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Jul 24, 2023

Why the 1973 New York State SuperFair was not so super (photos)

The most popular place to be during the hot 1973 New York State SuperFair was in at the huge wading pool in front of Horticulture Building. Syracuse Post-StandardSyracuse Post-Standard In 1972, the

The most popular place to be during the hot 1973 New York State SuperFair was in at the huge wading pool in front of Horticulture Building. Syracuse Post-StandardSyracuse Post-Standard

In 1972, the New York State Fair was given an exciting new name.

No longer just “The Fair” or the “New York State Exposition,” the end-of-summer festival was rechristened the “SuperFair,” organizers hoping to pump new life into the event whose attendance had slumped the previous year.

It worked.

Opening day, featuring Sonny and Cher, was the most attended opener ever and the SuperFair just missed the highest seven-day attendance record by 17,555 people.

A year later, the name returned, and optimism was high that the 1973 Fair would be even bigger.

But a combination of factors, weather, inflation, and lackluster concerts, made the 1973 SuperFair not so super.

The Fair opened on Tuesday, August 28.

Food stands, rides and games, animals, and education booths and activities were ready for thousands of guests. At the Center of Living Building, a singing robot named Alex was the star of a 25-minute play about what the world would be like in 2023.

But the biggest attraction that opening day, as it would be for much of the next seven days, was the huge wading pool in front of the Horticulture Building.

Temperatures reached 90 degrees that day and the number was topped each day of the Fair.

Finding someplace cool while at the Fairgrounds became paramount and the pool was the top choice.

“The broad pool near the Horticulture Building was filled with children and ringed with adults whose eyes told that they’d like to splash around too,” reporter Paul Hornak of The Post-Standard wrote.

It was often so warm in the Dairy Building that no one could see the butter sculpture because the display’s windows kept clouding up.

And the lines were so long for the refreshing five-cent milk, especially the new sweet honey milk, that tempers flared. One fairgoer bellowed at State Fair officials that more employees should have been hired to fill the cups to meet the demand.

One man was heard after gulping water at an outdoor fountain, “I would have paid $5 for that.”

Maybe the most popular free item at the SuperFair in 1973 were the fans handed out by the State Republican Party which were emblazoned with the words “I am a Republican fan.”

(Considering the bad news swirling around the GOP and Watergate at the time, folks must have been pretty desperate to use them.)

By Sunday, September 2, the penultimate day of the Fair, there were scenes around the Fairgrounds that sound as if they resembled something from “The Walking Dead.”

Hornak wrote:

“The heat seemed to be getting the best of nearly everyone. Fairgoers drifted from place to place. Some appeared to be dozing on their feet.”

People “stretched out everywhere, on steps, between steps, in trees, wherever there was grass.”

“One empty tent had become a bedroom for some 20 people,” he wrote, “who seemed to be dead to the world.”

Inside the air-conditioned press room, reporters tried to keep up with the number of Fairgoers who were treated from heat exhaustion.

The heat was the chief culprit for the SuperFair’s low attendance, but it was not alone.

Music guests Mac Davis, Bobby Vinton, stars from “Hee Haw,” Charley Pride, and Lawrence Welk’s orchestra were not as well-received as Sonny and Cher, Wayne Newton and Jim Nabors had been the year before.

And the economy was not great.

Food prices and inflation meant that many families did not have the extra income for a day at the Fair.

Free food samples, including cheddar cheese cubes, goats’ milk, beef stick slices, baked goods, and baked potatoes with butter were popular.

To entice people to attend, the New York State Meat Producers donated three quarters of a ton of meat to be given away in daily raffles, a first at the State Fair.

Anyone could enter, just drop your ticket stub into the drawing box with your name and address written on it.

With food prices high in 1973, New York State Fair officials offered this meat giveaway where winners of daily raffles could stock their freezers with pounds of beef, pork, and lamb. About a quarter of a ton of meat was given away during the seven-day Fair. This ad is from the Aug. 24, 1973 Post-Standard.

Each day, there would be seven drawings giving away 15 pounds of beef, five pounds of pork and five pounds of lamb each time.

On Labor Day, there were two 100-pound “Grand Prizes” where two lucky winners could fill their freezer with 25 pounds of pork, 25 pounds of lamb, and 50 pounds of beef.

The sluggish economy especially hurt Midway games.

“I think they tighten their belts on games,” said one game owner.

When it was over, attendance at the 1973 SuperFair plunged 66,650 people from the year before and was the lowest attended Fair in seven years.

More NYS Fair coverage

Newly promoted NYS Fair director sees need to balance innovation and nostalgia

DON’T CLICK THIS! (Unless you really, really want to see 2023 NYS Fair butter sculpture photos)

NYS Fair Food Hall of Fame #1: Pizze Fritte, a ‘Syracuse thing’ known round the world

This feature is a part of CNY Nostalgia, a section on syracuse.com. Send your ideas and curiosities to Johnathan Croyle: Email | 315-416-3882.

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