Jay Gillian reflects on a life spent in the family amusement business, what led to park’s closure, how he knew a decade ago it wouldn’t last
OCEAN CITY — It was three days before Gillian’s Wonderland Pier closed for good, a family business to which Jay Gillian has dedicated his life, and emotions and memories were sweeping through him.
He knew a decade ago that Ocean City was not going to be able to support two amusement parks, but he kept fighting to keep his open. That includes the most recent three summers after someone stepped in at the beginning of 2021 to buy the property, rides and all, after the bank foreclosed on $8 million in loans Gillian owed.
The new owner leased it back to him and, he said, was willing as of this summer to continue the arrangement beyond the original three-year lease, but in July, after looking at the finances, Gillian knew the time had come.
He announced Aug. 9 that the park would close for good, but would keep operating for two more months, through the Columbus Day weekend, to give families time to use up whatever ride tickets they had purchased.
Last week, as he sat in his office that overlooked the north end of the Ocean City boardwalk with a door that opened up onto stairs leading down to the park, Gillian told the Ocean City Sentinel that he still felt like “the luckiest man on Earth.”
There was sadness that it was all coming to an end, satisfaction that he was able to make Wonderland survive so long, a sense of relief that the pressure of running this business was lifting, and happiness that he had the opportunity to work over his lifetime with his father, his brothers and then, his sons.
Gillian is the now-former proprietor of one of the biggest and longest-running attractions in America’s Greatest Family Resort, an amusement park that has brought joy to countless families over its nearly 60 years at Sixth Street and Boardwalk.
He talked with Ocean City’s newspaper about some of his best memories, the difficulties of running and maintaining a seaside amusement park in New Jersey, the changing demographics that put the park’s long-term survival on a clock, the slow cascade of factors that finally brought an end to the business and how he believes whatever happens, Ocean City is going to continue to prosper.
And that he plans to run for a fifth consecutive term as mayor in 2026.
Eager to go into the family business as a kid
Gillian family amusements have been on the Ocean City boardwalk for nearly a century.
Jay’s grandfather, David Gillian, opened the Fun Deck at Plymouth Place in 1929 with a Ferris wheel and merry-go-round. Jay’s father, Roy, and uncle, Bob, took over the Fun Deck when David Gillian retired in 1957, then eight years later Roy left the family business to open Wonderland Pier on his own with 10 rides at Sixth Street and Boardwalk.
The amusement park grew from there with its 144-foot-tall Ferris wheel and historic carousel with hand-carved horses that was built in 1926. Roy Gillian also founded Gillian’s Island and Adventure Golf.
It was something in particular that drew a young Jay Gillian to the park, a love for the mechanical side of things that he still harbors today.
“It’s funny because I’ve been doing a lot of soul-searching and thinking about how cool it was going on the rides (as a kid), but what I most remember is being closed on Sundays (because of the Blue Laws) and coming up here and working with my dad and Walt Tucker. He was the mechanic and he could fix anything. All I wanted to do was hang around him.”
He also cherished time with his father and brothers at Wonderland and with his uncle Bob Gillian at Gillian’s Fun Deck.
“It was just cool. I loved the rides, but I really loved fixing them. And I still enjoy to this day being able to fix one of the rides that is down.”
He did not want to be in a classroom.
“I didn’t like school. I was on the work program my sophomore, junior and senior years in high school and I could not wait to get here. I was lucky enough the one year I got to work with my brother John, who passed away. I was the ring boy and he ran the merry-go-round. That was probably one of the best summers,” he said.
John Gillian, a 1981 graduate of Ocean City High School, died at age 19 in 1982 from an accidental fall from an apartment building in Philadelphia while attending Temple University.
“I think looking back, working with my family, my brothers and my dad and all the people that worked here,” he said, were his best memories. “A lot of them showed up at my dad’s funeral. I had a lot of (positive) flashbacks. How lucky was I?”
Roy Gillian died Aug. 17, 2024 at age 94.
Jay Gillian missed out on most school and social activities because he preferred being at Wonderland.
“Whether it was anxiety or awkwardness, I had this as an outlet. I played street hockey and a little ice hockey, but I never really got into the school things. Now, I wish I was made to do more then because you realize how important that was growing up. I missed out on a lot. I don’t drink, so I didn’t go to parties. I went to one party down in Sea Isle.
“I missed out on a lot of social gatherings and learning social skills just working all the time.”
The best times for him were at Wonderland Pier.
“When I was coming up, (brother) Jimmy had a concession stand. We all were jack-of-all-trades. Whether it was the concessions or working rides. In the mid-’70s, when my dad took over the Fun Deck, Jimmy went down there. Even when my uncle Bob owned it we would go down there in the spring and fall to help put the rides up and take them down.
“Putting the carousel together and putting the Ferris wheel together, I look back and they were the best of times. When we had the two amusement parks, it was just being a jack-of-all-trades. I was doing mostly mechanical. At 16, Dad gave me a location by the carousel where I opened up a stuffed animal store for a couple years. That was my first time being in my own business that way. It was just nice.”
All of his brothers worked at the parks.
“My older brother Jimmy had a concession stand, a popcorn stand out front. My brother Steve was always in the mechanical end of it and I gravitated toward both of my older brothers.
“My brother Johnny, he was the smart one out of all of us. He would have been a lawyer and kept us all in line. He had the Steak House down there. Jimmy had the popcorn stand, Steve had the water ice stand and balloons and I had the stuffed animal store.
“When Johnny passed away, my brothers and I joined together and consolidated all of our concessions and had a couple rides her. It was just family all working together.”
Taking over the family business; when the dominoes began to fall
Over time, Gillian happily assumed more responsibility at Wonderland Pier, wanting to assist his father, who was mayor of Ocean City in the late 1980s, and in 1994 became president of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions. His father also battled cancer in the early 2000s.
“I was trying to do whatever I can. I loved it. I wanted to run the place, so I spent all of my time here working with him and trying to figure out the business,” he said.
He did not inherit the business. He had to buy it from his father.
“That was Dad’s thing,” he explained. “When Dad retired, there were so many interconnections because Gillian brothers owned the water park and Jimmy bought us out. We were so intertwined.”
James Gillian died in 2014 at age 57. Their mother, Jean Marie Young Simpson, died in 2019.
“When Jimmy passed away and my mom passed away, that started the dominoes of where we are today,” he said.
The end of the partnership at the water park and his brother’s death a decade ago were among the headwinds buffeting up against Wonderland Pier.
“We had a deal that he bought me out of the water park. When that stopped, the dominoes kept on going. I could never get ahead. My mom got dementia. We were taking care of her at Wesley Manor.”
Change, he said, is hard for people to handle, something that has been reinforced during his time as mayor.
“One thing I’ve learned over the last 10 years, being the mayor, is that change is something you have to prepare yourself for because you never know what tomorrow is going to bring.
“I never thought I’d be sitting here. I never thought the park was going to close, but things do change.”
Running an amusement park expensive; demographics changed
While families see how much they spend for ride tickets, including those half-price tickets that didn’t expire, games and at the concession stands, they don’t see the expense behind running an amusement park.
Gillian said the cost for insurance — liability and workers compensation — is high, the laws and regulations from the state intense, the maintenance expensive.
“We’re very regulated. It’s in the name of safety, so I understand that,” he said.
While expenses kept growing, demographic changes kept diminishing the number of guests at the park.
“The salt air is horrible. Maintaining 20 to 30 rides is a lot of work. It’s like having 30 cars. Between the mechanical and the painting and scraping, the regulations of making sure to meet the standards and ride manufacturers put so much more on you because of lawsuits. Any time there is a lawsuit or something happens to a ride, it affects the whole industry,” he said.
Wonderland has faced lawsuits as well, including when a woman and her daughter were killed when a new ride malfunctioned in 1999. In May 2022, a contractor who wasn’t wearing a safety harness fell from a lift and was killed while working on the Ferris wheel when the wheel of the lift went through the boardwalk.
Rising wages has been a burden since the minimum wage essentially doubled.
“When you’re paying 14- and 15-year-olds $15, $16 an hour, the people who were making $15 or $16 an hour now are making $20 or $25. When your payroll doubles and you’re open less time, that’s all (going against) profit. Everything is more expensive now, getting parts for the rides. One of our manufacturers moved out of New Jersey to Italy, so now you have to get them shipped from Italy,” Gillian said.
“It’s not like it used to be. Before you could use different parts, but this state wants you to use manufacturer’s parts, instead of getting the same things you could in the U.S. Everything is against the ride operators. In the state of New Jersey it’s very difficult.”
And then there are the demographics.
Ocean City used to be a Saturday-to-Saturday resort with new park-goers all the time, but an improving economy meant those weekly rentals changed and people began staying in more of their second homes rather then renting them out, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic that hit in 2020.
“When the economy got better and houses got more expensive, our demographics, our guest, is different than it used to be,” he said. “You don’t have as many people.”
There also are more entertainment options.
“Ocean City can sustain one amusement park. It can’t sustain two. We just don’t have the demographics and the people. There is so much entertainment in the region. We have Philly and New York, Wildwood and Seaside Park, you have Great Adventure. People don’t realize there is so much to offer. There is the Cape May County Zoo,” he said.
“When you think of all there is to do here, and now they’re really not coming Saturday to Saturday anymore, and people are working from home and can pick up their phone and find where they can get the cheapest hotel is, and with the economy, it’s cheaper to go to Europe than to go to Disney World.
“There’s so many things in a seasonal business people don’t understand.
“People think you’re in a private business, everyone thinks you’re making a ton of money. By the time you pay sales tax and payroll taxes, you pay people now that’s double (what it used to be), then the insurances. We have to pay liability insurance and workman’s comp. And it sounds like you’re whining, but that’s the hard truth of what it’s like.”
Getting financial backing is more difficult as well.
“The people who have money want to get 10 or 15 percent returns. It’s romantic to say we’ll dump a million dollars here or there, but people want returns,” he said.
“It’s not as easy as everybody thinks. That’s the tough part – to convince people why (Wonderland is closing). Everybody wants to know why.”
Gillian also made what turned out to be an ill-fated decision to expand into Sea Isle.
“I thought we needed to get more income because Ocean City does not have the clientele. … Sea Isle used to have an amusement park and we went down there,” he said about opening Funland.
“Looking back, I was trying to do it too fast,” he said. Sea Isle City opened Excursion Park and a band shell around the same period and began offering free entertainment.
“We invested a ton of money. It was a short time being open and it was doing well, but when you go into competition with the city that is doing free entertainment …”
And then Superstorm Sandy hit in 2012.
“We went to Funland to do better and we were doing OK, but that’s what really started everything,” Gillian said. “When Superstorm Sandy came in, it damaged so many rides at Funland we had to close. I couldn’t afford to recoup the losses because the insurance was not going to cover new rides.”
Then he had to thin out the mechanical crew that supported the rides at Wonderland, which contributed to his problems.
And then came the pandemic as New Jersey kept so many businesses closed or severely limited.
“We were the last ones to open. There is the double-edged sword. I’m the mayor and trying to get the businesses open, trying to get the city open, and it goes to show you how scary it can be that the politicians can shut this country down and do what they did,” he said.
“A lot of small businesses (got hurt). The big corporations did great. It always comes down on the backs of the people we need to run everything. The pandemic was bad — we got some of the employment money (COVID relief funds), but that was probably the final straw.
“Everyone told me years ago, ‘You’re at the end, Jay.’ And no one could believe we lasted as long as we did, but I just couldn’t let go. Every time someone came to me and said, ‘You can’t do it. You’ve gotta close. You’re never going to make the money.’ I kept saying, ‘No, we can do it. We can do it.’ We’re lucky we got this far.”
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(During this point in the interview, one of Gillian’s sons, Josh, walks in to talk about some work going on at the park before the final weekend opening. It sparks a big smile and a thought.)
“I was sitting up there working on the log flume with Joshua and Noah and I thought, ‘How lucky am I?’ I got to work with my dad and uncle Bob and brothers and my sons. It is generational. As I’m sitting here talking to you, all these memories keep coming. It’s hard to stay focused.”
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Acknowledging weaknesses, seeing a difficult future ahead
“I kept trying. You just don’t know. Obviously with the Monday morning quarterback, you can look back, but I don’t know if I would have done anything differently,” he said.
“One thing I’ve learned being the mayor, you have to have the best people around you. I had great mechanics (at Wonderland), but my weakness was the financial end of it. I wish from the beginning I would have had more education on the business end of it because when you grow up, you open up the doors and people are just there.
“That was the biggest thing I learned at Wonderland. I opened the doors and people weren’t coming any more. That started a long time ago.
“I told this to many people, even 10 years ago, in 10 years there’s only going to be one amusement park. The single thing I believe changed the most in Ocean City is the demographics,” he said.
“I think Ocean City is thriving, the town is great, we’ve done a lot of great things, but that vacationer has so many options now that they didn’t have in the past. And when you look today, everyone has kitchens, everyone has washers and dryers, you don’t need to go out to eat anymore so you lost your restaurants, you don’t have laundromats anymore. You have air conditioning so you don’t have to go out to the boardwalk (to stay cool like the old days).
“They aren’t walking out on the boardwalk liked they used to. It used to be until 11-12 o’clock at night, but by 9:30 or 10 we’re good.”
In debt, in trouble; the decision to sell
Wonderland Pier was in financial trouble before the pandemic. Gillian had some $8 million in outstanding loans.
“For multiple years I was looking for refinancing, and I was set to go. Right before COVID hit, I was ready to go with a bank, and then the bank sold and the new bank didn’t want me. I did all the work and was getting ready, and then that fell through. From that point on it I couldn’t get anybody to take a chance because it’s a short season and if you have the rain ….
“That’s the one thing when you think about a seasonal business, it used to be Memorial Day to Labor Day, but schools are going more into June and high schools and colleges are going back early. These are all the things that changed. School sports are almost year-round now. School is almost year-round now. Moms and dads are working.
“People are struggling to put food on the table and they have to decide, do we buy food or do we go on the rides? I tell you, I talk to a lot of people who are struggling.”
The banks were foreclosing on his loans at the end of 2020. That’s when Eustace Mita stepped in.
Mita, of Achristavest Fine Home Builders, developer of luxury waterfront properties, and Icona Resorts, struck a deal with Gillian.
He paid off the loans and bought the works — the valuable boardwalk property and the rides — and gave Gillian a three-year lease to keep running the amusement park.
“He owns everything. To this day I don’t believe anybody would have done what he did,” Gillian said of Mita. “He gave me three years and said, ‘Get yourself back on your feet and we’ll see what happens.’”
Even with the loans taken care of, the park was already troubled.
“We were so far behind in mechanical and getting things together, and it’s hard to get good team members because nobody wants to invest themselves, no one is going to leave their jobs,” he said, not knowing the future of Wonderland.
“We had a difficult time hiring mechanical people. And hiring people in general.
“We tried for three years. The three years were up (this summer) and I was confident enough that we were in a good spot to keep on going and (Mita) agreed to keep on going as long as it was profitable.
“And then we got to the end of July and I looked at the numbers and thought, ‘This isn’t going to work.’”
He refused to shut down by Labor Day weekend.
“There was no way I was going to just close at the end of summer and say that was it. That I would have never done.
“I decided we had to end this. I talked to my financial people and they said, ‘You’ve got to end this.’ I had to give two months for people to use their tickets up. It’s difficult. I know there are a lot of tickets out there.”
A lot of tickets. A lot of half-priced tickets. A few decisions that Gillian wished he could have taken back.
“I sold a lot of half-priced tickets so you’re giving half of it away. Looking back, I probably would not have had tickets good forever. I would have kept them dated. My dad said, ‘You’re going to regret that, Jay.’ I wish I would have kept the tickets dated and capped the half-price, but you have to do what you have to do.”
Trying to stay neutral on what will take the place of Wonderland Pier
Asked what he would like to see replace that northern anchor of the business section of the boardwalk, Gillian said he didn’t know and did not want to predict.
“I would love the boardwalk to thrive. What I’ve witnessed over the last few months since I (announced the closing) that there are a lot of creative people out there. There are a lot of good ideas, but he (Mita) owns this property. It’s a private business. It’s a private property.
“That’s what democracy is about. You have to let him bring to this community what he wants to do. And I believe whatever he does he’s going to want to do what’s best for the community, but the citizens will have an opportunity (to weigh in).
“It’s a big chunk of property and it’s difficult because it’s like losing a family member. It’s emotional and very difficult.
“It’s been a rough couple months,” he acknowledged.
“As the sitting mayor, I want to see what’s great for Ocean City and it’s difficult. There are so many passionate people — ‘this has got to be saved’ — and I appreciate that, but it is such a hard lift to try this. You’re talking millions of dollars and you need a return. Banks … know what you can and can’t do here.
“I think it is best for me to stay neutral and let the citizens decide what they want.”
The Wonderland site is zoned for amusement rides. If Mita wants to do something else with the property, it would have to go before the Planning Board, Zoning Board or Ocean City Council for approval.
Gillian, even as as mayor, doesn’t control the property’s future.
Mita has not announced plans for the site.
Some politicians keep raising the boogeyman specter of alcohol sales coming to Ocean City. They fear Mita building a 100-room hotel that would be able to secure a liquor license in this town, but City Councilman Dave Winslow and city solicitor Dorothy McCrosson explained to the public just how difficult that would be in a recent council meeting.
To put it briefly, it would mean City Council changing the longstanding laws to allow liquor licenses and sales in general, approving a specific liquor license for a hotel, and the additional legal challenge of overcoming the deed restrictions on most properties throughout the city that prohibit alcohol sales. Ocean City was founded as a Methodist religious retreat, its prohibition on alcohol long-standing and reinforced in 1980s ordinances.
And all of that for a project that does not exist and with all the elected officials vowing never to allow alcohol sales in Ocean City, which values its reputation as America’s Greatest Family Resort because of its dry reputation.
Most everyone does acknowledge there is plenty of alcohol consumption in Ocean City in private residences, but the fact there are no bars and no restaurants selling alcohol remains a point of civic pride .
Retrospective, kudos to Playland Castaway Cove
Gillian wants people to know it wasn’t for his lack of trying.
“Everyone wants to save their family and I’ve tried, for multiple years, and I’ve had great people around me. I’ve talked to a lot of amusement park owners and asked them, ‘What can we do?’ I’ve reached out to them. It’s just that in New Jersey it is difficult to maintain an amusement park and follow the rules of the manufacturers. It’s not that simple. There’s a great cost of it,” he said.
He knew that if one park was going to survive, it was going to be Playland’s Castaway Cove at 10th Street and Boardwalk.
“I keep going back to Playland. Scott Simpson and his crew, what they’ve done down there is spectacular. I’ve gone down there a couple times. It’s clean, it’s beautiful, what an asset for Ocean City.
“He put the money into it. With the coaster and things he’s done. He’s always buying new rides. That’s what you’re supposed to do. And I think that’s what Ocean City wants, to maintain that.
“We’re so lucky that Scott Simpson and his family kept doing it and have a beautiful park. Ocean City is in great hands right now. It really is. People are going to miss our giant (Ferris) wheel, but he has one. Maybe it isn’t as high, but he has a carousel, he has a great assortment of rides down there. Ocean City is in great shape. How lucky are we?”
It’s tough to let go.
“From my experience and what I’ve seen, it’s almost impossible to maintain two amusement parks because there’s just so many people coming to Ocean City,” he said. “I do know Ocean City is going to be fine and whatever happens here is going to be good for Ocean City. People just have to understand that and I think they do. This is just like the death of a family member. It’s hard to let go.”
It has been difficult for him over the past few months as a lot of people have come up to say thank you. He thinks of his father.
“When he passed away, I got the chance to look at everything he had done,” he said, and then another memory hit.
“I forgot that he sang happy birthday to me. I have that on my phone. I found that last night. Out of all this, his passing has probably been the worst, but he understood this business. When I went down to Sea Isle, he was confident, but a little nervous, because he made me think about it. But I was determined.
“My relationship with my father is something I’ll always cherish because I’m nothing without him. He’s up there. He’s all right.”
Although his work future is uncertain, he does plan to run for a fifth term as mayor in 2026.
“People ask how I can be mayor, but I love this town. That’s why I’m happy with what my grandfather did, and my uncle and my dad and my brothers — bringing traditional memories. That’s what kept me going. I never thought it would end. I thought we would figure it out. But today’s world is just a different world.
“When I grew up, Dad used to give handshakes and his word was his bond. I’m old school. That’s what I believe in, but that’s not how it is today. It is rough out there. I got a taste of the real world. When you go out and you’re trying to get money and trying to sell yourself and they’re like, ‘No, these are the numbers,’ it is difficult.”
Gillian will turn 60 this year.
“There are a couple of things I’ve been thinking about, but the one thing over my lifetime, especially these last 10 years, is making no emotional decisions. I’m trying to take my time and see what I’m going to do.
“I’ve been so blessed and so lucky to be the mayor and I still have two years before the next election. I enjoy that. It gives me the opportunity to do a lot of things in the community that I would do at Wonderland,” such as events for the Special Olympics and Autism Days. “A lot of things we do here we can do in the city.”
A time to de-stress first
“The stress of keeping the park open and chasing money and making sure everyone gets paid and all that, it just wore on me. Now that that’s coming to an end, it’s a relief,” he said.
“I’ve been going for a lot of years now. Over the last three or four years I’ve sort of been responsible, with a couple of other people, of making sure the rides are running. It’s a lot of work to keep all these rides running and to keep them safe. I took that for granted with some of the guys I had working for me. I was rough. I wanted perfection and I wanted it done. And I didn’t realize how difficult it is. When something breaks, you have to figure it out. Like everything, sometimes you don’t know.
“Doing that over the past few years I’ve been humbled a lot. It’s a lot of stress.”
Along with keeping his rides running, he also would have his worries as mayor about all the visitors in the resort, on the beaches, swimming. “I think about that stuff all the time.”
“That hurricane (Milton) that just hit in Florida, it brings up memories of Sandy. What we were able to do and how this community came together. It’s funny how these little triggers bring up memories, but I’m the luckiest guy in the world. I don’t want anybody to feel sorry for me.
“I’ve been able to do what I wanted to do. I’ve been lucky enough to be the mayor of Ocean City, which is the greatest town in New Jersey. What am I to complain about?
“It’s God’s will. Whatever his path is for me. The older you get, the more you believe that. I don’t waste my time with the anger and ugliness. It’s a waste of time. I’ve seen so many people pass away recently, even my father, why waste time being angry or upset or not liking somebody? It’s a waste.”
At peace
“I still have a lot of life in me, but I’m at peace. I didn’t know how I was going to feel. This week has been rougher than most. I don’t know how I’ll feel next week,” he said.
“Different people I see trigger different emotions. I am at peace and I know I’ve given my all to save this amusement park. With the way Ocean City and the economy has changed, it just doesn’t work any more. The model doesn’t work. It’s an expensive business and you’re against the eight ball. It’s the change thing and you have to be ready.
“Sometimes every now and then it is good to have a little bit of loss because you really appreciate what you have. That, more than anything, with being at peace, is my family, 13 grandkids, and my relationship with people I’m hoping to make better.” (Jay and his wife, Michele have seven children between them, all married.)
“When I look back at my grandfather and my uncle Bob, and all the different generations and all the people my dad hired and had working here, I keep saying I’m the luckiest guy in the world. I may not have always done things right, but I’ve been thankful being around good people who help me. Nobody can do it alone.”
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff