The Harmonaires were the headliners at the 1964 Lorain County Fair, as noted in the ad above, which appeared in the Journal on August 25, 1964. As the photo from the August 21, 1954 Journal notes, the singing and recording group had appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show.
The group was based out of Columbus, Ohio. Here they are on one of their few recordings, which consist of a few 78 rpms.
You can read more about the history of the Harmonaires on musician, historian and author Arnett Howard's blog here.
As for the other entertainment highlight of the 1964 Lorain County Fair, what would a fair be without an auto thrill show? But instead of the Hurricane Hell Drivers, the Fair featured the Rotroff All-Girl Auto Thrill Show, as noted in the ad below (from the August 27, 1964 Journal).
This photo and caption from the same edition of the Journal tells a little about one of the thrill show drivers, Pat Jackson.
And here's a souvenir program from 1960.
This spread from the program gives us a look at some of the comely drivers, including Sylvia Haynes.
The Rotroff All-Girl Auto Thrill Show was scheduled for two shows on the last night of the Fair. As an article from the Journal of August 29, 1964 noted, "a deluge hit the area just as the curtain was lowered on the second and final performance of the all-girl Rotroff auto thrill show."
Today's Lorain County Fair usually end with a Demolition Derby on Sunday night. I work with one of the demolition derby drivers, who had a busy summer at the various fairs. He's told me some fascinating behind-the-scene tales of what goes through the drivers' minds at these things, and how it gets pretty personal when you encounter drivers and teams from earlier derbies in the season! I wish him good luck this Sunday, and I hope he creams those punks who ganged up on him a few weeks ago at another metal-crunching ordeal!
I think that the oddest that I saw at the Fair was a process by which you could have the exterior of your car coated with suede; this was 1966, and the befuzzed car on exhibit was a '66 Mustang wrapped in green suede. Somehow, this never caught on. (Hmmm, I wonder...oh well!)
I have seen a few suede cars driving around. One in Lorain back then was a Corvair. It must have been blowing a lot of oil as the yellow fur was all black around the rear of the car.
2 comments:
I think that the oddest that I saw at the Fair was a process by which you could have the exterior of your car coated with suede; this was 1966, and the befuzzed car on exhibit was a '66 Mustang wrapped in green suede.
Somehow, this never caught on.
(Hmmm, I wonder...oh well!)
I have seen a few suede cars driving around. One in Lorain back then was a Corvair. It must have been blowing a lot of oil as the yellow fur was all black around the rear of the car.
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