San Francisco's beloved Musée Mécanique Saved
20,000 protests deluged park service 

KEN GARCIA / SF Chronicle 26mar02

Download MPEG of Laughing Sal 
(2.74MB at SF Chronicle website)

San Francisco -- As more than 20,000 people have already testified, when it comes to San Francisco's beloved Musée Mécanique, it's best not to play games.

The National Park Service found this out the hard way the past few weeks, as the howls of protest rang from Washington to the Golden Gate over the possible demise of the largest private collection of classic and historic coin- operated arcade games in the world. And while our federal officials may occasionally act dumb, they're certainly not deaf.

So I'm happy to report today that the charming and historic Musée at the Cliff House will be saved, and the officials from the Golden Gate National Recreation Area deserve some credit for responding to the protests from around the country.

Just where Laughing Sal, the Tijuana Brass bear and peep-show machines of early 20th century belly dancers will end up while the park service rebuilds the Cliff House is still being worked out. But for the first time since the Musée became an endangered species, both the recreation area and museum owner agree that a temporary home for the historic toys will be found until a permanent home is built above the new Cliff House.

That is, assuming a permanent home really is built above the Cliff House -- when dealing with federal funding, planning is a movable feast.

Since the call to arms to save the Musée went out a few weeks back, the park service definitely got the word that the best-laid plans of the federal government should be laid to rest. Petitions went up online and off, and more than 20,000 signed. After I wrote about the museum's plight a couple of weeks ago, 350 people e-mailed me wondering how they could save the Musée.

Golden Gate National Recreation Area Superintendent Brian O'Neill says it was never the park service's intention to shut down the Musée Mécanique, nor was it the agency's desire to leave the collection's owner scrambling to find a new home before the Cliff House renovation begins in September.

"We're quite happy that so many people feel some ownership of the museum," O'Neill told me in his office at Fort Mason. "We're trying to find a place where it can be housed and we're trying to narrow the window for possible relocation sites."

O'Neill said his agency is working overtime to find a new home, which he assured me will definitely happen.

That's good news for Ed Zelinsky, the 80-year-old owner of the Musée. Zelinsky, who left Saturday for London on a mission to find more mechanical gems -- something he does regularly -- said he expects to visit several of the proposed relocation sites when he returns next week.

"We still have a long way to go, but it looks like they're committed to keeping it open," Zelinsky said. "Now we just have to find the right space."

Among the spots the park service is exploring are Pier 39, elsewhere along the waterfront near the Cannery, the Maritime Museum and even the historic ship Eureka at the Hyde Street Pier. Unlike the Musée, the pier charges admission, but O'Neill said the park service would probably be able to work around that.

Still, he said, he would like to keep the Musée close to the west end of the city, and the recreation area has looked at a few sites in the Presidio, including a World War I-era barracks that appears to be big enough to house the treasured collection.

However, Zelinsky has said he is reluctant to put the museum in an area that doesn't get a lot of foot traffic, since the Musée is dependent on all those nickels, dimes and quarters that tourists and natives are always happy to drop on their favorite toys. That could rule out the Presidio, which is noticeably bereft of public transportation.

O'Neill said the park service was not quite prepared for the public outpouring of support for the museum, which included calls from the offices of Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, as well as inquiries from far-flung media outlets including the British Broadcasting Corp.

Well, of course it wasn't prepared. Why the park service would go ahead with plans to remodel the Cliff House without finding a place for the Musée despite knowing it would have to move remains the big unanswered question in this mess. Was it because park officials somehow failed to understand the popularity of the attraction and thought it would fade quietly into the fog, or just the kind of bureaucratic oversight we've come to expect from our overburdened government leaders?

The odd thing is that something good has come of this: Hundreds of people who had never had the good fortune to visit the museum are now flocking to the Cliff House, bringing the Musée some of the biggest crowds in its 40-year history.

"It's reassuring to me that people here have enough of a caring attitude to want to try and help save this historic place," O'Neill said. "Clearly, people are reaching out."

The city has lost enough treasures to fill 20 museums. It's nice to know there are thousands of people who agree there's one local landmark that shouldn't be toyed with.