Eisenstaedt photographs a county fair, 1938

In 1938, famed photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt visited the Greenbrier Valley Fair in West Virginia. LIFE published his shots in that year's September 26 issue. From the accompanying article

The first Greenbrier Valley Fair was held just 80 years ago. The few hundred farmers who attended gaped at the wonderful Howe sewing machine and admired a stalwart yearling who grew up to become Traveller, the big gray horse who carried General Lee through the Civil War. Today, the Greenbrier Valley Fair is one of the best-known in the South. This year … 100,000 paid admission to the fairgrounds near Lewisburg, W. Va. They watched the trotters race and went around looking at entries in contests for the best buckwheat, the best bread, the best begonias, the best “article made of sealing wax.”

But their major preoccupation was bodies — human bodies, animals bodies, bodies that looked half-human, half-animal. The “girlie” shows, which were hot and smutty, drew smaller audiences than the freaks from crowds made up of farmers, breeders and hillbillies. Only a few city people were present, although some urban sophisticates have discovered the county fair and are beginning to make America’s great harvest-time diversion a city-folk fad.

LIFE Goes to a County Fair, 1938

• [mobobo]

  #9 Monkey Auto Race

  You can still see and even take part in this one, today it’s called the M25.

  Thanks for the great photos.

  • [Nathan Hornby]

    I was going to point out that the M25 is a ring road around London famed for terrible traffic… and then I got the joke.

    • [mobobo]

      it was more than just a little weak (not to mention localised)

      sorry

      • [Nathan Hornby]

        Sorry I didn’t mean that as a snide remark. It was more a confession of my slowness!

        • [mobobo]

          that’s okay – didn’t think you were being snide. 
          realised after I posted that M25 probably wouldn’t be that well known to people who haven’t experienced the horrible frustration of a motorway where the average speed is often far less than horse and cart. 

      • [penguinchris]

        Most people in major cities have experienced that. You should have programmed your comment to detect the reader’s location and choose the appropriate road designation of the worst freeway/motorway near them.

        (also – I watch Top Gear and I know how roads are labeled in the UK so I got the joke even though I’m not specifically familiar with the M25 ;)

• [irksome]

  I sort of met Eisenstaedt in 1979, when I was doing photography for John Anderson’s Republican primary campaign in NH. I say sort of because I offered this nice old guy a ride to the next campaign event in my car. After we had arrived, someone remarked to me how cool that must have been. I said, “Yeah, nice old guy.” Because he was.

  I had no idea and he didn’t bother with his last name. He was working for Time at the time. 

  Not my only oblivious brush with greatness.

• [Palomino]

  Shamwow!