The State Fair of Texas is an annual state fair held in Dallas, Texas at historic Fair Park. The fair has taken place every year since 1886 except for varying periods during World War I and World War II. It usually begins the last Friday in September and ends 24 days later. While the State Fair of Texas considers quantifying its attendance figures "too much of a hassle," it is still consistently recognized as one of the most highly attended and best state fairs in America.

Attractions

The State Fair of Texas opening day ceremonies are highlighted by the annual Friday parade rolling through downtown Dallas.

Traditionally, the centerpiece of the fair has been the annual college football game between Oklahoma and Texas, nicknamed the Red River Rivalry (historically known as the "Texas-OU Game") and played in the Cotton Bowl at Fair Park. Also, the State Fair Classic, featuring Grambling State University and Prairie View A&M University, is played at the Cotton Bowl during the fair. In 2010, Baylor and Texas Tech played their game during the fair for the first time. During the opening weekend of the 2013 fair, Army and Louisiana Tech played in the inaugural Heart of Dallas Classic at the Cotton Bowl. However, the game was only played that year, and has not been played since.

A state fair is an annual competitive and recreational gathering of a U.S. state's population, usually held in late summer or early fall. It is a larger version of a county fair, often including only exhibits or competitors that have won in their categories at the more-local county fairs.

State fairs began in the nineteenth century for the purpose of promoting state agriculture, through competitive exhibitions of livestock and display of farm products. As the U.S. evolved from a predominantly agrarian to an industrial society in the twentieth century, modern state fairs have expanded to include carnival amusement rides and games, display of industrial products, automobile racing, and entertainment such as musical concerts. Large fairs can admit more than a million visitors over the course of a week or two. The first U.S. state fair was that of New York, held in 1841 in Syracuse, and has been held annually to the present year. The second state fair was in Detroit, Michigan, which ran from 1849 to 2009.

State Fair is a 1932 novel by Phil Stong about an Iowa farm family's visit to the Iowa State Fair, where the family's two teenage children each fall in love, but ultimately break up with their respective new loves and return to their familiar life back on the farm. Thomas Leslie, the author of Iowa State Fair: Country Comes to Town, wrote that the novel State Fair is "a surprisingly dark coming-of-age story that took as its major plot device the effects of the 'worldly temptations' of the Iowa State Fair on a local farming family", capturing tensions between urban Des Moines and rural Iowa.

The novel became a bestseller and established Stong as a popular author. Shortly after its publication, the novel was made into a Hollywood film starring Will Rogers (albeit with the addition of a happy "Hollywood ending" not in the book), and was subsequently adapted for the stage and screen several more times, including as a Rodgers and Hammerstein movie musical in 1945.

Plot

The novel follows the Frake family from the fictional town of Brunswick, Iowa. The father, Abel, has a Hampshire boar named "Blue Boy" that he thinks can win the grand championship at the Iowa State Fair. At the beginning of the story, he bets the local Storekeeper that "Blue Boy" will win the grand prize and that the Frakes will all have a good time at the fair and be better off for it when the fair is over. The pessimistic Storekeeper accepts the bet, but also bets that if he (the Storekeeper) loses, something "worse than anything you can think of" will have happened to the Frakes at the fair unbeknownst to Abel.

State Fair is a musical with a book by Tom Briggs and Louis Mattioli, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and music by Richard Rodgers.

Rodgers and Hammerstein originally adapted the Phil Stong novel of the same name for a 1945 movie musical, which was remade in 1962. The stage production closely follows the plot of its predecessors, providing a glimpse into the life of the farming Frake family and their three-day adventure at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines in 1946. While parents Abel and Melissa are hoping to win a few blue ribbons, siblings Margy and Wayne are more interested in finding romance on the midway.

Production history

In 1969, The Muny in St. Louis presented the world stage premiere of State Fair starring Ozzie and Harriet Nelson with Ron Husmann, Jerry Lanning, Bonnie Schon, Carol Richards, Tom Pedi, Tommy Tune and Lawrence Leritz (stage debut) in the children's chorus. The production was directed by James Hammerstein, supervised by Richard Rodgers and also choreographed by Tommy Tune. Additional songs included in this production were three from "Me & Juliet"; "It's Me!", "Keep It Gay" and "Marriage Type Love" and a new one, "Away From Home."

Texas /ˈtɛksəs/ (Spanish: Texas or Tejas [ˈtexas]) is a state in the United States of America. It is the second most populous and second largest state by area in the US. Geographically located in the south central part of the country, Texas shares an international border with Mexico to the south and borders the states of New Mexico to the west, Oklahoma to the north, Arkansas to the northeast, and Louisiana to the east. Texas has an area of 268,820 square miles (696,200 km²) and a growing population of over 27.5 million residents (July 2015).

Houston is the largest city in Texas and the fourth-largest in the United States, while San Antonio is the second largest in the state and seventh largest in the United States. Dallas–Fort Worth and Greater Houston are the fourth and fifth largest United States metropolitan statistical areas, respectively. Other major cities include Austin (the state capital) and El Paso. Texas is nicknamed the Lone Star State to signify Texas as a former independent republic, and as a reminder of the state's struggle for independence from Mexico. The "Lone Star" can be found on the Texan state flag and on the Texan state seal. The origin of the state name, Texas, is from the word, "Tejas", which means 'friends' in the Caddo language.

Western & Atlantic Railroad #49 "Texas" is a 4-4-0 "American" type steam locomotive built in 1856 for the Western & Atlantic Railroad by Danforth, Cooke & Co.. The Texas is widely known for being involved in the Great Locomotive Chase during the American Civil War as the engine that successfully pursued the General locomotive after it was stolen by Union saboteurs in an attempt to ruin the Confederate rail system. The locomotive is currently preserved at the Atlanta Cyclorama building within Grant Park in Atlanta, Georgia, and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It will be restored and relocated to the Atlanta History Center in 2016.

Antebellum

The Texas was built in October 1856 for the Western & Atlantic Railroad by locomotive manufacturer Danforth, Cooke and Company in Paterson, New Jersey. It was subsequently shipped from Paterson to the Port of Savannah, traveled the Georgia Rail Road & Banking Company and Macon & Western Railroad, before finally being delivered to the W&A headquarters in Atlanta that same year.

Texas Homecare was a chain of DIY stores in the United Kingdom and Ireland, that operated from 1972 until 1999.

History

Texas Homecare was established in 1972, by Manny, Sydney and Gerald Fogel, who had previously founded the high street specialist paint and wallpaper chain Home Charm. Taking their lead from America, they revolutionised the United Kingdom DIY market, with the introduction of the 'DIY shed' style outlet. Mervyn Fogel, co-founder and managing director for over 25 years, had a vision of turning the small family business into a DIY retail empire.

Texas specialised in higher volume, lower margin DIY products. The company had been adversely affected, by a recession and depressed housing market.

Acquisition

With its acquisition, Homebase hoped to hold around 10% of the total DIY market in the United Kingdom. In May 1995, it was announced that only 26 Texas stores were to close, with limited redundancies. Sainsbury's found that full conversion to the Homebase format was an investment worth making, and allowed £50 million for the task.