There was a gigantic amusement park, film stars' vacation homes and scenic dining spots. Shoreline Drive, a road along 5.5 miles of Long Beach shoreline, still offers some of the faded ambience of that earlier period, but the main attraction is the Queen Mary, the world's largest ocean liner, which sits at a pier in the harbor.
Whale tours are popular, in-season.
Some of the old Long Beach is evident on Ocean Boulevard and Pine Avenue, where the original art deco and Mediterranean revival buildings may be seen. Shoreline Drive will take you to just about everything of interest. These include Bixby Park and the Long Beach Museum of Art , housed in an historic old mansion built in 1912 as the summer home of New York philanthropist Elizabeth Milbank Anderson. Known for its impressive video art program, the museum also houses exhibits of nationally-known and local artists. Just east of the museum is Bluff Park , a neighborhood settled in the early 1900s by such Hollywood luminaries as W.C. Fields, Fatty Arbuckle and Pearl White.