The Post and Courier ______S u n d a y , M a r c h 1 9 , 2 0 0 6 . 5 A FROM 1A As war enters fourth year, Pavilion’s morale holds legacy: IRAQ From Page 1A

our generation’s war. And it’s the The Shag place where the money is as an infantryman,” said Beck, who is assigned to the 6th Civil Affairs Original building Group. Unlike in Vietnam, most of the dates to the 1920s troops live on bases with easy links to home, via telephone and Inter- ALAN HAWES/STAFF JACK THOMPSON BY CHRIS DIXON net, and there are bonus comforts The Gay Dolphin gift shop is among many icons representing the Myrtle Beach of old. Current owner Buz Plyler (in photo at left) The Post and Courier such as video-conferencing on has spent most of his life in the shadow of the Pavilion, where he is seen in the photo at right (tall boy in center) in the 1950s. Valentine’s Day and dining halls. There has been a Pavilion around Many of the troops say, however, the vicinity of 8th and 9th avenues that more important are the per- in Myrtle Beach since the 1920s. sonalities of those in their platoons Final days for Myrtle Beach’s Pavilion The current beachfront building and the leadership style of com- was constructed in 1948 after the manding officers. PAVILION From Page 1A roughs & Chapin,” he said. “The Cox and her husband, Ashley, his 69 years. previous structure burned. “Having a good platoon is key — Pavilion is what is Myrtle Beach visited the Pavilion on their first Thompson said he plans to work Though Burroughs & Chapin just having your friends around,” steamroller. The town has sought is best known for as an icon. The date. A Charlestonian by birth, with other area business owners points out that this is not the origi- said Lance Cpl. Michael Surber, a to bury its kitschy, mom and pop Pavilion is our identifier and part Ashley said that even his great- and politicians to consolidate peti- nal Pavilion, to many millions it native of Kenosha, Wis., who also roots and recast itself as a high- of our culture and psychology. grandmother visited the original tion work and appeal to Burroughs might as well be. The building has is in the 1st Light Armored. rise-laden, year-round destination But it’s no longer true that people 1920s-era Pavilion, when the only & Chapin to consider at least sav- served as a game arcade, dance “The biggest thing is the guys — equal parts Vegas, Miami and come to Myrtle Beach to see the way to get there from her home in ing and renovating the old Pavil- hall, vaudeville stage, concert you’re with, and not having to Branson, Mo. Pavilion. If they did, I guarantee Conway was by train. He said his ion building. venue and focal point for the town see your buddies get hurt,” Surb- A great deal of this change came we would not be closing.” father Tommy, today a Pentecostal “I’m one who believes that if since its construction. The 1989 er added as his squad trudged after a relatively quiet, 100-year-old Dowling points to the more than minister in Georgetown, recently they really paid attention to put- Phoebe Cates comedy “Shag” was through a field in Rommana, one family company known as Myrtle 12 million visitors drawn to Broad- recalled dancing the shag on visits ting the Pavilion and amusement set here. of a string of cities along the Eu- Beach Farms reinvented itself as way at the Beach last year. Despite to the Magic Attic, a teen nightclub park back into tip-top shape, they The Pavilion’s outdoor patio phrates River where hundreds of Burroughs & Chapin in still open today. could be busing people there from was the site where Marines are based near the volatile the early 1990s. In 1993 “Everybody in South all over the Southeast,” he said. teens first danced the Jitterbug and Syrian border. the company came under Carolina has gone to the “The Pavilion is falling into dis- later the Shag. Photographer and Surber’s squad lived this winter the directorship of hard- Pavilion,” he said. “Even the repair, and it needs a little grease, longtime Chamber of Commerce in a cluttered room with dirt bar- charging local business- ‘hoity-toities’ in Charleston so the numbers are falling. But member Jack Thompson grew up riers for walls and a wooden roof man Doug Wendel. With who want you to believe they’re not falling because people dancing here as a starch-shirted topped with sand bags. Hot show- holdings of thousands they only go to Hilton don’t want to go there.” teen. “I watched the Jitterbug ers were available only every one of acres of prime Myrtle Head — whether they like Burroughs & Chapin has con- change to the Shag because the or two weeks and heat came from Beach forest, a company to admit it or not, they all tracted Charleston architecture Carolina boys were too egotisti- a black diesel stove that gurgled that had previously been went to the Pavilion.” and planning firm LS3P for the cal to jump up and down,” he said. through the night. content to operate its The Coxes and several long-stalled redevelopment of the “They wanted to move side to side “You’re going to go through the profitable Pavilion, mall others, including Myrtle Pavilion and surrounding area. and be a little more sophisticated. same hardships. If it rains, you and and golf course suddenly Beach historian Jack According to Vice President Tom So the purpose of the Shag was to your buddy are both going to get decided to remake the face Thompson and Gay Dol- Hund, no firm plans have been dance like you weren’t paying at- wet,” said Ward, who quietly sips of the . phin owner Buz Plyler, said drawn yet, and LS3P is conducting tention.” coffee at his base chow hall to ob- The company built the they doubted the Pavilion intensive research into a myriad of Though it has been through serve his Marines and gauge their 1-million-square-foot was losing money. They possibilities and issues. many updates and iterations, morale. “These guys are fighting Coastal Grande Mall and and several misty-eyed “I think this redevelopment is be- there has been an amusement and jumping on hand grenades for turned a vast woodland families interviewed along ing done for all the right reasons, park across the street from the their buddies.” into the 700-acre Broad- BLAKELY FAMILY PHOTO Ocean Boulevard also said but it’s hitting a historic nerve,” Pavilion since 1950. While the Despite the better morale, psy- way at the Beach complex. Cecilia Blakely on one of the rides at the Burroughs & Chapin could Hund said. “I don’t think it’s about park today has 49 rides, includ- chological stress on U.S. troops is Where rickety deer stands Myrtle Beach Pavilion in July 1967. generate incalculable good the money. It’s really time to think ing the modern roller evident even after tours are over. recently overlooked a forest will and return family vis- about what could go there if you coaster and popular Hydrosurge, A Pentagon report released last filled with fox squirrels, red-cock- being one of the few oceanfront its to Myrtle Beach by keeping the can’t maintain what you have.” it also holds antique gems such as a month said 12 percent of the more aded woodpeckers and bears, the amusement parks left on the East Pavilion open. But the Blakelys and Coxes are 1912 Herschell-Spillman carousel than 222,000 returning Army sol- company is hard at work on multi- Coast, Dowling said the Pavilion Comparing his venerable store to not convinced. Should the Pavil- and Baden Band pipe organ that diers and Marines in the study were million-dollar homes for its 2,500- only drew around half a million the Pavilion, Plyler said, “Mine is ion disappear, Cecilia Blakely said was first exhibited at the World diagnosed with a mental problem. acre Grande Dunes golf resort. paying customers last year. a very antiquated business. I have she would never patronize another Exposition in Paris in 1900. Both In all, 35 percent got psychological Yet the few square blocks around Visitation is now siphoned off far too much American labor and Burroughs & Chapin-owned busi- have been targeted for listing by counseling soon after returning the Pavilion stand much as they by attractions from the Carolina far too much cost, but it’s impor- ness. the National Trust for Historic from Iraq, the report said. did in the 1950s. Tourists still flock Opry to Barefoot Landing to Bur- tant to me that people here have a On Friday, Dexter Blakely learned Preservation. Harsh conditions and lingering to Peaches Corner or Marvin’s for roughs & Chapin’s other ventures, good place to work. It’s been a great that Tripp Carter, who started The Pavilion is also one of the few effects aside, many U.S. troops a corn dog and wander slack-jawed such as Myrtle Waves. Dowling thing to be a positive part of peo- the original online petition, had places in the country where you point to last year’s Iraqi elections through Ripley’s Believe it or Not said the company had been heav- ple’s vacations for so many years.” inspired a Murrells Inlet resident, can have your stomach churned and the growing ranks of the Iraqi and the bewildering aisles of the 60- ily subsidizing Pavilion Boz Martin, to found a aboard a vintage Scrambler or army as validation of their mis- year-old Gay Dolphin Gift Cove. operations, and it is dif- new Web site, www.sa- Tilt-A-Whirl within a block of sion. Many Marines see progress Around the corner, the Bowery Bar ficult and expensive to vethembpavilion.com. the ocean. in the fact that fewer battles are still fills with bikers and country maintain rides for sev- “We are going to keep Burroughs & Chapin and the being fought with insurgents in music fans. Along Ocean Boule- eral years. on with this petition town of Myrtle Beach have sought western Iraq compared to previ- vard, teens still check each other But to Meredith Cox going until our voice is to substantially redevelop some ous tours. out from cruising cars or scream as and thousands of other heard,” Blakely said. 300 acres of properties adjacent “I’ve been here four times and they soar into the night sky aboard online signers of the “We are the people to the Pavilion for over five years. I think we need to stay out here,” the Pavilion’s . Save the Myrtle Beach who made Burroughs In 2004, Burroughs & Chapin and said Capt. Russell Becker of Hous- Some of the sheen, though, has Pavilion, these argu- & Chapin into the busi- Myrtle Beach’s redevelopment ton, a communications officer clearly worn off. At the Pavilion’s ments hold little water. ness that they are,” add- agency contracted with a Califor- based near Rutbah in western northern edge, empty stores line Originally from Myrtle ed his mother. “And the nia developer to come up with a Iraq. “Change is coming about, 9th Avenue, while along Ocean Beach, Cox now lives Pavilion is what made redevelopment plan, but it never but I don’t know how many more Boulevard, tattooed and pierced in Charleston and is a Burroughs & Chapin. materialized. years it’s going to take.” teenagers browse the music-blaring nurse at Roper Hospi- They are ripping the After that developer stepped Others say they can speak only aisles of lowbrow airbrush painting tal. heart and soul out of down, Burroughs & Chapin de- about their assigned areas and and gift stores. The iconic Mother Like her parents be- ALAN HAWES/STAFF Myrtle Beach. There cided to move forward on a mixed- know little about the insurgency Fletcher’s Bar now stands empty at fore her, Cox spent Jack Thompson was the “Myrtle Beach Jail” are so few places left use redevelopment with LS3P, a in the rest of Iraq. the corner of 8th Avenue. entire summers at the photographer during the 1950s. today where you can Charleston architectural firm. Even for those whose confidence According to Burroughs & Chap- Pavilion. say, ‘Look, this was my Though Burroughs & Chapin in the war remains, however, con- in spokesman Pat Dowling, time “My friends and I still get to- Jack Thompson has spent more favorite place when I was your age.’ has been tight-lipped about plans secutive deployments have taken a and traffic have passed the Pavilion gether today and ride the rides,” than 50 years of his life within It’s so wonderful to look at the your and revenue for Pavilion redevel- personal toll. One Marine inside a by. And while he has been moved she said. “I think this is absolutely 1,000 yards of the Pavilion. Work- child on a ride laughing, and think opment, Thompson said the fully wood shack that serves as his home by emotional pleas he has seen crazy. So many families continue ing as the Pavilion’s “Myrtle Beach back on the time you had the same redeveloped Pavilion property quietly showed a sheet of paper online, he said it’s time for a long- to share memories with their chil- Jail” photographer during the expression on your face at the same would likely be worth well over with pink footprints of an infant planned upscale redevelopment of dren at the Pavilion. I don’t under- 1950s, he was also a well-known place. ” $500 million. daughter he has never seen. the Pavilion and the surrounding stand how they could do this. It’s local crooner, jitterbugger and “It disgusts me,” said Ashley Cox. Others say they try to make the 300 city acres to move forward. all about the money for Burroughs shagger. He recently published the If they tear the Pavilion down, Reach Chris Dixon at days go by faster. “No one feels more emotion & Chapin, and it probably always book “Memories of Myrtle Beach,” “my wife will cry every time she [email protected] “I’m just doing my time. You about this than the people at Bur- will be.” a photographic record of most of drives by.” or (843) 745-5855. know, they say you don’t have to be in prison to do time,” Lance Cpl. Kevin Bourbon of Redondo Beach, Calif., said as he watched Iraqi police recruits do sit-ups and run sprints during physical fitness tests in Rommana. 1JDLGSPN(SBEVBUF%FHSFFTBOE$FSUJmDBUFT  Some find relief in efforts to re- '3&& build a corrupt Iraqi police force BUUIF-PXDPVOUSZ(SBEVBUF$FOUFS 4UJOHSBZT that collapsed last year. “Now that brought my morale UJDLFUT up, that they’re trying to help %SPQJOUPMFBSOBCPVUUIFHSPXJOHPQQPSUVOJUJFT themselves without us,” said BUUIF-($.FFUQSPGFTTPSTBOEMFBSOBCPVU Surber, surprised to see a turnout of 300 police recruits, who com- QSPHSBNT BENJTTJPOTBOEmOBODJBMBJEt1I%JO)JHIFS&EVDBUJPO"ENJOJTUSBUJPOGSPN$MFNTPO6OJWFSTJUZ manders hope can eventually take over responsibility for security in t.BTUFSPG&OHJOFFSJOHJO&MFDUSJDBM&OHJOFFSJOHGSPNUIF Rommana. 6OJWFSTJUZPG4PVUI$BSPMJOB Faith also helps many. *OGPSNBUJPO4FTTJPO At a base in Qaim near the Syr- t.BTUFSPG4DJFODFJO$PNQVUFSBOE*OGPSNBUJPO4DJFODFT ian border, Marines file into a 5VFTEBZ .BSDIGSPN5IF$JUBEFMBOEUIF$PMMFHFPG$IBSMFTUPO makeshift chapel, complete with a chaplain, set up inside an aban- QN t(SBEVBUF1SPHSBNJO$PNNVOJDBUJPOGSPNUIF doned railway passenger car on $PMMFHFPG$IBSMFTUPO rusty tracks. They call it the “Soul Train.” t5FDIOJDBM1SPKFDU.BOBHFNFOU$FSUJmDBUFGSPN5IF$JUBEFM Inside dining halls across Iraq, it #SJOHBGSJFOE is common to see soldiers and Ma- t$&35*'*&%'*/"/$*"-1-"//&3™$FSUJmDBUJPO&EVDBUJPO1SPHSBN rines bow their heads and pause to GSPNUIF$PMMFHFPG$IBSMFTUPO pray before they eat. t5FBDIJOH&OHMJTIUP4QFBLFSTPG0UIFS-BOHVBHFT $FSUJmDBUFGSPNUIF$PMMFHFPG$IBSMFTUPO t.BTUFST$PVSTFTJO&EVDBUJPOGSPN 5IF$JUBEFMBOEUIF$PMMFHFPG$IBSMFTUPO *OUFSOBUJPOBM#MWE #VJMEJOH# 4VJUF POUIFSPBEUPUIFBJSQPSU MPXDPVOUSZHSBEDFOUFSPSH  (3"% R30-F32120

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