100 Year Old Carousel Found in Long Beach

At the foot of Pine St. in Long Beach is a small lane called “Seaside Way.”

It is precisely where the entrance to the old Pike used to be…almost 100 years ago.

Last week I walked by for the first time in many, many years. (It must have been a lot of years because I don’t remember the hill being that steep?) There before my eyes was a sight that reminded me of the deeply buried Statue of Liberty in “Planet of the Apes.”  It looked like the top of the Hotel Coronado in San Diego only instead of being 200 feet high it was only 20 feet high and, alas, its  Victorian beauty was in very sad repair.

It was the top of the old Looff”s Carousel. Looff’s trademark was the overall richness of effect and their carousels gave full interpretation to that spirit. Elaborate embellishments of decorative panels, beveled mirrors, faceted glass jewels, electric lights, colored sandwich glass windows, and its original band organ music surrounded the flying steeds to create Looff’s unique carousel experience.

Here, among all the new high rise condominium projects that dominate the downtown Long Beach skyline, on a small plot of land that somehow has escaped development, sits the 18^th century top of the carousel that ran every day at the old Pike.  (To see and hear a Loof Carousel go to:http://www.beachboardwalk.com/carousel/index.html)

I remember that Carousel well.  It was much larger and more garish than any Merry-Go-Round I’d ever been on and its organ was more melodic than most. I was about 10 years old and, truth be told, a little too old to ride a carousel but it was so easy to get “gold rings” on Looff’s (and thus win another free ride) that we  all would ride it for turn after turn for a quarter.  What a deal!

I hope that someone is restoring that wooden canopy that came off of the old Merry- Go-Round and that it can again be introduced to a new generation of kids.  And I hope the original horses are in storage somewhere.

When I Googled for information on Looff’s I was surprised to find that the Long Beach carousel was not the only one and, in fact, was not the oldest. Many are still working all over the country. One built in 1911 is still operating in Santa Cruz,  a 1909 in Spokane,  an 1895 in E. Providence, R.I.

 According to Wikipedia Charles I. D. Looff was a master carver and builder of hand-carved carousels and amusement rides in America. Looff built his first carousel at Coney Island in 1876. During his lifetime, he manufactured many carousels, several roller coasters and Ferris wheels, and built California’s famousSanta Monica Pier. He became famous for creating the unique Coney Island style of carousel carving.

All of the existing Looff Carousels are national treasures in this writer’s opinion. Some are officially National Landmarks and/or on the registry of National Historic Places. The quarter rides, of course, are a thing of the past and some now cost as much as $3.   But to ride a horse that is more than 120 years old you should pay a little more.

If any readers know more about the restoration of the Long Beach Looff’s Carousel please contact the writer at wilm@562media.com