The Sarsaparilla Times #4: King Arthur Carrousel is Theme Park Royalty
Jingles knows the way.
The central beating heart of Disneyland Park is a theme park relic that Walt Disney brought to the Anaheim destination. Long before Dave MacPherson paid for the first ticket to Disneyland on opening day in 1955, King Arthur Carrousel had already spent decades entertaining thousands of people.
King Arthur Carrousel once called Toronto, Canada home in the Sunnyside Amusement Park. Hailed as Canada’s Coney Island, Sunnyside Amusement Park spent the first half of the 20th Century whisking guests away on flights of fancy through their carousel or dropping them at breakneck speeds on their rollercoaster ‘The Flyer’.
Where the Gardiner Expressway now brings thousands of motorists through a ‘traffic free route’ along the waterfront of Lake Ontario, Sunnyside Amusement Park was the respite from the heat of city life, and a chance for some fun in early Toronto.
It seems almost kismet that a year before the Walt Disney Company began, the carousel that would call Disneyland home would be built. Created by the Dentzel Carrousel Company in 1922, the King Arthur Carrousel would have a long life before spotting any hidden Mickeys in southern California.
Walt Disney may have conjured magic in an orange grove in Anaheim, but the King Arthur Carrousel is imbued with its own level of mystical beginnings. At Sunnyside Amusement Park, the land the park sat on was dredged from the bay along Lake Ontario that it occupied, and was topped off with fresh soil from a farm in the nearby town of Pickering.
The carrousel had already witnessed stunts of magnitude that were much more difficult than trying to pull a sword stuck in a stone. Flagpole sittings were a common event at Sunnyside Amusement Park, as well as fireworks, and the occasional burning of an 18th century boat that needed scuttling beneath the waves of Lake Ontario.
The whirling magic of the carrousel brought in thousands, but it was the atmosphere and ambiance of what Sunnyside Amusement Park had that brought multitudes of guests for decades. With indoor and outdoor musical concerts, nightclubs, and a variety of places one could eat at, Sunnyside Amusement Park not only brought entertainment, but a slice of moving picture magic that people were just starting to see take place in theatres.
What started as a place for respite from the scorching heat in the summertime with a bathing pavilion, then led to a massive swimming pool nicknamed ‘The Tank’ and concluded with the addition of attractions and entertainment. Through the Great Depression, economic stagnation and the march towards World War II, Sunnyside Amusement Park lived, laughed, survived, and entertained. What the park could not endure was the growth of the city of Toronto, the desire for easier access routes for the growing car population, and a need to move people more efficiently in a growing mega city.
Since 1943 the city had floated plans about the building of the Gardiner Expressway. This would cut right through the heart of Sunnyside Amusement Park, and since the Harbor Commission ran the park, which was the City of Toronto, they could do as they wish. The politicians of Toronto wanted out of the amusement business, and they made their feelings known that the magic of Sunnyside would soon end.
Guests would enjoy their last moments of dippiest dips on ‘The Flyer’, spend countless times spinning around on the carousel and walk the boardwalk numerous times before the bulldozers would wreck the magic of this kingdom by the lake.
Sunnyside Amusement Park was coming down. The place where Jean Ford won the first Miss Toronto beauty pageant, and where the Palais Royale hosted musical greats like Count Basie, would end. The march of progress would pave over the laughter and the thrills, enabling a growing city to move faster in their cars.
As the demolition began in 1954, some rides would be relocated to the Canadian National Exhibition, others would be purchased by local traveling amusement shows, while the carousel would find a home in California. Walt Disney was in the thick of trying to build his theme park in Anaheim, and while the wrecking ball destroyed much of what was Sunnyside, the carousel was purchased and shipped south for its new home.
Before opening day in July of 1955, the carousel would undergo a significant refurbishment. The Arrow Development Company widened the attraction to increase capacity. This would mean that the carousel would require more horses. New carousel horses were purchased from all over, including some from Coney Island’s Looff carousel.
Opening day came, and guests that walked down the middle of Main Street USA could spot King Arthur Carrousel on the other side of Sleeping Beauty Castle. Guests would flock to the attraction for years, and as the attraction gained new fans in each decade of its life, the attraction would again need updates.
In 1983, King Arthur Carrousel was moved slightly backwards from its original position to accommodate new attractions coming into the land. By 2010, the attraction was made into compliance for ADA requirements which allowed more accessibility for guests with limited mobility.
Today, much like the rest of Disneyland, each guest finds their own magic in the park, and while guests snack on a churro, and scale the heights of the Matterhorn during Disneyland’s 70th anniversary, never forget that King Arthur Carrousel would gladly accept new and old riders for a journey around the track.
King Arthur Carrousel Fun Facts:
1) The lead horse is named Jingles. He was regarded by Walt Disney as his favorite horse and was named for the ornate carvings including jingle bells that hang from the collar of the horse.
2) Jingles was all white and due to the popularity she brought to the carousel, all the horses were repainted white.
3) During the 50th anniversary of Disneyland, Imagineers removed Jingles and decorated the horse in gold, offering a unique photo opportunity at the queue for the attraction. After the commemoration Jingles was brought back into service and continues to lead the carousel.
4) In 2008, Jingles was dedicated to Julie Andrews as an ‘Honorary Ambassador’.
5) A replica of the sword in the stone from the film is located in front of the attraction, and Merlin used to host a small event each day allowing guests to attempt to remove the sword from the stone. Successful guests would be crowned king for a day. The last ceremony was in 2006. The statue is still there to this day. It makes a nice photo opportunity.
6) Since the opening of Disneyland in 1955, carrousels have always been prominent in Disney Parks. The carousel has seeped so far into the lore of all things Disney, that during the Mickey Mouse episode ‘Potatoland" when Mickey and Donald build a theme park for Goofy inspired by potatoes, there is a prominent carousel in the story.
7) Author Ridley Pearson used King Arthur Carrousel as a plot device to help his Kingdom Keeper characters travel back in time to the opening of Disneyland.
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