The Griffith Park Merry-Go-Round, the Los Angeles carousel where Walt Disney is said to have sat on a bench and dreamed up Disneyland, has a small team of volunteers working to get it spinning again, and three of them come from Walt Disney Imagineering.
The carousel turned 100 this year, but it has been shuttered since the COVID-19 pandemic apart from a brief, limited run in 2022. The Los Angeles Times reported that the effort is led by Tracy James of the city’s Department of Recreation and Parks, with Imagineer Kurt Sawitskas studying the ride’s machinery. Sawitskas recruited two co-workers, Troy Leverton and Pim Renting, to help.
The three Imagineers are volunteering, unpaid and on their own time, and they are not there as representatives of the Walt Disney Company.
A Century Old And Showing It
The merry-go-round was built in 1926 by the Spillman Engineering Co. and first ran in San Diego before moving to Griffith Park in 1937. Its horses include work by master carvers Charles Looff and Charles Carmel. The ride originally had 68 horses. One of them is now at Disneyland and another is with a former owner, and the 66 that remain have seen better days. Many are weathered, and critters have chewed away a lot of the horse-hair tails.
Even so, Sawitskas says the carousel is still mostly intact. “Honestly, I don’t think carousels were ever intended to last 100 years,” he told the paper. “We want to honor it and make it run again.”
James called the carousel “the jewel in the middle of the city.”
Why Disney Fans Care
As the story goes, Walt Disney regularly brought his daughters to the merry-go-round on Saturdays. Watching them ride while he waited on a bench, he began imagining a park where parents and children could have fun together. That idea became Disneyland, which opened in 1955, and King Arthur Carrousel has turned in Fantasyland since opening day.
Disneyland still marks its history every July 17, and this year the park celebrated its 71st birthday with a special cavalcade and a message from Walt. The Griffith Park ride is where that story started.
How Long The Restoration Could Take
The city approved a deal of about $1 million to buy the carousel in August 2025, and it is now under city control. The restoration is expected to take at least two years, and James estimates the cost will top $3 million or $4 million. No reopening date has been set.
For now, the merry-go-round is usually locked up. When it does run again, Disney fans will be able to ride the same carousel Walt watched his daughters ride.
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