A 'State Fair' Encounter With Uncle Leo

My apologies for the quality of this--it's a photocopy of a photo print, from the autobiography of my great uncle, Leo Myron Satterlee.

He explains:
"[This picture shows] Jean Hersholt [on right] and myself, taken at a hotel in Des Moines where there was a party in progress for Mr. Hersholt and a group of stars who were there for the premiere of a motion picture ["State Fair"]. He was an old time character actor that went back to the silent picture days. I was living in Norwalk at the time, and heard him being interviewed on the radio. He stated that he had not seen any of Iowa's famous corn. It was dark. I went out to the field, felt around and got a good sized sack of sweet corn. I took Jessie [his wife], Marie, and Leonard [their kids] with me, and took the corn to the hotel where the party was still in progress...I told the man at the door what I had. They took all of us to the party. Took all kinds of pictures, and asked me to come back the next day to the depot, where they were leaving on the train, with more corn. More pictures were taken. At the party the lady star had on one of those topless dresses that had no visible means of support. Leonard whispered to his mother, "That lady don't have enough clothes on."

At some point, I'll post a couple more Leo stories--another short one about the State Fair premiere, and a wonderful anecdote about the Garrick (a.k.a. the Majestic, Orpheum, and President, at 210 8th) during its wild, woolly days as a burlesque house.