At the 1990 fair. Show no. 1

Sonoma County, a diverse county of over one million acres, is famed for its agriculture industry and recreation boasting a booming economy and a unique lifestyle for its citizens Described by the same Luther Burbank as the chosen spot of all the Earth. Sonoma County is the place

to live, work and play as we move into the 21st century. Led by the forward looking philosophy of its governing bodies. Sonoma County's 340,000 residents are a harmonious, successful blend of ethnic and economic backgrounds. We invite you to take a closer look at Sonoma County in

the nineties with your host Rich McGlinchey, How you doing everybody? Welcome to Sonoma County in the nineties. At the 1990 Sonoma County Fair, I'm Rich McGlinchey and I'm Suzanne Grant and in the next half hour we're gonna be taking an up close look at some of

the wonderful sights and sounds of this beautiful 1990 Sonoma County Fair. We sure are indeed. And incidentally, the very first bear that was ever held in Sonoma County was in 18 55. It was here in santa rosa. It was a one day affair. Then, for about

the next 70 to 75 years, the fair jumped all over. The county was held in petaluma in sevastopol in Healdsburg Sonoma and of course here in santa rosa. Then in 1933 the state passed the Para Mutual Act. This meant that some of the money from racing

in California would go to support district and county fairs. Three years later, four local businessman, joseph grace email, craft VJ Garrett and Ernest. Finley, our founding fathers of the Sonoma County Fair joined with the santa rosa Chamber of Commerce to create the present day Sonoma County

Fair Association. Well, you know one other thing that's very important to the fair here is its offseason activity. Now there's offseason activity taking place practically every day of the year. Social events, recreational events, agricultural events, entertainment events and most importantly, the fair gets no tax dollars,

it pays its own way. Furthermore, the fair is really a team enterprise controlled by a 20 member board of director which directs the operation through an appointed fair manager and they are risk responsible to the people of Sonoma County. The taxpayers through our elected board of

supervisors. That's right and you know a few things we should tell you about. This fair right now is that it runs from july 23rd through august 5th. The gates open at 10 a.m. Closed at 10 p.m. But the carnival goes on until midnight admission, there's $4

for people 13 and up and that's a very good value because once you come through the gate you can go to all the exhibits, go to the carnival, go to the flower show, see the commercial exhibits and go to the races free. There is a price

for racing seats in the grandstand, those are $3 each. And there is also a cost for the rodeo which takes place on the 27th and 28 box seats or $6 and reserve general seats are $4. You know, it's just about time for the opening ceremonies. Why

don't we take a walk over to the Brookwood gate and see what's going on. Right you are. Hey here we are, over to Brookwood gate and in just a moment we're going to experience the actual opening of the 19 nineties Sonoma County Fair and Suzanne right

after we sit through this opening. Why don't you? And I look around and see if we can find some officials and celebrities to interview. Sounds like a great idea. Rich. Okay, we got it. Hi again everybody. A couple of moments ago, these two gentlemen standing here

with me helped open the 19 nineties Sonoma County Fair. They're both important cogs in the wheel out here on the left of the screen is jim moore. He's the general manager of the fair on the right is the chairman of the board of supervisors. Jim you

said in the opening that you really expect a wonderful fair this year. What are some of the reasons for that? Well, it's always a good fair that people in this county support their fair and uh it's always a real big event every summer this year. We've

made a few improvements on the grounds and we hope that people come out and take a look at it and enjoy it. You people really went through a great deal of preparation. I know you've, I think you've kind of resurfaced and repainted and everything, haven't you?

We've done a lot of work, fortunately the fair has done well financially and and we're able to put some money into the grounds and you can see it and I hope people come out and take a look at it. You sure can't see it. And people

have done a real good job this last three years. Nick you gentlemen really in a kind of way, I guess you've run the fair. At least you appoint the directors who worked with Jim, what do you think of this? What do you think of the 1990s?

I think it really looks good. The grounds look very clean. Uh, there's been a lot of work, a lot of repainting and I think the exhibits are well done. The flower show is great and I think that this year is the year. I think that, as

I said earlier, I think that we've caught our limit. Okay, now let's go over and see Suzanne Grant and see who she's cornered to talk to for a few moments. I'm here with jane and all the special events coordinator for the Sonoma County Fair and Jane's

gonna tell us a lot about what's going on and there certainly is a lot going on this year, isn't there? It's positively crazy. We've never had this much entertainment before. How much entertainment do you actually have this year? Well you can come at 10 o'clock in

the morning and stay until 10 o'clock at night and it's back to back. There's stuff happening on five different stages all over the fairgrounds all day long. I know you have quite a number of free shows going on almost all day for the most part you

have today, Zazu Pitts memorial Orchestra headlining. You've got chris Isaac later this week, you've got oldie show coming up in a blues festival. What else is going on of note? I've got a little bit of something for every everyone. We've got a little rock and roll,

little country, we've got our fiddler old time fiddlers competition, We've got zulu spear, which is kind of fun african music. And then of course on friday july 27th we've got Elvis, which I think is something no other fair can boast of Elvis is coming right, we

have an Elvis is coming pins, they have t shirts and they have sweatshirts for sale. Tell me now you told me earlier this week that the Elvis is coming is one the most popular attractions here at the show. We were surprised when we first started getting

postcards from Elvis, we thought it would be a good idea to put the day together but we had no idea what the response would be. People have been calling for months and asking when he's when he's coming and one of the things are going to be

happening that day. So we're gonna have Elvis impersonators contest, lookalike contest trivia quiz is a little bit of everything for Elvis fans that day Now for those folks who like oldies music, you have a free oldies day coming up and it's billed as day at the

beach. Tell me about it. Well, we have two kinds of old these days. The second Tuesday of the fair, July 31 is our day at the beach with Jan and Dean and we truck in 75 tons of sand just for the day and comes in before

six in the morning and leaves before six the following day and we'll have, you know, a little beach beach in there and we'll be doing hula contests and all kinds of things and of course performances by Jan and Dean. But that friday is our oldest performance

with bobby Freeman in the Redford Theater and those shows are at four and eight and those are both three shows. Absolutely. We only have three page shows this year and that's Yolanda del rio the first week and Ricky Skaggs the second monday, the 30th and the

judds on august 1st now something coming up for the kids on the last day of the fair snow day. Yes, this is kind of a challenge. Well, we always like to walk on the edge, but this is definitely it. We're going to turn 20 tons of

ice into snow on the final sunday of the fair in the kids area. Now, I'm not sure what happens. My suspicion is that when you make snow in august it melts. It's just sort of gonna be a race between the melting snow in the end of

the fair. That ought to be pretty interesting. Now we're standing here with the main exhibit for this year's theme, catch your limit, catch a limit of fun. But it's also in honor of Sonoma, the county's Agriculture aquaculture industry. I understand you had a lot of help

with the California marine lab at bodega in putting this together. People have really turned out strong for our fish exhibit this year, every year. We like to feature a different agricultural species, but we have never had a response quite like we have had from the fish

industry as you'll see when you come in when you look around the exhibit, you know, we've got boats, we've got tide pools, we got live fish, we got displays, its spectacular exhibit and a six ft rainbow trout walking around. Yes, well you do have to come

and meet Gilda. She's our fair fish this year and she's wonderful. One other question for you and that is contest. I understand that contests are one of your favorite things going on here. We believe that if you come to the fair and you're in a contest,

you stand up on stage and you do something that means a lot more to you than probably the rest of your day at the fair. So we try to have something for everyone. We have bubblegum blowing, whistling animal imitation family look like legos, tinker toys, bogo

balls, free throw jump roping and so many more it's hard to even count today. We're gonna be doing a soccer challenge where kids are gonna be able to try out their soccer skills. So we are trying for something for everyone. Well, I think that if you

get bored at the Sonoma County Fair, you should have just stayed in bed, jane handle special events coordinator of the Sonoma County Fair. Thank you for joining us. We're going to take us a few seconds now to look at some of the events coming up at

the fair. We're in the beautiful hall of flowers here at the 1990s and a county fair and it's always a beautiful place to be going to be talking to Jackie, she's the designer and the person who put

together this entire show. Tell us a little bit about how you went about getting this beautiful show arranged. Okay. We set the theme in October of last year and I worked on a scale model in November and December. Construction started April one and it took 3.5

months to build the pyramid. The nurseries come in the last week we have 14 professional nurseries that add the finishing touches to it. That's what makes the color here is listen, how many amateurs are there are there beginners that show here too? Yes, there are. We

have junior division. We have 20 juniors. 12 amateurs which are garden clubs and individuals and they have Absolutely. How about the people that have helped you put this together? I know you always like to give credit where it's due and you've had some great help. That's

right. Larry Albini was my foreman and he was the superintendent of the fairgrounds here for many years and built the shows with will for me. Sonny Eliasson was the head carpenter and did a fabulous job and art assistance and scenic designs. Did a lot of the

artwork. Where did you get this idea for? Mostly. I wanted to contrast last year's theme, which was the dragon, very curve, linear and soft lines. This is very angular architectural, which I think works beautifully with the plants. Nice compliment this show certainly is beautiful. Now, what

kind of awards to give out for the show here? We have the best overall awards. We have best use of color fuchsias design. They go on in come and explore and see how they've been distributed. How do you go about getting the people involved in this?

There are professional nurseries Amateurs. How do you go about recruiting them all? We placed an ad in february and that's when we select our exhibitors, exhibitors that have been in before have first shot at it again and we usually pick up two or three new ones?

especially in the pro division every year and it's this year. Am I correct in saying that's dedicated to basic That's right. Leroy johnny and family who are the oldest exhibitors in the Hall of Flowers and they have heard you say that whenever they exhibit, they take

a lot of care and it's a real pleasure to have their material here. And this is in honor of Leroy. What else would you like to say about your 1990 pyramids of the sun flower show? Everybody that I've talked to just thinks it's magnificent. Just anxious

for everybody to come out and see it. It was a lot of work and really done by some wonderful folks. I think people are in for a real treat. Well, every year we tell everybody that comes to the fair that if you get on these grounds

and don't see The flower show, you've missed the chance of a lifetime. Now, as we said a moment ago, Jackie Jeffrey is on her fourth success here, if you will and each one has been better than the other and Jackie is just fine that we stand

here and talk about these things, but I think we really ought to take a look at some of this beauty. So let's take a look at some of the beauty here in the 1991 county fair and flower show? Well,

here I am in the kiddie section of the Sonoma County Fair where big kids and little kids alike have more smiles at one time than probably any other time of the year. The two Thursdays of the fair, july 26th and august 2nd are both kids days

and that's also carnival discount today. So what that means is if you want to ride that, go on a ride that costs four tickets, it will only cost you three tickets on that day. We're going to take a short break now and we're gonna come back

and go to the big kids carnival on the other side and I'll be joining Rich McGlinchey. Then you can do when you're brushing your teeth, turn off the faucet and the water running, you know, you've lost your ever, it's right down the drain. I wish you

this much water is the dog on ship, so get a grip, get a grip on the Yeah, for me too. Maybe someone's trying to tell you something. Welcome back to the 54 Donald Sonoma County Fair Fair runs on until august 5th and if you

want to come to the fair, the admission is $1 for kids 6 to $74 for 13 or older. If you're six or under the military uniform, you always get in three. Now let's go out to marco Curtis man on the street and see what some of

these wonderful folks to compare. Oh thank you Rich. You know, it's expected that almost a half a million people are going to be attending the fair this year? And there's something for everyone that's to be sure. Certainly the most tasty of everything offered here is the

food. We have food from six different lands and of course we have good old american food like wall cuts. With me. Today is Mary Walcott, the president of wall cuts and wife of the founder of wall cuts and with next to her is ken Russell is

manager of Walcott concession stands. And thank you for being here today. I just want to ask mary Actually, we'll start with Ken Ken, how many concession stands are there here on the fairgrounds? But we operate six concession stands on the main grounds as well as 11

inside the racetrack when the horse races are running. Okay, Fair operates for two weeks. What do you do, do you operate during the remainder of the year? Here on the fairgrounds were here 165 days a year. And during that period of time there's many events that

we take care of. We cater to dog shows, where shows, exhibitions and all the other events. Events on the fairgrounds. Okay, mary, what kind of food do you serve here at the walkout concession stands? Oh, hamburgers, hot dogs and beef, you name it. We've got it.

It's all good food. All the best. Tell me I mentioned earlier that there's about almost a half a million people are gonna be attending the fair? A half a million people. How many hamburgers and shakes and hot dogs. Do you think you're going to be serving

during the two weeks here, hamburgers will serve in excess of 20 25,000 hot dogs. Over 30,000 beers. Over 100,000 and soft drinks between 238 140,000. How many employees does it take to operate the concession stands here on the grounds during the course of the fair, we

hire approximately 150 some of which are part time, some weekenders and some work evenings, but approximately 50 different individuals. Veteran concessionaires here on the fairground. The food is great. I know I had it mary, I want to thank you, ken. Thank you very much. Now let's

go see what the experts think about the food here at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds and I'll meet you there. Okay, You made it. Let's go see some people over here. Hi, how you doing? What's your name? Gary Gary Gary. What do you got

there? What's left of it? I should say. Spaghetti. Spaghetti. Okay, what's it taste like? It's really good. It's best Here. Do you cook? So I guess this is better than what you can cook at home. Okay, thank you. Okay, let's see. We're gonna go check out

the booth over the beef or chicken fajitas and see what they think about the food over there? Excuse me. Hi, how you doing? What's your name? Sherry? Sherry. What do you got there? Chicken fajitas. Chicken fajitas. And what do you think is in that? Chicken fajitas?

Hopefully chicken. Have you had a chance to taste it yet? I don't you take one more bite and tell me what you think about it. Okay. And then I'll ask you another question when your mouth is full. What's that taste like? You make fajitas at home?

So I guess this is better than any fajitas you can make. Right, Sherry, thank you very much. Okay, can I ask you to what you think of your drinks that you're having? What are you drinking? I'm drinking a strawberry treat, strawberry treat. What's your name? And

you like that strawberry tree? Have you had a sip yet? What do you think about it? I think it's very good. Is this your mom up here? She make you strawberry treats at home, you know, So I guess it's kind of extra special when you get

to come to the fair and have a strawberry treat. Huh? Well thank you. There's a stand behind me. It says pennsylvania funnel cakes. I'm not quite sure what a funnel cake is, but let's go find out. Excuse me. Hi, can I ask your name? I'm really

curious about something. What is a funnel cake? A spout that is. Is there any chance? I might have just a little taste. Oh wow. Okay. Actually, this will be just fine. Thank you very much. No, this will be fine, thank thank you very much. Lady in

pennsylvania dutch funnel cakes was nice enough to let me try some of this so I'm gonna do that. Mm. Oh that's good. Suzanne back to you mm Earlier today I had a chance to speak with mr bob Jackson, he's the marketing and Pr director for Ray

Cammack shows. The company that puts on this wonderful carnival. Let's go take a look at that interview. I'm here talking with Mr bob Jackson of Ray Cammack shows. You are the marketing director. Yes, I am. Well, welcome to the Sonoma County Fair. We're glad to have

you back. Now tell me a lot of people think that living the life of a carny if you will working in the carnival business. Just really exciting and mysterious. How did you get into the carnival business? It really is very exciting. 15 years ago I was

doing consulting work and a carnival operation in Tulsa Oklahoma where I used to live, came to me and asked me to help them to some degree and I fell in love with the business and I've been ever since. Well, I can't say that. I blame you.

It's very colorful and exciting. It seems like the logistics of putting the whole thing together. Just must be fantastic. How many rigs do you have? Just to move all this stuff we have? Over 100 rides and probably have about 125 rigs. How many people have you

got on staff. Normally around 505 100. There are 500 people here on the Sonoma County fairgrounds. Yes, that's amazing. You were telling me that you have some new features, especially in the food area this year. What's going on? I think everybody that comes in a fair

this year will find that all of our food is totally new and different. Matter of fact, right next to where we're standing here is a restaurant called the Fat Cat and food is new, exciting. Tasty. Tasty is always a good one. Well now you, you travel

a lot right now. Where do recommit shows go? Do they go all over the country? No, they do really. Three states. Actually, four states. They do the Idaho state fair. The Nevada state fair. The Arizona state fair. And then they do several fairs in California. From

the Sonoma County Fair. We go to the nap affair after affair, we go to the Idaho state fair in Boise. Well, we're very glad to have you back. The fares in Sonoma County are something that a lot of people like myself and my family. We just

look forward to. Every year. We mark it out on our calendar and make sure all the relatives are in town. I understand. Ray comic shows has a terrific safety record. Yes, we do. We take pride in our safety program. All of our people on our rides

are trained for those rides. We do a daily check of all the vital points of the rides before the public has the opportunity to ride the rides. Well, I think all of us really appreciate that bob Jackson. Thank you for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen, you

know, one of the most exciting, most interesting and certainly the most populated parts of the fair are the exhibits and the exhibit buildings and also, certainly the animal judging. And there's one woman here at the county fair more than any other person who is responsible for

putting all this together is really quite a job and this is really quite a person and a friend of mine too. Hello, Sheila Quince, Good morning. Why don't you tell us And our audience what is going on in 1990 out here? Lots is going on this

morning. Lots is going on, but behind me right now is the VG Garrett building. And in there we've got all the home arts and crafts, that's all of the exhibits that were judged already. And they're on display for opening day here at the fair, all the

adults that enter their fine arts and knitting and crocheting and ceramics. The building directly adjacent to that is the sea craft building that has all our junior exhibits. So there are also been judged and on display and across from us is all our photography, painting, sculpture

and our fish tanks are over there. All of the aquaculture that's on display. There's wonderful fish tanks. I encourage everybody to get into the Finley building and see it this year. Well, I forgot to mention that our theme this year is catch your limit that Roger

came up with that. What does that mean? And what does that mean? Well, it means different things to different people, but of course catch a limit of fun when it comes time to get into the fair. For me, it's a special exhibit that we have on

over on the lawn west of Finley Hall. We've got lots of exciting things for people. Fair goes to see this year. We're going to have a large fish tank full of salmon. There's going to be a tide pool that's open for adults and Children alike to

pet the animals that live in a tide pool off the Sonoma coast. We've got a 30 ft Monterey salmon trawler over there. We've got another fair loan boat that's used for both commercial fishing or sport fishing or pleasure. We've also got lots of information signs, there's

going to be crab pot knitting, going on demonstrations by casting anything that you can think of that has to do with fish. We hopefully have over there isn't going to be some classes on how to prepare fish to Yeah, the cold storage boxes located adjacent to

the exhibit area and in addition to the butcher demonstrations that will be going on. We're going to have several demonstrations from local chefs in Sonoma County on how to prepare fish. Sounds like a lot going on there. What about the animal judging? That's always exciting. And

how about the animal auctions? Oh yes. Well if you just walk on down past the fish exhibit, you enter the livestock area. We have about 600 lambs in the barns right now, back away, lamb judging is going on and by Wednesday we'll have the junior livestock

auction for the lambs. Then following that will be the beef and the swine, poultry and rabbits and we'll have the junior auction for that friday the third of august and those are really great days And those kids, I know a lot of them are heartbroken when

they lose their animal, but they're paid many times over its value, aren't they? Yeah, it's a learning experience for them For a lot of these kids, this is their first chance to get a slice of business life. So they purchase an animal they keep above what

it costs to feed it. They care for it. They learn what it takes to put a lot of time and effort into an animal and their rewards are are here at the fair when they go through the auction ring and get a nice price for their

animal. Okay, well listen, thank you very much Sheila as always for coming over and talking with us, telling us what's in all these buildings and now ladies and gentlemen, why don't we just go take a look for ourselves and see some of these wonderful exhibits? Well

that just about does it for this time at the fair, it's our first visit to the fair and I know personally I've had a wonderful time. How about you, Suzanne? I've had a great time and I'm certainly coming back several more times before. This is over

this year. You know the fair goes on through August five if you want to come to the fair, the admission is four if you're 13 or older, if you're 7 to 13 it's $1 if you're six years old or under or a military person in uniform,

you get in free kids 12 and under get in free both Thursdays of the fair. Absolutely. That's one thing your parents will want to remember but I think that just about does it for now. What do you say? Well, I'd say if you are planning on

coming out to the fair, be sure to wear a hat and good walking shoes. Okay now Suzanne, why don't you? And I just take a big spin