Generations of
Families Rode these "Happy Trails"
(Notice the whip car in the foreground - little dumbo in the rear)
Remember the brass ring? The gorgeous stained glass windows. The slap of the big belts that drove these horses down those happy trails that only a child could imagine?
The unforgettable sounds of the Calliope? The exhilaration you felt as the horses started to "gallop" - going from the midway view to a lake view in a few seconds.
The knowing look on the old folks faces as they sat waving to you?
Then, before you knew it, you had that "knowing look" of the "old folks" as you sat waving to the wondrous expression of your own child, or grandchild.
Happy trails to ya.
Note: The man who carved the original Merry-Go-Round Horses at Sherman's - Charles Looff.
A Brief Looff History Already an accomplished carver
when he arrived in the U.S. in August 1870, Charles Looff was soon employed as a
furniture carver in New York. Carving carousel animals in his spare time,
he produced his first carousel in 1875 and with it, created the Coney Island
Style.
That first carousel, placed in Coney Island, NY, carried 27 figures, including
horses, camels, zebras, and other animals. It was the first carousel at
Coney Island. By 1880, Looff had produced three carousels and established
a factory in Brooklyn where he would build carousels for some 25 years.
Looff established a showpiece carousel at Crescent Park in East Providence, R.I.
in 1895. That large carousel with 61 horses still operates to the music of
its magnificent Ruth & Sohn band organ. In 1905, Looff moved his
factory to the Looff Hippodrome at Riverside, Rhode Island. After placing
several carousels in the western U.S., Charles and his wife, Anna Dolle, moved
to Long Beach, California in 1912 where he set up his Hippodrome Factory.
Charles and Anna lived on the second floor of the Hippodrome on the Pike in Long
Beach until his death in 1918 and hers in 1930.
Looff's well-proportioned carousel horses and menagerie figures are often
described as dynamic, dramatic, exciting, and pleasing. Although he did
all the carving himself at the outset, Looff later employed master carvers such
as Charles Carmel, John Zalar, and Marcus Illions who contributed to the
evolving Coney Island carousel style.
Looff built about forty carousels in all, some of those are:
Vandeveer's Bath
House, Coney Island, New York, c. 1875
Feltman's Fabulous Carousel, Coney Island, New York, c. 1880
Young's Pier, atlantic City, New Jersey, 1885
Half Moon Beach, Crescent, New York, 1886
South Beach, Staten Island, New York, c. 1890-1897
Bullock's Point, Rhode Island, c. 1890-1897
Crescent Park, Riverside, Rhode Island, c. 1890-1897
Providence, Rhode Island, c. 1890-1897
Caroga Lake, New York. c. 1900-1907
Sherman's, of course, wasn't opened
until 1920, but Mr. Sherman purchased the carousel that was made c. 1900-1907