Charles Looff

Charles ID Looff (born May 24, 1852 in Bramstedt , † July 1, 1918 in Long Beach , California ; actually Carl Jürgen Detlef Looff ) was a builder and operator of hand-carved carousels and amusement parks in the USA . Looff and his son Arthur are considered the fathers of modern amusement parks.

Looff was born in what was then Bramstedt, now Bad Bramstedt. Jürgen Detlef Christian Looff, blacksmith from Rendsburg , and Catherina born in his baptismal entry in the Bramstedt church registers Ralfs named as parents.

He learned the art of wood carving and emigrated to the United States at the age of 18. He arrived in New York City on August 14, 1870 . There he lived initially on Leonard Street in Greenpoint , Brooklyn , and worked as a carver in a furniture factory. In New York he met Anna Dolle, who was also from Germany, and married her on December 6, 1874 in Manhattan . After working at the factory, Looff made wooden horses from home, which he assembled into a carousel, which he set up at Bader's Bathing Pavilion on West Sixth Street / Surf Avenue in 1876. This was the first carousel in Coney Island .

From these beginnings an extremely successful company history developed, which not only led to further carousels (approx. 40 are attributed to Looff), but also to entire amusement parks. One of the most famous is probably the one on the Santa Monica Pier , which Looff and his son Arthur opened in 1916.

Today there are still about ten carousels in the USA, which were created by Looff. Many have been destroyed (by fire around 1943 in Long Beach) and others demolished. Some were also obtained using public funds. Today, individual Looff figures achieve high prices at auctions and are considered art objects. Even the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has taken a figure (a greyhound ) into its collections. Whole carousels are rarely put up for sale, in 2008 one was put up for auction.

Web links

• Looff carousel in Spokane / Washington
• Carousel Figure of a Greyhound Museum of Fine Art, Boston (English)