FOURTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART III 243 



GETTING THE CROWD EVERY DAY. 



I5Y A. G. RIGBY, INDEPENDENCE. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen of This Association: I asked Dr. Russell 

 to discuss this topic of Getting the Crowd Every Day because they have 

 the faculty of doing it down at Anamosa. A great many people are under 

 the impression that you can only have one day at the fair, and that is 

 usually Thursday. The Anamosa fair is run along different lines so far as 

 I know from any other fair in Iowa. They run it strictly as an amuse- 

 ment proposition. They don't make much of an effort to get exhibits. 

 They put on a strong, rousing program, well interspersed with vaudeville 

 and acrobatic attractions, and they have gone the last two years pretty 

 strongly into special premiums. It is a system that I do not exactly 

 approve of; that is, for a fair that is well established and well organized 

 like some fairs that are represented here today, like the fairs at Mason 

 City, Marshalltown, Waverly, Bloomfield and quite a number of fairs; but 

 for the fair that is getting started it seems to me that there are some 

 ideas to be gained from the way they do things at Anamosa that are well 

 worth while to try. Now you all know that this is a time when people 

 are getting to expect more and more. People travel more or less and 

 they see a good many things, and the people expect a good deal of the 

 county fair. And they have reason and right to expect something. It 

 does not make any difference how good a premium you pull off or what 

 your goods are, if you do not get the crowd it is not a paying proposition. 

 You cannot afford to load up on strong free attractions and a good pro- 

 gram and then not get the crowd, because if you do you are going to 

 run in the hole, and you have got to get the money. 



Now at Anamosa they go pretty strong on what they call their family 

 tickets. I don't recall the price, but I think it is a dollar, and it entitles 

 every member of the family to go to the fair every day. It is a low 

 priced ticket and lets in the whole family. Then if you can get the crowd 

 you can make the fellows come across strong for the right to do business 

 on the grounds. They get a big price for the merry-go-round, and a big 

 price for various other things. I remember a few years ago when con- 

 ditions were different with regard to the liquor interests, they used to 

 run a German Village down there, and they used to get $500.00 for the 

 German Village. But they have cut that out. And some years ago they 

 ran some pretty wide open gambling joints, and they used to get $1,000.00 

 for that; but I think they have had to cut that all out. But they have 

 another system of getting the crowd. They have given away a good 

 many things the last few years. They have given away an automobile. 

 Somebody got an automobile. That was the strong drawing card for 

 the last day. They still have what they call the family tickets, 

 and they sell a good many on the strength of that. Some of 

 these ideas I worked out at the Buchanan County Fair in the 

 last two years. I had some ideas this year and was over to Anamosa 

 and talked them over with Clifford Niles. He is a "live wire," one of the 

 directors of the Anamosa fair. There were some ideas I had thought to 

 try out myself and I didn't have the opportunity to do it, but Niles did. 

 He improved some of the suggestions. He ran what they called a Country 



