Johnny at the Fair (1947) User Reviews

I think there's a lesson here for all of us.

[Torgo_Approves · 2/10 · 27 April 2006]

A great short that teaches us that wandering off from our parents in crowded areas can be a real blast! You get to meet ice skating princesses, watch baseball games, horse races, and meet political leaders! Also, when your parents pick you up from the "Lost Kids" section of the police station, they're not mad, just happy to see you.

So if you're a little kid like Johnny, carpe diem! Ditch your parents as soon as you have the chance, and see how fun it can be to discover this wonderful world on your own! Also, why not accept candy from strangers while you're at it?

Educational little short, really great for kids. (r#17)

Boring.... Let this be a warning to you.

[CelluloidRehab · 3/10 · 15 February 2008]

This is a short that generally precedes the MST3k "Rebel Set" main feature. It revolves around a young boy, Johnny, who gets separated from his parents at the Canadian National Exhibition held at Exhibition Place in Toronto, Canada back in 1947.

This separation, while mildly traumatic for the parents, was exhilarating and exciting for Johnny. In his "walk-about", he encounters all kinds of wonderful things and celebrities : Joe Louis (heavyweight boxing champion) , chemical balls, circus performers, speed boat racing, a "hela-copter airplane", McKenzie King (prime minister of Canada at the time), Barbra Ann Scott (Canadian ice skating champion), some Vaudevillians and children's jail.

40's newsreel masquerading as a heart warming story or "real"? You decide, but don't skip to the main course if you're in the MST3k stew. Savor the flavor of a comical stew shared with the robots and Joel. A nice bourbon or single malt whiskey couldn't hurt while you're at it.

Well...

[rbverhoef · 2/10 · 7 March 2005]

So this is a promotional short film made in the forties? It is hard to understand how this persuades people to go to the Canadian National Exhibition. It follows a little boy on the exhibition. His parents were not paying attention so they lost him. Now he is having fun on his own. The kid meets some sort of famous people and sees the things to do on the exhibition.

In my opinion this short tells only one thing. It is so very crowded on the exhibition, you easily lose your kid. In other words, if you have kids it is better not to come. But then again, it does show the great things to see there. Right. 'Johnny at the Fair' is just another stupid short film, perfect for the MST3K-people to make fun it.

Very dated short film.

[icehole4 · 1/10 · 3 April 2003]

Ah, people in 1947 got their kicks in so many different ways than the people of today. This short film is a prime example. It shows a young boy traipsing through the Canadian national exhibit of that year. A cameo by Joe Louis is supposed to be very exciting, but isn't. In the end, you just want the thing to end and don't care what happens to Johnny. Is that really Lorne Greene narrating? It sure doesn't sound like him at all.

Avoid this unless you're watching the MST3K version.

Charles at the fair, perhaps?

[Coolestmovies · 5/10 · 4 December 2008]

The most interesting aspect of this expectedly dated educational film is the character of "Johnny" himself: he's played by Charles Pachter, who grew up to be a renowned Canadian painter, sculptor, designer and historian/lecturer whose works have garnered him an Order of Canada. His web site is cpachter . com . One of his most famous works is Noblesse Oblige, 1972, which depicts Queen Elizabeth riding a Canadian moose. ;) Pachter recently mentioned his role in this film during an interview on CBC radio, which adds a nice bit of closure after several years of seeing this picture via MST3K. As others have mentioned, the film itself is a rather bland--and thus typically Canadian--walk/run-through of Toronto's famed Canadian National Exhibition, where celebrities of the day proceed to excite and bore little Johnny in equal measure while he's separated from his parents (Pachter's real parents played his on screen parents).

What can I say ?

[bioscoopzaal · 25 September 2002]

What can I say about a 50's promo-film for the Canadian National Exhibition, besides that it's completely unwatchable hadn't it been for the guys of MST3K who guided me through it. It's so bad, you just have to see it for yourself. Just make sure you don't watch it alone. Johnny's trip through the exhibition is so terrifying, you'll certainly need the comfort of a loved who keeps telling you: "It's just a movie, it's just a movie!"

Johnny has a blast at the fair, after ditching his parents!

[Aaron1375 · 5/10 · 21 March 2012]

While this short is very dated, it does a good job of basically advertising the world fair in Canada. Of course, said fair is long gone now and there basically is not a world fair anymore, anywhere, so it is rather pointless now to even watch. The only people who have seen it now are most likely those who saw it as a short proceeding the film "The Rebel Set", a MST3K episode. As such, they automatically rate it a one or three for whatever reasons, not able to comprehend that just because the gang riffs something, does not necessarily mean it is bad. I mean, on Rifftrax, Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett riff "The Dark Knight" and most would say that is a fairly good film. The point is you can riff anything good or bad, and just because it is on MST3K you do not have to give it a super low score. That being said it is dated and it seems they do not really give a full view of the fair for us to witness. Only snippets, such as Joe Louis or the prime minister of Canada. Things that most of us are not going to see at the fair, though that ice skating queen was a cutie then. The two guys who are some sort of comedy team looked a bit annoying and the boy looked genuinely upset when they were trying to cheer him up. Also, it is kind of funny and a bit scary the amount of children in the lost children pavilion. Wow, the amount of kids that get away from their parents is staggering, but I cannot really blame Johnny from ditching his parents as they try and decide what to see next among some of the more mundane and boring things for a kid to do.

It's a good thing that Max Schmeling never saw this; he might have chosen not to pay for Joe Louis's funeral!

[lee_eisenberg · 1/10 · 11 July 2006]

Good, wholesome little boy goes with parents to fair, gets lost, and has all sorts of adventures. Yeah, we've seen this far too many times. "Johnny at the Fair" should be titled "Johnny at the Un-fair". And to think that Joe Louis got himself mixed up in this swill. No doubt the people of Canada are embarrassed that their country got portrayed like this (we can probably all agree that Michael Moore and the "South Park" guys have done a much better job looking at our northern neighbor). Fortunately, all is not lost: "MST3K" tore this movie apart. In their version, Johnny's negligent parents decide to abandon him.

In conclusion, the movie by itself is 0/10, but the "MST3K" version is 10/10.

Brought down for no reason by MST3000

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 13 September 2013]

This is not a great short film. Not at all. But it's not as bad as you would guess looking at its rating. I recognized that for quite a few of those old short films that were reviewed by Mystery Science Theatre 2000. People need to stop adapting other opinion with having watched a version where other reviewers constantly talk during the movie or having even seen it at all. MST3000 says it's bad, so it must suck. I've seen very early Kubrick films that were, in parts, worse than some of the short films mocked by MST3000. Don't you have an own mind?

Anyway, in this 10-minute short famous Bonanza actor Lorne Greene tells us the story of a boy at the Canadian National exhibition two years after the end of World War 2. He's fed up with his parents getting him only from place to place that they actually want to see not really caring for their son's preferences. So he gets away and does what he wants for the rest of the day. On his voyage, he meets several grand sports champions, including boxing legend Joe Lewis and Barbara Ann Scott, until he returns to his parents in the evening, who already gave up finding him in the event visited by roughly 250,000 people.

It's a short film with little significance today, but interesting to get a view into people's mindsets back in the 1950s. There's a good possibility that Charlie Pachter is still alive today (he would be roughly 70 years old) and I'm genuinely curious what he thinks about this film today.

A More Innocent Time

[boblipton · 4/10 · 27 December 2023]

A man, his wife, and their boy are visiting the Canadian National Exhibit. The boy wanders off and runs into a bunch of celebrities including Olson & Johnson and Joe Louis.

It's the sort of short subject that Mystery Science Theater 3000 likes to make fun of, and indeed, it has, with many cynical comments. What modern people don't understand is that those were, for many Americans, more innocent times. People didn't worry about crazy people lurking around, waiting to snatch their children off the street. Now we do, even though the number of incidents hasn't changed much; if your child is kidnapped, chances are it isn't a sex trafficker, but your divorced spouse.