Bingo Banned at YORK FAIR; Cliff Satterthwaite explains his Artwork
Cliff Satterthwaite submitted copies of several pieces of YORK FAIR artwork that he did for The Gazette and Daily. This piece was published in 1962. The ‘Activity Around a Bingo Stand’ artwork was created at a previous fair, because in 1962, bingo was banned at the York Fair. The full caption reads:
ACTIVITY AROUND a bingo stand at previous York Inter-State Fairs is depicted in this drawing by Cliff Satterthwaite, a York artist. York County Agricultural Society, which sponsors the five-day fair opening tomorrow has announced that it will not allow bingo at the fair this year. The announcement followed a crack down by District Attorney Daniel W. Shoemaker on bingo games conducted at various places in the county.
According to an article in the June 13, 1962 issue of The Gazette and Daily, the York County Agricultural Society sent letters to eight concessionaires who operated bingo stands at the 1961 York Fair informing them:
The York Fair announces that due to existing conditions in York County it will not be permitted to allow operation of bingo games at the 1962 York Fair in September.
York County District Attorney Daniel W. Shoemaker was strictly enforcing the laws of Pennsylvania concerning gambling; such that playing games for recreation was fine, however playing games of chance for money or prizes was gambling and hence illegal. The other games for prizes on the Fairgrounds were considered games of skill, and hence were permitted to continue.
Mary Harris wanted to know how Cliff Satterthwaite created his drawings; that appeared for many years in The Gazette and Daily. I asked Cliff; here is his response:
I first, on-location, quickly capture, in pencil line, the scene … then hurry home to carefully apply pen and ink to my pencil lines … First hand capturing the moment is the thing!
In addition to his many paintings done on-location, Cliff also adds fun colors to these scenes that were captured, on-location, in pencil line. To do this, he applies the colors to a non-glossy black and white print. For the Bingo Stand scene at the York Fair, Cliff added fun colors to the black and white print in the following 1980 artwork.
The Cliff Satterthwaite artwork was used with his permission. Cliff lived in York County, PA, from the mid-1950s to the early-1980s, creating a host of artwork, with much done live on location. He has a book available containing nearly 400 images of his artwork from that time period; e-mail contact is monsterart4grani@aol.com
The size limit on the illustrations within these Blog posts does not do justice to the attention-to-detail in Cliff’s artwork. The best way to illustrate the level of detail in Cliff’s artwork is to zoom-in; as I did last year on a Satterthwaite drawing inside a Grist Mill at Stony Brook. The following is a zoomed-in detail of the artwork at the beginning of this post; focusing solely on the bingo table. Impressive!
Related posts include:
- Lafean and York Fair of 100-Years-Ago
- Cliff Satterthwaite artwork drawn at YORK FAIR
- Handwriting on the Walls of Stonybrook Mill and more Artwork of Cliff Satterthwaite
- YORK FAIR Finger Ring Mementos crafted by The Mighty Atom
- Numbers Game at the YORK FAIR
- The Mighty Atom entertained at the YORK FAIR for over Five Decades
- 75 Years Ago, Joe Bury sells Four and a Half TONS of Hamburgers at the York Fair
- Bury’s in Springettsbury Township was not just Hamburgers
- Animals Run Wild at YORK FAIR
- Birds Eye View of Original York Fairgrounds Site
- York Fair Grounds Particulars from 1877
- The Great Potato Chip Battle; Martin’s versus Utz
- Freedom Train within the York Fairgrounds
- College Football Games were played on the York Fairgrounds during the York Fair
- Red Lion Fair ran 8 Days in August of 1924
