Baby alligators. An amusement park. 5 things you didn’t know about Myrtle Beach’s Gay Dolphin

Among the racks of T-shirts at the Gay Dolphin Gift Cove on the Myrtle Beach Boardwalk, one shirt speaks to the experience of generations of customers.

“I got lost in the Gay Dolphin,” the shirt proclaimed.

Since 1946, thousands of visitors each day get lost in this gift shop. The storied gift shop was parodied on South Park and the nearby Plyler Park is named for its founder.

Visitors stroll through the labyrinth-like structure packed with trinkets, from hanging shell decorations to a wall of Myrtle Beach license plates. The store has 10 levels and spans from the Myrtle Beach Boardwalk to Ocean Boulevard. At the bottom of the building, the aisles of the basement storeroom are organized by category: lighthouses, dragons, metal signs. At the top, a penthouse apartment was occupied for over 45 years by the original owners, Justin and Eloise Plyler, and has unobstructed views of the SkyWheel and the ocean.

The Gay Dolphin’s current owner, Buz Plyler, started working at his parent’s business at 8 years old. Now 74 years old, Plyler clocks in 50 hour weeks at the adjoining mini golf course, sweeping sand off the carpet.

“It was a gruesome job,” Plyler said.

The Myrtle Beach native has run the business off and on since the 70s, keeping his parents’ tradition.

Plyler said the store uses a 1920s business model, with 50 employees stocking shelves each day, an unusually high number. Plyler did not know how many items the Gay Dolphin stocked, but added, “We have more items than Sears Roebuck had in its heyday. We have more items than you’ll find in a Walmart Superstore.”

Here are five things you did not know about the history of the Gay Dolphin.

Baby alligators were once sold there

Children could take home their very own reptilian predator, imported from Brazil. When asked about what happened when families brought gators home, Plyler remarked, “In the 50s, we wouldn’t even think of it. People did enormous numbers of things that were dangerous.”

The Gay Dolphin stopped stocking the baby gators in late 50s or early 60s, when they became too expensive because of a trend of purses made of alligator heads, Plyler said. Throughout the years, the store has also sold baby turtles and hermit crabs and hosted a large green sea turtle in an outdoor tank.

The ‘gay’ in the name didn’t mean what it does now

After looking at many amusement parks, Plyler said his father determined that successful businesses had a theme.

“So he themed his nautical – dolphin – and happy – gay,” he said.

Even as the word ‘gay’ has become more associated with the LGBTQ community, Plyler said he has not considered abandoning the Gay Dolphin brand because of the store’s name recognition.

Before the Gift Cove came Kiddieland

The gift shop was originally a companion to the Gay Dolphin Kiddieland amusement park, which had a variety of attractions.

In 1939, Plyler’s parents first got carneys to come to the oceanfront lot. An archery range, batting cage, bumper cars and fortune teller came through throughout the years.

The Wild Mouse roller coaster was the marquee attraction at Kiddieland. In 1960, the repossessed ride was sitting in pieces in a Miami soccer field. The elder Plyler purchased it and brought it to Myrtle Beach on trucks.

The Plylers closed the amusement park in the early 70s when a drunk man stood up on the Wild Mouse and was knocked off the ride, Plyler said.

“Mother looked at dad and said, ‘I work too hard, I’m not going to lose everything I own. Either the park goes or I go.’ So the next year we tore the park down,” Plyler said.

Souvenirs of Hurricane Hazel

The original Gay Dolphin was washed away in 1954 by Hurricane Hazel. The day after the storm, the elder Plyler began rebuilding. Plyler said his father “pulled in the boards off the beach from the torn up houses and buildings … we use them to make the first part of the store we built back.”

You can see this beach wood in the shop today by looking at the short boards on the ceiling of the roped off area close to the Boardwalk entrance.

Why are there so many stairs?

With a tight budget, the elder Plyler did not have money to dig out the hill between Ocean Boulevard and the beach. Instead, Buz said he designed a multi-level building that hugged the incline. Plyler said the many stairs ended up being a positive, because the short stairs make it easier for shoppers to see more of the gift shop.

“Almost everybody that comes in the store goes to all the levels,” Plyler said.