Little Egypt Heritage Articles Stories of Southern Illinois (c) Bill Oliver 25 January 2004 Vol 3 Issue: #04 ISBN: pending Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen of Little Egypt, Reading one of my Genealogical Newsletters this week I discovered an article describing what it was like back in the 1940s. That was the topic on which I was writing for this week's article. So I filed it on a "back burner". We planned a trip for today with our two resident grandchildren and their Mother to Sandusky, Ohio to visit the Merry-Go-Round Museum there. Therefore, I did a little preplanning about carousels and their history in the United States and further back. Memories of the Walbridge Street Amusement Park in the 1930s and early 40s came flooding back. Especially the "brass" ring which earned you a "free" ride if you "caught" it. Walbridge Park was at the end of the trolley line out Broadway Street in Toledo, Ohio. I can hear the "oom pa pa" as if I were there right now. The Sandusky Museum has a restored and working Allen Herschell Carousel. The Museum is quite unique in that it was once the Sandusky Post Office and the building has a round or rotunda entrance. It was built in the 1920s. American carousel figures are made in three primary styles of carving, painting and decoration. There is the "Philadelphia" Style of realistic looking horses, with legs in the galloping position. Veins and muscles are visible on their heads and necks. These figures were found on stationary machines. There is a fanciful style called the "Coney Island" Style. These figures quite often included cut "jewels" and other ornamentation. Elaborate carvings were displayed on the figure's profile and under the cantle or back of the saddle. This style also often displayed out of proportion bodies. Then there was the "Country Fair" Style which featured less ornate carvings and unnaturally out- stretched legs for easier transporting on machines that traveled with carnivals and fairs. This style lacked protrusions, such as forward pointing ears, which further helped packing for transporting. The expressions and features of these horses was much more simple. There was a decline in the manufacture of Merry-Go-Rounds in the United States due to the Great Depression of the 1930s and after effects of the two World Wars. However, from the middle of the 19th century through the 1920s, thousands of wooden carousels were carved by hand. The menagerie of animals waited for children to climb aboard for a "spin". We can trace carousel origins back 1500 years to the European-Mediterranian culture. On a Byzantine etching for that period riders were swinging in baskets tied to a center pole. There is some evidence that merry-go-round activities were experienced in ancient India and Central America, also. In Italian there is a word "garosello", while in Spanish it is "carosella". One can speculate as to which [or both] are the root of our word "carousel". Anyway the meaning is the same in both languages ... "little war". This was a game adapted from Arabian and Turkish horsemen, who tossed clay balls filled with perfume back and forth from horseback. One lost if a catch was missed and the ball shattered, spilling perfume which stayed with the loser for some days. The Crusaders brought this game back to Europe, where it was passed around. In the 15th century, the French, calling it "carrousel", transformed it into skilled horsemanship and pageantry. The paramont feature was a ring-spearing tournament where lances were used to spear small rings suspended between two posts while at a full gallop. It took much practice and experience to develop the skills of horsemanship, steady hand, and sharp eye necessary. Late in the 17th century someone had the bright idea of attaching to a center pole, legless wooden horses from which tournament trainees could spear the small rings. These were powered by servants, mules, or horses. Hence the birth of the carousel as we envision it today. As evolution transformed this device into a source of entertainment for children and ladies the supplying power was hand cranks. It wasn't until the steam engine was produced that these carousels really blossomed. The "legless" horses became more ornate figures and not necessarily horses. The ring-catching tradition of the French nobility was preserved by allowing a rider to reach out and "spear" or grab a ring. Hence, the brass ring tradition of my youth. In this country carousels have been know by names such as flying horses, whirligigis, steam riding galleries, carry-us-alls, flying jinnies, hobby horses, and merry-go-rounds. With the advent of the steam engine, evolution of the carousel took place. The power of the new engine allowed for the increase in size. Free-swinging figures were set on platforms suspended from arms from the center pole. Other innovations were menagerie figures and the up and down movement of the figures. A shortage of materials caused by World War I gave birth to the use of aluminum for part of the figures, especially of the head and necks. Though this gave all the figures a similarity in looks, the delicate parts of the heads were no longer breakable. With the depression of the 1930s and the turmoil of the Second World War, the "golden age" of hand-carved wooden carousels came to an end. Out of the new materials developed during that war and following it improvements to the figures appeared in the form of fiberglass. Fiberglass replaced the aluminum as the material of choice. Fiberglass molds could copy or replicate the master patterns created by the master carvers of the earlier ages. Besides the 18 or so restored working carousels in Ohio, there are others in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Michigan, Kansas and the Old Pioneer Village Museum in Mindon, Nebraska. The next time you accompany a youngster on a "carry-us-all", stand proudly next to them and tell them the history of this "dang-fangled-machine" and about catching the "brass ring". e-la-di-e-das-di ha-wi nv-wa-do-hi-ya nv-wa-to-hi-ya-da. (May you walk in peace and harmony) Wado, Bill -=- PostScript: Other sites worth visiting: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/SOIL http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/ILMASSAC http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/state/BillsArticles/LittleEgypt/intro.html