[OBSCURA] "The diving horse at Hanlan's Point"

[rfmcdonald]

Some days ago, Facebook's algorithms recycled Derek Flack's 2014 blogTO post noting that this photo is the most popular one at the City of Toronto Archives' Flickr site.

In it, a white horse is plunging head first into the still water off Hanlan's Point. In a second it will crash below the surface, swim to the top, and do it all over again a short time later.

The horse in the picture was named either King or Queen and was one of a pair owned by J.W. Gorman, a travelling American entertainer who appeared at amusement parks in Boston, New York, and other parts of New England, as well as Toronto.

At the time these photos were taken, Hanlan's Point was home to a popular amusement park that featured a wooden roller coaster, merry-go-round, athletic field, and water shows. The diving horses, a popular form of entertainment, would walk up a ramp to the top of the diving platform and either jump or be dropped through a trap door.

It's not clear whether the horses enjoyed performing the stunt but it's hard to imagine the show maintaining its allure if the animals had to be poked and prodded to the top of the ramp (though that does appear to have been an issue in later years in the U.S.) They clearly weren't injured by the fall, either - King and Queen performed several times a day.

Then, there were 6,500 views. As of this posting, there are 10,965.