Three movies were adapted from Phil Stong’s classic novel, “State Fair.” They include the 1933 version starring Will Rogers and Janet Gaynor. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia
July/Aug 2026 (Volume 18, Issue 4)
By Tim Harwood
Before Blue Boy, award-winning pickles, or the overnight drive to Des Moines, there was Abel Frake’s cigar. It was hardly a fine cigar, and although “…Abel knew no more about a cigar than any other smoker in Brunswick, he felt instinctively that [it] was good.” The farmer and head of the Frake family had spent a few cents more than on his typical nickel cigar. It was the small indulgence of a man about to achieve his life’s ambition.
Novelist and Iowa native Phil Stong devoted the first three paragraphs of his popular “State Fair” novel to that cigar. The words he wrote in 1931 put Stong on the cusp of his own defining achievement by early 1932. The novel about Iowa’s annual summer festival would be the biggest success of his writing career, a best-seller which was the basis for three full-length movies, a Broadway musical and other retellings for decades.
“I think Iowans—or people that aren’t from Iowa—can read it and get a feel for what makes Iowa, Iowa,” said Grant Tracey, editor for the North American Review and English professor at the University of Northern Iowa.
Meanwhile the University of Iowa Press has offered a reprint of the novel since 1996 and recently updated the cover artwork.
“‘State Fair’ made sense for us to bring on because of its popularity and the ties to Iowa,” said University of Iowa Press Associate Director Allison Means, “and as part of our mission to keep literature of historical relevancy to the Midwest, this was one of those perfect fits.”
Novelist and journalist Phil Stong was born and raised in Van Buren County and wrote several books and short stories, though none as successful as his 1932 novel, “State Fair,” a copy of which is seen here with its original dust jacket.
Stong was 33 years old when “State Fair” reached the public in May 1932. For more than a decade, he had been unsuccessfully sending manuscripts to publishers. Regarding one project that was not published and circulated between acquisition editors, Stong wrote, “It’s had as many adventures as any one novel is entitled to.” When “State Fair” was printed, newspapers noted it was Stong’s lucky 13th book after a dozen others had been rejected.
The persistent author was born in the unincorporated Van Buren County community of Pittsburgh—near Keosauqua—on Jan. 27, 1899. Although his father operated a local general store, Stong had early exposure to farm life. He noted decades later, “This correspondent and two horses took care of about 30 acres of corn, some hay, potatoes and pickles in 1915.” He already wanted to be a writer before arriving at Drake University, where he worked on the student paper (his column was known as “Philler,” a pun on his first name).
Stong had several jobs while he was a student: milkman, police beat writer for the Des Moines Tribune and laborer for $2.65 per day. It set the precedent for the next decade when he worked for an array of employers, often holding several positions simultaneously. After graduation, Stong also routinely moved to new places as cosmopolitan as New York and as rustic as Minnesota’s Iron Range and Kansas oil country. In early 1925, he was back in Des Moines, where he met Virginia Swain as they both worked for the Des Moines Register. They were married and relocated to the East Coast before the year ended.
The 1933 movie adaptation of Phil Stong’s 1932 novel “State Fair” starred Janet Gaynor, Will Rogers and Lew Ayres. Photo courtesy of Alchetron
By 1931, Stong had spent time with the Associated Press and working in public relations. He was managing an advertising agency account for Consolidated Cigar (perhaps the inspiration for the opening sentences of “State Fair”) when he started a new novel that July.
“I’ve done 10,000 words on it in three days and I get more enthusiastic every day,” Stong wrote in a letter home, adding with caution, “I always write 10,000 swell words and then go to pieces.”
“State Fair” follows the Frakes for one August week. The family of four drives through the Iowa landscape from their farm near the fictional southeast Iowa community of Brunswick. Abel is intently focused on the stock show, because if his hog, Blue Boy, “…proved to be the best Hampshire boar in Iowa, it followed that he would be the best Hampshire boar in the world.” Wife Melissa is hopeful but insecure about her entry into the pickle competition. The Frake children are in their late teens; neither Margy’s boyfriend nor Wayne’s girlfriend can make the trip, and in truth, both Margy and Wayne are frustrated with their relationships that seem uninspiring. Though they are tempted by new love interests at the fair, ultimately they return to their old relationships and the comforts of farm life.
Sheet music for “It Might As Well Be Spring,” featuring stars from the 1945 production of “State Fair.” The song was honored with an Academy Award for Best Song. Photo courtesy of Concord Theatricals, www.rnh.com
“This is Fair Week and everybody is going to enjoy it if I have to follow them with a shotgun,” Mother Frake warns.
While pigs and pickles are important to “State Fair,” the real story is about Margy meeting well-traveled Register reporter Pat Gilbert on the midway rollercoaster and Wayne falling for Emily, who “…hadn’t had any mother to tell her that her dress concealed practically none of her seductive anatomy. She’d traveled with her father to horse shows all her life…”
“When they go to the state fair, there seems to be a lot of abundance with the food and people having fun, going on roller coaster rides and Ferris Wheels,” said Tracey about the book penned during The Great Depression and set in 1928. “It’s not like reading ‘The Grapes of Wrath.’”
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