Fall Fair delivers the classics

Among the many rides and midway games that you can enjoy down at the Keystone Centre’s Fall Fair this weekend, there are few as definitive as the carved-horse merry-go-round.

And the Grand Carousel owned by Jim Mills, president of Select Shows, is a classic in the truest sense of the word.

“It’s a 1961 Allan Herschell, three abreast, 30-horse carousel,” Mills told the Sun on Thursday afternoon, while his employees were in the middle of setting up the midway and rides. It operated nearly all of its life down in Texas, and I acquired it about 15 years ago.”

The Allan Herschell Company specialized in the creation of amusement rides, particularly wooden-horse carousels and roller coasters. Started in 1915 just outside Buffalo, N.Y., the company manufactured portable machines for travelling carnival operations.

Selection Shows — in Brandon for its final show of the season this weekend — will be running the Grand Carousel along with several other amusements.

On Thursday afternoon, work crews were busy unloading the carved wooden horses from the back of a trailer and attaching them to the circular platform one by one.

“It’s old-school technology,” Mills said. “There’s a lot of greasing as you go. And you know when there’s grease involved, there’s lots of cleaning involved. Once that ride goes up, (the work crew) will spend at least an hour, hour and a half, just making sure there are no hand prints on the horses or anything like that.”

In Mills’ opinion, the older rides like the Grand Carousel were of a far better quality than more modern equipment.

“They’re built heavier to stand the test of time,” Mills said. “The newer stuff, that just doesn’t last. It’s all plastic and fibreglass and it doesn’t stand up.”

Mills says there are still plenty of Allan Herschell carousels in working condition all over Canada, the United States and around the world. But he notes that they’re very difficult to come by if you’re looking to buy one, because nobody ever sells them.

“They’re valuable. This one here is probably worth $175,000 US, which isn’t much in today’s market. But I’ve been to auctions where they sell a merry-go-round like that, and how they do it is they’ll sell horse by horse. And a horse goes between $4,000 and $5,000.”

Mills is very careful with the carousel, and demands his employees are careful too.

“I get mad at them if they chip them and bang them,” Mills said. “But you know, it’s machinery, right? It goes up and down 25 times a year, which is 50 times it moves. So you know, you’re gonna get your bumps and grinds. But I haven’t painted this one in at least 12 years. They’re very careful with them.”

The Select Shows Fall Fair will run today through Sunday in the Keystone Centre’s south parking lot.

The gates open today at 5 p.m. and on Saturday and Sunday at noon.

Admission to the grounds is free. Ride wristbands will be $30 today and Sunday, and $35 on Saturday.

» mgoerzen@brandonsun.com