From CN&T SEPT 2010
From 8-Page Handout to 28 Years and Over 300 Colorful Magazines
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By Roland Hopkins, Editor, The Carousel News & Trader (2006-2013)
It is a privilege to be at the helm of a magazine celebrating its 25th anniversary. It’s a tall order as well. A tall order for anyone, really, but even more so for someone new.
Many of you have been part of the carousel world from the beginning of the magazine in 1985, and many of you long before that. Some of you were there when the modern “carouselmania” movement began. And some of you were among those instrumental in the beginnings of the modern appreciation of our antique carousels.
Myself, I have been on the carousel scene for just a few years. At first, as a day laborer for Dan and Brass Ring Entertainment, on and off for a couple of years, (to support my screenwriting habit), and more recently, of course, as editor of the magazine.
Nancy Loucks, CN&T founder, admires a beautifully restored Illions at the home of Rol and Jo Summit in Rolling Hills, CA, during a visit in the late 1980s.
In working for Dan as a “grunt”, I did learn a few things about carousels: how heavy they are, how greasy they are, and how you must find a Zen state of mind when sanding a carousel horse, (and kiss your fingertips goodbye).
I learned that when you are working on a full carousel, the Ibuprofen is for your back. When you are working on a carousel horse, the Ibuprofen is for your fingers.
In July, we celebrated our 4th anniversary with the magazine; just long enough to realize how time does fly. I’ll be the first to admit that when I took over the magazine, I could not spell Looff. Luckily for me, I did know how to make a magazine from start to finish, and Dan could spell Looff and fill me in on a few thousand other things I should know.
To Dan, and to all of you, I would like to say thank you. Thank you for your patience and invaluable assistance in helping me make what I hope is a nice, and occasionally intelligent magazine every month over the past four years. In delving in and out of 300 issues, covering 25 years, over the past few weeks, I would like to thank those of you who have been with the magazine long before me and have been contributing all along. Thank you.
I hope you enjoy some of the things featured in this issue. Believe it or not, I have been thinking about this for over a year, and this is what I came up with. I wish I could tell all the stories, but that would be a book. When possible, the photos used are scanned from previous issues. What they lack in quality and clarity, I hope they make up for in nostalgia.
Nancy Loucks’ Dream Lives on as The CN&T Celebrates 25 Years
By Walter Loucks, Past Editor/Founding Publisher, The Carousel News & Trader (1985-2006)
Walter Loucks (left) and Bill Manns enjoy some real horse time on Bill’s ranch in New Mexico in 2000.
First, I would like to say congratulations and thank you to Dan Horenberger, Publisher, and Roland Hopkins, Editor, for continuing to publish The Carousel News & Trader. I can attest to the fact that it is an investment of many, many hours of time and resources to produce what they are providing for you all.
For years, many of you asked me to provide more history and these guys are doing that. It would appear that the days of multiple auctions and events are past, so I hope you will enjoy and promote the history, which will be forever.
Some of you have been supporters of the magazine from the beginning, and I want to thank you for that love and support. For those who may wonder, I am living in Florida and supposed to be retired. However, I do volunteer work and people found out what I used to do, so now I do newsletters, grant writing and handyman projects for non-profits. I’d rather stay busy anyway.
1985 – The Carousel Trader, as it was known then, was one of these ventures that literally started on a kitchen table, in, of all unlikely places, Marcellus, Michigan – not a carousel within 100 miles. The person who really started it was my late wife Nancy Lynn (Glace) Loucks. When I met Nancy in 1969, she was a horse lover, extraordinaire. She owned 14 horses. We were married in 1971 and at one point had 28 horses. I decided to buy her a carousel horse because of her love of horses.
Nancy on the carousel she helped place at Dollywood. The 1924 Dentzel is now back in Lancaster, PA, in storage.
Our first carousel event was a Norton auction. We did not buy anything that trip but she came home and had found a new love for horses of a different kind. She was the kind of person that jumped into things with both feet, so she soon exhausted all available resources. So, she was determined to put together a “newsletter” to tie all the carousel people together with a single source for news and events. The question was, “Would people be interested?”
To find out, she typed up a four page newsletter and we had 1,000 copies printed at our local weekly newspaper office. It was tagged as Vol. 1 No.1, September 1985 – The Carousel Trader.
We took it to a National Carousel Association Convention in Burlington, North Carolina, in the fall of 1985, and handed them out free. I remember a few of the “carousel” people wondered who we were. The initial subscription rate was $12 per year. Within a couple of months we had 300 subscribers. It soon went to 900 and we had a magazine.
At the peak of the carousel madness we had over 5,000 subscribers all over the U.S., Canada and a half-dozen other countries. A side bar that few people knew at the time was that Nancy already had her initial cancer diagnosis in the summer of 1985, before she started the magazine. This was the best therapy she could ever have had; a real purpose and continual goals she set for herself. She sought to see that next carousel and see what record may be set at the next auction. She had an amazing mind for these incredible art figures. She would see an animal and could tell you what carousel it was from and how much it sold for at a previous auction.
In 1988, my toolmaker job at a GM plant was lost due to a plant closing. The magazine was keeping us both busy so we both went full-time with it.
In 1989, we visited Mansfield, OH, and seeing what was going on there, in regards to a downtown carousel project, we decided to move the magazine to Mansfield. We were blessed with Linda Hutcheson coming on board with her graphic design skills and Noreene Sweeney with her writing skills. The magazine was always a home-based venture, as we produced it from our basement. We never did our own printing, but did our own mailing.
I remember getting our first Mac computers. What a step up from cut-and-paste, and no more type setting. Our first color issue was done in December 1987, when a company called Rotocast contacted us and wanted the back cover, in color. This also provided the opportunity to do color covers. Since it was December, we were blessed to have that Christmas cover, and all Decembers following, produced and designed for us by carousel restoration artist, Tony Orlando. We also decided to do a “Buyer’s Guide” issue each April, which was a great hit. Next came a “Carver’s” issue, as there were so many wood carvers trying their hand at this art form.
In 1992, after the cancer had returned twice, Nancy went home to be with the Lord. He was her first Love and even in her short life His purpose was completed. I honestly never thought very long or hard about whether to keep the magazine going. In fact, some of you threatened to find me if I quit. There was obviously a need and desire for this resource. With the help of Noreene Sweeney and Linda Hutcheson, we kept them coming. I would be remiss if I did not thank many of you for your contributions and support with subscriptions, news items, stories and ads. I often looked at them after they were printed and thought, “Wow we did another one”.
By the summer of 2006, I was looking to retire. I was hoping to find someone to take it over and give the magazine some new and fresh ideas and support. Dan Horenberger called me and said we needed to talk. After a few weeks, we agreed on a plan, and The Carousel News & Trader was headed for California. I hope the magazine continues for another 25 years plus, as it is a very unique publication and fills a definite niche.
Thank you, and God bless.
Walter Loucks
