The theme was nautical, and it was applied with thoroughness. Davy Jones' Locker was a funhouse with undersea decorations. The Flying Dutchman was a dark ride modeled on Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean but without animatronic figures. The Ocean Skyway carried passengers in bubble-shaped gondolas 75 feet above the water, a half mile out to sea and back. The diving bells — pairs of sealed chambers lowered into a tank via hydraulic pistons — released suddenly to the surface in a rush of hydraulic pressure, which was considered a thrill. The Sea Circus, included in the basic admission price, featured performing dolphins and sea lions before audiences of 2,000. The Mystery Island Banana Train Ride, widely considered the park's best attraction, took visitors through a simulated tropical plantation complete with a volcano and artificial earthquakes. Six of the original pier's attractions were incorporated, including the 1926 Sea Serpent roller coaster and the antique Looff carousel. The park was nicknamed POP — 'Pay One Price' — though some attractions remained pay-per-use.

The park reflected mid-century America's appetite for spectacle dressed as education. Westinghouse sponsored an Enchanted Forest exhibit featuring a 150-foot model of the atomic reactor section of a submarine. The House of Tomorrow had Elektro — the talking, smoking robot from the 1939 World's Fair — as a prominent display. The Union 76 Ocean Highway let visitors drive miniature gasoline-powered cars on a simulated freeway, mirroring Disneyland's Autopia. The Miss Teen USA pageant was held at the park in 1962; the winner was a 15-year-old from South Dakota, crowned by Soupy Sales. By January 5, 1959 — five months after opening — POP had attracted 1,190,000 visitors.

The park's collapse arrived from an unexpected direction. In 1965, Santa Monica launched an Ocean Park urban renewal project that demolished buildings in the surrounding neighborhood and closed the streets that led to the pier. Visitors could no longer find their way in. Attendance dropped to 621,000 in 1965 and 398,700 in 1966. By the end of the 1967 tourist season, the park's creditors and the city had filed suit over unpaid taxes and back rent. The park closed on October 6, 1967. Assets — 36 rides, 16 games — were auctioned off. What remained of the pier became a surfing spot, haunted by the Z-Boys of Dogtown who found the ruins useful. Then came the fires: suspicious blazes on May 27, 1970, August 29, 1971, and March 17, 1973. Demolition began in October 1974 and finished in February 1975. Nothing remains above the waterline today.

Pacific Ocean Park appeared in The Twilight Zone, The Fugitive, Get Smart, and Route 66 before it was gone. The television shows found its futuristic pier architecture useful — its bubble gondolas and Space Age theming suited the visual grammar of early 1960s television. After it closed, the pier ruins generated another kind of cultural product: the Dogtown skateboarding scene, which emerged from teenagers using the abandoned pilings and ramps of a dead amusement park as a free skate environment. The Z-Boys' story was eventually filmed as Dogtown and Z-Boys. A few miles north, the Santa Monica Pier has a newer amusement park called Pacific Park — a small nod, perhaps, to what occupied this stretch of coast for nine years before the roads were closed and the fires came.