Charles I. D. Looff

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Charles I. D. Looff (b. May 24, 1852, Schleswig-Holstein, Denmark; d. July 1, 1918, Long Beach, California) was an amusement park pioneer and a maker of hand-carved carousels. He immigrated to New York City in 1870 and originated the Coney Island style of carousel while working as a carver in a Brooklyn furniture factory. He added the middle initials I.D. to his name when, upon arrival at Ellis Island, he was told he needed a middle initial for his ID. Looff and his wife Anna had six children including amusement park operators Arthur Looff, Charles Looff, William Looff, and Emma Vogel. Looff relocated his family and business to Riverside, Rhode Island in 1895, then Long Beach, California in 1912. With his sons Arthur and William, Looff built the Santa Monica Pier and operated amusement parks and carousels at Santa Monica, Ocean Park, Redondo Beach, Venice Beach, Santa Cruz, and San Francisco. Looff and his wife Anna lived upstairs from his Long Beach carousel factory until his death in 1918. Looff's son Arthur went on to build the Giant Dipper Roller Coaster at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and other attractions.

List of Looff carousels:

• Balmer's Carousel, Balmer's Bathing Pavilion, Coney Island, opened 1875, built while Looff was working in a Brooklyn furniture factory, menagerie, no jumpers, the first of over 25 carousels at Coney Island, burned in the Dreamland fire of 1911
• Feltman's Pavilion, menagerie, no jumpers, built 1880, partially burned in the West Brighton fire of 1899, or possibly earlier because Feltman bought a second carousel by Looff in the 1890's
• Young's Million Dollar Pier, Atlantic City, New Jersey, built 1880
• Unnamed Carousel, Coney Island, operated 1890 to 1905, 3 abreast, menagerie
• Roger Williams Park, Rhode Island, built circa 1893, gone
• Bullock Point, Rhode Island, built circa 1893, gone
• Rocky Point Amusement Park, Rhode Island, built 1901, relocated in 1908 from Lakeside Park in Syracuse, New York after remodel to make stationary horses into jumpers, relocated in 1930 to Goddard Park, Rhode Island
• Slater Park, Pawtucket, Rhode Island, built 1894, fastest Looff carousel, still in use
• Crescent Park, East Providence, Rhode Island, built 1895, National Historic Place, stained glass windows, 4 abreast, showroom for Looff's factory, brass rings, still in use
• Lakeside Park, Port Dalhousie, Ontario, built 1903, moved to its present location in 1921, 69 menagerie animals
• Floyd Moreland Dentzel/Looff Carousel, Casino Pier, Seaside Heights, New Jersey, built 1910, bearings and gears by Looff, figures by Dentzel, Looff, Carmel, and Illions, moved in 1932 from Burlington Park, New Jersey after a fire, still in use
• Looff's Lite A Line, Ocean Park, burned in 1912 fire of Ocean Park Million Dollar Pier
• The Zeum Carousel, Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco, built in 1906 for San Francisco, sent to instead Seattle's Luna Park due to 1906 earthquake, saved from Luna Park fire in 1911, relocated to San Francisco's Playland-At-The-Beach in 1912, kept in storage after Playland closed in 1972, relocated to Shoreline Village in Long Beach in 1982, relocated to San Francisco in 1998, still in use
• Natatorium Park Carousel, Spokane, Washington, built 1909, a wedding gift for Looff's daughter Emma Vogel and her husband Louis Vogel, a banker who owned Natatorium Park. This is believed to be the last carousel on which Looff did much of his own carving. 54 jumpers, three abreast, now located in Riverfront Park, original motor 8.9 mph, replacement motor 7 mph, National Historic Landmark, brass rings, still in use
• Griffith Park, California, Spillman/Looff mix
• Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk Carousel, built 1911, 73 horses including 71 jumpers, 4 abreast, 2 chariots, National Historic Landmark, brass rings, still in use at original location
• Broadway Flying Horses Carousel, Seaport Village, San Diego, California, built circa 1890, formerly at Salisbury Beach, Massachusetts
• Heritage Plantation Museum at Sandwich, Massachusetts, built 1912
• Belmont Park, San Diego, originally at Santa Monica Pier
• Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
• P.O.P. Looff, formerly at Ocean Park
• The Pike Carousel, Long Beach, California, built in 1911, burned down in 1943
• Santa Monica Pier, opened 1922, 44 horses, relocated in 1990 to the Looff Hippodrome, still in use