By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger (Re-posted from October 2015)
This carousel horse, photographed after the season in Seaside Heights, reminds me of Broadway—sometimes happy and sometimes sad. I’m thinking of the show Carousel which proclaims, “June is busting out all over.”
The Fantasticks has a song called “Round and Round” which begins as a gorgeous fantasy—-“Life is a colorful carousel,” but later the song becomes dark, sad, and scary.
However, for the most part, Broadway brings us joy as in “Oh What a Beautiful Morning” from Oklahoma.
I see this carousel, devoid of riders and seemingly sad because the season is over, and yet the scene, like a Broadway set, is bursting with vivid colors and, in a way, with memories of life itself.
So, in wondering about this photograph and how to see it, I decided that it is joyful and not sad, and if the horse could talk he would say, ” Please sir, I want more oats” (sorry for the Oliver joke, such as it is.) I wonder how a child would view it.
And certainly now, in 2021, with Broadway (and even the London stage) mostly dark for an indefinite period of time, we will have to wait to experience the joy of the musical stage.
Of course, we can still hear the music. We try to keep that music alive on Blogfinger. It’s easy to forget, but we won’t. (Thanks Mom!)
And, the Seaside Heights boards have come alive this summer (2021) so you probably can find the carousel going round and round, We’ll have to go there and find out.
Here is MIMI HINES from a show called “The Roar of the Greasepaint—the Smell of the Crowd.” It is a happy song full of the sort of vivid optimism that we often find in Broadway musicals and, sometimes, in life.
It is a shame that there are no carousels anymore around here. Asbury Park used to have not one but two—– in Palace Amusements and in the Casino .
The Seaside Heights carousel is supposed to be moved out of the arcade it is now in but kept in SSH, hopefully on the boardwalk .
Nice post. I don’t think a child would see it as sad. I think they would see it as this Majestic entity, as it would almost seem as though it were to be a living thing, waiting for all to join in on the fun. I remember as a little girl that it felt like it’s energy was thick, yet good.