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There are hundreds of museums around the world, and almost every one is worth a peek inside, but my favourite oddball is the Musée Mécanique in San Francisco. This one-of-a-kind collection of mechanical oddities, saved by a devoted collector, tells the story of a bygone era. Best of all, it lets you interact with the collection. Many museums enforce a strict velvet-rope policy, but here you can get right up close, stick your head inside and even have your fortune read by one of these mechanical wonders.
This guide walks through what you’ll find on the floor, from love testers to a carnival that springs to life, and what to know before you go.
The museum holds more than 300 mechanical machines, making it one of the largest private collections of antique arcade games in the world. It began with Edward Zelinsky, who started collecting as a boy; the collection spent decades at San Francisco’s Playland-at-the-Beach and then the Cliff House before settling at Pier 45 in 2002. These early ancestors of the modern video game were as innovative and exciting to audiences of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as virtual reality seems to us today. They carried visitors into a magical environment where imagination could come alive and run amok.
“To the generation before, these were the video games. Many visitors haven’t been here since childhood, but when they walk through that door, they are going back in time.” — Dan Zelinsky, owner and manager
Be aware that this isn’t your typical museum. It’s not shiny or fancy or filled with flourishes. It’s a large warehouse filled with treasure, and what it lacks in polish it more than makes up for with its lovingly tended penny arcade.
This old-school arcade has been carefully repaired, and nearly every machine on display still works for anyone who drops a coin in the slot. Unlike many video arcades today, most games here still cost between a quarter and a dollar. When you enter, use the change machine to trade your dollar bills for coins.
The mechanical games include love testers, peep show viewers, stereoscopes, fortune tellers, mechanical puppets and an incredible, rare diorama of a traveling carnival, complete with a Ferris wheel, an airplane kiddie ride, acrobats, animals and more than a hundred other moving parts, all of which come to life with the drop of a coin.
These Love-o-meters are a wonderfully nostalgic piece of history that still survives today. Even now, when I walk into an arcade such as a Dave & Buster’s, some version of the Love Tester is still hanging on. Many of these old machines claimed to read the moisture on your hand and deliver a verdict based on it, though some did no measuring at all.
Many different versions were produced, and you can check out several of them here at the museum. Even if we understand the science behind these machines now, they’re still a fun game to play with friends. It will either make you laugh or blush with embarrassment.
Another traditional trope of the mechanical arcade era is the fortune teller. These vintage machines give out a printed card with a prediction of your fortune. Depending on the complexity of the machine, the teller inside might move their arms, their eyes might flash, they might even talk, and the lights inside twinkle and spark on and off to create an atmosphere of magic and mystery.
Probably the most famous incarnation of the fortune teller machine is the Zoltar machine in the movie Big, where young Josh Baskin (played by Tom Hanks as an adult) wishes to be “big” and it changes his life forever. I think everyone, whenever they use one of these machines, wonders if the same thing will happen to them.
The carnival diorama is one of the most impressive vintage machines in the collection. I dropped my coins in the slot and the moment I did, the entire scene came alive. The Ferris wheel began to spin, the band began to play, children danced in the street and lights lit up throughout the carnival. Absolutely wonderful.
Some of the more intriguing pieces in the museum are the morbid curiosity machines. The first is an animated scene with figurines depicting a French execution by guillotine. The second is a stereoscope of the deadly 1906 earthquake and fire.
A stereoscope is a device that combines two photographs taken from slightly different angles, which are viewed together to create the impression of an image with depth, almost three-dimensional.
Death was a great fascination in the Victorian era, and machines like these helped feed it. One imagines people huddled around them for a glimpse of what death might be like. Although they seem antiquated now, they must have been truly extraordinary at the time.
Other stereoscopes throughout the museum depict burlesque peep shows on varying themes. They are pretty tame, so no need to worry about bringing the kids, but one must imagine how shocking and titillating these machines were when they were first introduced.
The most famous piece in the museum is Laffing Sal, a TERRIFYING monster (well, technically a doll, but that’s debatable) of a woman who laughs hysterically, rocks back and forth and waves her arms when activated. Surprisingly, figures like her were mass-produced in the 1930s by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company for amusement parks around America. Although she might be a little scary, she is an early example of the animated figures that would become amusement-park staples.
Although she might be a little scary, she was the first animated amusement park character and helped usher in an era of animated characters such as Walt Disney’s wonderful creatures.
There are also dozens of other games to play. Pinball machines, bowling games and shooting games, from early models to later twentieth-century favourites, still work today and are lots of fun.
Plenty of museums are worth a peek, but few take down the velvet rope as completely as the Musée Mécanique. It’s a warehouse of working treasures where a quarter still buys a laugh, a blush, a fortune or a fright. This place is definitely worth a look, so check it out on the waterfront at Fisherman’s Wharf the next time you’re in San Francisco.
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