On National Carousel Day, we pay tribute to Jimmy McCullough (1929-2013), who learned the carousel business from his father and began his career working on Coney Island's Steeplechase and Stubbman carousels. Listen online to his oral history recorded by the Coney Island History Project in 2009.
Working in Coney Island was a family business going back generations for Jimmy, who was a descendent of both the Tilyou and the Stubbman families. He worked on a total of four carousels in Coney Island including the B&B Carousell, which he bought from his cousin Willy Bishoff. Jimmy and his family owned and operated numerous small amusement parks and carousels in Coney Island, including the historic carousels that are now in Prospect Park and Flushing Meadows Park. After McCullough's Kiddie Park was forced to close when its lease was not renewed by Thor Equities, 2013 became the first year since 1862 that there has not been a Tilyou descendant operating in Coney Island.
Photo Credit: Charles Denson
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