Lakeside Park funhouse
Lakeside Amusement Park's Unforgettable Funhouse - Wow Photo Wednesday
Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial start of summer and, in Denver, there's hardly a place that says, "Summer fun in Denver," better than Lakeside Amusement Park. (Technically Lakeside does not offer summer fun in Denver, as Lakeside is its own municipality, but you know what we mean.)
In its 108-year history, Lakeside has played host to a number of rides, but few are as memorable as its unforgettable funhouse. This collection of bone-crushing attractions included a floor-mounted spinning disc that hurtled riders across the room, blasts of air designed to lift women's skirts, and host of other devices that would induce migraines in a modern insurance adjuster.
One particularly memorable feature, that does not appear in this 1925 photo, is the legendary Laffing Sall. Sall was an automated papier mâché figurine that stood perched atop the funhouse bellowing out an unending and terrifying cackle.
If Sall gave you nightmares as a child, we feel it's only fair to warn you that there are plenty of other Salls floating around the amusement park world. Laughing Sall was produced en masse by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company and is still on display in various museums and amusement parks across the country.
One place you won't find Sall anymore is at an actual funhouse. When Lakeside shut down its funhouse in 1986, it shut down the last known funhouse of its kind in the United States.
While Lakeside Amusement Park may lack a funhouse, it's hardly lacking in history and beautiful old buildings, as generations of Denver families can attest to.
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Comments
Where in the park was the fun house located? I remember that I, as a child had a hard time getting into the fun house due to the spinning barrels at the beginning. If I recall correctly laughing Sal was also at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. They too have retired her
Wooow smh I did almost everything in there except the spinning ride and the super high slide and y'all are gonna laugh but to this day I don't know why as a kid I was afraid of the barrels xD. I'd really wish lakeside had just added more exits to keep it open because I used to do money drops on the route for Loomis and one of the office staff said that another classic fun house caught fire and there wasn't enough exits for people to get out. Many injuries and a few died from they told me and that's why unfortunately they demolished it so as not to have the same thing happen. In my personal opinion that was the most fun attraction there along with the spider and wild chipmunk. Good memories of fun past times.
Hi Bill - Thanks for sharing your memories with us. We agree that Funhouse at Lakeside was pretty amazing and wish it were still around. The fire the Lakeside folks were referring to was likely the July, 1944 Tunnel of Love fire at Elitch's, which killed six people.
Oh how my family and I loved the Lakeside Funhouse. Every time we visited extended family in Denver, from New Mexico, my sister, Judy and I and our cousins, always loved visiting the fun house. It was always one of the highlights of our trip. The spinning disk and slides were our favorites. What fun it would be for the Funhouse to be rebuilt exactly how it was. Great memories!
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