San Francisco, California: Musee Mecanique

Collection of old timey and strange coin operated mechanical amusements.

The front of the Musee Mecanique no longer has the woman's face with her big mouth as the front door. However, it's still super easy to find; "Pier 45" and "Musee Mechanique" are both large and clearly marked. The coin-operated machines were fascinating, especially the several dedicated to vices ("Drunkard's Dream" and "Opium Den") and execution ("English Execution" and "Guillotine").

A wonderful place to spend the day.

The Musee Mecanique is on the North end of Highway 1, behind the Cliff House near the camera obscura. It houses the arcade goodies from amusement park that used to exist on the dunes east of Ocean Beach before Golden Gate Park ploughed all the way out there. There are some fine shimmy-dancing girl flip-film thingies, love-o-meters, fortune telling gypsies, and arm wrestling tests of strength complete with warnings about the unrelenting strength of aged machinery. You'll also find dioramas of entire towns that set to work on the drop of your coin. My favorite, though, is Laughing Sal, a huge six-foot tall woman whose hellish chuckling will be sure to cause nightmares in small children and susceptible adults for days. Be sure to bring quarters, since the days of the penny arcade are over even here.