state fair ads

Retro Ad of the Week: Montana State Fair, 1911

If you thought that the slang meaning of “thoroughbred” (a seemingly flawless male) derived from the hip-hop world, it appears you might be wrong. The quotation marks around “a couple of thoroughbreds” in this 1911 Montana State Fair ad suggest that the dual-meaning goes back much further. An interesting approach for the early 1900s, since most state fair ads took a more serious tone, often with a rooster or a pile of prize-winning vegetables as the focus.

FUN FACT: At the 1911 Montana State Fair featured above, a young aviator named Cromwell Dixon piloted the first flight across the Continental Divide, landing 17 miles west of the fair grounds before returning. He was given $10,000 for his feat. (Sources: HelenaHistory.org and Wikipedia)

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