Speaker 1: You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
Speaker 1: and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Guess what, Mengo, what's that?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 2: So, did you know that there's a double a baseball
Speaker 2: team with a name inspired by carousels?
Speaker 1: I mean I didn't, but now I'm curious.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's in the title of this that this episode
Speaker 2: is all about carousels. So I knew I was going
Speaker 2: to lead with something related to that. But the team
Speaker 2: used to be the Binghamton Mets, but in twenty sixteen
Speaker 2: it was actually renamed the Binghamton Rumble Ponies. See Binghamton,
Speaker 2: New York has given itself the prestigious title of carousel
Speaker 2: Capital of the World. Shockingly, no one had claimed that,
Speaker 2: and this was thanks to its six antique Merrigo rounds.
Speaker 2: I love that. You just need six to make the
Speaker 2: capital of the world.
Speaker 1: So what's the story there?
Speaker 2: Well, as usual, it traces back to an eccentric rich guy.
Speaker 2: This guy George F. Johnson, who was a wealthy shoemaker
Speaker 2: who lived, of course in Binghamton, and he donated not one,
Speaker 2: not two, but six Merrigo rounds to local parks between
Speaker 2: the years nineteen nineteen and nineteen thirty four. Now, these
Speaker 2: antique hand carved carousels are actually kind of rare nowadays.
Speaker 2: They're only about one hundred and fifty in the United
Speaker 2: States and Canada combined, so having six of them in
Speaker 2: one town is pretty special. In fact, all six are
Speaker 2: on the National Register of Historic Places, and Johnson's original
Speaker 2: condition when he donated the pieces was that writers wouldn't
Speaker 2: be charged defeat, which still holds true today. So that
Speaker 2: park's pretty cool. So in twenty sixteen, when the local
Speaker 2: New York Mets affiliate needed a new name and a
Speaker 2: new logo, a carousel horse was the perfect muse. Now,
Speaker 2: even more specifically, the person who submitted the name suggestion
Speaker 2: was inspired by a story written by Binghamton University professor
Speaker 2: Livez Rosenberg, so her children's book The Carousel. Not surprising
Speaker 2: it's called The Carousel is about horses on a merry
Speaker 2: go round who sleep during winter and come alive during
Speaker 2: the spring.
Speaker 1: Oh, much like the sport of baseball. That's right, Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I need a Binghamton Rumble Ponies hat though
Speaker 1: I was thinking the same thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's time for a field trip out there. But
Speaker 2: before we hop on a bus to Binghamton. We have
Speaker 2: eight more facts about carousels, so let's dive in. Hey,
Speaker 2: their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will
Speaker 2: Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend
Speaker 2: Mangesh hot Ticketter and over there in the booth as
Speaker 2: our PALIN producer Dylan Fagan. He's trying to see what
Speaker 2: he was eating, but he's eating a stack of eggo ware.
Speaker 1: So many egos in there, and I'm all for Dylan
Speaker 1: starting the day off right, but that feels excessive.
Speaker 2: That is a lot of egoes, But I do love
Speaker 2: how Dylan always does his research. Now, egos were invented
Speaker 2: by this incredible food inventor named Frank Dorsu, who basically
Speaker 2: took a carousel engine and he made this rotating device.
Speaker 2: So what happened is the batter would squeeze out and
Speaker 2: it would move and settle and be cooked under this
Speaker 2: rotating hood, all based on a carousel design. I don't
Speaker 2: know why this came up with, you know that came
Speaker 2: from that. But egos, just for the record, were originally
Speaker 2: called froffles or frozen waffles, but the ego name was
Speaker 2: just catchier.
Speaker 1: That makes sense.
Speaker 2: I love that so will.
Speaker 1: One of my favorite memories is of your family coming
Speaker 1: up to New York and hanging out with my family. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when Henry was just I think three, maybe four, we
Speaker 1: all wandered down to the Jans carousel in Brookenbridge Park
Speaker 1: and your kids were just these incredible mature carousel and zus.
Speaker 1: And I remember seeing like, like your younger kid just
Speaker 1: like smiling and holding balloon and fist pumping and uh.
Speaker 1: And you know, your older kid was obviously very comfortable
Speaker 1: on it, and my son, Henry just had his eyes
Speaker 1: closed and was screaming and had both his hands over
Speaker 1: both the ears.
Speaker 2: I think this is one of those things where when
Speaker 2: you were a frustrated parent, you remember the whole incident
Speaker 2: a little differently. I love that you describe my kids
Speaker 2: as as mature carousel enthus their natural they the whole
Speaker 2: thing just so well behaved. But that's pretty that's pretty fantastic.
Speaker 2: But all right, well, why don't we start at the
Speaker 2: very beginning with how carousels were invented? Because I know
Speaker 2: you spent some time look into this definitely.
Speaker 1: So there have been various types of rotating devices and rides,
Speaker 1: and this is dating back to at least five hundred
Speaker 1: CE in places all across the world, so this means
Speaker 1: everywhere from the Islamic Empire, Europe, Latin America, even India.
Speaker 1: The word carousels started to be used around the mid
Speaker 1: seventeenth century, and it referred to a demonstration in which
Speaker 1: men on horseback performed these synchronized maneuvers on the field. Now,
Speaker 1: the term was likely derived from similar words in both
Speaker 1: Spanish and Italian, which meant little war, and it referred
Speaker 1: to a game involving rings or clay balls. But the
Speaker 1: true direct carousel predecessor was a training tool for knights,
Speaker 1: and these devices emerged in France it was about sixteen eighty.
Speaker 1: They had a pole in the middle that could be
Speaker 1: rotated by a person or an animal like a horse,
Speaker 1: and knights sat on these legless wooden horses and they
Speaker 1: were attached to the pole, and while the carousel was
Speaker 1: moving around, the men could practice using spears by trying
Speaker 1: to catch metal rings.
Speaker 2: That actually sounds kind of fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is, as long as you were the knight
Speaker 1: and not the person moving the point.
Speaker 2: That's a fair point. I can tell you that the
Speaker 2: carousels we know and love today really started taking off
Speaker 2: in the eighteen sixties, when once powered by steam engines
Speaker 2: actually came onto the scene. So before that there were
Speaker 2: plenty of different versions, but they were limitted by the
Speaker 2: fact that they had to be operated by people or
Speaker 2: animals like you were describing now. Also, the mid nineteenth
Speaker 2: century was when we saw the first rideable horses moving
Speaker 2: up and down as the carousel went around. So this
Speaker 2: so called Golden Age of carousel took place in the
Speaker 2: United States between the eighteen nineties and the nineteen twenties. Now,
Speaker 2: in the wake of the Industrial Revolution, people had more
Speaker 2: free time and one popular new pastime was visiting the
Speaker 2: trolley park, which was a park located at the end
Speaker 2: of a trolley line that often had a carousel. So
Speaker 2: during this time the country had up to three thousand
Speaker 2: hand carved and hand painted merrygo rounds in operation, and
Speaker 2: the carousels were massive, very intricate compared to the ones
Speaker 2: that the world had previously seen, and it became this
Speaker 2: real art form. So this was also when the merrygo
Speaker 2: round artisans began expanding into other members of the animal kingdom,
Speaker 2: so giraffes, tigers, and this was a game changer. You
Speaker 2: had goats, you had camels. I mean, the list goes
Speaker 2: on and on, and this lures that many more kids
Speaker 2: to the rides. There now one fun fact from this
Speaker 2: golden age. A young Dwight D. Eisenhower lived across the
Speaker 2: street from a factory that made carousels in Abilene, Kansas,
Speaker 2: and its supposedly as a teenager around the year nineteen
Speaker 2: oh six, that the future president had a job sanding
Speaker 2: carousel horses at that factory.
Speaker 1: I love that it sounds both whimsical and like something
Speaker 1: that's so old timey.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, definitely definitely quite a summer job. But not
Speaker 2: when you come across much these days, because, as we know,
Speaker 2: all the golden ages must come to an end, and
Speaker 2: in this case, the golden age of the carousel couldn't
Speaker 2: keep pace after the invention of, of course, the roller coaster.
Speaker 1: Well, now that we've covered some carousel history, it feels
Speaker 1: like a good time to talk terminology.
Speaker 2: And I've always wondered what.
Speaker 1: The difference is between a merry go round and a
Speaker 1: carousel same and it turns out there is none.
Speaker 2: Okay, is that end of episode?
Speaker 1: You can use either term to refer to the ride, though,
Speaker 1: of course, carousel can be used more broadly to describe
Speaker 1: things like luggage carousels and airport. According to Merriam Webster,
Speaker 1: the word carousel has been in use since sixteen fifty,
Speaker 1: while merry go round was introduced in seventeen twenty nine.
Speaker 1: That said, there are plenty of words Americans have used
Speaker 1: to describe carousels over the years. That includes things like
Speaker 1: the flying horses, the whirligig, the flying Dutchmen, Kelly's goats,
Speaker 1: spinning ginny hobby horses, steam circus, and carry as alls.
Speaker 1: And that's just in the US and England. They've also
Speaker 1: been called roundabouts, tilts, and gallopers.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's a lot of names. Actually, speaking of the British,
Speaker 2: did you know that there's a pretty significant difference between
Speaker 2: carousels in England or gallopers as you mentioned, and then
Speaker 2: the ones we have here in the States.
Speaker 1: Yeah. In England, departs are delivered by lorries to build them,
Speaker 1: and in the US they're delivered by.
Speaker 2: Cross right, it's very very good, Mago, but no. Traditionally,
Speaker 2: carousels in England rotate clockwise, and in most other countries
Speaker 2: they go counterclockwise, which just seems so weird. Like I
Speaker 2: don't even know one thing. If they went in the
Speaker 2: other direction, I don't know that I could handle it.
Speaker 2: Apparently this is because the British take horseback riding very
Speaker 2: seriously and it's improper for an equestrian to get on
Speaker 2: a horse from the right side, so by having their
Speaker 2: carousels face clockwise, riders are less likely to make that mistake.
Speaker 1: I had no idea there were rules about getting on
Speaker 1: a horse, but I do like thinking about international carousels,
Speaker 1: so here a quick few facts about them. Paris has
Speaker 1: beautiful double decker carousels, like the one in montmart with
Speaker 1: hand painted city scapes. In Germany you can find carousels
Speaker 1: with beer steins and pretzels instead of horses, and Japan
Speaker 1: features ultra modern carousels with anime characters or led light shows.
Speaker 2: Fun.
Speaker 1: But I looked up, like, what are the absolute all
Speaker 1: star carousels that you have to go on in the world,
Speaker 1: and these are a few of them. So one is
Speaker 1: the House on the Rock carousel in Wisconsin. It's the
Speaker 1: world's largest indoor carousel. It features two hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: nine animals, but not a single horse.
Speaker 2: WHOA that sounds intentional.
Speaker 1: They also have over one hundred and eighty mannequin angels
Speaker 1: floating from the ceiling. Of course, you know, it sounds
Speaker 1: like a fever dream. And then there's the La Carousel
Speaker 1: Desmond Marine in Nanta's, France, and this sounds insane because
Speaker 1: it's a three level mechanical marine carousel. It's got squids, submarines,
Speaker 1: deep sea fish, crabs and boats. It is twenty five
Speaker 1: meters tall and supposedly it's like riding through Jules Burns's imagination.
Speaker 1: And then there's the Banksy be Amusement Park, which was
Speaker 1: you know, only there in twenty fifteen, but it was
Speaker 1: a deliberately disturbing carousel. It had a butcher mannequin, there
Speaker 1: was a carousel operator asleep at the control. It was
Speaker 1: quote a brutal satire of capitalism and fairytale nostalgia. Wow.
Speaker 1: And then my favorite one is the Old Goat Carousel,
Speaker 1: which is on Goat Island in Oregon, and it features
Speaker 1: quirky wooden goats with hand knit saddles. I loved, and
Speaker 1: the bonus weirdness is that there was a rumor that
Speaker 1: real goats once powered it.
Speaker 2: I love that they were quirky wooden goats, right like
Speaker 2: just not those normal old wooden goats you sometimes see.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, I don't know how many people will
Speaker 2: go travel to visit these carousels, but they do sound intriguing.
Speaker 2: So we'll be back with a few more carousel facts
Speaker 2: after a quick break, including tales of a giant Panda,
Speaker 2: Abraham Lincoln's Face, and Catcher and the Rye. What a
Speaker 2: trio there, so stay tuned. Welcome back to Part Time Genius,
Speaker 2: where today we're taking a spin around the wonderful world
Speaker 2: of carousels. Now quick reminder, if you like what you're hearing,
Speaker 2: be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite
Speaker 2: podcast app, leave us a nice rating, a review, and
Speaker 2: share the episode with a friend. We definitely appreciate it,
Speaker 2: and hope so will they so well.
Speaker 1: Something I was thinking about while we were researching this
Speaker 1: episode was carousels in media, and I remember this part
Speaker 1: from Jadie Salinger's novel Catcher and the Ride holding Coffield
Speaker 1: is watching his sister Phoebe on the Merry Go Round
Speaker 1: and the quote goes quote, Then the carousels started, and
Speaker 1: I watched her go round and round. All the kids
Speaker 1: tried to grab for the gold ring, and so was
Speaker 1: old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she'd fallen
Speaker 1: off the goddamn horse, but I didn't say or do anything.
Speaker 2: I have to admit I have not thought about that
Speaker 2: book in a very long time, and I do not
Speaker 2: remember that there was a carousel.
Speaker 1: I have not remember that either. But that quote made
Speaker 1: me wonder why older carousels had rings and why there
Speaker 1: aren't anymore. And I learned that carousels used to have
Speaker 1: a shoot next to them, which was attached to a
Speaker 1: kind of arm that dispensed rings, and people riding towards
Speaker 1: the outside of the carousel could reach over and try
Speaker 1: to grab a ring as they were moving by. If
Speaker 1: they got one, the rig dispenser would refill, allowing the
Speaker 1: next person to try to grab one. And most rings
Speaker 1: were made of a material like steel or iron, but
Speaker 1: often in the bunch of rings there was one single
Speaker 1: gold ring or one brass ring, and the lucky person
Speaker 1: who grabbed that special ring could cash it in for
Speaker 1: a free pride.
Speaker 2: I mean, to be honest, it feels like you'd get
Speaker 2: so dizzy just trying to win that free ride.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's definitely a young person's game. Speak of which
Speaker 1: this brass ring feature actually created jobs. Carosel operators needed
Speaker 1: quote ring boys who took all the rings returned to
Speaker 1: a big barrel after the ride and put them back
Speaker 1: into the ring feeder. The problem was people stole the
Speaker 1: rings and especially the brass ones, so they oftentimes kept
Speaker 1: them as souvenirs instead of redeeming them for a free ride.
Speaker 1: So these ring replacements could cost a Merry Go Round
Speaker 1: operator thousands of dollars in a single season, and those
Speaker 1: rise and costs eventually made the rings obsolete.
Speaker 2: That is a shame. And I feel like that kind
Speaker 2: of happens every once in a while, like stuff gets
Speaker 2: too expensive and the world becomes a little less fun.
Speaker 2: You know what I mean? Mego, I don't mean to
Speaker 2: take it down, but no.
Speaker 1: It's why we can't have nice runing.
Speaker 2: This is very true, all right. So as a resident
Speaker 2: of Brooklyn, Mango, you probably know that Brooklyn is the
Speaker 2: home to the Merrygo Round hotspot, which is, of course
Speaker 2: Coney Island, which once had a staggering twenty four steam
Speaker 2: driven carousels. It even became known for its Coney Island
Speaker 2: style of Merrygo Round, which meant a ride that was
Speaker 2: especially ostentatious and bejeweled. Of course. Now, one Coney Island carousel,
Speaker 2: the El Dorado, was forty two feet tall and had
Speaker 2: three levels of rotating platforms, each moving at a different speed,
Speaker 2: which would make it just weird to look at. But
Speaker 2: today there's only one Merrigo round left in Coney Island,
Speaker 2: the B and B Carousel, which is on the National
Speaker 2: Register of Historic Places. It was almost sold back in
Speaker 2: two thousand and five, but an anonymous buyer stepped in
Speaker 2: to purchase it and donate it to the city. It
Speaker 2: was then sent to Ohio for restoration, which is where
Speaker 2: a big discovery was actually made.
Speaker 1: So tell me what this discovery is.
Speaker 2: All right? So the carousel was built in nineteen oh nine,
Speaker 2: which was the centennial of Abraham Lincoln's birthday and the
Speaker 2: year the Lincoln penny was first minted. Now, the carver
Speaker 2: of the BnB horses, Marcus Charles Iliens, honored the occasion
Speaker 2: by carving Lincoln's face into the side of one of
Speaker 2: the horses. Aliens had been described as the Michelangelo of
Speaker 2: horse carving. It's so weird that I never thought of.
Speaker 2: Of course, you know, there's a carousel sculptor who is
Speaker 2: more famous than the others, Yeah, like one who's an
Speaker 2: artistic genius, the Michelangelo of them. That's exactly right. Well,
Speaker 2: what's interesting is that there are three big schools of
Speaker 2: carousel design, Like the Philadelphia school is more realistic and naturalistic,
Speaker 2: the Coney Island school is the more gaudy and festive
Speaker 2: as you might assume, like gold leaves and jewels, and
Speaker 2: then there's the country fair style, which is more functional
Speaker 2: and easy to transport, So not really that ornad I guess. Anyway,
Speaker 2: Aliens was a genius and the artist behind ten different
Speaker 2: Coney Island carousels. But this horse had been painted over
Speaker 2: so many times that the carving of Lincoln was completely
Speaker 2: covered up, so without restoration work and it would have
Speaker 2: been lost forever. Now the Lincoln is fully visible, and
Speaker 2: it's such a rare and unique piece that no rider
Speaker 2: is actually allowed to sit on the horse, and it's
Speaker 2: commemorated with a plaque there.
Speaker 1: First of all, I love that there's like a Philadelphia
Speaker 1: style of mery gorounds, which is just amazing. But I
Speaker 1: also love that there's one horse you can't ride at
Speaker 1: Coney Allen because it's there to honor Lincoln.
Speaker 2: Lincoln's faces on it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so we have talked a lot about the past,
Speaker 1: so let's step into the present day and I'm talking
Speaker 1: about solar powered carousels, which have been around since two
Speaker 1: thousand and five. Well known one is the Speedwell Foundation
Speaker 1: Conservation Carousel. It's at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington,
Speaker 1: d C. It was completed in twenty twelve, and thanks
Speaker 1: to its one hundred and sixty two solar panels, it
Speaker 1: has a net zero impact on the zoo's energy consumption.
Speaker 1: But probably my favorite detail about this carousel is that
Speaker 1: instead of traditional horses, riders can choose from a more
Speaker 1: eclectic array of animals. So you can ride on naked
Speaker 1: mole rat oh nice, a cuttlefish, a blue crab, or
Speaker 1: a yellowjacket. Oh.
Speaker 2: I love those.
Speaker 1: The creators also made a point to feature endangerous fecies
Speaker 1: like a giant panda, so it's a pretty cool way
Speaker 1: to enjoy a fun ride while keeping.
Speaker 2: The environment in mind. I love that mix of animals,
Speaker 2: all right. Well, from the present day, I'll take it
Speaker 2: one step further into the future of carousels. So in
Speaker 2: two thousand and nine, the Brooklyn Art Combine known as
Speaker 2: the Madagascar Institute created an experimental jet powered carousel. It
Speaker 2: didn't have a platform, It only had two seats. They
Speaker 2: kind of dangled from this center pole, so it didn't
Speaker 2: really look like a normal carousel and it definitely didn't
Speaker 2: work like one either. So riders received jet engine packs
Speaker 2: to wear, and igniting them caused the ride to go around.
Speaker 1: Which sounds kind of dangerous.
Speaker 2: Well, that is very true. The Madagascar Institute made this
Speaker 2: wild contraption for a gadget off festival. When they tested
Speaker 2: it out, they put up a sign that read caution,
Speaker 2: this may kill you. That's a good warning, you know.
Speaker 2: It's good to know that. It feels like you shouldn't
Speaker 2: get on. I wouldn't.
Speaker 1: Well, I am going to give you today's trophy for
Speaker 1: that one. I never thought you could start a simple
Speaker 1: episode about carousels and end up on a jet fueled
Speaker 1: and possibly lethal ride. This world is full of surprises, Mango.
Speaker 2: You should know that by now. But that's all for today.
Speaker 2: We'll be back next week with another brand new episode.
Speaker 2: In the meantime, you can find us at part Time
Speaker 2: Genius on Instagram or Blue Sky, and you can leave
Speaker 2: us a message on our hotline three O two four
Speaker 2: oh five five nine two five. Ask us a question,
Speaker 2: suggest a topic, give us any feedback. Whatever it is,
Speaker 2: we would love to hear from you, but from Dylan Gabe,
Speaker 2: Mary Mango and me, thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 1: Part Time Genius is a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: This show is hosted by Will Pearson and Me Mongaysh
Speaker 1: and research by our goodpal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's episode
Speaker 1: was engineered and produced by the wonderful Dylan Fagan with
Speaker 1: support from Tyler Klang. The show is executive produced for
Speaker 1: iHeart by Katrina Norvel and Ali Perry, with social media
Speaker 1: support from Sasha Gay, trustee Dara Potts and Viney Shorey.
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