Oddball museums in Bay Area; Barbie Dolls and cartoons, toys and myths, arcade games and slot machines

Sunset, Oct, 1989

Barbie-was she an astronaut before she was a rock-and-roll singer, or after? Who wins the ribbon for roly-poly cuteness Bibendum the Michelin Man or Poppin' Fresh the Pillsbury Dough Boy? When it comes to love appeal, are you "iceberg" or "violent"?

Answers to all these questions are at the Bay Area's offbeat museums-amusing, amazing, and yes, educational.

Barbie goes Palo Alto, while The Jolly Green Giant lives south of Market

Four of the museums are in San Francisco, the others in San Bruno and Palo Alto. SAN FRANCISCO. Cartoon Art Museum, 665 Third Street (near Townsend Street); (415) 546-3921. William Randolph Hearst published the first newspaper comic supplement in his New York Morning Journal in 1896. Did the press baron know he'd midwifed an art form that one day would be enshrined on museum walls? Probably not. But the Cartoon Art Museum proves .how much vitality there was, and is, in those multipanel playlets that smudge your hands.

The five-year-old museum holds a thousand works of cartoon art. The oldest are three prints by 18th-century caricaturist William Hogarth. More typical are works from the classic era of the American comic strip: Bob Kane's Balman and Milt Caniff's Steve Canyon among them. Contemporary artists in the collection include Charles Schultz and R. Crumb.

This fall the museum is sponsoring guest appearances by cartoonists. From 1 to 4 on October 14, Phil (Farley) Frank will be drawing there. The museum is open 10 to 5 Wednesdays through Sundays. Admission is $4.

Musee Micanique, The Cliff House, 1090 Point Lobos Avenue,- 386-1170.

Laugh With Jolly Jack! Revitalize Your Feet! Test Your Love Appeal! Applaud the Seeberg Style KT Special as its piano, mandolin, and drums pound out a killer rendition of "Hot Tamale."

Here, where San Francisco dissolves into the surf, collector Edward Zelinsky and his son Daniel have rescued 140 ancient amusement devices and kept them from dissolving along with it. They're museumcaliber pieces, but unlike museum pieces these varnished and gilded games still accept your quarters.

The 80-year-old museum sits beneath the Cliff House and is officially part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. (It may be the Park Service imprimatur that keeps this a well-mannered, unintimidating place.) Veterans of Playlandat-the-Beach will recognize games and musical instruments from that vanished fun zone. Others were found by the Zelinskys as far afield as Mexico and Europe. A few modern video games beep at the back of the arcade; their profits help pay for repairs on the antiques.

Some Musee Mecanique superlatives: the oldest of the games is the Old Time Royal Courtyard Entertainment, a 19th-century mechanical diorama with sedately whirling acrobats and parasol-twirling belles. The most popular game of skill, says Daniel Zelinsky, is a pinball version of the 1937 subway series between the New York Giants and Yankees. Most charming? For us it was a tossup between two miniature worlds: The Mechanical Farm and The Carnival.

Hours are 11 to 7 daily; admission is free, but the machines, of course, will set you back some pocket change.

Museum of Modern Mythology, 693 Mis sion Street (at Third Street); 546-0202.

They haunt the collective American subconscious, the ghosts of advertising campaigns past Speedy Alka Seltzer, Mr. Peanut, Elsie the Cow, and Chiquita Banana. Now they return at the Museum of Modern Mythology, a South-of-Market institution dedicated to the idea that every culture gets the myths it deserves.

The five-year-old museum was founded by writer Ellen Weis. She believes that, in an era of mass communication, advertising replaces folk tales as a unifying cultural force.

The Greeks had Zeus, we have The Joily Green Giant. To prove her point, the muscum displays a sizable collection of bits and pieces of American popular culture. At first you may feel you're seeing these items-figures from "Love Boat," for example-before you're ready to be nostalgic about them. But give yourself a minute and you'll probably be smiling.

The museum has newly moved from the ninth to the second floor of an office building at Sixth and Mission streets; at our press time the move was scheduled to be finished and the museum opened by October I but call before you visit. Museum hours are noon to 5 Wednesday through Sunday Admission is $2.

San Francisco International Toy Museum, The Cannery, 2801 Leavenworth, San Francisco; 441 -8697.

This small museum on the Cannery's second floor holds a rotating display of antique and more recent toys: trains, boats, planes, dollhouses, and some oddities such as a General Douglas MacArthur doll. Even more fun is a separate play area where kids and parents get down on hands and knees and play with modern toys-a great way of determining what to get your child for birthday or Christmas.

The toy museum is open Tuesday through Saturday 10 to 6, Sunday 11 to 5. Admission is $1.

SAN BRUNO Slot Machines of San Bruno, 383 W San Bruno Avenue (at Easton); 583-3978.