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Fair
Day attractions in the 1940s
By Brendan
Murray
Take a trip down the main street of a Cavan town on a Fair
Day in the 1940's and enjoy the goings on, cattle bellowing,
pigs squealing, horses neighing, famers and dealers and
tanglers loudly praising or disparaging the animals for
sale; and above the din and the hustle and bustle, hear
the distinctive voice of a balladeer and his accompanying
accordion as he sings “the Wild Colonial Boy”,
or the “Boston Burglar”; and as you proceed further,
hear the cant of the hawkers, street sellers, and a gamesmen;
dally a while at some of their pitches and observe their
sales strategy and psyhcology; it wasn’t learned in
any school; no sir or madam! It had more to do with the
school; no sir or madam! It had more to do with the school
of life while trying to earn a crust.
The Money Man:
A man suddenly appears in the centre of the street shouting,
“money from America, money from America, i’ve
got money to give away.” £20 notes and £10
notes are pinned to his jacket andh e waves a fistful of
banknotes. People stop and stare, their curiosity aroused;
then like the piper of Hamlin, he backs towards the pavement
enticing them to follow towards a big colourful chart of
little squares, ech showing a number and an amount of money;
loudly he addresses his assemblage of prospective clients,
-- “If I tossed this money in hte air towards you,
some of you would get hurt in the stampede to pick it up,
and some f you would pick up more than others, and that
would not be fair. Now, I have a system that’s fair
and square for everyone, a very fair way of distributing
this money among you so that nobody will get crushed in
the rush. Look at this chart! See £50 marked beside
the number 10 and £15 beside the number 20! Ladies
and gentlemen, there are 100 numbers on the chart, many
showing large amounts of money. For me to give you any of
those amounts, all you have to do, is select a ticket from
this box I hold in my hand; and you win the amount shown
on the chart got yout ticket number. Ladies and gentlemen!
lets start; now to cover my expenses for coming here today,
I must charge you a “small” 6pence for each ticket.”
He passes among the crowd with his box of tickets, all tightly
machined rlled in paper coverings, pushing the box under
the noses of gullible looking customers, encouraging hesitant
ones with, “Have a go sir, it might be your lucky day;”
or to a young fellow, “Have a go Joe, your mother won’t
know and I won’t tell her,” and this draws laughter
from the crowd which must be entertained to be detained;
he moves quickly in an effort to sell as many tickets before
the initial prchasers have time to unravel theirs and check
the chart and discover their “lucky numbers” drew
blanks. As some of the audience begin to drift away, a young
fellow holds up a ticket and shouts, “I’ve a winner”.
Our man rushes to him and taking the ticket, loudly shouts
“another big pize won over here, £10 won over
her, let me give you the money sir.” He then presses
6 pence into the palm of he confused winner who rechecks
the chart which confirms that 6 pence is correct. Of course,
the shout of a £10 win stops the dispersal of the
crowd and brings a renewed rush of purchasers.
The Black Doctor
The black doctor’s pitch is in a more discerning upmarket
spot,close to draperies and boot shops. The gentleman’s
attire consists of an immaculate white “doctor’s
coat” which complements his gleaming white teeth and
contrasts very much with his ebony skin. His lordly dignified
bearing and quiet cultured tone is in accord with qualified
medical professionals of the day and immediately wins him
the respect of his audiences. His props consist of a framed
medical qualification “certificate” displayed
ona small table beside a brown case full of “doctor’s
“ bottles containing reddy liquid.. He commences his
lecture by inviting the “good people of the area”
to gather around to hear of the wonderful cure he has available
for many ailments. As inquisitive people assemble, the vast
majority haven’t seen a black man before, he delivers
an address on the merits of his medicine, along the lines
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“Ladies and gentlemen, I’m a medical doctor nad
i’m here today for those of you who might need my help.
I have a medicine that will cure many aches and pains. It
will give energy, renew appetite, and cure most ailments”.
As people continue to gather he continues, “I’m
not going to take an advantage of you by charging an exorbitant
price for this great remedy; I’m here to help you;
my charge will hopefully cover my expences for attending
here today; the price for a bottle of this marvellous medicine
is only wo shillings. My stock is low so it’s a matter
of first come first served. A few brave people purchase
a bottle of the “marvellous remedy” and after
some moments proceedings lull slightly; the good doctor,
sensing that some of the crowd their curiosity satisfied
are about to drift away leading to a mass dispersal of all
his potential customers. Miraculously, at this juncture,
a young lad of about 19 years of age shouts “I’ll
take a bottle”. The good doctor, approaches him ostentatiously
holding out a bottle as he says “here you are, my young
man.” Just as the lad is about to take the bottle,
the doctor loudly asks, “Are you married?.” The
young man replies “No” and then the doctor for
the benefit of his audience loudly says, “You are not
married -- No sir, I cannot sell a bottle of this great
medicine to you, you must be married before you can partake
of this highly potent medicine.” Immediately some crotchety
sceptical older men viewing proceedings from the outer periphery
of the assemblage and about to drift away rush to purchase
and the remaining sock of magic bottles is cleared away
there and then.
The medicine may have been an appropriately coloured placebyo,
but, no doubt, the partakers, convinced by the psychology
and sales technique of hte Black Doctor felt the benefit
of its curative qualities right down to their toes after
each swig.
The Hawker
On the other side of the street, a hawker shouts bargain
prices for his household wares, which among other things
include, buckets, pongers, brushes, sets of plain white
and stripped blue and white cups and saucers and packets
of Mac Smile razor blades, all displayed on the ground or
in the back of his open van; his marketing system is bargain
prices for a number of items. Commencing by holding up a
very large brown comb he shouts - - “here’s a
large comb, cost you a shilling in any shop, and here’s
a blue one cost you ten pence; and here’s a smaller
yellow one, cost you 4 pence and here’s a handy one
for your breast pocket, inside coat pocket, or arse pocket.
He continues this procedure until he has six different coloured
combs, in his left hand, total value at his price £1.
He then shouts “I’m not going to charge you a
pound; I’m going to charge you ten shillings;no, not
even three half crowns; Look! My price today is, ---and
don’t all rush at me at once, my price today for a
set of these beautiful combs is only three shillings.”
though the price seems good value, people are cautious and
hesitate; then to ensure being heard by the hold fair he
loudly shouts “Hold it, hold it; I’m in a very
generous mood today; you lucky people, Look! I’ll throw
in, free of charge this fine toothcomb that costs a tanner
(6pence0 over there in the Medical Hall; right, three shillings
for this beautiful set of combs.”
The strong man
A tall hardy looking man of about 33 years of age, wearing
only a vest and pants is now in a busy part of the fair
asking people for a donation to see him balance a heavy
ten foot wooden ladder on his chin while his young son climbs
to the top rung; his young son dressed in white satin long
pants and shirt is standing beside the ladder lying at the
pavement edge; the man points to both as he elicits a contribution
(in advance for obvious reasons0 for his performance; when
he has some funds collected, he picks up the ladder and
with some difficulty placs one of its uprights on his chin
and holds both arms outstretched; he then bends his right
knee to allow the young lad climb onto his shoulder before
ascending to the top rung where he outstetches both arms
nd acknoledges the crowd’s applause.
Taken from Breffni Blue 2005
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