Show
an Doc
Anil not only lias Or. Dorton provoil
lo be one of (lie biggest .showmen
in the slate but lie also is doing mueh
to promote better agrieulture and
live stoek production.
By KAYS GARY
MORE than a million North
Carolinians will have one
whale of a good time within
the next two months and the Tar
Heel state will celebrate the pass¬
ing of another milestone in a new,
progressive agricultural era be¬
cause a Shelby man pushed a
hobby into the state’s biggest mass
entertainment and agriculture pro¬
motion industry.
The man is Dr. J. S. Dorton,
tabbed in national exposition
circles as the showman who could
well dim the memory of the great
P. T. Barnum. His, however, is a
different kind of showmanship —
one that replaces the old design of
gyping the yokels out of their
dimes with a system which is show¬
ing them how to earn more cash.
Once the terror of the town of
Concord because as a kid he built
outlandish roller-coaster contrap¬
tions on which he cheerfully risked
the necks of his neighborhood play¬
mates, he later became the toast of
fun-seeking Tar Heelia by running
one of the nation’s biggest county
fairs in Shelby, the Southern States
Exposition in Charlotte and the
even greater State Fair in Raleigh.
Other Fine Results
But the show is not enough. Doc
is also drawing credit as the in¬
dividual who’s doing most toward
dragging his home county and state
from its slavery to cotton so that
within a few years it also may
threaten the country’s leading corn
and poultry producing states.
A brief flash-back shows how it
all began. As a youngster, Dorton
was just plain nuts about dumb
animals — except that they weren’t
dumb after he took 'em in hand. He
taught a cocker spaniel to dive
from a 20-foot tower into a barrel
of water as the thrill feature of his
back-yard circus. He was a born
showman. When papa J. Harvey
Dorton urged his offspring to study
medicine in college he might just
as well have tried to sell a freezer-
locker to the Eskimos. A com¬
promise was effected whereby the
kid would study medicine but only
as related to animals.
He became a veterinarian.
But the show business continued
to be in his blood. In 1924 he
organized the Cleveland County
Fair. The first issue of stock
amounted to $17,000. It was the
last. The property is now conserva¬
tively appraised at about $225,000.
That county fair of his attracted
200.000 customers in 194G during
the course of a five-day run.
Seventy thousand have stormed its
gates in a single day. That’s more
than 10,000 above the county’s
population figures,
A Wreck and its Consequences
The Southern States Exposition
came next and it was born in 1939
because Dorton has an elephantine
memory. It was 25 years ago, while
on his way home from a funeral,
that his car turned turtle just out¬
side of Charlotte. He scrambled out
of the wreckage, looked across the
lush, green fields, turned back to
the jumbled heap of automobile
and shouted to his wife, "Marie,
hush hollerin’ about your knee and
get out here so you can see the
durndest, prettiest site for a fair¬
ground in all of North Carolina."
In 1939— many years after that
wreck — when George Hamid, who
annually brings his nationally
famous productions to Dorton's
fairs, asked what Doc could do with
$50,000 toward building a souped-
up Southern States Exposition,
the Shelby man grabbed the cash
and chased straightway to the
scene of the auto accident. Now it’s
all owned by Dorton and other Tar
Heels, and 250.000 people are ex¬
pected to see its many attractions
this season.
More than 400,000 attended the
State Fair at Raleigh in 194(5.
The best shows decorate his mid¬
way. Until this year there was
Frank Bergen’s World of Mirth
shows. Now James E. Straits is on
tap for a run. George Hamid will
have his stylish revues down again.
Sensational aerial acts and wild
animal features round out a circus
program. Harness racing. AAA-
sanctioned auto races with the
nation’s top dirt track daredevils
and an afternoon of Hell-Driver
stunts complete the entertainment
card.
Big-Time Farm Production
While he’s keeping that side of
the show on a Grade- A scale. Doc
has now turned to big-time farm
promotion. Farm exhibits have
always been along with art. in¬
dustrial. home and school exhibits
but never to the extent of Dorton's
post-war program.
Cleveland County. North Caro¬
lina's largest cotton producing
parish, has seen rough days because
of occasional crop failures of a
low market. It was economically
chained to the crop.
Up came Dorton with $1,000 to
the first man in the county to raise
200 bushels of corn to the acre. He
added another $1,000 as a Southern
State Fair prize for the first 200
bushels or better to the acre and
( Continued on page IS)
THE STATE. September 25. 1948
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