Found these articles [partial information here] - about the winner of the auction.
Lisa
Rare carousel sold to mystery bidder
Author: JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN-STAFF
SUNDAY REPUBLICAN--Springfield,Ma.
A rare antique carousel generated a top bid of $400,000 yesterday at an auction that attracted interest from around the country as well as local controversy.
The winning bidder was whisked into a nearby vehicle guarded by state troopers. Auctioneer David Norton confirmed quickly that the bid was valid, but said the bidder refused to identify himself to the press or make comments.
Based on his initial conversation with the top bidder, Norton said he did not believe the buyer planned to break up the carousel and sell its 42 hand-carved horses individually to collectors, a concern of those who want to see the carousel preserved. "That's the impression we have," Norton said.
The buyer actually will pay $400,000 plus another $40,000 which represents a 10 percent buyer's fee. He has 30 days to remove the carousel from the former Belchertown State School where the auction was held, Norton said.
Union-News (Springfield, MA)
April 27, 1993
The man who bought a rare antique carousel here Saturday for $400,000 has been identified as a representative of a Michigan-based amusement park.
State officials identified the buyer as Michael Moodenbaugh, 30, who purchased the carousel and its 42 hand-carved horses with a bid of $400,000, plus a $40,000 buyer's fee, on behalf of the Island of Boblo Co., a Michigan-based amusement park firm, according to Gary Lambert.
Lambert is deputy purchasing agent for the state Executive Office of Administration and Finance, which handled the auction for the state.
At the end of the auction Saturday, auctioneer David Norton said the winning bidder would not identify himself to the press or make comments.
Phone calls yesterday to Moodenbaugh's office in Wyandotte, Mich., south of Detroit, were not returned.
Speculation was rampant among leaders of a local group that tried to block the auction that the carousel will now be divided up, with the individual horses sold at a profit.
The Friends of the Belchertown Carousel Inc. had been lobbying the state to delay the sale or let them have six months to match Saturday's highest bidder, in order to keep the carousel in one piece and in this area.
Moodenbaugh and his partners bought the amusement park on Boblo Island, a small Canadian island in the Detroit River, for $3.7 million at a bankruptcy auction in February, according to the Detroit Free Press.
Norton Auctioneers of Coldwater, Mich., which handled the auction of the carousel here on Saturday, also handled the Boblo Island auction, the Free Press said.
Union-News (Springfield, MA)
May 5, 1993
Seattle businessman to sell antique carousel in pieces
Author: DAVID BERGENGREN-STAFF
UNION-NEWS (Springfield, Mass.)
The worst fears of local afficionados who tried, but couldn't afford to buy the antique carousel from the former Belchertown State School, were confirmed yesterday.
The purchaser plans to break it up and sell the 42 hand-carved horses individually to clear a profit.
"This is precisely what we predicted, and precisely what we were trying to prevent," said Art Fiorelli, a leading member of the Friends of the Belchertown Carousel Inc., a regional group that tried to save the carousel and keep it here.
"The state made a huge mistake" in selling the carousel, Fiorelli said.
Fiorelli said the Friends group has requested the state inspector general, as well as the attorney general, state auditor and the House of Representatives' oversight committee, to investigate the state's handling of the auction.
Michael Moodenbaugh, a Seattle-based businessman, paid $400,000 plus a $40,000 buyer's fee for the carousel at an auction April 24.
Speculation was that the carousel was bound for a Detroit-area amusement park he and partners purchased at auction in February. Phone inquiries to Moodenbaugh's office in Wyandotte, Mich., have gone unanswered for the past week, but Moodenbaugh has told the Detroit Free Press he plans to auction off the carousel piece by piece.
Moodenbaugh told a Free Press reporter that Massachusetts should have sold the carousel horses individually, to maximize its profits on the sale. Resale of the individual horses should bring $750,000 to $800,000, he told the paper.
Union-News (Springfield, MA)
July 14, 1993
Carousel to be sold one horse at a time
Author: JANE KAUFMAN-STAFF
UNION-NEWS (Springfield, Mass.)
One by one, the 42 horses from the Belchertown State School carousel will be placed on the auction block Oct. 17 in California.
The event will be held in San Francisco's Fort Mason Center building, auctioneer David A. Norton said yesterday in a telephone interview.
Norton auctioned the carousel as a whole unit for the state in April to Seattle businessman Michael Moodenbaugh for $400,000. The new owner chose Norton, the head of a Michigan auction house, to conduct the sale.
The auctioneer would not speculate about how much the antiques would bring but said he did not expect Moodenbaugh to reap a significant profit.
"They're all going to be sold individually to the highest bidder," Norton said.
Moodenbaugh owns two amusement parks outside Seattle and Detroit, where he plans to display the horses prior to the auction, Norton said.
"He'll get a lot of publicity out of them," Norton said. He said Moodenbaugh does not plan to paint the horses.
Union-News (Springfield, MA)
October 19, 1993
Carousel nets less than hoped
Author: COSMO MACERO JR.-STAFF
UNION-NEWS (Springfield, Mass.)
BELCHERTOWN - It's gone forever now. In the wake of a West Coast auction that dismembered an historic merry-go-round Saturday, the remaining question is how could one circus ride make so many people unhappy?
And as a busy Legislative committee studies what not to do at the next sale of surplus state property, the trail of money from the former Belchertown State School carousel now includes one tragic stop.
Seattle entrepreneur Michael Moodenbaugh, who bought the carousel at an auction last April for $440,000, today lies in a coma in a Toledo, Ohio, hospital after sustaining multiple injuries in an auto accident last month.
Moodenbaugh pulled in only $451,269 when bargain-hunting collectors made off with the hand-carved steeds, rare Stein and Goldstein specimens from 1912, at a San Francisco auction. He had hoped to fetch as much as $800,000 by selling off the 42-horse carousel piece by piece. Ohio authorities said Moodenbaugh was involved in a one-car crash on a Toledo road Sept. 24. He was listed in critical condition yesterday at Toledo's Riverside Hospital.
Auctioneer David Norton, who handled the San Francisco sale as well as the state auction of the carousel in April, said between transportation costs, auction fees and $8,000 worth of new display stands that Moodenbaugh added to the pieces, his total outlay was nearly $460,000. He called his client's hoped-for profit figures "unrealistic."
"After owning it for six months, including new stands, interest and transportation, these people actually lost money . . . which we told them they would," said Norton, who heads a Michigan auctioneer firm that carries his own name.
Union-News (Springfield, MA)
October 6, 1995
Carousel horses pay dividends to trust
Author: FRED CONTRADA
STAFF-UNION-NEWS (Springfield, Mass.)
The carousel was sold in April 1993 to Seattle businessman Michael Moodenbaugh for $440,000.
Of that amount, $60,000 was paid to the auctioneer and the remaining $380,000 was used to start the trust fund.
Carousel aficionados raised an outcry when Moodenbaugh, who has operated amusement parks outside Detroit and Seattle, auctioned the 42 horses off individually only a few months later. He barely recouped his investment, fetching a total of $451,269.
From: Lynne
Sent: 9/1/2004 10:55 AM
Hi Lisa, this is great research thanks for posting on the site! I never knew this ride existed until someone told me about it right around the time of it's auction. What a shame it got broken up so others can't enjoy a ride. It is so sad that over the last few years many great carousels got broken up for collectors.
I was devastated when Whalom Park carousel was broken up. I thought it would be around forever. The people up in Hull are making sure the Paragon Carousel stays right where it belongs on the beach. I give them a lot of credit for saving an irreplaceable ride.
I was up at Nantasket a few weekends ago and there were many happy kids and adults riding that carousel, that is the way it should be!
I found a whole bunch of articles about this carousel in the
Springfield Union-News.
Here is part of one that identifies the carousel. There were all
sorts of efforts to save it, but the State approved it's sale so the auction was held. See my next message for the end of the sad story.
This article included a photo, but they are not part of the database so you would have to see the microfilm of the paper to get it.
Lisa
From: Lisa (Original Message)Sent: 9/1/2004 3:55 AM
November 2, 1992
Doris Stockton
Belchertown fights to keep carousel
Author: DAVID BERGENGREN-STAFF
UNION-NEWS (Springfield, Mass.)
BELCHERTOWN - The state school here is scheduled to close in the next few months, but if Doris Stockton has her way, Pinky, Smokey, Bold Warrior, Mr. Ed and 38 of their friends will be sticking around to provide years of enjoyment for whomever next inhabits the site.
The 42 hand-carved wooden horses are mounts for one of only three surviving carousels built by Stein & Goldstein of Brooklyn, N.Y., in the early years of this century. The other two are at Bushnell Park in Hartford, Conn., and at Central Park in New York City.
State favors auction
The state would like to auction off the carousel, but Stockton, who heads the carousel task force for the town's Belchertown State School Development Committee, says the carousel is an asset that should remain in town.
Free appraisal
She has persuaded Frederick Fried, a well-known authority on carousels and American folk art, to make a free appraisal of the Stein & Goldstein housed at the state school.
William Finkenstein, founder of the New England Carousel Museum in Bistol, Conn., has promised help with any restoration effort, Stockton said.
In 1920, there were about 5,000 hand-carved wooden carousels in the United States, she said. Now there are approximately 70.
Little is known about the state-school carousel's history before 1930.
In about 1930, Stockton said, it was brought to the Forest Lake Amusement Park in Palmer, where it remained until 1947. In that year, Arthur E. Westwell, a dentist at Belchertown State School who had been raising funds to buy the carousel for residents of the school, purchased it for $800. After repairs were made, the carousel opened for business in 1948.
Left outside during the winters, the carousel by 1950 was in such a state of disrepair that it was dismantled and parts of it were stored in the basements of state school buildings.
In 1960, the Belchertown State School Friends Association stepped in, raised funds, repaired the carousel again, and this time erected a building in which to house it. The carousel reopened on June 15, 1963.
The friends association, a parents group led by Mary O'Neil of Springfield, put together an incredible effort and many, many hours of hard work to restore the carousel, Stockton said. "I'm just so impressed with the work they did," she said.
Carousel shelved
By 1978, however, faced with repairs and dwindling use, the state school stopped using the carousel altogether.
Carousel aficionados still knew, however, that this carousel was something special. There was even an attempt to steal Ginger, one of two horses with the Stein & Goldstein "signature" on its flank, and Sir Rod, a knight's horse in excellent condition. The two thieves, allegedly hired by an East Longmeadow woman, bungled the heist, however, and eventually all three parties pleaded guilty and were sentenced to two years on probation. The woman was also fined.
Hi Lisa, Yes, the Belchertown Carousel sadly was dispersed. In an effort to preserve the memory of this lovely treasure, I did do a painting featuring four of the horses with 2 signature horses entitled 'FOUR BOYS FROM BELCHERTOWN' i ALSO HAVE PRINTS AVAILABLE....iT IS NOT ON MY ONLINE GALLERY AT THIS TIME, but you can view my gallery of carousel art at www.carousels.com/landers.htm I paint to preserve the nostalgia and history of antique carousels as a tribute to their beauty and art.......Thank you for this message. If you should be interested in seeing this painting, I will try to get a photo to you. Stay well and keep riding, Arlene Landers
From: Lynne Sent: 9/1/2004 10:55 AM Hi Arlene! Great to see you here! Your artwork is so beautiful! Cheers! Lynne
Hi Lynne, Great to hear from you! Will get you a photo of the Belchertown painting....Hope all is well with you...Stay well, Arlene