The story behind the toothpick creations of Billy Burke
Below you will find links to videos of complete carnivals and by clicking the links above you can watch videos of individual rides and attractions.
Click on the above photo to launch another window in which a video will load. This video contains the entire two minute interview of Billy with a television reporter in 1981 at the Solano County (CA) Fairgrounds. The video file is quite large and will take some time to load; thus it is loading in a separate window. If you continue looking at the main website you will know the video has loaded when you hear the sounds from the video starting.
Click on the above photo to launch another window in which a video will load. This video contains the amateur video taken of one of Burke's mini-carnivals which resides at the Musee Mecanique museum on San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf. This carnival was definitely smaller in stature than some of his others but large in detail. Notice the bull rider, the Shooting Gallery and other animated features in the carnival. Please be patient while the video loads.
This video is one of Burke’s carnivals that we discovered on the internet in some public domain archives. This was a carnival that he built while in prison. You’ll notice that this one has pretty much the same layout as the others---it is even called Playland---but this carnival also includes a double Ferris Wheel.
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