Anyone who’s from Leavenworth, Kansas, or lived there, as I did for part of my childhood, knows that as soon as you mention it, the prison jokes start. But there was a time when the city was also known as the home of C. W. Parker, the “World’s Largest Manufacturer of Amusement Devices,” most notably carousels.
The Parker factory is gone, closed in the 1950s, but Parker carousels survive in many amusement parks and other parks around the country. And, in 2005, two Parker carousels came home to Leavenworth to be core exhibits in a new museum dedicated to the history of carousels.
One, #118, was built by Parker in 1913, and operates full-time in the museum, complete with music from an antique Artizan band organ that churns out all the tunes you probably remember from childhood rides. The organ was donated by Leavenworth native Melissa Etheridge.
Two views of the organ, below. While this one was built by Artizan, the Parker company also made, modified, imported, rebuilt and otherwise dealt in ‘band organs’ itself. The ornate model in the third picture is a Wurlitzer.
Below, a Parker-built organ, and the drum of a Parker ‘cylinder piano,’ a form of giant music box in which the keys were activated by contact with the metal studs on the cylinder. They were actually made in Austria; the Parker factory imported them, built elaborate cases for them, and put C. W. Parker’s name on.
Parker himself was quite a phenomenon. He not only made amusement devices, he operated a series of touring carnivals that traveled by train to fairs and events all over the Midwest. He dubbed himself the Carnival King, and gave himself the title of Colonel as well.
Exaggeration is built into the carnival world, but Parker was notable even among the carney crowd. The two-story factory he built after relocating from Abilene was often depicted in ads as having six stories; the collection of sheds he operated out of in Abilene showed in publicity as a series of brick buildings.
Although Parker is best known for carousels, he started in the carney business as a young man, buying and operating a portable shooting gallery. He soon figured out a number of ways to improve it, and began building them for others and branching out into other kinds of rides as well, such as the mechanical horse whose descendants still appear today.
He built his first carousel in 1892, allegedly after discovering how much his daughter enjoyed riding them. Carousel was not enough for Parker; he dubbed his the “Carry-Us-All.”
It’s hard to think of carousels (or, as we called them in my childhood, Merry-Go-Rounds) without thinking of horses, but neither Parker nor his rivals limited themselves to them. Parker carousels frequently featured Kansas jackrabbits and not a few had farm animals and more exotics as well. For the older crowd, there were often sleighs to sit in, or Parker’s patented ‘Lovers’ Tub’ that held a couple and twisted and turned. You can see one in the first video above.
But let’s talk about horses…
Volunteers and staff working on restoration of historic carousel horses
The museum houses an incredible number and variety of carousel horses, not all from Parker; the museum doesn’t slight other makers, although Parker built as much as 20% of all the carousels built in America.
The blue flyer in the next picture is one of the largest carousel horses ever, from a carousel that was one of the largest, at Jantzen Beach, Oregon. At the museum, another copy of it is being restored, using molds of this one. Below it, a row of another Parker specialty, small horses for small riders. And, Lillie Belle, the most iconic Parker horse and one of the most elaborately-carved.
Many of the horses at the museum were rescued from carousels that had been abandoned, broken up or even burned. They arrive in various states of repair, and it takes a lot of work to restore, carve new parts and redecorate.
In the later years of the Parker carousels, cast aluminum began to replace woodcarving, and horses and other figures became more standardized—and less expensive to make. In 1930, C. W. Parker’s son Paul took over the business—C. W. died two years later—and continued it into the early 1950s, using mostly cast figures, and building smaller-scale carousels that were easier for a small show to set up and then break down.
The Museum’s second operating carousel, called the Liberty Carousel, is a Paul Parker from the early 1950s. Unlike earlier machines that were built to be transported on a train or truck, this one is mounted on highway wheels of its own, seen above, and could be set up or broken down in a couple of hours.
The other full-scale carousel at the Museum is a different sort altogether; it’s labeled as a ‘primitive carousel’ and you can quickly see how different it is, with its unmoving horses mounted on a circular frame circling a pole. A far cry from Parker’s horses and other features moving up and down and around! The primitive carousel dates from around 1850, and is on loan from the National Carousel Association, which rescued it a few years ago.
Some of my childhood carousel experiences involved the peculiar device above; it’s a ring machine, as in ‘go for the brass ring!’ It’s carousel world’s contribution to English-language idioms. Many large carousels had stationery horses on their outer edges, less exciting to ride.
To encourage riders, the ring machine was invented; loaded usually with one brass ring and dozens or more steel rings, it was mounted just out of reach unless you stretched. If you get the brass ring, you got a free ride. If, like me, you were not quite long-armed enough, you could slip sideways and be nearly under the horse…
Above, an elaborate model carousel; below an elegant ad for a carousel (note the extra ‘l’ in the image) and the factory floor of a carousel factory.
The Parker era in carousels came to an end when Paul Parker closed the factory in 1955, but it wasn’t the end for Leavenworth and carousels. Carl Theel, a local mechanic, had started building small-scale kiddie rides nearby in the late 1940s; he bought the molds and other equipment from Parker and continued building carousels until the early 1990s.
