Have you ever attended a carnival and experienced the rides, exhibits, and games of skill? Did you observe the people who worked there and wonder what stories they had to tell? I wasn’t curious about such things when I was young; I just gleefully participated in the rides and the midway. I also chowed down. What did I care how they made candy apples? But later, I did wonder about things like hitting a device with a large mallet just to ring a bell and win a prize. And why did they call the carousel a merry-go-round? And what was it like working at one of these places? What kind of special skills were required?
I didn’t find answers to these quandaries until recently, when we visited the Carnival World Museum in Riverview, Florida. We had a short tour by Mr. Lee Stevens, who explained many of these things to us. He should know. He had an act in which he trained performing animals. He took us around and I recorded him. He not only showed us a game invented by the same man who devised the Whack-a-Mole, but also demonstrated how it worked.
I tried asking him some deadpan-naive questions, the kind that the comedian Philomena Cunk would have posed. For example, here’s our exchange at the children’s merry-go-round:
ME: Why’s it called a merry-go-round? Do you have to be merry to go on it?
MR. STEVENSON: Well, it helps. Nobody wants a sourpuss.
He showed us a strength tester (called “a high striker”). I asked him another mock-innocent question, and he fielded that one just as deftly. After that, I just shut up and listened to his spiel. (For the exchange, watch the video.)
The museum will keep you amused, perhaps longer than any time you spent at a real county fair and midway. It features an excellent 30-minute documentary about the history of the circus in America, a short clip of a silent western about a train robbery, and placard after placard about informative exhibits. There’s a diorama of a circus fairground, with tiny figurines and carnival structures that one man painstakingly designed for twenty-six years. It lay dormant in storage for decades until it was donated to the museum.
I was most impressed with the presentation we got. Mr. Stevens’ level of knowledge could only have come from first-hand experience. This specialty museum is among the best I’ve ever seen and well worth your afternoon.
ADDRESS: 6938 Riverview Drive, Riverview, FL
HOURS: Thursday-Sunday, 12-5
PHONE: (813) 671-3503
EMAIL: lee@carnivalworldmuseum.com
