Drive by Brenda Kalb’s Anaheim Hills estate and you’ll see grazing horses on the property. Walk down the driveway and peer into the dining room window and you’ll discover horses there, too – carousel horses.
“I’ve always loved horses,” says Kalb, admiring her first carousel horse, which stands near the dining room window. “I had a horse since I was 12, so it was just an obvious progression to get into carousels.”
Kalb belongs to a group of women who restore the animals found on carousels.
“We call ourselves ‘The Secret Carousel Society,’” she says in a voice barely above a whisper, then laughs.
“But it’s not really a secret!”
Kalb and two friends, Jean Bennett and Carolyn Caverly, talk every week, and love to share the history of the carousel and the collection.
THE MAKING OF A HORSE
The magic of the carousel began during the 1890s and 1900s, when it was originally intended for adults, not children.
“If you were courting a lady, you could not be holding her,” explains Caverly. “But on a carousel, men could help ladies onto the horses, and he could actually be touching her.” The same concept applied to the benches on the carousel, also known as “chariots.”
“The chariots were for couples to sit side by side,” she says.
And carousels were explosions of color. “This was something you didn’t have in the everyday life. But with the carousel, you had music; you had purple and pink decals,” says Caverly.
The side of the animal that faces outward is more ornate. Kalb and Caverly point to a wooden horse with a mane, carvings of feathers and a drum and an animal pelt. The inner side contains fewer details.
“When these horses were being made, the carvers were in a hurry,” explains Caverly. “They only cared about what people would see.” Companies were able to save time and money by not completing the side that wouldn’t be noticed much anyway, she says.
“The most beautiful horses were on the outside (of the carousel),” explains Caverly. Closer to the center of the carousel, the animals were smaller and less elaborate.
And the history behind the tails?
Originally, early carousel horses were fitted with real horse hair – “They came from dead horses,” Caverly says. “But children don’t want to know that!” Because these tails were easily broken by young riders, they were phased out. “The carousel factories caught on that the tails had to be replaced often, so they began carving wooden ones because they were more durable, and the ride operators didn’t have to search for a supply.”
RESTORING PROCESS
Kalb, who finds the horses and animals on eBay or through word of mouth, rebuilds and restores the animals with her friends.
“You usually have to take the horse apart,” she says.
“It’s funny because sometimes you’ll find stuff that kids stuffed down the horse,” adds Caverly. She holds a ticket that was found in a horse that came from Knott’s Berry Farm. Stamped on the faded ticket are the words of an amusement park in Texas called Pleasure Pier Port.
“Look at this,” she says. “It took nine cents to ride this horse.”
The friends talk about the current project – a carousel lion on a wheeled platform sitting in the kitchen.
“Sometimes, when you strip the paint, you’ll get lucky and find the original paint,” Kalb says. If not, she researches original paint colors. “It’s like keeping the history.”
Then there’s the pig on the hearth in the family room, possibly carved by a Frenchman, Gustave Bayol. “That pig is in primer and is waiting to be painted,” says Kalb. “I immediately put him in primer because you don’t want wood exposed or else he will expand.”
But Kalb is quick to note that there isn’t a perfect restoration process. “Nothing’s ever wrong,” she says. “It’s what you want.”
A FEW OF HER FAVORITE THINGS
The pony adorned with jewels sitting in Kalb’s bedroom is lucky to be intact. “He was in a fire,” says Kalb. “He was in Lincoln Park in Los Angeles and was gutted by fire in 1976.”
Kalb redid the mane, and added the details and collar, working on this one over a long period of time. “My husband named him ‘ Bernie Fillmore’ for being in the fire and for costing so much money.”
Then there’s the Mexican sea horse with its fish tale and brass pole. Kalb placed him near the dining room window for “window dressing.”
Asked if she has a favorite among her collection of over 20 carousel animals, she shakes her head no.
“If I had a real, real favorite, I’d have a hard time picking one,” she says. Then she laughs. “They’re like potato chips,” she says, remarking on the obsession many collectors share. “You can’t just have one.”
Contact the writer: 714-796-2286 or kluppi@ocregister.com
