My Dad used to take us to a building on the lower Great Highway that he called "The Toothpick Palace" in the late 50's. There were huge replicas of famous buildings, monuments and historical buildings. I remember him saying that he had first seen them at The Great Faire. Anyone know where they are now? Also, was this the same building that later housed Donavans Reef, a dance hall in the 60's geared toward the under 18 year old music lovers?

-- Priscilla Cummings (priscillacummings@yahoo.com), January 07, 2005

Answers

I'm not much help because the only toothpick thingy I know of was at the other end of the Great Highway in the The Musee Mecanique, located at the Cliff House. Musee Mecanique had a toothpick carnival that had been fashioned by San Quentin convicts with a lot of time on their hands. It was coin operated gigantic display of a roadside carnival crafted almost entirely from toothpicks. The coin activated a pair of bikini-clad dancers who shimmy in front of the sideshow and a tiny rodeo rider who bounces on a cast-iron horse inside a toothpick corral. A train circles the display as a toothpick ferris wheel turns next to a toothpick roller coaster.

The Musee Mecanique is now located at Pier 45. Oh, they have Laughing Sal there, too. The Musee Mecanique

-- strange (stranger@yahoo.com), January 10, 2005.