Originally a 1875 Dentzel carrousel.
Walt wanted all leaping horses.
Each horse is different in carving and in painting.
There are 72 horses 18 rows four abreast.
Hand painted scenes from Sleeping Beauty grace the interior.
Lillian Disney (Walts wife) favorite horse has a gold tooth.
The ride lasts for 90 seconds.
22 karat gold leafing covers the carousel's spires.
The Carrousel was discovered in July 1954 at Sunnyside Park in Toronto Canada.
Walt Disney's dreams for Disneyland began when he watched his daughters ride on the carrousel in Griffith Park. So it came as no surprise that when Walt began his plans for Disneyland, he wanted a carrousel in his park.
In 1954 Disney scouts located a vintage carrousel in Toronto, Canada. The carrousel was dismantled and shipped to California where skilled artisans carefully restored it. At Walt's request, workers removed giraffes, deer, and other animals and replaced them with hand-carved horses so that every guest could ride aboard a galloping steed. The horses were in repeating rows of six different colors black, gray, chestnut, white, tan, and amber and placed beneath a tournament-style canopy.
Required an "A" ticket in 1955-1957
Required an "A" ticket in 1959
Required an "A" ticket in 1964-1965
From WED Disneyland Dictionary 1968
is the largest one of its kind in the world. It's 72 hand-carved horses represent the prancing steeds of the knights of King Arthur.
In 1975, the 72 multi-colored, hand-carved horses on King Arthur Carousel were repainted white so that every guest could gallop upon a knights white stead. Bridles, saddles and flowers were painted in custom-designed color schemes and adorned with decorative "jewels," giving each horse a distinct personality.
The 72 white horses, 90-110 years old, were obtained throughout the United States and Canada and are all hand-carved and painted with no two exactly alike
The Names of the horses (in alphabetical order) are:
Alma, Arabian Knight, Avanti, Baby, Belle, Bruce, Centurion, Checkers, Checkers Jr., Champion, Chodis, Cinch, Copper, Crown Jewel, Crusader, Dagger, Daisy, Dante, Duke, Eagle Scout, Elinor, Elroy, Emerald, Fern, Fourish, Frenchy, Galaxy, Gypsy, Hal, Ivy, Jester, Jingles (lead horse), Kaleidoscope, King Richard, Lance, Leo, Leprechaun, Lucifer's Rose, Lunatic, National Velvet, Patches, Pagasus, Penny, Queenie, Rally, Red Devel, Renaissance, Sapphire, Saxon, Screaming Eagle, Sea Biscuit, Sir Lancelot, St. Patrick, Steamer, Tartan, Tassel, Testy Pat, Thistle, Tiny, Topaz, Tulip, Turbo, Unice, Valance.
Nine hand-painted panels depicting key moments from Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty were placed within the carrousel linking the attraction to the most famous landmark of Fantasyland-Sleeping Beauty Castle.
SCENE DESCRIPTION April 1981:
**CARROUSEL**:
STORY:
King Arthur's Carrousel is a central feature of Fantasyland, providing Guests with a ride which harkens back to the fairs and festivals of medieval times.
SET DESCRIPTION:
An ornately decorated decagon-shaped merry-go-round. Bright colored plastic crestings and eaves along the inner and outer borders are topped with pennants at the corners. The entire roof surface of the canopy is decorated with a geometric graphic pattern. Painted shapes and flats cover the drive motor and drive assembly parts in the center core.
Required an "A" ticket in 1970's
From Steve Birnbaum brings you the best of Disneyland 1982:
One of the land- marks in the park, the carrousel was moved back a few feet as part of Fantasyland's renovation for guests to see its graceful and colorful entirety as they stroll toward Sleeping Beauty Castle passage- way into Fantasyland. One of the few attractions in the park that is an original rather than a Disney adaptation, the carrousel boasts 18 rows of 4 elaborately carved horses each-72 in all, none alike (plus 13 spares). According to Bruce Bushman, one of the early park planners (whose name adorns a window on Main Street), the main unit of the carrousel, an 1875 Dentzel model, was purchased in Canada, but at the time it wasn't a car- rousel at all-it had a whole menagerie of giraffes, lions, and other creatures, plus some sleighs, in addition to its handful of horses, and not everything moved. But Walt wanted all the animals to move, and he wanted them all to be horses, so he sent his scouts out to search for the prancing steeds that grace the big turntable today. Neglected for most of the first half of the century, they're now as pampered as the Belgian horses on Main Street, cared for by an expert painter whose responsibility it is to keep them looking as sleek and shiny as they must have been when they were carved in Germany over a century ago. At the rate of about 40 painting hours per horse, it takes about two years to get to them all-and then the cycle starts again-always using the original color scheme. The same care goes into keeping the 182 brass poles on the carrousel turntable shiny. The man in charge of the job spends six hours at it every night. Incidentally, the shields on the lances that sup- port the big overhead canopy are those of the Knights of the Round Table, and because there were more shields needed than authentic designs, the crests of the various families involved in the park in the early days are included as well. Atop the carrousel's main face, be sure to note the nine hand-painted panels bearing scenes from the film Sleeping Beauty.
In 1983 the King Arthur Carrousel was moved to its current location as part of the New Fantasyland. At the same time The Sword in the Stone was added giving children a chance to try their hand at freeing the legendary sword of King Arthur.
When Walt Disney created Disneyland in 1955 more than 4,000 carrousels operated in the U.S. Today fewer than 200 carrousels exist.
In 2001 A major refurbishment of King Arthur Carrousel by skilled artisans began. The carrousel reopened in February 2003
Jingles has Julie Andrews initials on the saddle
(Some Information courtesy of "Miss Shields")
Click Here To Gain Access
