (4 hectares). It's filled with fun play sets, small rides, and even some animals. It's also home to the Open Storybook Puppet Theater. This theater is the oldest puppet theater in the United States that has been open all the time!

The park was built in 1950 by a local group called the Oakland Lake Merritt Breakfast Club. Right away, people across the country noticed how unique and valuable Fairyland was. It even inspired other towns to create their own parks.

Did you know that Walt Disney visited Children’s Fairyland in 1950? He was looking for ideas for his own park, which became Disneyland! He even hired Fairyland's first director, Dorothy Manes, to work at Disneyland. She helped guide young visitors there until 1972.

Many talented artists have added their work to the park. This includes exhibits, colorful murals, puppet shows, and sculptures. Some well-known artists are Ruth Asawa and Frank Oz. Frank Oz, who later became famous for his work with The Muppets, was an apprentice puppeteer at Fairyland when he was a teenager.

How the Park Started

The idea for Children's Fairyland came from Arthur Navlet. He was a nurseryman from Oakland. In 1947, he visited a children's zoo in Detroit. There, he saw small buildings based on nursery rhymes. Navlet wanted to create something similar in Oakland's Lake Merritt Park.

He imagined much larger sets that kids could actually climb inside and play with. The Lake Merritt Breakfast Club, a group that wanted to make the park better, supported his idea. Navlet then shared his plans with William Penn Mott Jr., who was in charge of Oakland's parks.

Mott and the Breakfast Club managed to raise $50,000 from people in Oakland. Many important people helped, including Earl Warren.

Navlet hired an amazing artist and architect named William Russell Everritt to design the first 17 play sets. Everritt first showed models that looked like typical fantasy buildings. But when he was told they were too plain, he happily changed them! He created buildings with no straight sides and wild, fun colors and textures. This was exactly what Navlet wanted!

The Original Fairyland

Children's Fairyland first opened its gates on September 2, 1950. Back then, it cost only 9 to 14 cents to get in, depending on your age. The first park guides were a married couple dressed in fun, "Munchkin-style" costumes.

News about the park spread across the country. Many newsreels, which were short films shown in movie theaters, were made about Fairyland. Some of the first play sets included Pinocchio's Castle, Thumbelina, Three Billy Goats Gruff, The Merry Miller, and The Three Little Pigs. There was also Willie the Whale.

The main entrance to the park was through a giant shoe, just like in the nursery rhyme "The Old Woman in the Shoe". This entrance was made for children, so adults had to bend over to go through! The park quickly became very popular.

In 1956, the City of Oakland Parks and Recreation Department hired Burton Weber. He helped share the magic of Fairyland with even more people. Weber created a program called Fairyland Personalities for young children. This program is still part of Fairyland's Children’s Theater today.

Fairyland is also famous for its original "Magic Key" and Talking Storybook Boxes. A local TV personality named Bruce Sedley used to visit the park to tell stories about the play sets. To save his voice, he invented a system of "talking books." These boxes had recorded stories that you could start with a special plastic key. Sedley shared this system with zoos and children's parks all over the country. The Magic Key system is still used at Fairyland today!

Puppet Theater Fun

Fairyland’s Storybook Puppet Theater opened in 1956. It's the oldest puppet theater in the United States that has been open all the time! The theater puts on three shows every day, all year long. They have more than 150 different puppet shows in their collection.

Most of the shows are based on classic fairytales and folk tales from around the world. You might see The Three Little Pigs, Pinocchio, or The Pied Piper. All the puppets are made right at the theater by the puppet director and their helpers. They use many different types of puppets, like bunraku, shadow puppets, hand puppets, rod puppets, and marionettes.

The theater building was designed by William Russell Everitt, the park's original architect. He worked with puppeteers from the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2006, for the theater’s 50th birthday, the building was updated. It got a new storage area, a workshop, and a higher ceiling for cool stage effects.

Many amazing puppeteers have worked at Fairyland’s puppet theater. This includes Tony Urbano, Luman Coad, and Frances and Isadore ("Mike") Oznowicz. The Oznowiczes’ son, Frank, performed at the theater when he was a teenager. He later became famous as Frank Oz, working with The Muppets and directing many Hollywood movies! Another Muppet performer, Alice Dinnean, also started her career at Fairyland's puppet theater.

Lewis Mahlmann was the puppet theater’s director from 1967 to 2005. He wrote four books about puppetry and was even president of the Puppeteers of America twice. The current theater director is Randal J. Metz. He learned from Mahlmann when he was just a kid! Metz shared the director’s job with Mahlmann starting in 1991, and became the only director when Mahlmann retired in 2005.

Fairyland Today

The park kept growing in its early years. The Open Storybook Puppet Theater was added in 1956, along with other fun play sets. In 1994, with help from the Lake Merritt Breakfast Club, Fairyland became a nonprofit organization. This allowed them to get grants and donations to keep improving the park.

In 2006, the Storybook Puppet Theater celebrated its 50th anniversary with a big renovation. It got a new front and a workshop. Randal Metz is the current master puppeteer.

Besides all the exhibits, the park today has fun rides! You can enjoy the spiderweb Ferris wheel, a carousel, and the Jolly Trolly (a train). For safety, Fairyland has a special rule: adults can only enter if they are with children, and children can only enter if they are with adults. This makes sure everyone has a safe and fun time!

Aesop's Playhouse

Aesop's Playhouse performance, 2008

In 2008, Fairyland opened a new theater called Aesop's Playhouse. This theater is just for children's performances. It's an outdoor amphitheater, like a Greek theater, and can seat 215 people.

Fairyland has a long history of putting on plays with local children, usually ages 8–10. Before Aesop's Playhouse, these plays were performed on a smaller stage called the Emerald City Stage. Some past plays have included The Monkey King's Journey to the West, Brer Rabbit, The Wizard of Oz, Little Red Riding Hood, and Hip-Hop Pinocchio. They also performed plays based on Aesop's Fables and The Cat in the Hat.

Images for kids

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  Entrance to Children's Fairyland.

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  Aesop's Playhouse performance, 2008