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The Minnesota State Fair is in progress. For a look back at some history of the Fair, please visit this link.
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My view of the 2020 Minnesota State Fair Food Parade.
Like many large public events, the 2020 Minnesota State Fair was cancelled due to COVID-19. While we understand the decision, it was very disappointing, since I have attended every Minnesota State Fair since 1971, and most (or possibly all) of them from 1961-69. (I have slowly come to grips with the issues surrounding missing it in 1970. My family had just returned home from a month-long vacation, and even though we were home for the last day of the fair, they deiced not to go.)
The fair had been cancelled in 1945 due to wartime fuel shortages. Even though VJ Day came before the start date, by that point, I assume it was too late to plan it. It was cancelled in 1946 due to another public health emergency, namely, a polio epidemic. And this year, a solid run from 1947-2019 was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since this year would be my 50th consecutive, it was disappointing when the news came down that it had been cancelled.
But even though it wasn’t the same, I still managed to attend twice this year, kind of. I did my best to keep my streak alive.
The first announcement came a few months ago that the fair’s fine art exhibition would take place as scheduled. Tickets were about $10 per person to get into the art exhibit, but most importantly, it would allow admission to the fairgrounds. Even though we were supposed to “proceed directly” from the outer gate to the art exhibit, we were able to take our time, and at least walk through the fairgrounds one time. Below, I have four videos that I shot during the visit my kids and I made. There were people about, but knowing that it was the second day of the fair, the absence of large crowds was eerie. In the videos, I do my best to narrate the sites visible along Cosgrove Avenue. If you want the opportunity to get in yourself, there are still a few hundred tickets available, which you can purchase at this link.
At the food parade, stay in your vehicle unless, well, it’s urgent.
After the art show was announced, there was another announcement of an opportunity to visit the fairgrounds. They conducted a “food parade,” in which you could enter the fairgrounds by car, and were able to purchase a limited selection of state fair food items from your car, similar to a drive-up window of a restaurant. Tickets to this well publicized event sold out immediately, but we were able to nab one from a neighbor on Nextdoor.
Between the two, my personal preference was the art show. One attraction of the fair is greasy expensive food, and the food parade provided that. But for me, the chance to walk the fairgrounds, even just a portion, made it feel like I’m now allowed to say that I attended for my 50th consecutive year.
I hope you enjoy the videos, and if you decide to go, there are a few hundred tickets left for the art show. You need to purchase tickets for a specific date and time. While the food parade is continuing, all of the available tickets were snatched up in minutes. While they might be available from scalpers at inflated prices, I don’t think they would be worth any premium over the face value. The art show, on the other hand, gives you the chance to say that you went to the State Fair in 2020, at a reasonable price. It will be a bittersweet visit, but better than nothing.
You can view some of my previous posts about the Minnesota State Fair at this link.
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Part 2:
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Part 4:
This article appeared a hundred years ago this month in the September 1919 issue of Talking Machine World.
MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL, September 6. Everybody went to the big Minnesota state fair, August 20 to September 6. It was the biggest fair ever held either in Minnesota or any other state. The attendance on Labor Day was 201,619 and with fine weather predicted the turnstile count for the show should have been in the neighborhood of 600 000.
Music was in the air throughout the eight days of the fair. Four big military bands, the “Million Dollar” Sunset Division band, the 151st Field Artillery band, the Minnesota State band and Thaviu’s concert band, with a score of smaller organizations and a hundred or more talking machines, kept music ringing in the ears of every visitor.
Only a small number of the Twin City dealers deemed it to their advantage to make displays at the show, but those who were there were amply repaid for their efforts. In the first place the attendance was unprecedentedly large and then a change has come over the ruralites, for they are no longer afraid to spend money.
The exhibitors were Laurence H. Lucker and the Minnesota Phonograph Co., G. Sommers & Co., M. L. McGinnis & Co., the Northwestern Music House and the Vista Talking Machine Co. in connection with Hochman Bros., Minneapolis.
A life-sized photograph of The Wizard himself attracted attention to “the phonograph with a soul” shown and demonstrated by Laurence H. Lucker and the Minnesota Phonograph Co. That the people of the Northwest are familiar with the Edison products was amply testified by the throngs about the booth. A very complete line of cabinet machines was on display together with some period cases.
The center of attraction in the Sommers booth was the new Pathé Actuelle. About twenty Pathé machines were on exhibition. Demonstrators expatiated upon the advantages of the Pathé Sapphire ball and the durability of the Pathé records.
Starr phonographs and Gennett records were shown by M. L McGinnis & Co. Mr. McGinnis, who is a veteran piano man, has now become a phonograph enthusiast and almost has been weaned away from his old love. Four fine types of the $300 models of the Starr machines formed the most conspicuous feature of the exhibit.
Linderman and Columbia phonographs, together with Boland band instruments and Mathushek pianos, completely filled the extensive space obtallied by the Northwestern Music Co. President Boland was in charge of the show and was full of enthusiasm for the success of his venture at the fair. His house, while handling a full line of Columbia Grafonolas and records, is pushing the Linderman phonograph, in the manufacture of which the company is interested.
New in the state fair field was the Vista talking machine, made at Port Washington, Wis., and six other places. The concern also makes the Paramount records. Its display at the fair was made in conjunction with Hochman Bros., dealers at 416 East Hennepin avenue, Minneapolis. P. F. Moses, of the Chicago headquarters, is taking the exhibit about the country and is signing Vista contracts with many merchants.
Welcome to OneTubeRadio.com. This blog covers a variety of subjects, including radio history, Minnesota history, World War I, World War II, and scouting.
Minnesota State Fair, 1915.
Today, we offer these images of the Minnesota State Fair as it appeared a hundred years ago in 1915. The scene above is the bandstand. Visible in the background is the dome of the Agriculture Building. A closer images of this building is also shown here, from the fair’s 1915 annual report.
Bride, groom, and pilot at 1922 aeronautical wedding at grandstand.
The grandstand, in the 1915 postcard shown below, is immediately recognizable to a modern visitor. As previously reported here, in 1922, the grandstand served as the wedding venue of Edwin Moline and Zelma Olson, who were married aboard an airplane flying above the grandstand. The presiding minister, Rev. E.A. Jordan, at 220 pounds, was too heavy to fit inside the airplane along with the pilot, bride, and groom. Therefore, he officiated from a pagoda within the grandstand, receiving the couple’s vows by a radio which was carried aboard the plane.
Ye Old Mill, 2008. Photo, placeography.org, Licensed under the Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike License v. 3.0.
This year, the “Ye Old Mill” attraction at the Minnesota State Fair celebrates its 100th Anniversary. Many visitors are surprised to learn the nearly identical attractions with the same name at the Iowa State Fair (dating to 1921) and Kansas State Fair (also dating to 1915).
Radio has a long tradition at the Minnesota State Fair. Indeed, the photo of the grandstand shows on the field what certainly appears to be a wireless antenna of some sort, although I don’t have any details of the old image. In 1914, the fair’s governing board considered a proposition made by one Philip Edelman of St. Paul for the installation of a wireless station at an esimated cost of $200. The board decided to continue discussions with Edelman as to whether such an exhibit could be made in a future year at less cost.
The Minneapolis sign of Sterling Electric Company, 1920 state fair exhibitor. Google books.
One of the earliest references I could find to radio at the State Fair was the December 1920 issue of Electrical Contractor Dealer, which detailed the experiences of the Sterling Electric Company of Minneapolis. At the 1920 Fair, the company had a large booth in the Electrical Building which included a wireless station that sent and received messages daily. The company followed up with a Saturday morning class in wireless telegraphy, in which there was considerable interest.
Shortly thereafter, the company, along with the Journal Printing Company, was the licensee of one of the area’s first broadcast stations, WBAD. That license was issued on April 25, 1922, according to the May 1922 issue of Radio World. It is likely, therefore, that the honors for being the first radio station at the fair go to WBAD. Since then, of course, local broadcasters have a long history of broadcasting from the fair. The image below from a WCCO promotional item shows the station’s then location in the Agriculture-Horticulture building.
Click Here For Today’s Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Cartoon 
In an earlier post, I reported on the April 1922 wedding of Sarah Cockefair and Albert Schlafke, who were married in the skies above New York before thousands of radio witnesses. Perhaps inspired by the New York couple, it seems that a Minnesota couple decided to tie the know in a similar fashion just a few months later. This wedding took place in June, 1922, during an airshow at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. It is reported in the article shown above, a wire story appearing in various papers including the Albuquerque Evening Herald on July 2, 1922.
According to the article, Zelma Olson of Minneapolis desired to be married in an airplane, and desired that the ceremony be officiated by one Rev. E.A. Jordan, who weighed 220 pounds. Unfortunately, the aircraft could accommodate only an additional 75 pounds.
It’s not until the third paragraph of the story that we learn that the groom was one Edwin Moline, who was presumably going to be present in the aircraft as well. His weight is not stated.
The site of the wedding, about five years earlier. (Photo from Google Books)
The problem was solved, at Moline’s suggestion, by placing a radiotelephone set in the plane (presumably one weighing less than 75 pounds), and having Rev. Jordan officiate by wireless.
This he did, and Rev. Jordan conducted the ceremony from a pagoda overlooking the State Fair Grandstand.
There doesn’t seem to be a great deal of historical record surrounding this novel ceremony. I was able to find this post by one Jennifer Moline, presumably a relative of the 1922 newlyweds, indicating that the wedding actually took place on June 4, 1922, a fact not reported in the wire story.
Also, the original 1922 press photo is available for purchase on eBay, and a better copy of the photo can be found at that listing. The back of the image notes that the photo originated from the St. Paul Daily News, and that the photographer was Earl L. Vogt. There’s a date stamp on the back of June 8, 1922, which seems consistent with a wedding date of Sunday, June 4, 1922.
If anyone has any additional details about this wedding, I would enjoy hearing from you.
