Strates Shows At The Carolina Classic Fair (Dixie Classic Fair), Late 1990s, Winston-Salem, NC

A look at the Carolina Classic Fair & Strates Shows in the Late 1990s.
2024: The James E. Strates Shows, exclusive midway provider for the Carolina Classic Fair, is celebrating a 60-year partnership between the City of Winston-Salem and the Strates Family. It’s a historic outdoor amusement legacy that began in 1964 and has been a Piedmont Triade tradition ever since.
“Over the course of our six-decade long relationship with the Winston-Salem community, our annual arrival feels like a homecoming,” said James Strates, Strates Shows Operations Manager. “It’s a time where we renew age old family friendships that go back generations. We are proud that our company is a part of the traditions of so many families in the region.”
Strates Shows began in 1923 when James E. Strates, a Greek immigrant, began his first show. Strates came to America in 1909 and, like many immigrants, worked hard at many small jobs to find success in his new country. In 1919, he joined a carnival athletic show as a wrestler named "Young Strangler Lewis" who would take on all challengers. In 1923, James E. Strates co-founded Southern Tier Shows in Elmira, New York that consisted of a three-abreast merry-go-round, a Ferris wheel, an athletic show, 15 concessions and three side shows. In a short period of time, Strates reputation for running a clean, honest and entertaining show allowed him to turn the ragtag hodgepodge of wagons and rigs into a thunderous railroad caravan of shows. In 1932 the carnival was renamed the James E. Strates Show and in 1934 began traveling by rail for the first time.
In 1959, when show founder James E. Strates died unexpectedly, his 29-year-old son E. James (Jim) Strates took control of leading the family business. Under his leadership, Jim Strates would continue to transform the Show with innovation and creativity. His goal from the start was not to be the biggest, but to be the best midway in America. From marketing to customer service, he helped to lead not only his midway but the entire carnival industry, into the big-business, high-tech world of modern family entertainment.
The James E. Strates Shows took over midway operations in Winston-Salem in 1964 following the closure of Frank Bergan’s World Of Mirth Shows (1933-1963). During the 1960s, Strates Shows was known for its variety of non-amusement entertainment acts that included animal attractions, oddities and several burlesque-style dance productions featuring live music and show girls. New spectacular rides were brought to Winston-Salem like the Sky Wheel, Sky Diver and Sky Ride that dominated the midway’s skyline. As the “show” aspect of the midway began to lose favorite with a new generation of guests, imported rides from Europe became larger and more spectacular. In 1972, advanced midway ticket sales were introduced at the Carolina Classic Fair. An innovative centralized ticketing system was introduced in 1975 allowing for accurate financial accountability and greater profits for fair partners.
Only once in the Strates Shows 60 year partnership with the Carolina Classic Fair has the show failed to provide trills and excitement as the entire fair industry was shuttered in 2020 due to the nationwide pandemic.
As the Strates Shows celebrates its centennial year of operations the family business is led by the 3rd generation of Strates members including Jimmy, Jay, John, and Susan. Nick Strates, who officially joined the show full-time during the 2015 season, is the 4th generation of the Strates family to continue the tradition. Overseeing it all, as he has for the past six decades, is E. James Strates who is still actively involved in daily operations from the Strates Shows offices in Orlando.