Hard Rock Park, a 140-acre theme park in Myrtle Beach, S.C., opened with great fanfare last April, hoping to lure tourists with a penchant for roller coasters and Led Zeppelin. Now, though, despite four years in development and two years in construction, the attraction is unplugging just nine months after opening.

Yesterday, a Delaware bankruptcy judge approved the company’s request to begin liquidating what was billed as the world’s first rock ‘n’ roll theme park and the single-largest tourism investment in South Carolina history.

Hard Rock Park’s hard-knock life serves as one of the most colorful examples of lax corporate …