The Laughing Machine!!

[Summergirl]

Hi! Does anyone remember The Laughing Machine? It was in an arcade around 1980-1984. As a family we used to come to Hastings from Birmingham for our holidays every year, and my sisters and brother and me used to sooo love playing in the Laughing Machine. I have been told by a lady at Hastings Council that the arcade was on George Street/Sturdee Place.

Any stories, info or photo's would be terrific!

thanks x x x

[patvick]

Try the Old Buidings site for anything to do with the Old Town and George Street_ _ _

[Terry]

I worked on this attaction for a summer season in 1978 or 1979 and the looped tape of that blessed robot's dalek-like voice would drive me stark mad. The tape was often exchanged for one featuring Led Zepellin, Black Sabbath or even Frank Zappa.

I often had to walk through the thing to rescue people who became disorientated and lost or didn't want to go down the slide at the end. If you pushed on one of the mirrors in the mirror maze, a door opened and you found yourself in a storeroom and this also provided an alternative exit.

One less attractive aspect of the facility was that people often used it as a toilet. I sometimes discovered couples having sex in there and one young lady, who had clearly enjoyed a liquid lunch, even performed an impromptu striptease from the walkway that led to the slide!

The distorted room often upset people and another problem was people being sick in there. I could never understand these problems, but I suppose I was used to it.

There were a few accidents, especially when people trying to run down the slide fell off and tumbled ten feet onto the cocrete floor, but nobody was ever seriously hurt as far as I know.

It was a great job for a young man and I often spent the first half hour of my ten minute tea break in the nearby Albion pub, frequently in the company of one of the many attractive ladies I met on the facility, but that's another story.

[Summergirl]

Hi thanks for the replies! Terry you were so lucky working on that thing! It was like a fantasy spaceship ride for us at the time! Cant beleive that woman stripteased across the walkway, what blasphemy hahaa!! Although i cant really remember the walkway? I remember the big wheel thing that you had to walk through, was that on the way in? And i remember camera's were inside and we used to wave to mom and dad who we could see on the camera's from outside. Yes i remember the mirror room well too. and the slanty floor room? vauge, happy memories.
What a shame that people used it as a loo and quite funny that couples used to have sex in there (well not funny at the time im sure, but looking back, what a great place to choose! haha)

Thanks so much for your story Terry, write with more info or memories from it if you can?

And thanks Patvick, i will look at the Old Buildings site..

Liz xx

[Terry]

I believe the building was originally a brewery or a brewery warehouse. Breeds? I don't know when it became an amusement arcade, but when I was a child they had dodgems in there.

You entered the laughing machine through a turnstile that only worked after you'd put 50p in the slot. this often went wrong and I had to let people in through a side entrance and take their money which went into a canvas bag. Sometimes I would find myself with hundreds of pounds in such bags, which could be quite nerve wracking until the manager came to collect them.

After entering, you climbed some steps onto a small stage behind the robot, where I used to sit, supposedly supervising. Then you went through the wheel, which was easy enough to stop if you knew how. I often had to stop it as some people couldn't seem to get through it without falling, although I suspect there was some naughtiness going on there, as it was often the young lads who fell over, usually on top of young ladies.

After the wheel there was a short passage to the mirror maze. After all this time, I can't remember if there was anything between the mirrors and the tilted room. After the tilted room you went through a second turnstile (you didn't have to pay for that one) and onto a gangway. Part of this gangway moved up and down and there was a fan underneath it that often caused embarrassment to ladies in loose skirts. Then you went down the slide and that was it.

The cameras must have been installed after I left to discourage the sort of behaviour I mentioned above. There were no cameras when I was there.

As I said, some people found the attraction rather unsettling, although I thought it was rather tame.

Various members of staff would bring tapes in to play in place of that monotonous robot voice and the varied musical tastes could cause some surprising reactions, especially when disco/dance music was changed to heavy metal or Pink Floyd.

After that one season, I went to work at the Deluxe, which at that time was owned by the same company. I'd had just about all I could take of that blessed laughter machine by then and never returned.

[Summergirl]

Hi Terry, how funny! im laughing at the way you got so fed up of it! It was a dream for us as kids, and obviously we only got to go in it a couple of times for one week in a year. But I can imagine you as a young teenager (?) working on it how it could become very annoying!!

We must have played in it a few years after you worked there then, because there was most definatly camera's about the place.

Well my sisters and brother and me havent been able to talk to anyone other than ourselves about this beauty, as no one we know ever knew of it! Its just been our own little memory together all these years, and now its so nice to talk to you and to hear your stories about it!!

Long live that beautiful robot, standing there in all his glory! ha! Wish there were some photo's of it!!!

Liz xx

[Terry]

I was actually in my early 20s Liz. I'm afraid I can't help with photos, but there must be thousands in private collections as many people posed in front of the robot.

I don't know anything about the origin of the robot. It was covered in glitter and there was a removable section in the base as that was where the tape deck and amp was. I don't know what became of it or if any of it survived.

One of the strangest things was that many people seemed fascinated by the storeroom. We often found them in there sitting on boxes of cleaning materials, paint pots and so on. There were even some regulars. It was almost like a club at one point, but they were fairly good natured, there was no vandalism and nothing went missing, so we used to leave them alone.

One of the favourite camera poses was to stand in the wheel, brace yourself in an X position and turn through a complete revolution: I tried it once and it's nowhere near as easy as it sounds.

At the other end of the arcade there was prize bingo and the combination of that, the fruit machines, space invader machines and the blasted robot eight hours each day was a bit hard to take.

I'm glad you enjoyed anyway.

[Summergirl]

Hiya, yes i attempted to go round with the wheel in the X position once, but failed. If my memory serves me right i think my dad then came in after us, did the X brace and did the full circle!!

How strange about the people gathering in the store room!

My brother was always on those Space Invaders, and also the star wars one, as it was brand new at the time. we couldnt get him off it!

Then we used to walk up those really steep old steps which were next door to the arcade and when we got to the top we had our lunch sitting on the hill. Oooh i love Hastings, really want to come back again for a visit very soon! Has it much changed do you think?

Liz x x