World's Fair - History
This newspaper is the means by which many showmen recruit labour and by which machines, stalls or caravans are bought and sold. Almost every aspect of the showman's business and personal life is catered for. Since 1994, complimentary copies of World's Fair have been donated to the National Fairground Archive by the World's Fair Ltd. in order to maintain the continuity of the collection.
In 1904, Frank Mellor published the first issue of World's Fair in Oldham, Lancashire. This single broadsheet edition soon became a thriving newspaper with a circulation of 20,000. The newspaper arose out of Frank Mellor's idea to provide a means of communication for the different showpeople in the various regions of the country. In his business as a showmen's supplier, Mellor often found himself delivering messages between friends and family in different areas, reporting on the business from other fairgrounds and generally keeping people up to date with the latest innovations on the fairgrounds. He decided to incorporate this into a newspaper which would be primarily for and about travelling showpeople. Thomas Murphy in his History of The Showmen's Guild writes that 'It was the first newspaper to devote its entire space to the news and interests of the travelling showmen'.
Although it initially covered the same ground as The Era, the difference was that showpeople were only one portion of The Era's readership. The Era represented the entertainment world as a whole, from travelling showmen to music halls and the emerging cinematograph shows. World's Fair was then, as it is now, solely concerned with travelling showpeople, from the reporting of fairs and equipment to news of information on recent deaths and weddings. The modern day publication still retains this interest and despite incorporating both the Market Trader and Coin Slot, it still sees itself as the showmen's newspaper.
All aspects of fairground society are represented in World's Fair, ranging from accounts of fairs in different regions, grounds to let, the buying and selling of equipment and the hiring of labour. Lord George Sanger's life story appeared in World's Fair before it was published as a book in 1910. In the case of other less known showmen, World's Fair is the only surviving record of their autobiographies.
The columns of advertising in the newspaper reflect
for example, the current popularity of particular rides or the current
trends in prizes for the fairground stalls. The advertising space
in the early issues is dominated by film companies, fairground suppliers
and makers of living vans and rides, and is an important source
of reference for identifying these early manufacturers. This continues
in the present day publication with a minimum of four pages dedicated
to advertisement.
The Archive has provided feature pages for World's
Fair which features material from the collections, articles on historic
fairs, and interviews with showland personalities.
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