Phantasmagorical

Welcome back to the final part of my piece on The House On The Rock in Spring Green, Wisconsin. With all the weird and amazing things that we’ve seen so far, these next two rooms are even more astounding. At 80ft in diameter and 35ft in height, The Carousel is claimed to be the largest in the world. There are 269 creatures and more than 20,000 lights, while hovering overhead, hundreds of mannequins that look like winged rejects from Victoria’s Secret look down on the scene below.

It’s a case of look but don’t touch. The Carousel is not for riding on. It’s interesting to note that there are no horses on this bizarre roundabout. That was an omission deliberately planned by Alex Jordan. Some of the creatures may have originally been horses but he saw to it that they underwent a remarkable transformation in the workshops of The House.

The whirling movement of the Carousel is accompanied by the cacophonous sound of a pneumatic organ accompanied by huge automated drums playing fairground favorites. The sights and sound in this room are almost overwhelming. And here again, we see Jordan’s penchant for including unclothed, well-endowed female figures in his displays, leading us to suppose that he was a bit of a lad for the ladies.

Alex Jordan eventually sold The House to a friend in 1988 but not before he had completed what has to be the most spectacular creation of his fertile imagination, The Organ Room. As the old guide book states, ‘It might well have been designed for a staging of a Jules Verne epic.’ The consoles shown below are purported to be the largest in the world.

Ramps and catwalks allow us to view from all angles the massive hydraulic machinery, enormous pipes, drums, timepieces and brewery tanks that fill this room. You get the impression that Jordan bought up everything he could lay his hands on to make this bizarre and baffling array which suggests an amalgamation of Heath Robinson and Barnum and Bailey. What a show! And as always, it is accompanied by that blaring automated organ music, on this occasion playing The Skater’s Waltz. Phantasmagorical!