[Interviews] [Articles] [Images] [Links] [Credits]
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
After increasing the admission to the Ex for the first time since 1947 from 50 cents to $1, the CCEA started off the '70s by considering two major changes for the fair: first, to adopt an overall theme for each year, and second, to change the format of the badly sagging grandstand show. These changes soon began to take effect. |
|
|
A new policy introduced by the Exhibition Association in 1971 has remained with the fair to this day: admission would cover all exhibits and features, except midway costs and food. This new idea was so popular that, combined with the big names that were featured at the grandstand, performers had to do two shows a night to accommodate the huge number of people who attended. The CCEA also decided in 1971 to hire a public relations consultant to help improve their image. The grandstand show had lost $180,000 in two years and needed to be reorganized; advice on arranging the CCEA's yearly theme idea was also needed. Having promised to use more French on the grounds for the Ex, the fair of '72 was appropriately opened by Quebec's premier, Robert Bourassa. The agricultural division of the exhibition had also been slightly reworked because only 7% percent of the population were farmers; it was decided then that the agricultural exhibits should be geared more towards the consumer than the producer, and the Agricultural Education Committee was born. Also, the Manufacturer's Building was converted to the Cattle Castle for competitions and demonstrations at the exhibition of 1972. In 1973, the CCEA lost the year-round control they had gained of Lansdowne Park in 1946 after city council decided not to renew the current terms-of-agreement of its lease. Many people held the opinion that the Ex should move locations, but it was argued that this would require too much reconstruction to be considered in the near future. A new deal was struck between the CCEA and the city: the CCEA would have control of Lansdowne Park only during the days of the exhibition; beyond that, the grounds were under the city's control. During the next couple of years, the CCEA began to clean up the Ex to make it more family-oriented. In 1974, $180,000 was raised by the Ottawa chapter of the Jerry Lewis Telethon through a Cyclo-thon that went to Lansdowne Park. An exhibit called "Ye Olde Barnyard Show" was put on in the Cattle Castle during the exhibitions of '77 and '78. "Ye Olde Barnyard Show" was run by a man named Daniel Hurld, an outstanding showperson who had a talent for telling agriculture stories to urban visitors down pat. Mr. Hurld said that "passive types of exhibits" aren't engaging to Ex-goers: "patrons merely pass by and absorb very little of the information being projected; whereas in the show ring, with some activity in progress and an excellent MC [Master of Ceremonies] to tell the story, this has attracted crowds and makes great use of the Cattle Castle." After the boom of the '80s, the 100th anniversary of the CCEA in 1988 turned out to be the second time in the exhibition's history that money was actually lost. Because of extra anniversary expenses and bad weather, the exhibition lost $120,000. Despite this unfortunate turn, the city gave permission to the CCEA to hold a 100th anniversary party in the Aberdeen Pavilion outside of the Ex's running time. This revenue loss would foreshadow the coming years, as the Ex lost money for most of the 1990s, and only began profiting again in 1997. In 1989, the city agreed to a $9.6 million renovation of the Cattle Castle, part of a $48.1 million project to redevelop Lansdowne Park. The federal government had designated the Cattle Castle an historic site, and was thus much more willing to put the extra money into maintaining it. The price of admission to the exhibition went up in 1990, from $5 to $6 for adults, from $1 to $2 for children and from $2 to $3 for seniors. The reason for the rise was so that the CCEA would be able to start building a reserve fund for the purchase of a new site, then possibly in Gloucester, south of Ottawa. A conflict between two stage-hand unions over which group would help set up for big-name shows at the grandstand had the CCEA worried as to whether any arguments would arise during the exhibition of 1992. Luckily, their fears were unfounded and the two unions worked matters out between themselves. The Ex of 1993 hinted that the CCEA's efforts to clean up the fair had been showing some effect -- with a cleaner appearance, a zoo, a roller coaster and daily parades, Ex '93 showed the better side of the exhibition, but these improvements still did not help attendance or sales by any drastic measure. In 1994, an accident that occurred on a midway ride called Force 10 caused the CCEA to reconsider their safety regulations. Eleven passengers were injured when the ride lost control and flew off its track. The CCEA hired 43 safety inspectors to inspect rides daily for the Ex of '95, then submit a safety report to the CCEA. This new procedure secured the already impressive safety record of the rides at the exhibition. In 1995, Member of Parliament Brian Tobin's display of a fishing net captured from a Spanish fishing boat sparked some controversy, and Tobin was asked to remove it. The net was seized from a Spanish fishing boat during the so-called "Turbot War," and was being displayed to illustrate the illegal nets being used by the Spanish fleet when fishing in large bodies of water. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien disapproved of the display of Tobin's "trophy" and asked that it be removed before further political turmoil was caused. Tobin apologized for the "fish net fiasco" and took the net down. In an attempt to end the cash crisis, the Ex of '97 has gone "back to basics," as a 1997 Ottawa Citizen article coined it. With more emphasis on rides and music than on fancy building fronts and midway decorations, the Ex that year tried to appeal to what people really want to see in a fair. With the arrival of Conklin Shows to replace Amusements of America as the Ex's midway company, the fair adopted a new look. The CCEA's attempts to secure a brighter financial future appear to have been successful since the 1997 Ex made a marginal profit. |
|
|
[The First Fairs in Ottawa]
[The Early Years]
[The War Years] [Post World War II] [The Modern Era] |
|
