State Fair

Glossary and Notes

• The story of State Fair is based on the 1932 best-selling novel by Philip Duffield (“Phil”) Stong.
• The Iowa State Fair is held each year for 11 days in August, in Des Moines, customarily ending two weeks before Labor Day.  The fair has been held since 1854, originally at Fairfield, and at the Des Moines site since 1886.  (For a list of other state fairs in other states, see this list.)

ActI, Scene 1: The Frake Farm--a Tuesday afternoon in late August, 1946

• J. Edgar Hoover was director of the FBI from 1924 to his death in 1972, serving under eight Presidents.
• Iowa State College (known by this name 1896-1959; now Iowa State University) is located at Ames, about 35 miles north of Des Moines.
• Mincemeat is (1) a mixture, as of finely chopped apples, raisins, spices, meat, and sometimes rum or brandy, used especially as a pie filling; or (2) Finely chopped meat. (from dictionary.com).  Here is a mincemeat recipe that won a prize at the Iowa State Fair.
• Traipse means to walk or tramp about or gad.
• Mope means to be gloomy or dejected, or to brood or sulk.
• Linoleum is a type of flooring made from linseed oil, from the Latin linum (flax) and oleum (oil).

Act I, Scene 2: On the road to Des Moines--Wednesday morning before dawn

• The Iowa towns of Brunswick (home of the Frakes) and Pottsville (home of Mrs Metcalfe) appear to be fictional places.  (However, there is a Postville, which straddles Allamakee and Clayton counties, in the northwest part of the state.)  But Arcadia city and township are located in Carroll county, in the center western part of Iowa, two counties east of the Missouri River, which is the boundary with Nebraska, and about halfway between the Minnesota and Missouri state lines.  According to the novel State Fair by Phil Stong, Brunswick is a small town and Pottsville is the county seat.  The seat of the adjacent county is Farmville, which is larger than Pottsville. Phil Stong grew up near the village of Pittsburg, located on the east bank of the Des Moines River in Van Buren County, a village that no longer exists. He went to school in Keosauqua, the county seat. On their night drive to the fair, the Frakes pass through Douds, Selma, Ottumwa, Eddyville, Oscaloosa, Pella, and Prairie City on their way to the fair grounds at Des Moines, a distance of 125 miles. On their way home they also pass through Eldon, between Selma and Douds. Margy tells Pat, “Pittsville’s thirty-five miles from Ottumwa and fifty miles from Keokuk, almost on a line.” Thus it would appear that Brunswick is Pittsburg, Pottsville is Keosauqua, and Farmville is either Mt Pleasant (the county seat of Henry County) or Fairfield (the county seat of Jefferson County).  (Fairfield was the first home of the Iowa State Fair, and is now the location of Maharishi University.) All these places are in southeastern Iowa. Other towns mentioned in the 1996 stage version are Davenport (located on the Mississippi River, and one of the Quad Cities, the others being Bettendorf, with Rock Island, Moline, and East Moline, Illinois [Bettendorf was originally a small suburb of Davenport, but in 1948, it began to grow to reach equal status with the others, so that it was proposed to rename the area the Quint Cities, but that name never caught on.]), Osceola (the county seat of Clarke County, in SC Iowa), and Cedar Bluff (which is probably fictional, but would be located on a bluff above a major river).

Act I, Scene 3: The Midway at the Hoop-La Booth--later that morning

• During World War II many items were rationed, most beginning in 1942, and ended on August 15, 1945 (original V-J Day). Some people no doubt had leftover gas ration cards in the summer of 1946.
• Grampa Moses no doubt makes reference to Anna Mary Robertson Moses (1860-1961), better known as Grandma Moses. She began a painting career at age 78.
• Greenbacks, a slang term for American paper money; the term was first used during the Civil War.
• Libel refers to a false statement made about another that unjustly harms the injured party’s reputation. Usually libel refers to written communication and slander to oral communication.
• A wolf whistle is a two-note loud whistle usually to show interest in something, mostly an attractive woman. Today it may be considered a form of sexual harassment.
• Clarence Darrow (1857-1938) was an American lawyer who became known as a champion of the underdog. He was a leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union, and he defended John Scopes (1925) for teaching the Darwinian theory of evolution in Tennessee.
• James Buchanan “Diamond Jim” Brady (1856-1917) rose from humble beginnings to become a successful financier in New York. His collection of diamonds and other jewels gave him his nickname.

Act I, Scene 4: The Midway at the Temple of Wonder--immediately following

• Marrakech, or Marrakesh, was founded by the Almoravids in 1062, as their capital in Africa. A variant of the name is Morocco, from which that country took its name since then. In 1086 the Almoravids conquered much of Spain as well. When the Almohads succeeded them (1147), it became their capital. Marrakesh was one of the great medieval cities of Islam.
• At the beginning of World War II, Gen. MacArthur evacuated Manila on December 27, 1941.  Most of the army was evacuated to Bataan, and MacArthur set up his headquarters on the island of Corregidor.  After fierce fighting the army of 12,500 Americans and 50,000 Filipinos, known as the “Battling Bastards of Bataan”, battered and starving, surrendered unconditionally on April 9, 1942. A few thousands escaped to Corregidor.  The rest were marched on the infamous “Bataan Death March” to Japanese POW camps. Corregidor fell on May 6, 1942.  Gen. MacArthur had been evacuated to Australia, with the promise, “I shall return.”  Although the Japanese were able to conquer the Philippines, the men who fought and died at Bataan and Corregidor probably prevented the Japanese from taking Australia.
• The Battle of Midway took place June 4-7, 1942.  Admiral Yamamoto desired to expand his perimeter, but more importantly, to draw the US Pacific fleet into a battle and destroy it.  In the Battle of Coral Sea (May 7-8, 1942), the Japanese had damaged the carrier USS Yorktown, but it was repaired in time for Midway. On the morning of June 7, the Japanese fleet, with four carriers and their support ships, attacked the atoll of Midway.  The American fleet was able to join the battle early because American intelligence was able to read the Japanese code.  At the end, the all four Japanese carriers were knocked out. TheYorktown was damaged, and, while under tow, was sunk by a lucky Japanese sub.  Midway is considered the turning point of the war in the Pacific.  Of course The Midway is also the part of the fairgrounds where sideshows and similar amusements are located.
• V-J Day = “Victory over Japan Day”, the day Japan surrendered at the end of World War II.  There were actually two V-J days:  Japan announced its surrender on August 15, 1945 (known as “Original V-J Day”).  Representatives of the Japanese military signed the instrument of surrender on September 2, 1945, (known as “Official V-J Day”) aboard the battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) at anchor in Tokyo Bay.

Act I, Scene 5: The Beer Tent--that afternoon

• A Virginia ham is country ham produced in Virginia. A country ham is uncooked, but instead dry cured with salt (and may also be nitrate- or nitrite-cured as well), and may or may not be smoked. (City hams are wet cured, by injecting brine into the meat.) The term “country ham” is associated with uncooked hams from the Southern United States. A Smithfield ham is more precisely defined, and must be produced in or in the vicinity of, Smithfield, Virginia. A Virginia-style ham is a ham produced elsewhere in the style used in Virginia, usually a flat lean hickory smoked ham with dark red meat from a peanut-fed razorback hog.

Act I, Scene 6: Outside the Dairy Pavilion--later that afternoon

• The roller coaster that Pat mentions by the beach in L. A. is probably the Hi-Boy roller coaster on the Ocean Park pier.  Located at the boundary of Venice and Santa Monica, the pier was a kind of West Coast Coney Island. In 1956 some developers bought the pier and developed it as an amusement park to compete with Disneyland, opening in 1958 as Pacific Ocean Park, or sometimes “P. O. P.” (P. O. P. was also used to stand for “Pay One Price”, as the park only charged admission; all the rides were included, unlike Disneyland, which at the time required a coupon [A, B, C, D, or E] for each ride.) The Hi-Boy roller coaster became the Sea Serpent. In 1965, the city of Santa Monica began its Ocean Park renewal project, and closed most of the streets leading to P. O. P. It became difficult to get to the park, so because of financial difficulties, the park closed in 1967. The roller coaster moved to Phoenix at Legend City, where it became the Sidewinder.  It ceased operations in 1983.
• Tripe means the lining of the stomach of a ruminant used as food; and, informally, nonsensical talk or writing.

Act I, Scene 7: The Starlight Dance Meadow--that night

Act I, Scene 8: Camper's Hill--Thursday morning

• Technically, streamlined means “designed to offer minimal resistance to fluid flow”.  In the 1930s the railroads began offering passenger service in streamlined cars, and “streamlined” became a feature of the style known as Art Deco. Notable streamliners included the Zephyr (CB&Q, Chicago-Denver), the Super Chief and El Capitan (AT&SF, Chicago-Los Angeles), the Twentieth Century Limited (NYC, New York-Chicago), the Broadway Limited (PRR, New York-Chicago), North Coast Limited (NP), Empire Builder (GN), and the City of Los Angeles (UP-C&NW, Chicago-Los Angeles). The term then came to mean “reduced to essentials; built for maximum efficiency” or “ultra-modern”.
• Virginia creeper is a vine native to North America with compound leaves and bluish-black berries (Family Vitaceae, Botanical name Parthenocissus quinquefolia L.; also known as woodbine and American ivy)
• England-born actor Ronald Colman was one of Hollywood’s leading men in the 1920s and 1930s.  Although he was hugely popular in silent films, his extraordinarily beautiful voice made him even more popular in “sound” films.
• French-born actor Charles Boyer also began his Hollywood career in silent movies.  In the days of sound  he became famous for his whispered declarations of love. In 1934 he married Pat Paterson, his first and only wife, and committed suicide two days after her death in 1978.
• Interestingly, both Ronald Colman and Charles Boyer appeared in the 1956 feature film Around the World in Eighty Days, which had a large number of cameos.
• Born Harry Lillis Crosby in Tacoma, Washington, Bing Crosby  began a career as a singer in Los Angeles in 1925.  He was soon singing in New York and on the radio.  His film career began in 1932.  His recording of “White Christmas” was the largest-selling single until 1997.
  • Filmography links and data courtesy of The Internet Movie Database (IMDb).

Act II, Scene 2: Outside the Dairy Pavilion--early that night

• The real McCoy means “the genuine article”.  There are at least six theories on how the expression originated.

Act II, Scene 3: The Starlight Dance Meadow--immediately following

• The Shubert brothers, Lee, Sam, and Jacob, from Syracuse, NY, were Broadway theatrical producers and theater owners.  They had headquarters in the Shubert Theatre (named for Sam).  They currently own or operate 16 Broadway theaters.

Act II, Seene 4: The Hillside--later that night

• Herald Square (spelled Harold Square in the script) is located between 34th and 35th Streets, between Broadway and Sixth Avenue. The surrounding area is a center for shopping. The Empire State Building is located one block east. This is a bit south for the theater district.  (But an Iowa farm boy might not know that.  He may have been thinking of George M. Cohan’s song: “Give my regards to Broadway, remember me to Herald Square. . . .”) The square was named for the New York Herald, which was located at 151 West 34th Street, on the square; the location is now Macy’s department store.  (The Herald was published between 1835 and 1924.  It sponsored Henry Morton Stanley’s expedition to Africa to find Dr Livingstone.  In 1922 it merged with its rival, the Tribune. The Herald-Tribune ceased publication in 1966, but its Paris edition, the International Herald-Tribune continues.  The Tribune was published by Horace Greeley until he died in 1872.)
• Times Square is located between 42nd and 47th Streets, between Broadway and Seventh Avenue. The area is at the south end of the theater district. (An aspiring actress would know that!) The Square is named for the New York Times, located at 229 West 43rd Street, in New York, about half a block away.

From the 1946 film (not from the show)

• Before the days of radio, song pluggers were essential for the publication of a new song. So Tin Pan Alley songwriters and publishers would hire pluggers to try to get famous singers (like Emily) to sing their songs to make them popular.  But with radio, gradually demo records and tapes began to replace pluggers.  Songs now became popular by having air time on a radio program.  This became so lucrative in the 1950s that the temptation to slip payola to DJs became, in many cases, irresistible.  The song promotion business has so changed that, formerly, a song would be rated in popularity by sheet music sales; now it is by recording sales.  And formerly, when people bought a recording of a song they wanted it to sound like the live performance they had heard.  Now, when people go to hear a popular singer, they want a live performance to sound like what they heard on a recording!
• Your Hit Parade was a show that ran on radio from 1935 to 1950, and then moved to TV from 1950 to 1960.  They presented the top ten songs of each week, through a national survey of record and sheet music sales, although they never revealed their methodology.
• Born Frances Rose Shore, Dinah Shore grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, and graduated from Vanderbilt University. While in college, she became a radio singer.  She took the name “Dinah” from her radio show theme song.  She had many recording successes in the 1940s, and sang for the troops in Normandy and elsewhere in Europe.  In the 1950s she became hugely popular on her TV variety shows.
• Born Francis Albert Sinatra in Hoboken, NJ, Frank Sinatra began as a saloon singer.  In 1942 he became a solo singer, and soon was known as king of the bobby soxers from his legions of fans of young women and girls. A vocal chord injury almost ended his career. But he was able to begin a film career in 1953 in From Here to Eternity.  In the 1960s he made a series of films with his “Rat Pack” buddies, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr.
• Mairzy Doats is a novelty song from 1943 by Milton Drake, Al Hoffman, and Jerry Livingston.
• The word niggardly, meaning “meager or petty in giving or spending” is not much used today (as it sounds like another unrelated but offensive word).

Miscellaneous

• The Hampshire breed of swine probably originated in Hampshire, England.  They are characterized by a black coat with white belt, and large size.
• In Britain, ducky is informal for “sweetheart”, so the adjective ducky came to mean “excellent, fine, highly desirable”.
• A fin is New York slang for a five dollar bill, probably from Yiddish finf, meaning five (related to German fünf).
• To eat crow means to be forced to accept humiliating defeat. (From dictionary.com)
• A cakewalk was originally a strutting dance based on a march, popular among black Americans in the 19th century. Dancers would compete, and the prize was an enormous cake.  It made its way into minstrel shows, and now means “something easily accomplished”. (According to some sources, the cakewalk originated on Southern plantations by the slaves imitating the white people at a dance. Later, after the Civil War, minstrel shows incorporated cakewalks, the black-faced white performers making fun of black people. What the minstrels may not have realized was that they were making fun of black people making fun of white people!)
• Spoon means (somewhat informally) “to kiss, caress, or cuddle”.

• See the list of songs, both added and cut, for the show, film, and TV versions of State Fair.
• See the Concord Theatricals site (who controls the licensing for the show)
• See the announcement for the show.
• Manhattan Beach Community Church home page
• McQ’s theater page
• McQ’s home page

• Last updated: August 20, 2005 and then May 16, 2020
• For corrections, additions, suggestions, or comments, please email me.