A 1971 Hartford Courant article reads: “The “laughing lady” of Savin Rock has found a new home in Westbrook, N.H. after years in exile as a displaced person. She still wears a warm smile, but no longer brings chuckles by her uproarious laughter. Grinning broadly from the back shelf of the Westbrook antique shop... her new owner, Al Schultz, claimed people recognized her immediately.”
“Sal hadn't changed since her life of fame in that high glass box over the entrance to a Savin Rock fun-house of distorted mirrors and slanting rooms of spine-tingling chills. To many, she was a distinct personality in her own right. Homey, with one tooth missing, her long brown hair was fashionably curled and wearing the latest wide-brimmed hat covered with red poppies.” |
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| “Folks recall her arms moved up and down and her head nodded from side to side to accompany her bold, risqué laughter. Although her clothing is new, it is copied from her original lace jacket, mesh gloves, and red beads. She stands a busty three feet tall on shorty squatty legs with only her carved wooden pointed shoes visible beneath a quaint checkered dress.” |
| “Made of papier mâché, with a face slightly pocked and florid. Her painted blue eyes are smeared as if tears have caused the paint to run. The new owner said he bought her at Dean Mitchell’s auction at the North Haven Grange... being advertised for two weeks, with many Savin Rock collectors eager to buy her. A date is burned into the wood |
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inside her hollow body, which reads “11-21-22” Savin Rock, West Haven, Connecticut.” Carl Giannotti, executive director of the West Haven Redevelopment Agency, recalled her fondly:
“She arrived, as nearly as I can remember, somewhere in the thirties when the fun-house was built near Wilcox’s Pier”. Sam Applebaum and Dick Guerrera, known as Dick Gray, the local fight promoter, built the fun house, which was torn down July 15, 1968, in the second phase of reconstruction,” Giannotti said.
At the time the Laffing Lady was removed, she was the personal property of the owner, Mr. Levere, who owned between 15 to 20 acres of Savin Rock, according to Giannotti. Levere’s son, a West Haven attorney, expressed surprise that the Laffing Lady had turned up in Westbrook. Also believing Sal to be built by The Philadelphia Toboggan Company, Edwin Levere said as far as he knew, “she had been sold to an amusement operator, and was in an out-of-state amusement park”... and “Not For Sale.”
Whatever her past history has been, her new owner is sure of one thing. “She isn’t for sale”... he says firmly! In fact, he's planning to give her a well-deserved place of honor as a focal point in a new antique museum he hopes one day to build. “You’d be surprised at the number of people who see her and the stories she brings to mind,” he says adjusting her bonnet. “Yes Sir, she’s quite a lady!” |
| When watching many older black and white shows on TV, if you listen close enough, you’ll hear that famous “laffing lady” cackle as other Sals made cameos in vintage movies and sitcoms featuring amusement parks. I’m not going to list every show in which a “Laffing Sal” has been featured: you can find a list online. I will say there is an episode of Perry Mason, |
“The Case of the Two-Faced Turnabout”, that features a Laffing Sal. I actually rewound it back a few times just to hear her laugh again and again…. just because! My husband is a big Perry Mason fan, so it’s not unusual to find it playing on our TV. Hmm, maybe Perry Mason could team up with Nancy Drew and find Savin Rock's Laffing Lady?
What words today bring to mind when describing that famous laugh? Would it be “cackle, scary, petrifying, frightening, terrifying, or loud”? If you need a Sal fix… head over to the Savin Rock Museum in West Haven, CT. to hear the laugh made famous in Savin Rock. If you’ve never been to the museum, you’re in for a treat… and a walk back in time as to what once sat along that famous boardwalk.
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