If you’ve ever squealed with delight on legendary amusement park rides like the Whip, Tickler, Wave Pool and Human Roulette Wheel, or enjoyed a gallop on a beautifully carved carousel horse, you can thank William Mangels (1866-1958) – German immigrant, mechanic and permanent resident of Brooklyn’s Historic Green-Wood Cemetery.
To honor this man who played a key role in the creation of great turn-of-the-century American amusement parks, Green-Wood has announced today that it will mount a major exhibition, William F. Mangels: Amusing the Masses on Coney Island and Beyond, funded, in part, by a Kickstarter campaign.
Co-hosted by the Coney Island History Project, the exhibition will be filled with original Mangels artifacts including a carousel horse, 22-foot-long shooting gallery, cast-iron target ducks, Whip car, Pony-Carts, kiddie Speed Boat, Mangels blueprints, paintings and sketches, and hundreds of other unique items. The exhibition will run from September 6 through October 26, 2014 in Green-Wood’s Historic Chapel – the site of numerous exhibitions over the years.
While Green-Wood already has an impressive Mangels collection, collectors from coast-to-coast have agreed to loan their one-of-a-kind pieces for the exhibition. Green-Wood must raise capital through Kickstarter to ship those items, as well as to support installation, lighting and creation of displays.
Green-Wood estimates that it will need $31,000 to mount the exhibition. The Kickstarter goal is $17,500. To date, the Green-Wood Historic Fund has received some funding from Luna Park USA/Zamperla, as well as from additional sources.
Jeff Richman, Green-Wood’s historian, said, “William Mangels is one of the most fascinating individuals interred at Green-Wood Cemetery. With his can-do spirit, he constantly created new amusement park rides and devised ingenious ways to improve existing ones. He once said that if someone asked him to build a ride to the moon, he probably would have done that too!”
Everyone who contributes to the Kickstarter campaign will receive a special thank you gift.
To make a donation go to: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/amusingthemasses/william-mangels-amusing-the-masses-on-coney-island
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