In the movie “The Sting” there is a part where Billie says to Henry “things are a little slow. So I’d like to open up the round for the girls”. The round being an indoor carousel.
Questions:
What the hell was the deal with having an indoor merry go-round? Why was it there? Was this ever addressed anywhere in the movie?
Why did the whores want to ride on it? Was that a big treat for adults in the 30’s? BFD if you ask me. What was the deal?
I believe that that was filmed at a real, vintage indoor merry go-round at the Santa Monica pier that is older than the events in the film.
Why indoors? To protect it from the elements.
Why there? It was in an area with all sorts of carnival-like entertainment which probably included games, food, gambling and whores. You obviously kept the kids away from some areas.
Why did the whores want to ride it? They were bored and wanted something to do. Why not? It can be fun to act like a kid for a while.
According to Wikipedia:
“Gondorff (Paul Newman) is a seemingly broken-down con artist on the run from the FBI, living in the back of an amusement park that doubles as a tavern and brothel.”
Given that the action takes place in Chicago, and knowing the type of weather Chicago “enjoys” (especially in regard to the length of its winter), an indoor carousel makes logical sense.
The thing about the “amusement park” that I don’t think is explored in any great detail is that it is likely as “broken down” as Gondorff is. The lack of customers means that the hookers have the run of the place, or at least the carousel. Maybe it was a treat. It surely wasn’t used as a way to display them.
Thanks for the replies!
Now I get “why” the merry go round was there.
Is there a cultural explanation (considering the time frame the movie occurs in) as to why the girls would want to ride on it and why it would be such a big treat?
I’ve honestly watched this entire movie over 20 times (at least! I kid you not) over the last 35 years, and this is the one scene that’s always puzzled me.
I’m 66 and would still love to ride a merry-go-round. I think the last time I rode one I was 30. It was a beautiful old restored one. When I was 50 I went back to the same place, but it was no longer there.
BTW, in that scene or another in that same setting, do you remember how Newman breaks some ice into water and submerges his face or head into it? He sometimes did that in real life. He also did that in another movie, but I can’t think which one.
Another bit of trivia: I believe that Redford grew up in Santa Monica. That same pier may have been in his movie This Property Is Condemned, I think.
Indeed, I’ve ridden that indoor merry-go-round at Santa Monica when I was a kid. It’s definitely the one in the movie.
Remember the time frame, and what was available then if you had nothing to do but couldn’t really leave where you were. There were books and magazines, board and card games, various puzzles, and listening to the radio. Those get a little dull after a while. There was no TV, and movies cost money and took you away from working for two hours or so. So what’s left?
Well, if a carousel is under the brothel, and neither the ladies nor the carousel has any customers, why not let the ladies ride the carousel? It’s a bit of a change from the ordinary and usual, and it’s fun, too.
I love the carousel – the artwork looks absolutely right for the period.
As for why it’s there, it not only factually makes sense (and I could see the girls wanting to ride the thing on a slow day – they probably see the kids riding it all the time, and wouldn’t mind a go), it’s real reason nin the movie is symbolic – it starts up for the first time right after Gondorff announces that he will, indeed, work the con (and Gondorff is the one fixing it and getting it going, just like the con – a complex piece of machinery that’s fun to look at).
The Philadelphia Toboggan Company’s indoor carousel at the Santa Monica Pier.
I assumed that because the girls were working all the time, they didn’t get much free time to enjoy the amusement park. Merry-go-rounds and carousels were the height of fun…still are, in my opinion…and a lot of those girls probably had crappy childhoods and enjoyed being able to just have fun that they might have missed as a child. Going to an amusement park wasn’t an everyday thing back then…I’m sure some of the girls, if they came from small towns, may never have been to one as a child or ever seen a carousel.
Never thought of this the way y’all are.
My take,
The round etc. was the legitimate business behind which everything else operated. The Chief of Police and other “regulars” were more than welcome to drop in whenever they wanted, Bob the Plumber … not so much. Opening the round was announcing to those non-VIPs like Bob that they were open for general business.
Kinda hard to hide an illegitimate business behind a legitimate one if the legitimate business doesn’t look like it actually exists.
CMC fnord!
Me too. I grew up in West L.A.
I rode that carrousel often when growing up in West LA and going to the beach at Santa Monica. I enjoyed *The Sting *but for one anachronism: the use of ragtime music in a film set in the depression era. Ragtime was big just after the first World War and was pretty much shoved aside by the Jazz Age and the music of Paul Whiteman, Bix Beiderbeck, Louis Armstrong and the like.
It would be like setting a film in the early sixties and using the music of Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman and the Dorsey Brothers.
Actually it’s peak was just before WWI. On the plus side, it brought the genius of Scott Joplin out of obscurity.
Or 2001 using Richard and Johann Strauss. What was that about?!
(Actually I loved the music in both. The scores, IMHO, were used to set the mood, not the time/place.)
I Am Not A Hooker but I still think it’s fun to ride a merry-go-round now and then. There’s one up in the Berkeley hills and it’s fun to take visitors there - everyone from little kids to grandparents has a great time, I think it’s just sheer innocent fun. Like going to the park and getting on the swings.
Forgive the bump, but…I’m not even sure merry-go-rounds were strictly for kids in those days. I remember stories about my Italian relatives in the 1920s, and it seems that back then, riding the carousel was one of those things courting couples did. Fun for a kid, but also romantic for young adults. Also, in the silent film It (Clara Bow’s star-making role), there was a scene in what I assume was Coney Island. A bunch of people, all adults or at least teenagers, sat on this round wooden platform as it spun around and one by one spun them all off. What do you think people did before TV?