Lorain County Fair Ad – August 17, 1963

It's Lorain County Fair Week – one of the best weeks of the year.

And to help celebrate, here's a full page ad for the 1963 Lorain County Fair that ran in the Lorain Journal back on August 17, 1963. 

Back in 1963 it was the 108th edition; sixty years later, this year's version is being identified as the 177th Anniversary. Why the discrepancy? According to the fair website, the year 1846 is being used as the inaugural year – so apparently the years that there wasn't a fair don't factor into it any more. It makes it much easier.

The full-page ad is fun to look at. Oddly enough, it has a 'circus' feel to it, with all the clowns. I guess the Journal had a limited amount of clip art back then.

But there's some interesting things in the ad. What jumped out at me was the fact that Leduc's Frosty Follies Ice Show as one of the attractions. (I wrote about Jean Paul Leduc and his Ice Show back here, when it performed at Midway Mall in 1969.)

Aside from fireworks, the International Auto Daredevils is the only other act being promoted. So the fair back then really was about the judging of livestock, harness racing, 4-H Club events, tractor pulls and the Junior Fair – not big name entertainment.

Anyway, the article below, which appeared in the Journal on August 9, 1963 provides some background for the Fair that year. It also notes, "Each year, for the past several years, a new addition has been made to the physical plant of the fairgrounds, and this year it is a 6,000 square-foot building for exhibits on the southern side of the grounds."

Anyone who attends the fair each year no doubt stops at the building shown in the photo, and its lookalike building next door. It's always fun to check out the photographs, cakes, piles of junk antiques, etc.

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Check out this great Fair photo sent to me by longtime blog contributor Todd. 

He wrote, "Since it's Lorain County Fair Week, I thought you might get a kick out of the attached photo. It was taken by Cleveland Plain Dealer Staff Photogragher William A. Ashbolt and was published in the PD along with a nice article. It's of my sister Andrea and me enjoying a candy apple dressed in our matching Indian suits on some kiddie ride. I'm not sure of the year but I look about four years old, so that would make it 1962. 

"My Grandmother Elizabeth Schinder loved taking us to the Fair to look at the animals, climb on the tractors and eat.  She would always "start" our candy apples since our mouths were to little to crack the hard candy shell. Even though I no longer live in Lorain, I have a soft spot for the Fair."

Todd calls Nashville home these days. He has left some great comments over the years about working at the Journal, which he says was his first real job after college. Thanks for sharing, Todd!

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Be sure to visit some of my 27 other posts about the Lorain County Fair over the years. (When you visit old posts through a link like this, when you get to the bottom of the lonnnnng page, be sure to click on the 'Older Posts' link on the lower right corner to bring up the rest of them.)