By Jane Schmucker
Special to Farm and Dairy
WOOSTER, Ohio — Dancing girls and daredevil drivers, hypnotists and Hoagland’s Hippodrome show, ostrich and camel races were all featured entertainment at the Wayne County Fair many decades ago.
Neckties were fairly common county fair attire, whether for showing livestock or just walking around as a spectator some 70 years ago.
A few girls showed livestock in 4-H but they were generally not allowed in FFA in the 1950s. And the livestock that was exhibited back then! The hogs appear to have changed almost as much as the farm machinery displays.
Such fair sights came to light again at the Wayne County Fair’s 175th anniversary events, held Aug. 17-18, which included a display of Wayne County fair photos shot by Daily Record of Wooster photographers as well as fair-related advertisements that appeared in the local newspaper from the 1950s to the 1980s.
The old photos and ads in the school building, organized by Schmucker Farms, will be on display during the September fair, with many of the photos appearing in the buildings where those projects will be exhibited.
Collecting old photos in an attempt to recreate the Daily Record newspaper tent at the fair was the original aim of the Schmucker Farms’ effort to show the fair through the years as depicted by local photojournalism.
The Wayne County Public Library now has custody of The Daily Record photographers’ original negatives. The library also has microfilm of the old newspapers. Schmucker Farms, with much technical assistance from Clark Gao, an international student at Columbus College of Art and Design who spent the summer in Wayne County, matched up images that the library provided from old negatives with the original photo captions by poring over microfilmed newspapers.
Whirring through the microfilm, not all of the photos that the Daily Record photographers shot could be found, of course. The photographers were shooting far more photos than were ever printed. So, a few pictures in the Schmucker Farms display likely were seen publicly for the first time last weekend.
Names of the folks in such unpublished pictures were unknown at the start of the pre-fair show. But over the two days about a half dozen were identified.
“That’s my aunt!”
“That’s me!”
“I still have that picture up in my bedroom! And my rabbit’s name was Chi Chi the Chinchilla!”
Schmucker Farms has high hopes that folks in more unpublished photos might be identified before the fair via local historical Facebook groups. And that at the fair even more can be recognized with surety. Many of the folks who showed at the fair in the 1950s are in their 80s today; time is of the essence for identifying fair-goers in 1950s photos.
MORE THAN PHOTOS
Rolling through the microfilm looking for photo captions, we spotted the advertisements that the fair board had placed with its entertainment lineup. And we fell even more in love with the advertisements that local shops had bought listing their fair week specials.
Prices and products, of course, are the basis for much of local history. In 1975, Richard’s Real Italian Sausage was confident that offering a dime off of any purchase would be enough to get 1975 fair-goers to clip its coupon from the Daily Record.
W.G. Dairy Supply in a 1976 advertisement urged, “See our Butler Building at the fair!” with the description, “the huge 30’ x 15’ endwell door in the 60-foot-wide Farmsted II takes a 4-row corn combine and a dual wheel tractor at the same time.”
The same year Harold Cook Inc. opposite the fairgrounds offered the Pacer compact car during fair week for what it called the “ridiculous price” of $3,404.93.
As recently as 1985, Taco Grande on Beall Avenue advertised “your choice of a burrito deluxe for $1 or two for $1 tacos” during fair week.
Not all prices quoted as fair week specials have increased exponentially. In 1977, Kidron Electric advertised “Amana goes to the fair; Savings for everyone” with the examples of a Radarange microwave oven “now only $499” that came free with an Amana Country Cooker stoneware dish that was called a $12.95 value.
The wording of some of the advertisements from 50 years ago or more would never pass public relations today, which, of course makes them all the more interesting.
In 1963, Rich Motors Inc. in Rittman advertised “See her at the Fair: This fabulous Dodge motor home!” with the words “Go anywhere the trails & roads may lead with 200 horsepower V8 engine, power brakes, power steering and automatic transmission (even the lady of the house can take the wheel).”
More than a decade later in a 1974 advertisement for the fair, Thursday night’s demolition derby at 8 p.m. was to be preceded by the fair’s 15th annual tractor pull. “Don’t forget the ‘Powder-Puff’ event for the ladies … this one has everyone running for cover!”
See old photos and advertisements along with tens of thousands of other exhibits and attractions at the 175th edition of the Wayne County Fair from Sept. 7-12 in Wooster.
(Jane Schmucker of Schmucker Farms has written about dozens of county fairs in Ohio over the years as a reporter for the Chillicothe Gazette, the Youngstown Vindicator and the Toledo Blade. But no matter where you’re from, your home county fair likely will always be your favorite. And Schmucker Farms is in the center of Wayne County.)
