Playland
Playland at the Beach, Great Highway and Fulton Streets, c. 1930s.
Photo: San Francisco History Room, SF Public Library
View from Sutro Heights, 1995.
Photo: Chris Carlsson
Funhouse Mirrors at Playland
Photo: San Francisco History Room, SF Public Library
Young family enjoys cotton candy at Playland, 1960s.
Photo: Kurt Bank
Playland at the Beach was San Francisco's answer to Coney Island. A top-of-the-line amusement park stretching from Golden Gate Park to Sutro Heights, Playland had it all: A monster roller-coaster, the world's weirdest funhouse, and a freaky mascot named Laughing Sal whose mad, unearthly cackle terrified children and subverted the collective unconscious of a generation.
Laughing Sal
Photo: Chris Carlsson
But in 1972, real-estate speculators tore it down. In its place they erected buildings that almost managed to be as boring as Playland had been exciting: an architecturally undistinguished beachside condominium complex, and, across La Playa, a Safeway supermarket. Lo and behold, the high-rent condo complex has since then remained mostly empty; and much of the site still remains undeveloped. Residents of the neighborhood report that on foggy, moonless nights, you can sometimes hear the devilish cackle of Laughing Sal resounding through the area.
Bathing beauties laugh it up at Playland, c. 1940s
Photos: San Francisco History Room, SF Public Library
International Studies at Playland
Photo: Kurt Bank