Thank you to Forgotten Los Angeles.
There are only two days left to attend this year’s Los Angeles County Fair, and I have certainly been having fun digging back through its 102-year history.
Started in a Pomona beet field in October 1922, the Fair drew 50,000 visitors in its first year, with people coming from all over to see the agricultural and livestock exhibitions, and to enjoy daily chariot races and a wing-walking exhibition.
Since then, the fair has been held 95 times, bringing in more than 90 million visitors, and it has been significantly expanded, with its Fairplex now covering 543 acres, more than twelve times its original size.
No fairs were held between 1942 and 1947 due to the war, or in 2020 or 2021 due to Covid.
Photos:
• 1-5. Five great shots from the 1948 Fair, which was themed “A Century of Progress” celebrating California’s centennial anniversary. These images come from the Cal Poly Pomona Library and were pulled by Victoria Bernal for her great PBS Socal piece posted in 2022.
• 6. A very large pig, photographed in 1929.
• 7. A Frasher postcard for Rodoco Bulldog Kennels, taken at the LA County Fair in 1934
• 8-9. Two from the 1935 Fair, the first of which shows fairgoers outside of a Circus Sideshow, and the second showing people outside of a daredevil motorcycle exhibition.
Sources: 1-5. Cal Poly Pomona; 6,8-9. UCLA; 7. Pomona Library
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