SANDUSKY Museum shows history of carousels

A ticket booth from Youngstown's Idora Park is on display at the museum.
By REBECCA SLOAN
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
SANDUSKY -- During carnival time when I was a kid, I couldn't get enough of the carousel.
The dizzying whirl of electric lights, the jubilant, carefree music, the gleaming, wild-eyed ponies, each one more colorful than the next -- riding the carousel was as good as it got for a little girl who loved daydreams and horses.
I'm a big girl now, but you still can't keep me off the carousel, especially the antique carousel at Sandusky's Museum of Carousel Art and History.
Unlike modern merry-go-rounds that turn at a turtle's pace, this oldie but goodie spins at a rate of speed that would put Pegasus to shame.
Riding it is almost like flying -- well, at least if you close your eyes and resurrect the child within.
I am told that the carousels of today turn more slowly for safety reasons.
What a shame.
Carousel's history
The museum's antique carousel dates from the 1930s and is classified as a country fair-style carousel.
It once turned circles at a park in Indiana called Santa Claus Land, but when Santa Claus Land shut down, the carousel was dismantled and abandoned in an old barn.
During the early 1990s, it was rescued and restored so it could take center stage at the heart of the museum.
The carousel is the highlight of the museum but is by no means the only attraction.
Like the dizzying whirl of the carousel itself, museum exhibits change annually.
Until June 2004, the museum's star attraction is the Buckeyes at Play exhibit.
This exhibit features carousel animals and memorabilia from several long-gone Ohio amusement parks, including the Mahoning Valley's own Idora Park, Euclid Beach Amusement Park in Cleveland and Coney Island of Cincinnati.
During the "Golden Age of Carousels" -- from about 1895 to 1925 -- Ohio had more amusement parks than almost any other state in the nation, but after the Great Depression hit, many parks closed.
As a result, numerous carousels fell into ruin or were dismantled or destroyed.
The Buckeyes at Play exhibit examines the loss and destruction of early Ohio carousels, today's movement to preserve them and the resurgence of the popularity of carousels and amusement parks.
Some noteworthy items on display include an early ticket booth from Idora Park; a circa-1920 Wurlitzer organ; a circa-1903 steam engine; and numerous rare carousel menagerie animals, including two circa-1900 cows with brass horns, a mighty lion from 1880 and an elephant that dates from 1915.
My favorite things
And there are horses, of course.
Oodles of horses.
Horses wearing medieval armor, horses baring their teeth and kicking up their hooves, horses with glittering saddles and bridles and horses with real manes and tails -- you'll surely lose count of all the pretty horses.
There are also disassembled horses awaiting a fresh coat of paint and some tender loving care.
These horses are on display in the section of the museum that's devoted to the carousel restoration and carving process.
If you're lucky, you'll catch the museum's resident carver demonstrating the craft.
You might even be lucky enough to take home a horse of your own.
The carver is currently working on a carousel horse that will be raffled off during November. (Raffle tickets cost $1, and the winner need not be present to claim the marvelous prize.)
Old-time carousel horses were made exclusively of wood, but during the mid-1900s, fiberglass became the material of choice because it was cheaper and easier to work with.
A sleek, wild-eyed tiger made of fiberglass is one of the museum's modern display animals.
The tiger was manufactured in 1982 and once rode the carousel at Cedar Point.
Also on display at the museum is Cedar Point's famed "Schwabinchen Lady."
This mighty, red-dressed female figure graced the top of the park's Schwabinchen ride and seemed to be visible from all over the park.