Film Footage: “The State Fair of Texas in the 1960s”

by Paula Bosse

sfot_1960s_jones-collection_smu_men-in-suits_ice-cream Everyone likes ice cream…. (G. William Jones Collection, SMU)

by Paula Bosse

Thanks to Twitter, I discovered this cool video of film clips of the State Fair of Texas, shot throughout the 1960s, courtesy of SMU’s WFAA Newsfilm Collection/G. William Jones Film and Video Collection, put together by Moving Image Curator Jeremy Spracklen. There are 15 or so clips, some in black and white, some in color, some silent, some with sound. This compilation runs about 24 minutes. Watch it. You’ll enjoy it — especially the montage of fair food at the end! (Make sure you watch in fullscreen.)

Here are a few screengrabs I took, to give you an idea of the content (images are much cleaner in the video!).

Getting ready for the fair.

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Fair Park entrance.

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Crowd, baby, binoculars.

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Neuhoff hot dog stand.

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The monorail (with a cameo by Big Tex).

$sfot_1960s_jones-collection_smu_monorail_big-tex$

I don’ t know who this guy is, but he’s in several shots and I love him! Here he is losing out to the woman who correctly guessed his weight.

sfot_1960s_jones-collection_smu_guess-your-weight

Kids eating … Pink Things! “Made famous at Six Flags.”

sfot_1960s_jones-collection_smu_kids_pink-thing

Aqua Net and Moët. (I have to say, I’ve never seen champagne at the fair, but perhaps those are circles I don’t travel in.)

sfot_1960s_jones-collection_smu_aqua-net-and-moet

Everyone needs a corny dog fix.

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Everyone.

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Have a groovy time at this year’s State Fair of Texas!

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***

Sources & Notes

Film clips from Southern Methodist University’s WFAA Newsfilm Collection/G. William Jones Film and Video Collection; the video has been edited by SMU’s Moving Image Curator, Jeremy Spracklen. The direct link to the video on Vimeo is here.

6 Comments to “Film Footage: “The State Fair of Texas in the 1960s””

Not Bob says:

September 29, 2017 at 9:22 PM

The clips are great! Did you catch the Easter egg at about 17 minutes in? There was about 30 seconds of Six Flags footage.

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- Paula Bosse says:
  
  September 29, 2017 at 9:29 PM
  
  Yeah, I saw that. That was odd.
  
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Malcolm James Thomson says:

September 30, 2017 at 4:03 AM

Did you know that in 1960 one of the big State Fair exhibition halls was used as a studio for the movie “Beyond The Time Barrier”?

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- Paula Bosse says:
  
  September 30, 2017 at 9:49 AM
  
  I did NOT know that! I’ll have to do some investigation. Thanks!
  
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  - Malcolm Thomson says:
    
    September 30, 2017 at 10:03 AM
    
    I sent the captioned shot to my daughter, who lives close to Tempelhof. A wonderful coincidence is that Edgar Ulmer was a close associate of the director Robert Siodmak. Siodmak directed in 1962 a film titled “Tunnel 28” which was filmed at the Tempelhof studios. I was on the staff as Unit Publicist.
    
    More? Yup! I was back at Tempelhof thirty years later, producing many episodes of daily soap opera for a German network.
    
    Ulmer’s influence? A respect for low-budget moviemaking and work which was stylish and eccentric and was seen as the embodiment of the ‘auteur theory’.
    
    On Sat, Sep 30, 2017 at 4:49 PM, Flashback : Dallas wrote:
    
    > Paula Bosse commented: “I did NOT know that! I’ll have to do some > investigation. Thanks! ” >
    
    LikeLiked by 1 person
    
Event: “Remixing the News” Screening at SMU | Flashback : Dallas says:

November 13, 2017 at 11:11 PM

[…] pop culture. I’ve dipped in and showcased some of the offerings in previous posts about the State Fair of Texas, and on Dallas appearances by Jimi Hendrix, Tiny Tim, and Glen […]

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