Morning Call columnist Bill White had a piece earlier in the week where he lamented that Bobo the dunking clown was no longer at the fair. Although that's about as funky as it got for Bill in his era, we older Allentonians remember much hotter nights at the fairgrounds. Up to the late sixties the fair had girly shows. I'm going back to the era of Gooding's Million Dollar Midway and Benny's Bingo. I'm going back to three midways packed between the Farmer's Market and Chew Street. I'm going back to when the fair only started after Labor Day.
I mentioned in one of my previous fair posts that Fred Schoenk and I made and sold printed t-shirts at the fairs during high School. At the Kutztown Fair we were hired by the burlesque show owner to letter a new banner for his show tent...as high school boys we would have paid him for the experience.
reprinted from September of 2018
photocredit:molovinsky...Black rock and roll review with strippers, 1969 Allentown Fair
Mike you could have done a doctor PA back then for shirts and giggles and you too could have become a part of the relevant and fashionable ones today.
ReplyDeleteI still remember when the midway, World of Mirth arrived by rail along Sumner Avenue and then on toward the fairgrounds. Couldn't wait to watch the train arrive. We only went to elementary school until noon and then had the rest of the day off to visit the fair.
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