TANYA GARTH - Alias “Laffing Sal”

Tanya Garth was the voice of one of the original animatronic characters produced for amusement parks and carnivals intended to attract business to their dark rides and funhouses, and was a forerunner of Disney’s Audio-animatronics. I first crossed paths with Sal at San Francisco’s Playland at the Beach seven decades ago where she stood in a window of the Fun House rocking back and forth, arms waving, and emitting her unforgettable infectious and raucous laughter. The nearly seven foot imposing figure wore a bright red wig, silly hat, and was obviously missing a critical upper incisor. The Sal characters were produced by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company of Germantown, Pennsylvania in the 1930’s and were fabricated by the Old King Cole Paper Mache Company of Canton, OH. and sold for $360 (about $7000 in today’s money). Nearly 350 of the memorable figures could be found at amusement parks and carnivals throughout the country in the 1940’s. In the early years a concealed operator continually replayed a stack of 78 RPM phonograph records of Tanya Garth’s laughter. Sadly, San Francisco’s Playland was demolished in 1972 however Sal survived and her haunting laughter can still be heard at the Santa Cruz Beach and Boardwalk.   -Bill