I have a postcard of, "The Red Room-Cliff House Music Hall" which was "located at Seal Rocks". The Red Room housed a collection of coin operated "mechanical marvels" and curio shops. The postcard is from the 1950's or 60's. Can anyone tell me if this was part of the Sutro Baths complex or in an adjacent building? Where was it??? (I've already asked at the Cliff House Visitor Center). Thanks!!

-- Christine Miller (Jadite30@aol.com), December 24, 2001

Answers

Here you go, sport, and Merry Christmas:

http://www.sanfranciscomemories.com/musee/mechanique.html

I worked for a guy who loved the place but always called it the "Moosie Mahko." Wonderful place.

-- Miss Rosa (rosadebon@yahoo.com), December 24, 2001.

Thanks for the info about the Musee, but I forgot to mention in my original posting that the "Red Room" appears to have existed before the Musee Mechanique and that it seems to have been in a different location within the Cliff House/Sutro Baths complex. But where???? Thanks again, and Merry Christmas!!

-- Christine Miller (Jadite30@aol.com), December 24, 2001.

According to Ed Zelinksy, the owner of the Musee Mecanique, his collection was housed in the old Sky Tram building (now the Cliff Houe Visitor Center) in the late 1960s, but it was always called the "Musee Mecanique."

During the 1950s and early '60s there was another collection of 'mechanical marvels' located in a now-destroyed building called the "Music Box" between the Cliff House and the entrance to Sutro's. This might have been the same place as your Music Hall.

I found quite a few photos of this exhibit in the collections of the California Historical Society. I believe the Music Box was owned by the Whitney Brothers, the same guys who owned Playland, the Cliff House and Sutro's.

Have you tried going through old City directories looking for the "Cliff House Music Hall"? If it's listed with a street address on Point Lobos Boulevard that will help pin down its location.

-- John Martini (jamartini@earthlink.net), December 25, 2001.