By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Nichola Masciulli was known around Sea Isle City simply as Nick or “Pop.”
He ran an amusement business called Marconi’s Carousel, where children rode a merry-go-round featuring 44 beautifully hand-carved horses. The ensuing years saw an expansion that included three stores and the addition of another ride, called “The Whip.”
The merry-go-round and The Whip entertained countless visitors to the shore before the amusement site was destroyed in the epic 1962 Ash Wednesday storm that devastated virtually all of Sea Isle in a colossal blow by Mother Nature.
Now, 60 years later, memories of Marconi’s Carousel have been revived following the announcement last week that one of the merry-go-round horses saved from the storm rubble in 1962 has been donated to the Sea Isle City Historical Museum.
Tom McMackin, Masciulli’s grandson, said the storm ruined the family’s amusement business. Sea Isle condemned the damaged property where Marconi’s Carousel was located at 43rd Street and the Boardwalk, paying Masciulli $7,000 for the land, McMackin said.
“The whole experience of the storm of 1962 was extremely painful to our family. That was our heritage. We looked forward to running the carousel. To have that taken from us was painful,” he recalled in an interview Tuesday.
McMackin was 16 when the storm struck. As a teenager, he swept the floors of the carousel and also collected the iron and brass rings that were grabbed by the riders.
One of the 44 horses on the merry-go-round had McMackin’s name on it. It was a silver horse that had blonde hair and the image of a six-shooter in a holster carved into the saddle.
McMackin isn’t familiar with the carousel horse that was donated to the Sea Isle City Historical Museum by its owner, Ann Bacon, of Chestnut Hill, Pa. Standing about 4½ feet high and 5 feet long, the wood horse includes a beautifully sculpted mane, leather stirrups, life-like glass eyes and the image of an eagle carved into the saddle.
Ann Bacon, 74, said in an interview with SeaIsleNews.com last week that her late father, Edward Bacon, purchased the horse only a day or two after the storm and that it remained in her family’s possession for the next 60 years.
“As we were driving around, we encountered the Boardwalk and the destroyed carousel. I said, ‘Look at those horses.’ I always wanted a hobby horse when I was a girl,” recalled Ann Bacon, who was just 14 years old during the 1962 storm.
Wanting to please his daughter, Ann’s father arranged to buy a carousel horse that was lying in the rubble but was not destroyed. The Bacons’ neighbor, whose name Ann Bacon no longer remembers, also bought a carousel horse.
Over the years, Ann Bacon kept the horse with her when she lived in Bucks County, Pa., and then in Maine. Most recently, she had it in her house in Chestnut Hill. She named the horse “Alice” in memory of her beloved late aunt, Alice Bacon.
The horse is already on display in the museum. A formal welcoming ceremony will be scheduled later to celebrate the horse’s donation.
Ron Kovatis, president of the museum, emphasized that there are no plans to undertake a restoration. He believes a restoration would rob the horse of its historic significance.
“If we restore it, it would destroy the historical value. This is what survived the storm and the 60 years that followed,” Kovatis said, noting the horse’s current condition and its faded paint. “This is history. This is the wear and tear of the storm and its survival. This is aging.”
The ornate, wood horse was carved by the famed Philadelphia craftsmen and carousel makers, Gustav Dentzel and his son, William, in 1905, Ann Bacon said.
At one point, Ann Bacon had the old layers of paint removed. A woodworker in Maine also patched the horse for her to repair some damage. Bacon explained that she did not have the horse restored because she wanted to keep it “historically pure.”
McMackin, 76, now retired and living in Fort Myers, Fla., said he plans to visit the museum, probably next summer, to see the carousel horse. Previously, his family had donated old photos of Nick Masciulli and Marconi’s Carousel to the museum.
“While the memory of those tragic days brings great pain to my family, the memory of ‘Pop’ Nick Masciulli gives us great pride,” McMackin said of the 1962 storm.
Masciulli was an Italian immigrant who came to the United States in his early twenties and settled in Philadelphia, where he worked as a carpenter and raised his family.
After the Great Depression, he traveled with his family to Sea Isle and bought the carousel, which was in need of much repair at that time, McMackin said. Masciulli revitalized the carousel by expanding the business and adding The Whip, a ride that featured an oval track.
But after the 1962 storm, Masciulli never returned to the amusement business. He died in 1972.
“Pop was a quiet man. I have seen him laugh and I have seen him cry and through it all he never had a harsh word to say about anyone,” McMackin said. “He loved his family and he loved the sea. Pop loved this country and dedicated his life to bringing joy to everyone he met.”
