Ranking some of the State Fair’s weirdest moments
Baby incubator exhibit interior, Alaska-Yukon-Pacific-Exposition, Seattle, Wash., 1909. A similar exhibit was hosted at the Minnesota State Fair the same year.
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Many of us are familiar with the butter head sculptures and crop art that have become beloved traditions of the Minnesota State Fair. But there’s a whole other side to the fair’s history — one filled with strange exhibits and peculiar attractions.
MPR News arts editor Max Sparber wrote an article exploring some of the fair’s most unusual moments.
He spoke with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer about it.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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Audio transcript
CATHY WURZER: Y'all know that you've got the butter head sculptures and the crop art, right, that have become beloved traditions at the fair, but there's a whole other side to the fair's history, one filled with strange exhibits and peculiar attractions. So here to share these weird tales with us is Arts Editor Max Sparber, who wrote an article exploring some of the various most unusual moments. Hey, Max, how are you?
MAX SPARBER: Hi, Cathy. I'm doing great.
CATHY WURZER: Good. So, I tend to these sorts of stories. What made you want to look into all this?
MAX SPARBER: Well, some of it I just remember. I've been going to the fair since I was a kid. And you'd go wandering around and there'd be RVs or tents with signs, and you'd go in and just see things you'd never seen before in your life.
And then, I've kind of made a hobby of when I get bored, just going to local digital archives, like the Historical Society or the local newspapers and just typing in state fair ghost, state fair polka, state fair burlesque, to see what will pop up, just combining words. And you do that enough, you start finding some really unusual stories.
CATHY WURZER: To say the least. Yes, I remember as a kid going on the midway and seeing some really weird things. And I'm not as old as the exhibit from 1909 that evidently was made up of actual human babies. Is that right?
MAX SPARBER: That is right. Yeah, that was. Do you remember Boardwalk Empire?
CATHY WURZER: Oh, I love that show.
MAX SPARBER: Yeah. On the Atlantic City Boardwalk, they had an exhibit in the show of just premature babies, and that was an actual thing. It was introduced by a guy named Dr. Martin Couney, and it was to showcase premature baby care.
And he would take these around the country. He called them The Infantorium. He also used to call them child hatcheries. So, he was a fellow with real talent for branding.
And the whole point, was to display early incubators at fairs and other attractions in order to popularize incubator technology, raise awareness about how they could help premature babies. And it worked.
He's sort of considered one of the fathers of NICUs and other prenatal and postnatal care. But it also meant that you're going to the fair and you were seeing premature babies in little machines.
CATHY WURZER: Wow. My grandma was always wanting to see the whale. I can't remember the name of the whale, but there was supposed to be some whale that was at the fair, too.
MAX SPARBER: There was. There were a couple of whales. And the one I know about was in 1930, which was a full-sized whale, 55 feet. It was embalmed and displayed by the Pacific Whaling Company. And it was accompanied by a smaller 18-foot baby whale that was also embalmed and displayed. Kind of the opposite of the miracle of birth exhibit. The whole point of it was supposed to be educational, but I find the idea little morbid.
CATHY WURZER: Ya think?
[LAUGHTER]
Yeah, kind of weird. What about the sausage and liverwurst exhibit, which sounds a little unappetizing, perhaps?
MAX SPARBER: Yeah. This is from 1949, and it was an exhibit that said, fool your friends. And it involves sausage and liverwurst. Turned out they were actually made of fudge. It was a prank, supposedly to the delight of people who would try it and taste sweet instead of liverwursty.
I think it highlights the playful and sometimes weird sense of humor you find at the fair. I don't know what the point of it was, but I don't find it any stranger than fudge that we had at the fair last year, which was pickle flavored.
CATHY WURZER: Yeah, that was not attractive. So, finally, speaking of unusual things, but fun, I love the llama costume contest at the fair.
MAX SPARBER: Yeah.
CATHY WURZER: I do. Was there something involving, and help my memory here, it was an event at the fair involving a group called Queer Bomb.
MAX SPARBER: That is correct. 2015. Queer Bomb was a flash mob kind of rave group. They only seem to have been active locally in 2015 for that one year. And they would go to events that were already pre-planned and turn them into parties.
And so, they attended the 4H llama costume contest, which I think is one of those things that never really got as much credit as it deserves. It's a real oddity. It's a 4H thing, and the folks dress their llamas up as, well, they put shower caps on them or sometimes they dress them as the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, which seems like a very Minnesotan llama thing to do.
And so in 2015, Queer Bomb just showed up and turned it into a party. They were an LGBTQ activist group. And it resulted in a spontaneous dance party on Dan Patch Boulevard, which took already a really distinct event, which is happening again, I think it's this Wednesday, if I remember correctly, and it turned it into something really unusual.
So, I missed that one, unfortunately. And they don't seem to have ever redone anything like that. But I think that's a great way to approach a llama costume party.
CATHY WURZER: I love that. A llama costume party with the spontaneous dance party. You just gotta love it. Max, you and I should get together, because we obviously share this love of oddball history.
MAX SPARBER: Yes, indeed.
CATHY WURZER: Thanks for joining us. I appreciate it.
MAX SPARBER: It was my pleasure.
CATHY WURZER: MPR Arts Editor Max Sparber. By the way, you can read his full story at mprnews.org.
MAX SPARBER: Hi, Cathy. I'm doing great.
CATHY WURZER: Good. So, I tend to these sorts of stories. What made you want to look into all this?
MAX SPARBER: Well, some of it I just remember. I've been going to the fair since I was a kid. And you'd go wandering around and there'd be RVs or tents with signs, and you'd go in and just see things you'd never seen before in your life.
And then, I've kind of made a hobby of when I get bored, just going to local digital archives, like the Historical Society or the local newspapers and just typing in state fair ghost, state fair polka, state fair burlesque, to see what will pop up, just combining words. And you do that enough, you start finding some really unusual stories.
CATHY WURZER: To say the least. Yes, I remember as a kid going on the midway and seeing some really weird things. And I'm not as old as the exhibit from 1909 that evidently was made up of actual human babies. Is that right?
MAX SPARBER: That is right. Yeah, that was. Do you remember Boardwalk Empire?
CATHY WURZER: Oh, I love that show.
MAX SPARBER: Yeah. On the Atlantic City Boardwalk, they had an exhibit in the show of just premature babies, and that was an actual thing. It was introduced by a guy named Dr. Martin Couney, and it was to showcase premature baby care.
And he would take these around the country. He called them The Infantorium. He also used to call them child hatcheries. So, he was a fellow with real talent for branding.
And the whole point, was to display early incubators at fairs and other attractions in order to popularize incubator technology, raise awareness about how they could help premature babies. And it worked.
He's sort of considered one of the fathers of NICUs and other prenatal and postnatal care. But it also meant that you're going to the fair and you were seeing premature babies in little machines.
CATHY WURZER: Wow. My grandma was always wanting to see the whale. I can't remember the name of the whale, but there was supposed to be some whale that was at the fair, too.
MAX SPARBER: There was. There were a couple of whales. And the one I know about was in 1930, which was a full-sized whale, 55 feet. It was embalmed and displayed by the Pacific Whaling Company. And it was accompanied by a smaller 18-foot baby whale that was also embalmed and displayed. Kind of the opposite of the miracle of birth exhibit. The whole point of it was supposed to be educational, but I find the idea little morbid.
CATHY WURZER: Ya think?
[LAUGHTER]
Yeah, kind of weird. What about the sausage and liverwurst exhibit, which sounds a little unappetizing, perhaps?
MAX SPARBER: Yeah. This is from 1949, and it was an exhibit that said, fool your friends. And it involves sausage and liverwurst. Turned out they were actually made of fudge. It was a prank, supposedly to the delight of people who would try it and taste sweet instead of liverwursty.
I think it highlights the playful and sometimes weird sense of humor you find at the fair. I don't know what the point of it was, but I don't find it any stranger than fudge that we had at the fair last year, which was pickle flavored.
CATHY WURZER: Yeah, that was not attractive. So, finally, speaking of unusual things, but fun, I love the llama costume contest at the fair.
MAX SPARBER: Yeah.
CATHY WURZER: I do. Was there something involving, and help my memory here, it was an event at the fair involving a group called Queer Bomb.
MAX SPARBER: That is correct. 2015. Queer Bomb was a flash mob kind of rave group. They only seem to have been active locally in 2015 for that one year. And they would go to events that were already pre-planned and turn them into parties.
And so, they attended the 4H llama costume contest, which I think is one of those things that never really got as much credit as it deserves. It's a real oddity. It's a 4H thing, and the folks dress their llamas up as, well, they put shower caps on them or sometimes they dress them as the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, which seems like a very Minnesotan llama thing to do.
And so in 2015, Queer Bomb just showed up and turned it into a party. They were an LGBTQ activist group. And it resulted in a spontaneous dance party on Dan Patch Boulevard, which took already a really distinct event, which is happening again, I think it's this Wednesday, if I remember correctly, and it turned it into something really unusual.
So, I missed that one, unfortunately. And they don't seem to have ever redone anything like that. But I think that's a great way to approach a llama costume party.
CATHY WURZER: I love that. A llama costume party with the spontaneous dance party. You just gotta love it. Max, you and I should get together, because we obviously share this love of oddball history.
MAX SPARBER: Yes, indeed.
CATHY WURZER: Thanks for joining us. I appreciate it.
MAX SPARBER: It was my pleasure.
CATHY WURZER: MPR Arts Editor Max Sparber. By the way, you can read his full story at mprnews.org.
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