The Carousel Keepers: An Oral History of American Carousels
It's a wonderful addition to any carousel library, with great pictures of the machines at Olympic Park, Seaside Heights, Asbury Park, Ocean City, Bertrand Island, Palisades Park, and other notable past & present amusement parks in New Jersey and New York. The book is well-written, has a good bibliography, and in my opinion is well worth the price. --Seth Briliant of Atlantic City, New JerseyPapa's project, initially funded by the New Jersey Historical Commission, began as an attempt to preserve the history of the carousel in New Jersey. It was expanded into a series of interviews with 37 "keepers" throughout the northeast and the south. The stories run the gamut from tales of small towns and idle summers to descriptions of carousels in theme parks and malls; from the reminiscences of individual carvers and carvings to memories of the economies of parks. It is a chapter in the history of entertainment and a ripe good one. --Newsletter of the Oral History of the Middle Atlantic Region, 1998