Classic Illions Carousel to open Saturday at WOF

[PREMiERdrum]

An excellent piece from the Kansas City Star...

We don’t know who’ll get the first official ride on Worlds of Fun’s new-but-old 64-horse carousel, but it’d make sense to invite Nancy Drew, Encyclopedia Brown, Miss Marple, Sherlock Holmes and the “Murder, She Wrote” lady.

Not that there’s a murder to solve. But when it comes to the 85-year-old, hand-carved wooden carousel, with its vivid (some might say gaudy) color palette and spectacular, spirited steeds (check out the gold leaf and glass jewels) … well, mysteries abound.

Among them: When it was made. How fast it’ll go. Whether it’s the fanciest of the fancy or just fairly fancy. And the cover-up of some decorative décolletage.

See what we mean? Mysteries. And in carousel circles, don’t count on any two experts to agree.

But some things we can state with certainty. The horses got to town May 8 after a yearlong restoration project in Ohio that included removing 20-30 coats of paint. Worlds of Fun has built a pavilion for the attraction near the front gate — a prime spot for an eye-popping piece of Americana. The ride will open to the public next Saturday.

We also know that the carousel was produced by master carver Marcus Charles Illions, a Lithuanian native who between 1909 and the late 1920s made ornate merry-go-rounds in his factory on Coney Island, N.Y. In its heyday, Coney Island was the horse racing and amusement capital of America.

As for other facts, we must at this point summon the sleuths.

Continued at LINK

[XGatorHead 8904]

^Thanks for posting that article. Even though I never made it to GL, it's good to see this piece of history survive.

This carousel's original band organ was destroyed by fire in the early 1950s, but it will still have calliope-style tunes provided by a restored 1961 Stinson organ that once operated with compressed air but has been computerized. It should be in place by the opening ceremony next Saturday.

Now if only we could get an operating organ on KI's. I'd be happy even if it wasn't the original one, which according to hints elsewhere on this site is sitting in someone's private collection. The organ has always been my favorite part of the carousel, and the piped in music is nowhere near the same. That's why I loved going to the Indianapolis Children's Museum last year and riding a carousel with an actual working organ again.