Date: Fri 12-Dec-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: DOTTIE

Quick Words:

Danbury-Fair-video

Full Text:

The Great Danbury State Fair Still Lives -- On Video

(with cuts)

BY DOROTHY EVANS

"Danbury Fair" are two words that mean much more than a shopping mall to

thousands of older area residents.

They bring back memories of happy, golden October days spent strolling the

midway, smelling the scent of cotton candy, fresh apples and pumpkin pie,

meeting friends and sharing the excitement of the last years of the

111-year-old Danbury State Fair.

On October 12, 1981, the fair closed its gates for the last time to make way

for the region's biggest shopping center.

"So many hated to see it leave and they fought tooth and nail to keep it from

happening. But progress pushed them out," said David Clark recently.

Mr Clark is president of DRC Advertising, the Danbury company that was hired

by two longtime area residents with close family connections to the fair, Jack

Stetson and Irving Jarvis, to help distribute their newly released 90-minute

documentary video titled "America's Most Unique Fair, A Memoir."

"It's a history of how the whole fair evolved from 1869 to 1981 and how

attractions came and went," Mr Clark said.

The video describes how the fair first had a life of its own in the

agricultural community and then became a focus for local business and

commercial enterprises.

"It was a labor of love," said Mr Stetson, chairman of Leahy's Fuel Oil

Company in Danbury, describing the making of the video in partnership with

"Irv" Jarvis, whose Ridgefield film company, Film Fair Productions, helped

produce it.

Mr Stetson had gotten the idea for the video two years ago, he said, when he

discovered that his step-grandfather, John W. Leahy, who successfully ran the

fair from 1945 to his death in 1975, had hired a photographer to shoot film

footage every year.

Mr Leahy had commissioned these films for his personal collection, simply as

an archival project, never thinking the fair wouldn't continue indefinitely.

"It was fabulous stuff," said Mr Stetson, adding that he and Mr Jarvis were

helped in completing the project by New Milford area news reporter Arlene

Yaple, who knew many of the longtime fair workers who were still living in the

area and urged them to tell their stories.

As a result, there are more than 100 audio reminiscences interlaced with

vintage shots of favorite fair attractions, such as the Golden Nugget Saloon,

New England Village, the Dutch Village, the Gold Town Hayride and the stock

car races.

The more traditional agricultural exhibits of food and produce, animals and

farm machines are included, since they continued to be an important part of

the fair even as new "theme" attractions were added.

"One of the reasons I made this video was thinking it would be sort of a last

souvenir of the fair. Now it is available to everyone who has ever been there.

They can show their kids and grandkids who are wondering what those words

`Danbury Fair' Mall really mean," Mr Stetson said.

To get a copy of the video, people should call 888/449-8800 toll free. It is

available for $19.95 plus shipping and handling.

Note: It was decided not to sell the video at the Danbury Fair Mall because

this would have seemed an insult to many longtime fair-goers who still refuse

to visit the shopping facility.

"There was a huge loyalty. It's unfathomable to understand unless you were a

part of it for years and years," Mr Clark said.