Around Home : Merry-Go-Rounds

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA HAS become a haven for much-traveled vintage carousels. A ride on a merry-go-round is a thrill for children, and the tinkly music of a carousel band organ can evoke childhood summer memories for adults.

The Spillman carousel in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park was built in 1926, but some of its horses were carved by Charles Looff, the godfather of carousels, before the turn of the century. Its fine Stinson Military band organ has a repertoire of more than 1,500 tunes.

Charles Looff built the Shoreline Village carousel in Long Beach in 1906. Originally located in Seattle, it was moved to San Francisco’s Playland in 1914, where it remained until 1973. Now housed in a replica of Looff’s original hippodrome, its menagerie of jumping camels, rams, giraffes (and, of course, horses) has real horsehair tails and Belgian cut-glass “jewels.”

One of the last places you can catch a brass ring is at the carousel at Balboa Park in San Diego. The 1910 Herschell-Spillman Co. carousel moved south from Los Angeles to settle permanently in Balboa Park in 1922, arriving at its present location next to the San Diego Zoo in 1968.

San Diego’s Seaport Village is the home of the Broadway Flying Horses, an 1890 Coney Island William F. Mangles and Charles Looff carousel, originally powered by a steam engine. The horses were refurbished by artisans who used automobile paints blended in the colors of the original palette. The turn-of-the-century Gebruder Bruder Waldkirch band organ has also been restored.

More than 80 years old, the Dentzel carousel, with 52 hand-carved animals, is featured at Castle Amusement Park in Riverside. For many years it was located at Knott’s Berry Farm. Music is provided by a Ruth band organ, which was rescued from the old Long Beach Pike. The 1922 carousel on the Santa Monica Pier was manufactured by the Philadelphia Toboggan Co., and was made famous in the movie “The Sting.”

Catch a ride on an old-fashioned merry-go-round at the following locations. (Hours of operation will be curtailed when school resumes, after which most will be open only on weekends. Rides cost 75 cents unless otherwise noted.) Griffith Park carousel in Los Angeles is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Santa Monica Pier carousel is open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday; rides are 25 cents for childern, 50 cents for adults. Shoreline Village carousel in Long Beach is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Balboa Park carousel in San Diego is open from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily. Broadway Flying Horses at Seaport Village in San Diego is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Castle Park in Riverside is open from 6 to 11 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, from 6 p.m. to midnight Friday, from noon to midnight Saturday, and from noon to 10 p.m. on Sunday; rides are about 70 cents for children, $1.05 for adults.