The family behind the Bergen County fair, which returns on June 23, has worked amusements for generations Watch video
For most New Jerseyans who have been to the tangle of rides, carnival food and games that sits just outside MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, State Fair Meadowlands means zeppole, pig races and a turn on the Ferris Wheel. Maybe a Fourth of July fireworks show or two.
For Michele Tartaglione, 61, the fair means all that -- she's a big fan of tasting each new deep-fried or bacon-wrapped treat -- but it also means family: her family.
Tartaglione, managing director of the East Rutherford fair, is gearing up for the fair's 30th anniversary season. Yet her family's fair legacy stretches back much further than 1986.
Tartaglione's brother, Al Dorso Jr., now 59, assumed ownership of what used to be known as the Meadowlands Fair in 2003. He inherited the a passion for a good fair from his father, Al Dorso, who incorporated State Fair, now the State Fair Group, in the 1960s, working concessions and games at fairs up and down the East Coast east of the Mississippi River and in Canada.
"He and my mother traveled all over the country," Tartaglione recalls. The elder Dorso, who worked out of Paterson, inherited a zest for fair life from his own father, Michele ("Michael") Dorso, an immigrant from Avelino, Italy who settled in Bridgeport, Conn. and started an amusement park at Garret Mountain.
"After the Great Depression he lost everything," Tartaglione says. But her father, Al -- the third of seven children -- revived the business in the late 1930s.
"His expertise was in the food," Tartaglione says -- in the "grab joint" -- chickens, hamburgers and hot dogs, along with other carnival staples like ice cream, cotton candy and candy apples, and games of chance, like wheels and duck ponds, at out-of-state engagements.
Al Dorso, seen here selling ice cream, traveled across the country to fairs selling sandwiches, fried chicken, corn, french fries and candy apples. His son, Al Dorso Jr., has helmed State Fair Meadowlands since 2003. The fair, which first opened in 1986, is celebrating 30 years. (Courtesy State Fair Meadowlands)Today the younger Al Dorso runs State Fair Meadowlands with his two sons, Al and Michael. The family also owns the State Fair Seasons store in Belleville, which sells Halloween costumes and holiday decorations, and Dorso is an owner of Skylands Stadium in Augusta, home of the Sussex County Miners baseball team.
Since the Dorsos took the helm in 2003, the fair has grown from a six-day event that covered 10 acres to a summer ritual that spans more than two weeks and 35 acres. This year the fair opens on June 23 and, apart from a June 26 closure for the final match of soccer's Copa America, will run until July 10.
A multi-decade throwback theme is strong in the fair's 30th season. Tartaglione is anxiously awaiting the return of radio ringleader Cousin Brucie on June 25. He'll be back with his Palisades Park Reunion show, this time with onetime teen dreamboat Bobby Rydell, who the fair is calling "the Justin Bieber of the Camelot era."
Other retro musical acts include Paramus glam metal band Trixter -- a nod to the fair's 1980s birth -- on June 23. Taking it to the '90s on June 24 will be the Paterson R&B group Riff, who notched a No. 25 Billboard hit with "My Heart Is Failing Me" in 1991 and appeared on the soundtracks to "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" in 1990 and "White Men Can't Jump" in 1992.
Margaret 'Margie' Dorso, at far right, sells popcorn and candy apples at a fair. Her son, daughter and grandchildren now preside over State Fair Meadowlands. (Courtesy State Fair Meadowlands)For those headed to the fair on opening day Thursday, there's also the "Throwback Thursday" price of $19.86 (for admission and rides), in honor of the event's debut year.
Joining the ranks of the fair's gratuitously greasy concessions this year -- staff keep a running count of calorie totals (Fried Oreo: 98 calories. Funnel cake - "you don't want to know") -- will be Eat Our Bacon, a bacon-wrapped-everything stand from Pennsylvania that sells chocolate bacon and bacon meatballs.
The fair's main daredevil acts include circus dynasty The Flying Wallendas and a new high dive show in which a diver named Sinbad and his crew of pirates will shoot from an 80-foot tower into a 9 1/2-foot pool.
Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup. Find NJ.com Entertainment on Facebook.