Superman at the County Fair

by Erin Doane, Curator

“Look! Up in the sky!”

“It’s a bird!”

“It’s a plane!”

“No, it’s Superman!”

That’s what people were saying in Horseheads when tv’s Superman, George Reeves, made an appearance at the Chemung County Fair on August 14, 1956. The 6-foot 2 ½-inch tall, 195-pound actor played the title role in The Adventures of Superman from 1952 to 1958. He came to the fair as part of the “Kiddie Kapers” grandstand show that included another popular television star of the time, Lassie.

George Reeves making an appearance at the Chemung County Fair on August 14, 1956

A record overflow crowd of more than 5,000 people, mostly children, filled the grandstand for “Kiddie Kapers.” The show began with a clown act that finished with two clowns crawling through the grandstand, dusting off the children with feather dusters. Next came a small brass band, then an aerial trapeze duo. The Briants, a comedy pantomime team performed after that, then Cowboy Jim Phillips and his horse Smokey took the stage. Lassie was up next, performing clever tricks and stealing the children’s hearts. A bullwhip and knife-throwing demonstration by William Cody and Company followed the canine tv star. And then it was time for the final act – Superman.

George Reeves came onto stage as mild-mannered Clark Kent, but after a brief moment behind a backdrop he reappeared as Superman. While everyone was excited to see Superman, as he went about explaining how television shows were made, the children became restless and some began to boo when they found out Superman was not going to fly for them. Yet, when he offered free autographed pictures, hundreds of children rushed the stage.

George Reeves (left) and Lassie had never met until they were “introduced” at the Chemung County Fair, Star-Gazette, August 15, 1956

Reeves spoke to reporter Jim Morse of the Star-Gazette while he was here for the fair. Reeves didn’t seem surprised that children would be disappointed by him not flying. “It takes plenty of explaining,” he said, “when the kids ask me how I’m able to fly. If they’re real young, I tell then that’s Superman’s secret. If they’re 10 or older, and appear serious, not fresh, I tell them the truth. It’s best that way.” My guess is that “the truth” may have had something to do with explaining showbiz magic.

In the interview, Reeves also described how people, both children and adults, were always trying to test him as Superman. Grown men would take swings at him so they could brag that they punched Superman. He always refrained from getting into a fight in public and would run away from such encounters whenever possible. “A guy in my position never wins a public fight, even if it isn’t his fault,” he explained. “The publicity kills you.” Reeves also took his status as a role model for children seriously. He even gave up smoking so kids wouldn’t pick up the habit from seeing him do it.

Reeves also told a rather frightening story to Morse. One time when he was at an appearance in Denver as Superman a 7-year-old showed up with his father’s loaded .45 pistol. The boy wanted to see the bullets bounce off of Superman like they did on television. Reeves was able to talk the child out of shooting him by pointing out that when the bullets bounced off him they might hit someone in the crowd and the boy didn’t want anyone to get hurt.

Which Baby is Best?: Baby Contests in Chemung County

By Kelli Huggins, Education Coordinator

I admittedly, and ashamedly so, have spent some time watching TV shows like “Toddlers and Tiaras” in utter horror.  I don’t get the point of putting makeup on your infant so a panel of judges in a sad hotel ballroom can give them a trophy.  But my personal feelings on the subject aside, baby shows aren’t a new idea.  Certainly, modern kiddie pageants operate in the realm of extremes (Fake teeth? Really?!?), but baby contests date back more than a century, and for periods, were very popular locally.

See #16? Babies like winning contests! From 1907.

Baby shows started in England in the 1880s and soon became popular on our side of the Atlantic.  The earliest mentions of baby contests I have found in Chemung County are from the mid-1890s.  These earliest shows were primarily held at the County fair.  As the newspaper reported, “The baby show is usually a howling success.”

Handbill from the 1896 Chemung County Fair that highlights the baby show.

By the 1900s and 1910s, the contests started to evolve, but many still were in place to find the cutest or most popular baby.  A 1905 baby contest at Bethel A.M.E. Church ended when judges “found all so pretty” that it was unfair to choose a winner, so they instead awarded them all prizes.  Local babies placed in larger regional or national competitions, too.  In 1913, Elmiran Jacob Levine won a baby contest in Scranton, PA, defeating 800 other babies.  That same year, Phyllis Jane Dixon won one of the largest national contests at Asbury Park, NJ, earning a gold medal and $15 in gold.  She won “not for beauty alone, but for physical and mental perfection.”  Other types of contests began to emerge: in the 1910s, the Gerity’s Pharmacy awarded prizes to the first baby born in Elmira each New Year.     

Gerity's 1915 winner

In the 1920s and 1930s, the shows morphed into “Better Baby” contests.  Building on some of the less destructive ideas of the eugenics movement, Better Baby shows were developed to identify and award healthy babies and to educate mothers about best child-rearing practices.  Still, the winners were almost exclusively from white, middle-to-upper class families, so the ideals of the eugenics movement were definitely adhered to.  These contests were judged by doctors who gave each child a physical examination. 

Dr. Dale examines a baby at a Chemung County contest in 1924.

The competition was fierce and a lot of maternal pride was on the line.  As Elmira Telegram opined in 1923, “The man who can act as a judge at a baby show and escape without a scratch is a born diplomat.”

Winners of a 1925 Chemung County Better Baby Contest (the crying girl on the left probably wouldn't have won if she cried like that in judging).

In 1929, one-year-old Edgar Allen Terwilliger defeated 200 other babies to win the Chemung County Better Baby Contest.  The show's real purpose was said to be educational. 40 of the 200 babies were deemed “defective,” which was a warning to their families to “keep closer watch of their health.”  In 1925, 10-month-old Ruth Barber won 3^rd place in the national Nestle’s Food Healthy Baby Show.  She won her picture and story in the “Pictoral Review,” a sterling silver loving cup, and $25 cash.

Nurses hold winning babies of a contest at St. Joseph's Hospital in 1937.

By the late 1930s through the 1950s, many of the contests again turned back towards popularity- or beauty-based judging. In 1939, the Big Flats Baptist Ladies Aid Society held a contest to “determine the most popular baby.”  Other local organizations held similar contests.  

Advertisement for entrants for the 1938 Daughters of America Baby Show (note the prizes for cutest and most popular babies).

Baby photo contest, 1945.

In 1954, the Big Flats American Legion Auxiliary hosted a snapshot photograph baby contest at Community Days.  Photos were posted on a bulletin board at Minier’s Grocery Store and judging was done by a penny vote.  The winners got to ride on a special parade float.

A rebellious 1938 local winner.

The baby show craze started to fade away after the 1950s, but clearly didn’t disappear entirely.  Early baby shows certainly had some positives, including putting a spotlight on infant health and wellness.  The wit and wisdom section of the Star Gazette suggested one other positive in 1928:

“Your baby may not win

In the Baby Show,

If you enter him. But he’ll meet

Some nice babies.”

The Human Ostrich Scandal and Other Tales of Travelling Curiosities

by Kelli Huggins, Education Coordinator

People's fascination with "freak shows" has a long and international history.  The first exhibits of people with abnormal abilities or with medical conditions dates to as early as 16th century Europe.  However, it wasn't until the 19th century, due largely to the proliferation of railroad lines, that people were able to bring these entertainments to a larger audience.  Chemung County was visited by many of these "oddities" and these entertainments raise many issues of spectacle, exploitation, and what defines "entertainment."

I will begin by discussing the curious case of the titular "Human Ostrich Scandal."  In the late 19th century, there was a subset of travelling performers known as "human ostriches."  They earned that name not because of the size of their necks, but because of their ability to eat all sorts of non-food materials, like metal or glass (ostriches are known to eat pebbles and other random items to help them digest their food).  One of the most famous human ostriches was Samuel, or Harry, Harrison, a native of Syracuse, NY.  Harrison traveled all over the country with various shows peddling his abnormal trade.  He routinely ate nails, knives, glass, fish hooks, and other dangerous items.  Harrison also claimed to be able to eat 10 grains of any poison and be able to survive.  He visited medical colleges and for a fee of $250 allowed any surgeon to cut him open to examine his innards, an offer which he was taken up on many times.  

Harrison, the Human Ostrich, gives a sultry stare as he sits down to a meal of metal.

Harrison eating a glass lamp chimney.

This human ostrich was also a ladies man (because who doesn't love a man who makes a living swallowing carpet tacks and horseshoe nails...).  In 1899, Harrison the Human Ostrich came to Elmira.  He had previously done a show in Corning, during which a young girl fell in love with him and followed him to Elmira (where he subsequently ditched her).  During his stint at the Chemung County Fair, Harrison attracted the attention of Hattie Miller, a 17 year old farm girl from Pine City.  After watching Harrison's show, Miller found herself drawn to the human ostrich due largely to concern over his safety.  They were inseparable in the hours after the show and they decided that Miller would run away with him.  The pair was eventually tracked down in Oneonta, NY, where Miller's concerned father rushed to retrieve her.      

 The human ostrich scandal provides some humorous insight into one type of sideshow freak.  Harrison was someone who, through his own agency, chose to capitalize on his "skills."  However, other sideshow attractions would be better classified as exploitation.  Many of these people had physical deformities or medical conditions, like John Merrick, the Elephant Man.  Millie and Christine McCoy, better known by their stage name, "The Carolina Twins," were conjoined twins who had been born into slavery in 1851.  As infants they were sold to a showman who exhibited the twins as curiosities.  They were emancipated in 1863, but remained active on the show circuits.  At some point, the Carolina Twins came to Chemung County.  As evidenced by this picture, they were a popular attraction.

Millie and Christine McCoy in Chemung County

Other sideshow curiosities were people from countries or tribes around the world.  People from Africa, South America, or Southeast Asia were often displayed at fairs, museums, or other locations.  These local pictures show a woman in ethnic clothing and the sign in the background identifies her as "Persian."  The fact that the entire audience visible in the picture is male also suggests something about undertones (or overtones) of sexuality which were often imbued in such shows.

A "Persian" performer at a Chemung County fair.

Marvelous Living Pictures: Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope in Elmira

By Kelli Huggins, Education Coordinator

Film is such a significant and omnipresent part of modern life that it is difficult to imagine an era with “motion picture shows.”  That is one of the reasons that I have long found the early years of film making so fascinating.  Once motion picture technologies were developed, they evolved quickly leading to the rise of the silents and beyond.  In this blog post, however, I want to bring us back to the earliest public introduction of moving images and the first time people from the Chemung Valley would have encountered this radically transformative medium.

In 1894 Thomas Edison and his assistants introduced the kinetoscope to the American public.  When he patented the invention years earlier, he named it from the Greek "kineto" meaning "movement" and "scopos" meaning "to watch."  Edison wasn’t the first to experiment with this technology, with Eadweard Muybridge and his Zoopraxiscope notably coming before.  However, his invention was the first to have such a public impact.

A Kinetophone- A kinetoscope combined with phonography technology, circa 1895

A kinetoscope is a personal film viewer.  A person looked through a peephole in the top of the machine as a film strip on a spinning wheel passed over a light.  Kinetoscope parlors popped up in major cities and individual machines would pass through other areas as a kind of traveling curiosity.  Businesses in Elmira first hosted kinetoscopes in September of 1894.  The Water Street carpet and drapery shops of Albert Samuel and T.S. Pratt both advertised their temporary possession of one of these new machines for public viewing.  The machine was also displayed at the Chemung County fairgrounds.  By 1897, the Elmira Telegram asserted that almost every man, woman, and child in Elmira had probably encountered a kinetoscope.  An article explained the technology behind the moving images to those who doubted what they saw through the viewers.

 

A handbill advertising a kinetoscope in Elmira in September of 1894.

In addition to creating the viewing machines, Edison and his team made many films from their "Black Maria" studio in New Jersey.  Many of the early kinetoscope films were targeted at male audiences, meaning they featured boxing matches and “salacious” ankle-showing dancing girls (literal “peep shows”).  While these sights would be considered tame by today’s standards, they did cause quite a bit of controversy when they were introduced.  The Women’s Christian Temperance Union protested the violence of the boxing films and were successful in getting those kinetoscope films banned in a few states.  Watch some of the early films below:

 

 

Film technology has clearly progressed from the kinetoscope days.  Just a few years after the kinetoscope’s introduction, the advent of projection technology turned film from an expensive curiosity into a mass culture phenomenon.  Still, in an era of HD, 3D, and whatever technology is soon to come, it is interesting to reflect on our cinematic roots and appreciate the pioneering work of late 19th century inventors.

Meet Me at the Fair: A Brief Ride Through Fair History in Chemung County

By Kerry Lippincott, Education Coordinator

The history of the Chemung County Fair begins with the Chemung County Agricultural Society.  Formed in September 1842, the society was to meet annually in October “for the purpose of holding the regular fair and exhibition of domestic animals, manufactured articles of the farm and garden and agricultural implements.”  The first fair was held in October 1842.  During that fair cash prizes were given in a variety of divisions including horses, cattle, pigs, butter and cheese, grain crops, fruit, silk agricultural implements and household productions.

Unfortunately, after 1842 there are gaps in the fair records.   Though we may not know the exact dates of the fairs, we do know the locations.   Early fairs were held in Horseheads.  In 1871 400 acres of land between Elmira and Horseheads (the area where Anchor Glass is currently located) was secured for the fairgrounds.  Twenty-one years later the fair moved to its current location in Horseheads.

Of course, county fairs were not the only fairs held in the county.  Between 1841 and 1889 the New York State Fair was held annually throughout the state.  Host cities included Syracuse, Albany, Rochester, Poughkeepsie, Utica, Buffalo, New York City, Watertown and Elmira.  In fact, Elmira hosted the state fair nine times in 1855, 1860, 1869, 1872, 1875, 1878, 1881, 1884, and 1889.  Over the years two locations were used for the state fair – East Water Street (where Kennedy Valve is currently located) or the Maple Avenue Driving Park (now Dunn Field).  In 1890 the state fair moved permanently to Syracuse.

Between 1889 and 1891 the Interstate Fair (a joint effort between New York and Pennsylvania) was held at the Maple Avenue Driving Park.

This week marks the 170^th Annual Chemung County Fair.  If you happen to be at the fair, please stop at our booth in the Commercial Building!