For more than 40 years, there was an operating carousel bar in the Copley Plaza’s dining establishment. Called the Merry-Go-Round Bar, the whimsical watering hole off of the hotel’s lobby operated from 1934 to 1978. It opened shortly after Prohibition was repealed, much to the delight of Joseph B. Ely, Massachusetts’ governor at the time. A supporter of the 21st amendment, Ely, along with then senator David I. Walsh, celebrated the opening of the Merry-Go-Round Bar with a couple of martinis.