Musée Mécanique

This guide to Musee Mecanique in San Francisco follows Ed Zelinsky, who fell in love with a coin-operated machine in 1933 and spent seven decades collecting mechanical fortune tellers, orchestrions, and peep shows, some once owned by the showman George Whitney. You'll hear how the collection lived at Playland at the Beach and then in the damp basement of the Cliff House, and how a 2002 renovation threat brought over twelve thousand San Franciscans to sign a petition to save it. Listen for Laffing Sal, the cackling mechanical woman who once terrified children at Playland's fun house.