PROCEEDINGS IOWA FAIR MANAGERS ASSN. 207 



a mind to give you, and I think that these contracts we sign up for 

 these free acts ought to be looked over a Httle more carefully and not 

 all be one-sided. 



President Estell : Just as a suggestion, gentlemen, I was wonder- 

 ing what was your notion about this association appointing a com- 

 mittee possibly to confer with the state fair board in regard to the 

 various attraction companies. I just simply offer that as a suggestion 

 for further discussion. 



A Member: ]\Ir. Chairman, as just has been said, this is a sugges- 

 tion, that a resolution or anything along that line would be of no 

 benefit to any fair secretary. I think the proper thing when a fair 

 secretary goes to buy free acts he has to use his own judgment, and 

 have a contract to that eft'ect that the attraction is one hundred per 

 cent satisfactory to the fair board, and most of the good booking 

 agencies will do that. There are a few agencies that do not give 

 this kind of contracts but you go to any good booking agency and ask 

 for a contract for one hundred per cent delivery I don't think there 

 will be any question about it. \A'e know there are the independent 

 acts we buy some of us once in a while put up a bond to the eft'ect 

 of their appearance and also to their quality. But I think that is up 

 to the fair secretaries and not to the state fair management. 



A ^lember: It seems to me that the attraction man is the goat 

 at this meeting. We bought attractions for years and often had 

 them substitute different attractions for the one we bought, perhaps 

 a man would die in the troupe or something like that would happen, 

 but as yet we never had any substitution but what was better than 

 what we originally bought. 



:\Ir. ]\I. E. Bacon : As I have been engaged in the attraction busi- 

 ness off and on for about nine years and I am secretary of a fair in 

 Iowa and have been secretary of the Iowa fairs for the past four 

 years and I want to say this to you gentlemen, that you should not 

 condemn all the booking offices for what one or two irresponsible 

 booking men might do. There are four or five high-class booking 

 offices doing business that do business on a legitimate square basis, 

 and when they substitute in a case of substitution with you, some- 

 times as Mr. Stewart tells you they can't avoid it. They are on the 

 square and when they sell an attraction they do their utmost to de- 

 liver it to you, and I will dare say any of you, I don't care what 

 agency you deal with of the responsible ones, when they substitute 

 they try to get you something better than what you had already con- 



