Have you ever
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taken your kids on a Merry-go-round ride? Or perhaps, seen the whimsically created horses and fanciful animals designed for special rides like the 2002 Bryant Park carousel in the backyard of the New York Public Library?

Give your kids a taste of the incredible background and design that went into such art. Today a legend died - Marvin Sylvor, the merry-go-round man who dotted parks in New York City with fanciful painted ponies and went on to help populate the rest of the world with galloping steeds, flying manes and sparkly gold trappings on more than 60 carousels, died on Wednesday in Miami. He was 75. To wit:

…. Soon, carousel contracts overshadowed the decorating business at his company, Fabricon. In addition to building merry-go-rounds in Bryant Park, the Riverbank State Park in Manhattan and Forest Park in Queens, he created carousels for Chicago; Detroit; Nashville; La Paz, Bolivia; São Paulo, Brazil; Auckland, New Zealand; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; and Singapore.

He relished the role of the little old carousel maker, but at 5 feet 11 inches tall, broad of shoulder and full of beard, he was not all that little. In his factory in East New York, Brooklyn, he delighted in showing visitors his historical inventory of more than 100 horses and “menagerie creatures,” as they are known in the trade.

His favorites were “jumpers,” carousel creatures that move up and down, powered by a mechanism that had not been improved upon since 1890. And he especially liked to surprise visitors by showing them horses’ glass eyes from a taxidermy supplier in Woonsocket, S.D…..MORE….

There are lots of collectors and resources about carousels online; show your children the true story behind the rides, it’s fascinating! Consider:

• A history of the carousel
• Carousel Gallery
• Carousel Math
• National Carousel Association

Hope the above is useful!

Enjoy,

Owlbert

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ps - speaking of carousels:

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