Declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987, the Playland “Ice Casino”, was built in 1929, originally containing a main ice rink as well as a full dance floor on the second level that functioned as a dance hall through the 1940s and '50s. It also had a full-service fine-dining restaurant and an outdoor café.
Until 2002, the New York Rangers hockey team practiced at the Playland Ice Casino. Playland appears in scenes from many major motion pictures such as The Muppets Take Manhattan, Fatal Attraction, and most notably it was the amusement park featured at the end of the 1988 movie Big starring Tom Hanks. The scenes where the Zoltar the Magnificent fortune teller machine returns the adult Tom Hanks to his original childhood age was filmed on Playland’s boardwalk. Zoltar the Magnificent is still in operation today!