 My knowledge of circus parade wagons and their manufacture is very basic. In fact I expect to be taken to task today by the experts. However I once heard my father tell the story of a corner statue, similar to the ones seen above, being replaced by woodcarvers. He said they brought in a large block of wood and immediately began placing an assortment of several dozen wood carving tools in order on a table. Starting out with a large axe (no doubt a double bladed assagai) and graduating down to something like a crochet needle. You could immediately tell how far along they were in their work by the size of the tool in use.  |
Monday, February 19, 2007
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I tried looking up that word "assagai" Thinking it was an animal. I got a lot of stuff about a race of humans. Now I know it is a wood carving tool. Thanks. The word was on the comment made by Dave about the idenity of a man. Weird as I inherited a whole slew of wood carving tools.
Thanks Buckles. It is equally astounding to know there were enough talented woodcarvers to come up with these on demand. I quess they are now known as artisans working on a much smaller scale. A local carousel horse carver died a decade ago- they now use an automatic tool similar to a compass to copy. cc
We have a world famous trades day close to us called "First Monday". There is a guy there that sculps with a chainsaw! Makes really neat eagles and indian heads with war bonnets!
Isn't that a crochet HOOK? Picky,picky, picky!!!
cc:
Trudy & I worked our Airplane Act at Seabreeze Park, north of Rochester NY, during their 100th year celebration. The owner of the park, whose name I have forgotten was quite good at carving Merry-Go-Round horses. They had the carving machine on display in the Merry-Go-Round building. It does good but it only rough carved the pieces from a pattern, it still took a lot of talent to finish them. He took me into the basement, & opened a curtain, & there must have been 25 finished, but unpainted horses there. I did every thing I could, including an offer to work the act for a week free, for one of those horses, with no luck. The sad part was, none of his family were interested in the art.
The gentleman at Sea Breeze park in Rochester was George Long. He was born in 1893 and was the son of carousel operators who also built a few machines themselves. His grandchildren operate the park today and one is the recent president of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, the trade association. George Long, by the way, once told me about attending the very first of the now-mammoth IAAPA trade shows at Chicago’s Hotel Sherman, a famous gathering place of showmen.
The carousel at Sea Breeze park was purchased by Long in 1915 from the Philadelphia Toboggan Company for use at a different location in Rochester but moved to Sea Breeze in 1926. I remember him telling me about the delivery of the carousel in 1915 just as his summer season was starting and scrambling all over the city to find the necessary 1500 light bulbs! In the 1960s, Long acquired the frame and machinery of another carousel and so decided to carve the necessary horses himself. He was featured in a memorable November 1969 “On the Road with Charles Kuralt” segment that I still remember and was aired several times, years before I ever met George Long.
From his longtime friends at the Philadelphia Toboggan Co., he acquired the last of their pantographic carving machines made to follow the pattern of one horse head while roughing out four blocks of wood (each made of planks glued together and cut on a band saw in the shape of a horse head). As Bill Strong notes, it was only a labor saving machine used to rough out the heads. The shop Bill visited was in the basement of the carousel building and, unfortunately, it and Long’s own three-row PTC carousel burned on March 31, 1994. Unfortunately, the fire also destroyed the park’s magnificent Wurlitzer 165 band organ, the carving machine, and all the horses Long had carved for the never completed second carousel. By then, George Long was deceased but his grandchildren decided to replicate the destroyed carousel with carved wooden horses and rounding boards and so this recreated Rochester landmark continues to entertain another generation.
I am one of the fortunate few who do have a George Long carved horse for late in his life he began carving miniature versions. And in a small way, I was able to honor a kind and esteemed veteran of the park business when I had him demonstrate carousel horse carving as part of a Smithsonian Institution festival I produced for several years in the early 1980s.
Dick Flint
Baltimore
Was wondering if there was any information on the back of this photo?
"Ringling Bros-Barnum & Bailey cage wagon with lions taken at Chicago, Ill. during parade."
If accurate it would have been taken in 1919 or 1920.
I remember many years ago at the fairgrounds in Burlington Colorado (?) there was a lovely restored antique carousel, housed in it's own building. I think there may have been a couple of Denzel carved animals. The deer had real antlers, and the guide pointed out how the Indian pony was wearing horseshoes! There was also a 'hippocampus', which was portrayed as a highly detailed seahorse. Anyway, it was beautiful. I hope it does not become a lost art. I've always had a weakness for finely carved carousel animals.
Mr Long is the carver I was referring to. I had the opportunity to speak with him, but only casually, never hearing the in depth stories Dick Flont tells of. BTW Bill, when you were at SeaBreeze it was less than a mile to the Griffin Shoemakers shop. cc
I looked up assagai and got a spear with a metal head and a slender hardwood shaft mostly used by Zulus. Encarta prefers assegai but shows both as the same word. Funny I thought it was a spear thrower (lever to get a stronger throw).
Oh, boy, the pleasant memories this blog brings back to all of us! In my response above about George Long, I mentioned having him at the Smithsonian when I worked there in the Division of Performing Arts. Griffin’s grandson was another participant and he took some of his last shoe orders while there. Part of our program included a recreated clown alley with, among others, Mark Anthony, Bobby Kay and Danny Chapman as well as (on loan from Ringling) Lou Jacobs and Frosty Little. They were delighted to check up on some long-overdue orders they or their friends had for shoes as there was, at the time, no other place than Griffin’s to get good clown shoes. Mark Anthony also worked in a one-ring circus show that featured John and Mary Ruth Herriott and their youngest daughter Weiner, then still a teenager.
For Pat White: Yes, there is a magnificent carousel housed at the Kit Carson County Fairgrounds in Burlington, Colorado. Like the Sea Breeze carousel, it was made by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company but earlier, in 1905, for Elitch Gardens in Denver; it moved to its present location in 1928. It has the animals as you described plus 4 chariots, a dog, 3 giraffes, 3 goats, 3 camels, 3 zebras, 3 deer (yes, with real antlers because if made of carved wood, they would easily break!) as well as a lion and a tiger which I trust were one of the animals you chose to ride! You can see it again at its own website, www.kitcarsoncountycarousel.com. Pat, I so enjoy your contributions to Buckles great blog! Incidentally, we last met about six years ago when you played a week in Baltimore with Sterling & Reid doing three shows a day when the temperature was a constant and unforgettable 105 degrees. I have great memories of evening barbeques and long hours of cutting up jackpots! Many thanks for sharing then, and now through this blog.
Dick Flint
Baltimore
Capt, any idea what became of the one at Circus World?
Hi Pat, I have another Patricia that I know and call her Pat, I hope I don't get the two of you mixed up. Were you with Carson and Barns in Birlinton CO. If so I might have seen you when I visited OKIE CARR Elige "?" Gardens had a beautiful mary-go-round. I lived in Colorado for 17 years. These rides made me dizzy. Not a good thing to ride when concumming adult beverages. Up and down, round and round. OKIE was married to Holly at this time so that may narrow the time down a bit. He was in charge of the elephants. It was after his regroup in Leadville at his brothers after the mauling he took from the lions. I think you might have been his replacement. Hollys parents may also have run the Piecar.
The cage photo is from a set of 1917 photographs sold years ago by Jay Beardsley. B&B played White City, an amusement park that year, September 2-3.
Knitters use knitting needles.
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