American Folk Art Buildings
architectural imagination and storied places rendered small
TYPES
Amusings & Rides & Circus
Bowl • Rotate • Swirl • Zoo • Often Round
42" high
Said to be Southern from the 1930s, surprising then for having the white person work and the black person ride.
In the era when America still possessed department stores -- and, even better, those attracting customers with thematic artful window displays, particularly at Christmas -- Shillito's in Cincinnati presented Myers Shows. Reported as from the 1930s, the three components here of an unknown number and layout would have well compelled. Two 40" long sections entice with Meyers offerings and . . . ah, girls . . . Artists Models Posing Dancing. Uh-huh . . . models. A 36" diameter carousel circled all the best animal rides. The sleek of the moment architectural look would match nicely the 1937 art deco style renovation of the original 1878 building. Shillito's merged with another store in the 1980s and finally disappeared in the late 1990s.
Living and Alive, Strange or not, are generally in other venues judged the same
Pasties gone amiss
Presumably Dimples Weaver. On the left.
A tented motor behind the curtain ran mechanisms to rotate and jiggle the models
Racine Wisconsin Zoo
Star as structure and image with visual, rendering, and architectural sophistication. The maker got it all just right.
In a past era, a good department store nicely provided architecturally useful dress boxes.
Found in Western Pennsylvania on the no longer working 30s cabinet Victrola converted from record playing to carousel rotation.
