Jeffrey Stanton Venice of America: 'Coney Island of the Pacific,' Donahue Publishing: Los Angeles, CA, 198, 176 pp., 1919, 1918, 1917, 1916, 1915, 1914, 1913
"Tom Prior and Fred Church leased space on Ocean Front Walk between the Fraser Pier's two entrances. They planned to introduce a new concept in amusement park rides, a racing carousel. They called their ride the 'Great American Racing Derby'. The inside portion of the ride was a standard carousel with 62 jumping horses and menagerie animals. However, on the outside rim of the 72 foot diameter machine were forty racing horses grouped four abreast in ten distinct races. The horses, which were set in six foot long tracks, would move back and forth as the side rotated, sometimes nosing ahead to gain the lead, other times suddenly falling back. The ride would slowly gain speed until it reached 25-30 mph, then the bell signifying victory for each of the lead horses would ring and the ride would slow down to a stop. The winners of each race would receive free repeat rides.
"I was impossible to determine ahead of time which horse would win since the cables that moved the horses back and forth criss-crossed beneath the platform. The cable pulling the outside horse in one row might be pulling the second horse out in the row ahead. . . . "
[Prior and Church opened their ride February 4, 1917.]