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March 1942. El Centro, California. "Crowd at the Imperial County Fair." Medium format acetate negative by Russell Lee for the Office of War Information. View full size.
I think the flags say CRAFTS. At far right, halfway up, is a truck with an open door that may say CRAFTS SHOWS. Guessing that the rides and shows were produced by that company.
I find no Google references to that company, but I only looked for a couple minutes.
[You guess correctly! - Dave]
Covering 80 acres, the fair that year ran from March 7 to the 15th. It might seem rather early in the year -- it was actually billed as "America's only midwinter fair" -- but anyone who's been in Imperial County in the summer can tell you why.
Looking from the bottom of this photo up to the Ferres wheel and Age Guesser booth, the crowd is nearly all female.
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