Good afternoon, and welcome to the Carousel here at the Johnny J. Jones Midway and Exhibition...

[beboots]

If you'll just step right this way, I'll be beginning an abbreviated tour of this hand-carved work of art...

As you may or may not know, the carousel here at Fort Edmonton Park is a full-scale reproduction of a Philidelphia Tobaggan Company (PTC) carousel that would have been travelling with the Johnny J. Jones Midway throughout the 1920s onwards. All of these horses are hand carved by volunteers, each taking between 500 and 700 hours to complete. Ridiculous ammounts of work went into making this carousel.
 
I always like to start of with Centurion, our lead horse. (That's lead as in "leader", not as in the metal).  He's called the "lead" horse because he would be the horse that I, as an operator, would count every single time he went around to make sure all the rides were of the same length. Now, we have an electronic foot pedal that stops the ride automatically, but it wouldn't be an accurate carousel if we didn't have a lead horse. As a “stander” (meaning he does not jump up and down as “jumpers” do), he must be one of the most heavily decorated/interesting horses on the carousel, to attract riders despite his lack of movement.  

An interesting note applicable to all traditional carousels: money sides and romance sides. None of these horses is entirely symmetrical. The Romance side faces outwards. It is the side that one sees when deciding if they want to ride the carousel; it encourages you on. This side has all of the heavy carving and decoration, all of the jewels, etc. The manes of the horses also generally point outwards.

The Money side, however, isn’t seen until one is already on the carousel. It does not, therefore, have to be as pretty. It is much plainer – it is where the carousel makers save money. This concept is especially evident when one examines the chariots: the money side isn’t even carved, just painted. The money sides of the chariots are about a third of the thickness of their romance sides.

  A shot of Bonnie's Romance Side. 
 A shot of Bonnie's Money Side. Bonnie is more of an extreme example than most, but you get the idea. 

 And because Bonnie is a gorgeous horse... here are a few details. Many of our carvers were trained by people in Montana, who completed their own, smaller carousel in 2000 for an ice cream parlour, of all things. This horse was the only figure on our carousel that wasn't made in Edmonton, Canada. It was a gift from those in Montana. It has the state symbols of Montana (Western Meadowlark and the Bitterroot flower seene above) and the symbols of the province of Alberta (the Great Horned Owl and Wild Rose, seen below, along with another bitterroot flower.) I love the paint job done on this horse.


And now I'm really tired (crazy,drama-filled Fort Party last night), so I'll leave you with a sneak-preview of the second-half of this abbrieviated online tour:
 
If you know anything about Canadian symbols, you'll be excited to learn about the horse on the left - a stander, to balance out Centurion. And you know it's got to be a particularly special horse to balance out an armoured lead horse... 



 

Comments

[ontogenesis.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's really impressive handiwork. And the part about the "romance" side v. the "money" side makes me crack up.

[beboots.livejournal.com]

Seriously, you don't even notice most of the time, but it's a standard feature on all carousels... I think even for plastic ones, because they have to save money when they make the mold in the first place.

[kuiskata]

:D Fort Ed! Amazing carving work on the carousel. *is amazed*

I'm planning on coming down to visit you on Friday, so hopefully I'll see you there! :D

[beboots.livejournal.com]

Damn, I won't be there on Friday! It's the one day I've requested off since animethon - it's my dad's retirement luncheon. :( Sadness...

[kuiskata]

Oh noes. :( Perhaps I can go down on Sunday, instead, then - It's the only other day I'm not actually doing anything before school.

[beboots.livejournal.com]

All right! There will be lots of super-duper special programming that day, because it's Harvest Fair (our last special event day), but it may be busy... so beware! But, you definitely have to visit the 5-in-1 show on the Midway. It will probably be in the afternoon. So be there or be square, okay? :D

[kuiskata]

Oh, cool. :) I will keep that show in mind, and do my best to be there!

[beboots.livejournal.com]

Parking will be insane, so I would reccomend getting there either before opening or right bang on time (opening's at 10am)... or bussing it or getting dropped off. Just sayin'. :)

[kuiskata]

I'm just getting dropped off, so parking won't be a problem. :) Thanks for the heads-up, though.