"Laffing Sal" – Musée Méchanique, Pier 45, Fisherman’s Warf, San Francisco, California

Laffing Sal is one of several automated characters that were built primarily to attract carnival and amusement park patrons to funhouses and dark rides throughout the United States. Its movements were accompanied by a raucous laugh that sometimes frightened small children and annoyed adults.

Laffing Sal stands 6 feet, 10 inches high, including a 12-inch pedestal. She is made of papier mache, consisting of seven layers of pressed card stock with horse-hair strengthener, mounted over steel coils and frame. She wears an artificial wig and has a large gap between her front teeth. Her head, arms, hands and legs are detachable and are held together with fabric, staples, pins, nails, nuts and bolts. When activated, she waves its arms and rocks foreward and backward. A record player concealed in its pedestal a recording of a woman laughing hysterically.

All this for only 50¢!