Laffing Sal
Laffing Sal is one of several automated characters that were built primarily for funhouses throughout the United States.[1] Sometimes called "Laughing Sal", she produces a raucous laugh that sometimes frightens small children and annoys adults.[2]
History
She was built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company (PTC) of Germantown, Pennsylvania in the early 1930s. There was also a Laffing Sam and Blackie the Barker ballyhoo characters offered utilizing similar construction. PTC subcontracted the production of their Laffing Sal figures to the Old King Cole Papier Mache Company of Canton, Ohio.[1] She was made of papier mache (seven plys of pressed ground wood pulp card stock with interior horse hair) over steel coils and frame, detachable head, arms, hands and legs, and held together with fabric, staples, pins, nails, nuts and bolts. She had a wig of non-human hair, and had a large gap between her front teeth.[3] She was advertised as being 6 feet, 10 inches high, standing on a 12 inch pedestal under which was a record player continuously playing her laugh. She would wave her arms and lean forward while laughing.[1]
The Pike featured her along with her PTC companions "Laughing Sam" and "Blackie the Barker" as ballyhoo over the center of "Laff In The Dark" dark ride.
The history of Laffing Sal at the Balboa Fun Zone goes back to the 1920s. When the Balboa Fun Zone wanted Laffing Sal to stand above the entrance to their Scary Dark Ride, they contacted Funni-Frite Inc of Pickerington Oh, who still had the original molds from the Pike's Laffing Sal's head and hands. The laugh track was originally on a stack of old 78 RPM records. They would stack a few records on an automatic changer turntable, and would re-stack the records as needed. The Fun Zone used modern technology to achieve the same effect. The Fun Zone's Laffing Sal was removed with the closure of the Scary Dark Ride in 2005.
Sal's asking price in 1940 was US$360, equal to $5638 today;[4] in 2004 the one now in Santa Cruz, California cost the bidder US$50,000.[3]
Laffing Sal is often thought to be one of the forerunners of Walt Disney's now famous Audio-Animatronics.
Sal appearances
- A Laffing Sal was featured in the 1953 film Man in the Dark, which was filmed in Venice, California. Starring Audrey Totter and Edmond O'Brien, Sal can be seen in the building behind gazing down on them in the Venice amusement area.[5]
- Laffing Sal was also briefly featured in The Princess Diaries in 2001.
- A recording of "Laffing Sal" was used in Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, as noted in the liner notes to their "Holland 1945" single.
- Laffing Sal was shown twice in the 1950 movie Woman on the Run during the closing scenes filmed at the amusement park Playland at Ocean Beach, San Francisco.
- The 1954 Technicolor 3-D film Gorilla At Large features Laffing Sal & Laffing Sam at The Pike (then called Nu-Pike) in Long Beach, California.
- An episode of "The Magician" with Bill Bixby features the "Laffing Sal" located at the "Nu-Pike" amusement park in Long Beach in the early 1970s.
- "Laffing Sal" was the subject of the cartoon strip "Zippy the Pinhead" on April 16, 1998.
- Laffing Sal Appears in issue #5 of the DC Comics Series "Gotham City Sirens".
Locations
- Balboa Fun Zone Scary Dark Ride in Newport Beach, California (Closed in 2006. The Newport Nautical Museum was built on the site of the park.)
- Buckeye Lake Park in Ohio
- Crystal Beach Park in Ontario, Canada
- Erieview Park in Cleveland, Ohio
- Euclid Beach Park in Cleveland, Ohio (Closed in 1969. She is privately owned and is still exhibited at the local "home days.")
- Hamid's Pier in Atlantic City, New Jersey
- Idora Park in Youngstown, Ohio
- Jantzen Beach Amusement Park in Portland, Oregon
- Kennywood Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Lakeside Amusement Park in Denver, Colorado
- Memory Lane Arcade in Frankenmuth, Michigan (Closed in 2004. Current whereabouts unknown.)
- Hunt's Pier in Wildwood, New Jersey
- Musée Mécanique in San Francisco (A second Laffing Sal from Playland at the Beach; the Musée Mécanique was located at the Cliff House until 2002, when it relocated (along with Sal) to Pier 45 at Fisherman's Wharf.)
- Pacific Ocean Park AKA Laffing Gertrude in Venice, California
- Palisades Amusement Park in New Jersey
- The Pike Laff-in-the-Dark dark ride in Long Beach, CA
- Playland at the Beach in San Francisco (Closed in 1972, one version went to the Musée Mécanique and another eventually ended up at Santa Cruz.)[1]
- Playland-Not-At-The-Beach in El Cerrito, California has two Laughing Sals—a traditional looking one that was originally at an amusement park in Ohio and another that was specially created by sculptor Chuck Jarman of Bump-in-The-Night-Productions. This one is known as Sinister Sal. During the Halloween season they bring out a third Sal known as Psycho Sal.
- Revere Beach in Revere, Massachusetts
- Riverview Park in Des Moines, Iowa (converted to Laffing Sam)
- Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk in California (from Playland at the Beach)[3]
- Seabreeze Park in Rochester, New York
- Ocean View Amusement Park, "Laff In The Dark", Norfolk, VA (closed 1979)
- Silver Beach Amusement Park and the new Silver Beach Carousel in St. Joseph, Michigan
References
External links