50 years of entertainment at the Illinois State Fair

It wasn’t too long ago that the popular rock band Hootie and the Blowfish sold out the Grandstand at the Illinois State Fair. In 1995, the year after late author David Foster Wallace wrote about the fair in Harper’s Magazine, more than 13,350 people from around the state packed the venue to see the band perform their soon-to-be-multi-platinum album Cracked Rear View. The Illinois-born Wallace didn’t think much of the fair – its Midwestern charms didn’t seem to jive with his adopted East Coast proclivities – but that didn’t stop more than 604,000 people from coming to the fair in one of the hottest years anyone could remember. The band played the state fair again in 2003.

Darius Rucker, the band’s lead singer – often mistakenly called “Hootie” himself – will return to the Grandstand at this year’s fair, but not with “the Blowfish” in tow. (Hootie and the Blowfish were allegedly nicknames for two of Rucker’s college friends and didn’t actually refer to any band members.) Rucker is now a platinum-selling solo country music star, and his third appearance at the Illinois State Fair carries on a tradition of big-name acts at the Grandstand that goes back more than 50 years.

Originally built in 1894 as seating for horse races and livestock auctions, the Grandstand hosted its first auto races in 1910, and tractor shows eventually joined the lineup. It was rebuilt in 1927 and hasn’t changed much physically since then, though the variety of acts has certainly evolved.

“In 1927, it was probably a premier [venue] in the United States,” says Pam Gray, chairperson of the Illinois State Fair Museum board. “If you go to other state fairs, they don’t have really cool places like that.”

Gray is on a mission to preserve the fair’s history through the museum, and researching the Grandstand is part of that project. Museum researchers have compiled at least a partial list of Grandstand acts through the years. Although it’s unclear when the Grandstand first started hosting television and music stars, the 1958 fair featured big names like famous jazz musician Louis Armstrong. Joining him was actress Jane Russell, perhaps best known for her leading role opposite Marilyn Monroe in the 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and actor James Garner, who was then probably best known as Bret Maverick in the popular comedy-western show “Maverick.” Prolific comedian Jonathan Winters, one of the stars of “The Jackie Gleason Show,” appeared that year as well. Since that early show, hundreds of big-time entertainers have taken the Grandstand by storm – crooners, comics, rockers and rascals.

Some performers became favorites over the years, such as the Grand Ole Opry, which performed at the Grandstand 13 times between 1959 and 1974. Renowned country singer/songwriter Willie Nelson appeared at the Grandstand 12 times between 1979 and 2001. (In 1987, Nelson donated half of his $50,000 performance fee to the FarmAid charity he helped create.) Country rockers Alabama played the Grandstand 11 times between 1983 and 2001, while surf-rock greats the Beach Boys have played the Grandstand 15 times, doing multiple shows on at least one occasion.

Early in the Grandstand’s history, television stars were a major part of the show: Bob Hope, the Three Stooges, Red Skelton, Dick Clark, Lorne Greene, Art Linkletter, Andy Griffith