The Great Prune Bear

During the late 19th and early 20th century, American cities showed their stuff by holding elaborate fairs. They showcased the host city with specially designed fairgrounds and elaborate exhibits. First popular in the mid-19th century, they reached new heights with the Chicago Columbian Exposition in 1893. National in scope, these fairs featured exhibits from around the country. Trends in architecture, agriculture, transportation, entertainment, technology and urban planning were set at these fairs, and a successful fair could bring great honor, investment and migration to the host city. In 1904 and 1905, two separate but related fairs were held in St. Louis, Missouri and Portland, Oregon. California was well represented at both events, and one of the most memorable exhibits was the “Prune Bear” provided by the Sacramento Valley Development Association.

The 1904 St. Louis fair was held to honor the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase, an event that became the setting for the 1944 Judy Garland film Meet Me in St. Louis. During this era, California was still establishing itself as an agricultural powerhouse. After the Gold Rush and Comstock silver rush waned, California settlers realized the enormous potential of California’s fertile soil and other natural resources. Those who came to get rich quick and failed found work as farm labor, and those who did get rich often reinvested their profits into massive industrial farms and agricultural processing facilities. Only two million people lived in California, but our agricultural output was prodigious. The San Francisco Bay Area was known for its orchards, and the citrus crops of Los Angeles were already becoming symbols of California’s true gold. Irrigation and levee improvements in the Central Valley facilitated a transition from cereal grains to fruit and vegetable production, and California’s fledgling wine and beer industry was just starting to make a name for itself on an international scale.

At the 1904 fair, Santa Barbara County built a tower 100 feet tall of olive oil containers. San Francisco’s “California Fruit Canners Association” created a display of canned fruit, meats and soups, while the city of Redlands provided a display of jams, jellies and marmalades. Los Angeles County, the state’s leading agricultural producer, built a booth resembling a Mission style building of enclosed plate glass counters of crystallized fruits, canned and potted meats. California’s dairy regions sent life-sized statues of women and animals sculpted from butter and cream cheese. Santa Clara County, the state leader in plum production, also built a Mission style display of prunes and apricots. They drew visitors by giving away free samples of California prunes, and a pamphlet of prune recipes, to every visitor. Word of the free prunes spread throughout the fair, causing a “run” on the Santa Clara exhibit, which was soon exhausted of its stock.

In 1900, representatives of the 12 counties making up the greater Sacramento Valley formed the Sacramento Valley Development Association to market the valley’s agricultural products. Each county sent one director, and Sacramento, the urban center of the region, was always strongly represented. The Sacramento Valley display at the 1904 fair showed the full bounty of the valley’s agricultural products, but its centerpiece was a life-sized model of a grizzly bear reared up on its hind legs, made of prunes. The “Prune Bear” had gleaming teeth and flashing electric eyes, attracting visitors to enter the exhibit. Visitors were given a folder of information promoting the advantages of the Sacramento Valley and could enter a contest, guessing the number of prunes used to construct the bear. Winners took home large boxes of choice prunes. This much-maligned fruit already had a bad reputation, and the term “full of prunes” was considered the equivalent of “full of hot air,” but marketing efforts like the Prune Bear and Santa Clara’s mission display were intended to popularize the product and also the regions where they were grown.

In 1905, Portland hosted the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, a bookend to the 1904 fair commemorating the famed American explorers’ arrival on the west coast. California was well-represented at this fair too, subsidized by $100,000 from the California state legislature. A special California building was designed with four entrances, each designed to resemble a different California mission. Many of the 1904 exhibits were duplicated, while others were embellished. Alameda County brought a display of their fruits and vegetables. San Francisco provided displays of Spreckels sugar and a 20 mule team made entirely of borax by the Pacific Coast Borax Company. Pacfic Portland Cement Company built a concrete fountain simulating the Vernal Falls, with running water. Los Angeles sent a display of game ducks, leather and citrus fruit. Santa Clara County recreated their popular Prune Castle, featuring San Jose’s “Fig Prune Cereal Company.” Ventura County sent an elk made of dried beans, and the Southern California Walnut Growers’ Association built a dramatic life-size elephant made entirely of walnuts. The creative architecture and sculpture made of California foodstuffs seemingly garnered more attention and praise than Gladding-McBean’s display of their legendary terra cotta tile. Olive companies from Oroville, Oakland and Ojai displayed their oils, coordinated by the Los Angeles Olive Growers’ Association. A temple to Baccus showcased California wineries, including Sacramento’s J.H. Hayden strawberry wine and California Winery’s “Cordova” brand (bottled at 21st and R Street), endorsed in 1905 by President Theodore Roosevelt. Southern Pacific Railroad provided discounted rates for exhibits traveling to Portland, and the California railroad giant had its own display, featuring photographs of its national railroad network and the mighty machines produced in Sacramento’s own Central Shops and Sacramento Locomotive Works.

According to the final report of California’s participation in the Portland fair, Sacramento County featured more items than any other county display, including a model hop farm constructed of hops by Lovdal Brothers of Sacramento, a pyramid of beer bottles from the Buffalo Brewery in the shape of a giant beer bottle, a 12-foot high mural of the Great Seal of California made entirely of beans, and a model of the California State Capitol constructed of nuts. Other Sacramento products included Pioneer Pickle Works pickles, Capitol Paste Company’s pasta, and T.H. Burden Company’s “Grandma’s Pepper Sauce.” In the California Building’s central rotunda, guarding the Capitol Building model, stood a new Great Prune Bear. In addition to its electric eyes, the 1905 Prune Bear featured a “graphophone” in its jaws (an improved Edison gramophone that played wax recording cylinders.) Reports do not document whether the graphophone played music, spoke a pre-recorded speech, or simply emitted bear-like growls, but the speaker is clearly visible in photographs of the 1905 bear.

After the Fair, some of the displays, photographs and exhibits were stored at Sutter’s Fort for use in future fairs and exhibits. The life-sized elephant made of walnuts was moved to the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce building, where it stayed for many years. Others were more temporary in nature and either disassembled, discarded, or perhaps eaten; those made of butter or cream cheese probably just melted. The fate of the Great Prune Bear is unknown, but its legacy remained, as it was one of only a few displays of the 1904 and 1905 fairs photographed for stereograms and other publications reporting on the Fair. Newspaper reports and later accounts of both Fairs often mentioned the bear, so while its existence was ephemeral, many found its regular presence at both fairs profoundly moving.

(Note: This story was inspired by Andrew Weymouth of “100 Tacks,” a radio documentary based in Portland, Oregon. He contacted Sacramento County Historical Society via our voicemail line, asking for more information on the Prune Bear. I had never heard of it, but curiosity sent me on a wild goose chase to find the story behind this strange chapter of Sacramento’s marketing history.)

Hear the radio show "100 Tacks" online via Soundcloud here: