Park Profile
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SUMMER ADVENTURES “
Gary Kyriazi travels to Dallas to discover how the Texas fairgrounds were reinstated earlier this year as a summer attraction, almost three decades after the closure of State Fair Park
I had
originally intended to be a stockbroker with Merrill Lynch, but the
amusement industry was in my blood, and I never left it” Errol McKoy
The State Fair that never stops!
the 20+ rides (which were augmented during the fair by travelling shows) created strong summertime attendance. Even the 1961 opening of the legendary Six Flags Over Texas, a mere 15 miles away, didn’t deter State Fair Park from continuing as a successful, local, urban amusement park; that is, until its closure in 1984. Twenty-nine years later, in 2013, Errol McKoy, president of the State Fair of Texas, resurrected State Fair Park as Summer Adventures. McKoy, 69, is a living legend in the amusement
industry. He started as a 17-year-old ride operator at Angus Wynne’s Six Flags Over Texas during its opening year in 1961, working summers while getting his degree in economics from Northeastern State University in Oklahoma. When the 1964 New York World’s Fair contacted Wynne to contribute, he sent McKoy to supervise the rides and games at the event’s Lake Amusement area. After the World’s Fair, Errol, by then 22, became general manager for Six Flags Over Texas for one year, before he was sent to Atlanta to assist in opening Six Flags’ second park, Six Flags Over Georgia.
”
Errol McKoy, Summer Adventures founder and president of Texas State Fair
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ABOVE: The Texas Star wheel towers over the entrance to Summer Adventures
“Our state fair is a great state fair Don’t miss it, don’t even be late! It’s dollars to doughnuts that our state fair Is the best state fair in our state!”
hil Stong’s 1932 novel State Fair, about an Iowa family’s September adventure, wonderfully captured America’s love of the eagerly awaited annual event that is the state fair. The 1933 film version of the book, starring Will Rogers, was a hit, and the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical version of the book was an even bigger hit. The second musical version of State Fair in 1962 was even bigger and splashier than the 1945 version. Starring Pat Boone, Bobby Darin and Ann-Margret (in her first film), this last version of State Fair changed the locale from Iowa to Texas. As such, it is the Texas State Fair for which the Rodgers and Hammerstein song will be forever linked.
P
The Midway – the amusement section – at the Dallas, Texas, fairgrounds is notably larger than that of any other US state fair. It has operated as a separate seasonal amusement park since around 1905, prior to the two to three-week October run of the fair itself. Called simply State Fair Park, its superb 1947 Comet wooden coaster by National Amusement Devices and
“I had originally intended to be a stockbroker with Merrill Lynch,” Errol says, “but by that time, the amusement industry was in my blood, and I never left it.” Errol became general manager of Six Flags Over Georgia, moved back to Texas in 1980 to become executive vice-president of Six Flags Inc, and by 1985, “Well, I needed a break!” He took a year off before being offered the job of president and general
Bix Tex welcomes viistors to this year’s Texas State Fair NOVEMBER 2013
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