Midway Directory · Kinds of listings
Vendors and suppliers
A business that supplies fairs, carnivals and concessions: concession equipment, prizes and plush, tickets and wristbands, game supplies. Listed as facts only.
Suppliers keep fairs and concessions stocked: popcorn and cotton candy machines, cones and supplies, prizes, tickets and wristbands. The trade grew with the midway. Cotton candy debuted as fairy floss at the 1904 St. Louis fair, and Cincinnati’s Gold Medal Products has sold concession equipment since 1931.
What it is
A supplier sells to the people who sell on the midway: machines, consumables, prizes, signs. Listings are facts only; nobody pays to be here.
History, era by era
- 1904
- A dentist and a confectioner introduced cotton candy as fairy floss at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair and formed the Electric Candy Co. to sell it.1
- 1931
- Gold Medal Products began in 1931, when its founder borrowed against his home to buy a small Cincinnati ink company.2
- 1937
- The Ohio River flood of January 1937 wrecked Gold Medal’s building; the owner restarted with a few hundred dollars.2
- 1951
- Gold Medal patented the first paper cone for machine-made cotton candy in 1951.2
The midway connection
Behind every food joint and games trailer is a supply line. Concession equipment makers such as Gold Medal grew up serving the fair and carnival trade.2
The trade is as old as the midway itself: the 1893 Chicago Midway already had restaurants and attractions charging on top of admission.3
Wherever people walk a row of booths, the midway is there in some form: the full kind, with rides, games of skill and food joints, or the quieter kind, with craft tables, home baking and a booth like ours. That walk, with family and friends and something to look at every few steps, is what this directory is about.
One fact worth knowing
- When the cotton candy patent ran out in the early 1920s, another dentist refined the process.1
Questions people ask
When was cotton candy invented?
It was introduced as fairy floss at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair.1
How long has Gold Medal Products been around?
Since 1931, in Cincinnati.2
Sources
- National Conference of State Legislatures: Meet Me at the Fair. Read on · reference
- Gold Medal Products Co.: Company history. Read on · official
- Chicago Park District: Midway Plaisance Park. Read on · government
How these listings work
Listings are free and factual; nobody pays to be here. We list what a supplier makes and where it works, from its own site and public records, with no endorsements, ratings, reviews or prices, and no personal names beyond public officers on official pages.
Every line on a listing points to its source, official pages first, and each source shows the day we read it. What we couldn't confirm is listed on the page, not guessed. Each page says where the organisation works and links to the fairs and places in the directory it is tied to, but only when a source makes the tie.
Listed by name
Listed in the census (short listings)
The Midway Mailbag
New fairs, festivals, midways and attractions as we add them to the directory. About twice a month in fair season, less in winter.
All kinds of listings · Midway Directory
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