1946 Alabama State Fair
The 1946 Alabama State Fair was a State Fair held in October 1946 at the Alabama State Fairgrounds. In addition to livestock and educational exhibits, the fair featured an Army Show, "Auto Dare-Devils" with the famous Grancor Rocket Car on the racetrack, a Barnes-Carruthers Revue and a nationally-broadcast performance of the Grand Ole Opry. Each night ended with a Duffield "sky-bursting display" of fireworks.
On Thursday, October 3 a 9 year-old boy found a .38 caliber pistol accidentally left behind in the "Rocket" ride by a bus driver. He fired a shot which tore through another boy's hand and a teenage girl's leg before lodging in another woman's hip.
Revue
The Barnes-Carruthers State Fair Revue of 1946 included over 100 performers. Headliners included the Dorothy Held Dancers, Cervonne and His Band, the Twelve Gentlemen of Song, the Weeks Brothers and their Trained Bear, "Big Boy", The Five Leonards, and "Capt. Frakes Dynamiting Chest to Bits".
Grand Ole Opry
The Mutual Network broadcast daily performances by members of the Grand Ole Opry from the fairgrounds. Performers included Pee Wee King and his Golden West Cowboys, Minnie Pearl, The Duke of Paducah, and Ernest Tubb and His Troubadours.
Children's Day
On Wednesday, October 2 Birmingham City Schools closed early to allow 65,000 schoolchildren to witness the Auto Dare-Devils.
References
- "Three Wounded by Pistol at Fair" (October 3, 1946) The Tuscaloosa News, p. 3