Read an Excerpt
Flashbacks
A Twenty-Year Diary of Article Writing
By John A. Williams OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA
Copyright © 1973 John A. Williams
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-5040-3303-9
CHAPTER 1
THE NEW YORK STATE FAIR
I wrote this article which appeared in the Syracuse Post-Standard Sunday, September 13, 1953, while I was a part-time copywriter with Doug Johnson Associates, a public relations firm. DJA had the New York State Fair account. This piece is one of my oldest I could resurrect; Doug Johnson cleaned out his files to get it for me.
Other pieces, including those I wrote for Sylvan, Waters and Barnett, were in a scrapbook that I threw away on one of the numerous occasions when I decided to give up writing and wanted nothing around to remind me of how much I'd already done.
The fair continues, although I don't know who handles the account. Doug Johnson is now associated with an advertising firm — Barlow-Johnson — and is still in Syracuse, where I've seen him on infrequent visits. There's nothing I can say about the piece; it is what it is. Of more interest perhaps, is how I came to be associated with DJA.
I was working full-time with the Onondaga County Department of Public Welfare, first as a caseworker, and then as a children's worker in Children's Protective Service. I was moonlighting, "driving" an elevator in the Loew Building in downtown Syracuse at night. Radio station WAGE was located there, and Doug was an official of it. The offices of the Syracuse Community Chest were also there. Doug and another man, Wink Berman, now dead (tennis) were frequent passengers. I'd taken a sequence in radio writing in college, and so, one night I put it to Wink who was more approachable than Doug, that I'd like to do some part-time writing for WAGE. He said he'd speak to Doug.
About four days later I reported to Hank Rosso, the big man at DJA, and I had myself a part-time job as a copywriter. The offices then were on East Fayette Street, half a block from the Post-Standard, but we moved soon after to the top floor of the Syracuse Hotel. I worked for over a year with DJA on The March of Dimes, Civilian Defense, New York State Fair and other accounts I no longer remember.
Hank Rosso, I hear, is now located in San Francisco; Pete Johnson, Doug's younger brother, died suddenly; another guy, a quiet intellectual, now owns a country music station in Syracuse.
Doug Johnson spoiled me. His was the only white firm I ever approached and was employed by without the usual racist nonsense. I asked for a job, walked in and got it, all without fanfare or condescension; that doesn't happen often, not even today. As for WAGE, DJA was doing work for it, too, so it didn't matter that I wound up doing PR instead of radio writing.
The 107th New York State Fair, which closed last night, has a history as dramatic as that of the little town that changed its name three times before adopting its present name — Syracuse.
The imposing and pillared structures at the fairgrounds, the gaudy midway with its flashing lights and feverish music; the exhibitions themselves all have roots as far back as 1819 when the state legislature appropriated $20,000 for distribution among agricultural societies. Onondaga County was eligible for $300.
Fairs came to America by way of Europe where they were first held as early as 1777. Fairs were originally neutral territories where bartering took place between warring nations in the pre-Christian era.
The Europeans placed emphasis on agriculture and that stamp is still obvious in most county and state fairs. Introduced in the United States in 1804, three fairs were held near Washington, D.C. The Columbian Exposition ran a series of five fairs in 1810.
After the 1838 reorganization of the Onondaga County Agricultural Society, which had disbanded during the years, the state legislature granted $180 to the organization, if it raised an equal amount. The society had been the sponsor of many fairs held in the district and was first created in 1819.
After a few years of jockeying, the first New York State Fair opened up in what is now Cortland Avenue in 1841. The main features were placed in the courthouse which had just recently been moved from Onondaga Hill. The area was conspicuously placed midway between the communities of Syracuse, which had been incorporated in 1828 as a city, and its rival, Salina.
In the Townsend Street area more than twenty-five freight carloads of cattle were placed which had been shipped in from the Hudson River Valley.
The stage was set. The news had gone around and the opening day arrived as hundreds of people came on foot, by horse and buggy over the corduroy roads running throughout the state. When the fair opened September 29, it was raining. The next day, the last day of the fair, it was damp, but when the final tally was made, more than 12,000 people had attended the first state fair. The biggest attraction? A plowing contest held in Onondaga Valley.
When the fair left Syracuse in 1841, it visited no less than ten cities, returning here in 1849 and 1858. A chart of the state fair itinerary, a jaunt that lasted forty-nine years, is listed below:
Albany–1842, 1850, 1859, 1871, 1873, 1876, 1880, 1885
Rochester — 1843, 1851, 1862, 1864, 1868, 1874, 1877, 1883, 1887, 1889
Poughkeepsie — 1844
Utica — 1845, 1852, 1863, 1865, 1870, 1879, 1882, 1886
Auburn — 1846
Saratoga — 1847, 1853, 1866
Buffalo — 1848, 1857, 1867
Syracuse — 1841, 1849, 1858
New York City — 1854
Elmira — 1855, 1860, 1869, 1872, 1875, 1878, 1881, 1884, 1888
Watertown — 1856, 1861
Returning to Syracuse in 1849 for three days, September 11, 12 and 13, the fair was held on the Wilkinson grounds in James Street. This return marked many new features, among them, the Ferris wheel which was designed and operated by two Syracusans for the first time.
Distinguished visitors were Horace Greeley and Henry Clay. Yank Sullivan and Tom Hyer engaged in a boxing bout.
Imposing new structures were ready for the '49 fair. Daisy Hall, a women's building, had been erected for female displays; Flora's Temple, a replica of the Greek Pantheon, and Mechanics' and Machinery Hall. Attendance figures were placed at about 15,000. The fair of 1858 opened in the Cortland Avenue site in Syracuse. By this time most enmity between Syracuse and Salina had disappeared and the citizens of both places united in an effort to make the fair one of the best ever.
The newspapers, then as now, gave a full measure of support to the exhibition, particularly the livestock competitions.
Not to be outdone, the Syracuse, Binghamton and New York railroads announced that they would run excursions to the very gates of the fair. Boats and more trains ran from the western sector of the state into Syracuse.
To further entice the citizens of the state into coming to the fair, city papers announced lodgings at low rates with free lunches included. This custom is still very much alive, though without the free lunches. The papers of today mark lodgings for fairgoers with a star.
On the thirty-one-acre fair site, 300 stalls were erected for cattle, 250 for horses and more than 200 for sheep and swine. Floral Hall, Daisy Hall and Mechanics' Hall were dusted off and the new Dairy and Vegetable Hall had just been completed.
The doors opened Tuesday, October 5, with big attractions scheduled for the fairgoers. A steam plow, a bright new invention built by a man from Troy was exhibited. A "corn-husker" from Connecticut showed Central New Yorkers how to shuck corn with a minimum of effort.
J. G. K. Truair, proprietor of the Syracuse Daily Journal, and Joseph R. Williams, president of the Michigan State Agricultural College, were outstanding speakers.
Among the other notable attractions were the parade by the spick-and-span Utica Hook and Ladder company, with its demonstration of the bucket-brigade technique; the daily afternoon trotting on the pavilion course, the Indian dances each day in Mechanics' Hall and a daily minstrel show.
When the fair closed, it was estimated that more than 20,000 persons had helped surpass the total gate receipts of the previous year of the fair at Buffalo.
During the era of Lincoln and the Civil War, the fair was in full swing, jumping from one city to another and returning to Syracuse in 1858, two years before the outbreak of the war.
Perhaps the post-war feeling of consolidation invaded the state legislature. Perhaps even the members of the fair commission were weary of traveling from one extreme of the state to another for the annual event — anyway the New York State Fair began to undergo close scrutiny for the next thirty-two years.
Many questions were being raised and answered as the fair ran footloose and fancy free. What about the profits derived from horse racing? Where shall the fair be located?
The first question to be answered was about the racing profits. In 1887, the state legislature passed an act stating that funds derived from horse racing were to be turned over to the state fair commission to be used as premiums for livestock awards. By 1891 this figure had reached the proportion of $30,373.70.
As to the fixed position of the fair, by 1889 serious consideration had been given to the problem. Since Syracuse was the city most easily accessible from other parts of the state, lands were purchased by the farm commission to the northwest of the city in a move which decided that the fair should be permanently located at Syracuse.
Besides the $75,000 appropriated for the New York State Agricultural Society to erect the buildings, the funds from racing profits were also added for the development of the fairgrounds.
The decision to settle the fair at Syracuse caused some mixed feeling. The following was taken from the Syracuse Sunday Herald, October 9 of that year.
"The advent of the state fair was not enthusiastically welcomed by the citizens who missed the neighboring breezy Onondaga county fair with its generous management, hospitality and revenue. ... The present year has seen the beginnings of an income to Syracuse. In this, mainly the hotels and boarding houses have gained, and year by year the older residents recall the delightful days of the old Onondaga fair with pleasure and regret at its demise."
Briefly, the first fairs held on the present fair site did not "go" too well, and maybe one of the reasons lay in such declarations.
However, there may have been other reasons. Arrangements had been made meanwhile for the Solvay Process Co. to fill in stipulated areas within a certain time. Buildings had to be constructed from many designs — buildings which would present a pleasing appearance down through the years.
By way of competition, the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and the Columbian Exposition in 1904 were drawing an untabulated number of people whose fair interests had been first created by the New York State Fair.
Architects too attended these fairs and garnered ideas on buildings and grounds for the state fair, and thus from 1890 for about twenty years, the New York State Fair consolidated itself, explored ideas.
Typical of the ideas that poured into the fair commission was the practicability of harness racing which was submitted by Edward A. Powell, a W. Genesee Street resident who had toured the 1904 Columbian Exposition in St. Louis.
He reported that the fair excelled in all classes of horse racing except the harness. It is ironic that the New York State Fair which has been instrumental in raising harness racing to high levels has this year decided to abandon them.
The World's Fair along with the Columbian Exposition at St. Louis and fairs held in Buffalo influenced architects to lay out the classical style of the Empire Court on the fair site, another example of ideas put into use here.
Grand Circuit racing at the fair took place prior to 1901 and gained such popularity that by 1904 the Legislature appropriated $10,000 for it and said, "... an adequate scheme of development of the State Fair grounds and buildings."
By 1906, $51,000 was placed at the disposal of the fair commission for a new grandstand and $20,000 for additional real estate.
Racing in all forms had proved by far to be the strongest attraction and these appropriations seemed to prove the point. The first automobile race was held September 12, 1903. Special cars and professional drivers participated.
Harness racing, Grand Circuit racing and auto racing were the three attractions largely responsible for the growth of the fair during the period of consolidation.
Prices during these times were way down compared to the figures of today. Train fare was three cents a mile; lunches twenty-five cents and room and board for $1 a day.
Most unusual is the comparative admission price for the 1911 fair against this year's fair. Then admission was ninety-one cents — the fifty cents admission on advance tickets still stand for this year's fair.
As the fair grew in size and number of exhibits, it was clear that classifications would have to be set up. They were originally set up as follows:
Class I — Cattle.
Class II — Horses.
Class III — Sheep, Swine, Poultry.
Class IV — Plowing Implements.
Class V — Grain, Seed, etc.
Class VI — Domestic Manufactures.
Class VII — Paintings, Silverware, Stoves, Leather.
Class VIII — Flowers, Plants, Designs.
Although these classifications were set up during the early period when the fair was moved to Syracuse, they still stand. A few have been added, but mostly only subdivision has been needed.
The main building program of the fair which began in 1906 with the reconstruction of the grandstand, originally set up in 1901, and two comfort stations, gained momentum in 1909.
In that year the Dairy Building, the racing stables and the State Institutions Building were built. The Liberal Arts Building had been constructed the year before. From 1912 through 1919 the cattle, poultry and horse exhibit buildings were erected at a total cost of $480,763.02.
The next decade saw the horse show stables, sheep and swine buildings, the Coliseum and the Museum go up on the fair site and during the '30s no less than 15 buildings went up. Among them were Horticultural, Pure Foods, Farm Machinery, Boys' and Girls' Livestock.
The Conservation annex to the State Institution Building was the sole construction effort just before war broke out in 1941. Two other buildings were constructed from 1942 through the war's end; one was a blacksmith's shop, the other an electrical repair shop, both put into operation by the Army Air Force which moved onto the fairgrounds during the war.
The lesser building program involving smaller buildings, landscaping, troopers' barracks, road construction and lighting began in 1900 and cost about $1,000,000.
Since 1900 the present fair site represents a capital investment of more than $5,000,000. Proof that building has not yet reached an end is the new administration building, which costs $222,000.
The Air Force moved into the fair grounds in March 1942 and terminated its lease in September 1946. During this time no fairs were held, and 1948 saw the first post-war fair, a limited exposition.
The history of the New York State Fair is one that matches the history of the city and state in agricultural and social development.
Like the city, the fair is still growing and glittering. Crowds swarm through the buildings, around the midway each summer beneath the Ferris wheel. They listen to the jazzy noises, buy the candied apples and take the fair pretty much for granted — the way most of us do.
CHAPTER 2
SEX IN BLACK AND WHITE
In the fall of 1963, Cavalier magazine billed itself as "the new magazine for the new man," but in reality it was the same old magazine for the same old man. Which is to say, that it was a girlie magazine for men who like to look at pictures of nude women.
My agent got me together with George Dickerson, who was managing the magazine. George and I sat down to see if we could come up with an idea for a piece that would be suitable for this new image of Cavalier, and as I remember I came up with the idea of "Sex in Black and White." At the time I was living in the Village and had been there for three or four years. I could see some changes taking place having to do with sex in black and white. I was disturbed by some of them, and I wanted to write about them.
Lately we have come to see that one of the most conservative groups, one of the most anti-Negro groups in this nation is the Italian-American bloc. And of course Greenwich Village, just south of Washington Square Park, is heavily Italian. The Village has always been a shelter for mixed couples, and I saw them every day, especially on weekends on Eighth Street or the side streets, in the cafes. And I took a great deal of pleasure in knowing that New York did afford some kind of refuge for couples like this. But slowly and subtly the atmosphere began to change.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Flashbacks by John A. Williams. Copyright © 1973 John A. Williams. Excerpted by permission of OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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