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Carousel

A few brief comments on Carousels in the USA. Around the turn of the century (that is, the 19th to the 20th), there were about 6000 operating carousels in this country. Most of these were in urban amusement parks. These parks had proliferated during the last decade of the 19th century because of the development of the electric trolley car. Because they had paid a flat rate to the utilities for their electricity, the Transit companies wanted to keep their cars busy on weekends. Therefore, they built amusement parks at the end of their trolley lines. People came and an industry was born. At these amusement parks, carousel rides were a popular attraction. Companies with names like The Philadelphia Toboggan Company, Looff and Dentzel produced thousands of these rides. Early in the 20th century, whole menageries of carved carousel animals were popular. However, by the 1930s horses were the dominant carousel carvings. The children had seen western movies and they all wanted to ride horses. So the other animals faded away, into the history of the art form. As years passed, many carousels burned or were abandoned as amusement parks closed n the 1950s (victims of TV and other urban problems). Some were broken up and the carvings auctioned off as folk art. Now, they are rare. There are still about 200 operating carousels in the USA. Many of these are now attractions in large shopping malls, those new amusement centers of early 21st Century America.