If you are old enough to remember San Francisco's Playland At the Beach, then you'll remember what a fun yet somewhat creepy place it was. http://www.outsidelands.org/playland.php ...a pretty accurate description SF during the 60's When the place closed down (the land was sold to developers, and condos have now replaced Playland), some of the stuff was bought by various people and venues. Lots of the mechanical coin-operated machines were saved and can be found at the Musee Mechanique at Pier 45 today. http://museemecaniquesf.com/ BUT! A family who bought up a number of displays, memorabilia, pinball machines, and game machines, set up "Playland NOT At the Beach", and opened its doors to the public for them to enjoy the salvaged past. Sadly Playland Not At the Beach has closed http://www.playland-not-at-the-beach.org/ and ALL of the stuff is being auctioned off this weekend, Sept. 15, 2018! So here's your chance to own a piece of history (no I'm not endorsing the auction, this is just for general interest) if you're into that sorta stuff. News Story Video here: https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/loc...eum-to-Go-on-the-Auction-Block-493004361.html Auction Info: https://www.michaans.com/events/2018/auct_09152018.php Catalog: https://www.michaans.com/pdf/catalogs/2018/auccat_091518_web.pdf
Damn. I visited "Playland NOT at the beach" Years back. It was a strange place. It was sort of smashed into sharing some office space and many cubicles. Also headquarters to the Ertha Kitt fanclub. Weird.
Ah yes! I completely forgot about the Eartha Kitt memorabilia! She was one hot Cat Woman! Her purr was a humdinger I remember that admission was super reasonable, and once you got in, you could play all of the pinball machines and moving diorama machines for free, no limit. There were also some of the beach faire toss games set up for play too. As a kid, I remember being fascinated by the old wooden moving people and animal coin-operated machines. When I returned as an adult, I found them to be sorta creepy. The crudeness of the faces and jerky unnatural unnerving motions, reminded me more of a trapped in a haunted circus fairway twighlight zone-ish atmosphere sorta creepiness. Funny how perceptions change. It was those loooooong wooden slides (those burlap bags you sat on were extra scratchy, and flew off from under you anyway, so that you got great thigh burns, skidding along), spinning disc of death, and whirling rotating barrel rides that I loved best. Stiil miss them! Every time I drive along the Great Highway, towards the Cliff House, I still see those ugly condos and feel that resentment. At least Camera Obscura was saved www.giantcamera.com there are only a handful of these "cameras" left today. I think there is one in Italy. Also, the Doggie Diner heads were saved too! http://doggiediner.com SF has really changed today
You can find those doggie diner heads all over the place. Treasure Island has a few. I miss marine world being in sf. I also miss the old science museum, the remodeled one doesn't have the same feel. I also miss being able to drive into sf and it taking only twenty minutes.
^^^ Ditto to the above! Update on that auction, you can see the ending prices here (you have to register as a member to see the ending price) https://www.liveauctioneers.com/catalog/125839_the-playland-not-at-the-beach-auction/ An original burlap bag with a photo of the slide sold for $600 (geez! ) https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/64030075_original-burlap-bag-from-fun-house-slide The repro small Laughing Sal went for $4250 (way over the estimate of $1000 - $1500) https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/64030068_reproduction-laffing-sal The original BIG Laughing Sal went for $15K https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/64030195_original-laughing-sal
