PEORIA MAGAZINE June 2023

would be no cornpone Hee Haw-like hootenanny but a serious and rousing concert boasting the highbrow works of Handel, Beethoven and Mendelssohn. Indeed, as a flier exclaimed, “The management of the carnival designs to make this the grandest event in the history of central Illinois.”

As part of each year’s Peoria Corn Exposition, street fairs filled downtown with amusements of all sorts. The Expo, a weeklong event from 1898 to 1903, was said to rival Mardi Gras in New Orleans. (Photo courtesy of the Peoria Historical Society Collection, Bradley University Library)

Family fare was included in the street carnivals sparked by the Peoria Corn Exposition. A favorite event was the flower parade, held on the final day of the weeklong Expo. This undated image shows a carriage festooned in flowers. (Photo courtesy of the Peoria Historical Society Collection, Bradley University Library)

Just Illinois? The next year, a news report promised of the next Expo, “It shall exceed in brilliancy, variety and in the quality of exhibits any corn show in the world’s history.” Still, somehow, the crowds got bored and smaller. Meanwhile, civic leaders decided the 1903 Expo would be the last, as feeble joints and a leaky roof had turned the palace into a dump and a danger. But before it could be torn down, a fire reduced the showplace to rubble. And a memory. Phil Luciano is a senior writer/ columnist for Peoria Magazine and content contributor to public television station WTVP. He can be reached at phil.luciano@wtvp.org The Peoria Corn Exposition sought a highbrow profile, as seen in this fancy program for the 1900 gathering. (Photo courtesy of the Peoria Historical Society Collection, Bradley University Library)

But outside the palace, visitors – young and old, local and beyond – could traipse block after block to take in varied entertainment. Amid a backdrop of storefronts brimming with corn décor, family-friendly events included bicycle races and corn-husking matches, plus fireworks displays at night and the flower parade on the final day. At least nine different downtown corners boasted street fairs with music, jugglers, aerialists and acrobats — along with some attractions of dubious repute. Snake-oil salesmen offered their wares from wagons, while slicks in suits challenged menfolk to try games of chance. “There were many gents in town with big hats and frontier whiskers who knew little of corn outside the bottle, but were crackerjacks at manipulating the twin shells and other inside games,” a Peoria newspaper would later recall.

Meantime, barkers hawked sideshow performers. La Belle Fatima promised two dances within the privacy of her tent. Muddy Maude – “She eats mud!” cried the touts – could be seen in action for a dime. The Wild Man grunted and heaved manically, so alarmingly to passersby as to prompt an interrogation by police, who found him to be a mild mannered fellow with tremendous acting ability. That first Expo proved to be a rousing success, clearing $5,000 – greater than the Illinois State Fair and more than $150,000 in today’s dollars. Keep in mind, this was at a time when a workman’s average pay was less than 14 cents an hour. After that, each year’s fair sought greater achievements and attendance. For instance, in 1900, the Corn Carnival Choir advertised far and wide to draw more and finer singers. The performance

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