State Fair (Full Frame)

VHS, 100 minutes, CBS / FOX

The adventures of the Frake family at the Iowa State Fair unfold amidst this rousing celebration of love and laughter 's heartland. Each member of the Frake family is out for a different prize at this state fair: a blue ribbon for Father's favorite pet pig; first prize, and first prize only, for Mom's entry in the pie-baking contest; and, for their son and daughter (winningly played by Dick Haymes and Jeanne Crain), the hunt is on for the best prize of all, true love. (Dana Andrews is superb as the daughter's love interest.) This Rodgers and Hammerstein score, their only composition written exclusively for the scree, features foot-stomping production numbers and day-dreamy ballads, and it yielded some of their biggest hits, including "It's A Grand Night For Singing" and the 1945 Best Song Academy Award winner, "It Might As Well Be Spring." As the New York World-Telegram predicted in 1945, "State Fair" "will remain bountifully full of pleasure through visit after visit.".