Vintage Photos: New York County Fair in the 1940s

This past weekend I attended the LA County Fair in Pomono, CA. It was bloody hot and within half an hour my vintage dress was sticking to me. Not exactly the prettiest of pictures, but it was still quite fun and one of the nicest (and cleanest) fairs I've ever been to.


A couple of months ago I watched State Fair with Jeanne Crain and Dana Andrews. It was such a sweet and nostalgic movie and this weekend's past visit to the county fair inspired me to do a vintage photo post about it.

These vintage photographs were shot by Alfred Eisenstaedt at the Batavia, New York County Fair in 1941. I love these candid photos of the dancers and performers of the fair. I especially love the photo of the women ironing what appears to be a costume bolero and I absolutely LOVE the photo of the acrobat on the man's head while he drinks coffee and reads his paper. SO RAD!

I wonder what conversations these women had... what love interests there might have been, what secret rivalries there were... vintage photographs tell so many, many stories.


img sources: LIFE Magazine Photo Archives