The “speaker thing” is called a band organ. Conneaut’s organ is a rare Artizan style XA-2, and while few of the organ exist, this organ is especially rare as it the ONLY organ in the public eye playing off its original 46 key BAB paper roll system. All others have been converted to the Wurlitzer style. It’s the small details like an operable band organ that make parks like Conneaut real treasures!
After I filmed this ride, one of the other park guests told me about band organs. I thought it was really neat and it was great to learn the history of it afterwards. Best, Dr. Zar
Actually this isn't a Muller carousel, it was built by the T.M. Harton Co, a firm that built several parks, and had many ride concessions across the East and Midwest. The figures were at one time all from D.C. Muller & Bro. of Philadelphia. Most of them were auctioned off a number of years ago when the previous owners of the park were strapped for cash. Most of the figures on it now are new carvings, still wood, no fiberglass
It's a ride on an historic carousel that is over 100 years old. I plan to have a variety of content, not just countdown lists and "this day in history" videos but also ones showing footage of historic sites as a sort of "living history" angle. Part of the reason why chose the name "history and headlines" was so that we can include a broad range of content as pretty much anything that happened could be part of history or if more recent a "headline". Besides, the rules for monetization on RU-vid are so extreme now that if I am doing something (making videos) as essentially a hobby rather than for profit, I want to make videos that are fun to make for me and at least some viewers. You need 4,000 watch hours within the past 12 months; I have about 1,000 over the channel's entire history. At my current rate of watch hours of 3-10 a day, it would take years to actually make any money off of this channel, or even be eligible to make money, barring I have help from others with existing followings. I reached out to some other channels and received such replies as "Sure, we can give your channel a shout out for $2,000" or "We don't collaborate with channels with less than 50,000 subscribers." I'm a part time teacher, so I don't make anywhere near enough to be able to afford $2,000 to advertise my site. It was surprisingly generous that TopTenz, Slapped Ham, and Eskify were kind enough to give me a mention out of kindness, but pretty much everyone else I reached out to wanted $2,000 or considerably more, even for a ten second plug. So, with that in mind, I have to think of this as doing something for fun that I hope also makes some people who happen upon it happy, too, rather than thinking of it as any kind business venture. if this video brought a smile to the face of Lysa B and Bendy the dancing Fiend AJ and random stuff, then it was worth it. If it made even one person's day happier, then it was worth it. I was able to preserve the memory of this 100+ year old ride by recording it and posting it for posterity and if even a handful of people liked going on a virtual ride, then cool. I hope at least some people enjoy these videos and clearly a number who have commented here has and if others don't, well, hopefully they'll like some of the other videos the channel has to offer as I have a couple thousand "this day in history" and "top ten" videos planned (my next one will be about Rasputin's death!) and if they don't click any that feature rides or the chance to attend advance screenings of films, that's fine. I don't expect every subscriber to be interested in or want to watch every video. I suspect like me, they'll click on the ones with images and/or titles that seem interesting. I don't watch every video on every channel I subscribe to. Again, my goal is to have fun and an outlet outside of my job in which I can share everything from historic events to historic lists to videos of historic sites and attractions. Hopefully, there's something for every one and everyone is perfectly welcome to ignore any that look like something that won't interest them. I hope you understand where I am coming from, but in any case thank you for taking the time to comment and read my reply. Sincerely, Dr. Zar