The King Amusement
Company, Mt. Clemens, Michigan, brings us our items of the
month, three items in total. The first item is a wooden airplane,
which would have been mounted on a carousel style ride. This
plane is a two-seater, for small children, with dual controls, a
spinning propeller, and even a machine gun. While the kids
would pretend they were flying in an airplane, the plane would rotate
around in a circle with the deck of the carousel style ride.
The second piece is a shield from the same airplane ride. The shield
is the outermost piece of any carousel or carousel style ride. Its function is to
cover up the joints of the outer rounding boards, giving a completed
look to the decorative outer panel of the ride. Click
here to view our entire restored
carousel, showing where the shield is placed.
The third item is a yellow
and red decorative light for the airplane ride. This
lighted hexagon shaped box would have been mounted atop the center
pole, spinning with the rest of the carousel style ride.
Our restoration department has mounted this lighted decoration on its own stand
along with the shield described above.
This lighted sign
utilizes a special motor, which delivers a sequence of electricity to
the lights bulbs. This motor, which is inside
the lighted box, spins a disk. Depending on the position of
this spinning disk, certain switches are activated, each delivering a current to
the different light
bulbs at a specific time, giving a desired effect of motion as the
sequence repeats itself. Since our still images of the item
doesn't show this motion,
we have added new YouTube videos to give a better idea of how the lights and
these
motors work. Click
here to see the videos of the motor and to see how the
motor effects the lighting sequence of this unique item.
King Amusement
Company, Mount Clemens, Michigan, was an industry leader of kiddie
rides during the golden age of Drive-Ins; 1940’s through the 1960’s.
All Drive-Ins had playground operations of some extent. While
children enjoyed the basic swings, slides, see-saws and other
self-propelled equipment, all respectable Drive-Ins began to offer kiddie rides like those
produced by King; miniature trains, auto
rides, pony & cart rides, and airplane rides. For more information
please read “How Drive-Ins Operate Their Playgrounds."
A 17 page
report on equipment, maintenance, merchandising of Outdoor theatre
play areas from the June 5, 1954 BOXOFFICE. This
publication was a trade magazine for
theater owners and operators. King also had an
advertisement in a 1949 issue of BOXOFFICE. Click
here
to view the ad.
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