1969 Lorain County Fair Ad – August 19

Continuing our look back at the 1969 Lorain County Fair...

Here's the fair schedule for Wednesday, August 20th, 1969. As you can see the Grandstand attraction that day was the Hurricane Hell Drivers featuring Dan Fleenor.

1969 Program (Courtesy of WorthPoint)

As I noted in a past Fair post, Lorain Countians must have really enjoyed the Hell Drivers, since they appeared at the Lorain County Fair many times, including the 1956 edition (where Jack Kochman's Hell Drivers appeared) and the 1966 fair (where Dan Fleenor and his crew performed). Fleenor and his drivers would be back for the 1972 Lorain County Fair.

Here’s a little taste of the Hurricane Hell Drivers courtesy of YouTube.

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There's an abundance of newspaper clippings of Dan Fleenor and his Hell Drivers online, which provides a nice description of the act over the years. Fleenor's career with this kind of daredevil entertainment dates back to the 1940s. In the mid-1950s, he was General Manager of Calvacade of Canadian Hell Drivers. His name was also associated with Dan Fleenor's Parisian Hell Drivers during that time period.

(Courtesy Flickr site of Randy Regier)

This article from the Feb. 5, 1963 Tampa Times explains the corporate relationship between the various Hell Driver thrill shows. With one corporation in control, it keeps them from competing with each other and overlapping appearances at the various venues.

And here are some more vintage newspaper articles dating from the early 1960s to the late 1970s.

The Times and Democrat - Sept 22, 1962 

The Escanaba Daily Press - Aug 9, 1963 

The Morning Call - June 22, 1969

The Escanaba Daily Press - August 10, 1976 

Kingsport Times News - October 3, 1976

Dan Fleenor passed away in November 1989.