Jimmy Drew and Joie Chitwood Receive Fair Industry Top Awards

In a significant crossroads of entertainment history, Jimmy Drew, James H. Drew Exposition, and Joie Chitwood of the Joie Chitwood Automobile Show family received the two top industry awards presented by the Outdoor Amusement Business Association. Joie

Chitwood received the Pioneer Award while Jimmy Drew and Beverly Burback received the Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award. This is the first time in history that the 50 members of the OABA Board elected the recipients by unanimous vote. The OABA is an industry watchdog group monitoring national and international issues such as H-2B

Foreign Labor, wage legislation and other laws affecting the fair and entertainment industry. The Showmen's League of America, organized in 1913 by its first president,

William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill), is a benevolent and fraternal organization focused on the welfare of show people. The SLA's Showmen's Rest section at Chicago's Woodlawn Cemetery with its huge white marble elephants was created in part to bury nearly 80 unidentified workers and performers from the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus train wreck at 4:00 am on June 22, 1918, in Ivanhoe, IN.

Jimmy Drew, from Augusta, GA, is the only person to ever serve as president of both organizations in the same year (1984) and the first person since the 1930's to be elected as president twice. Carolyn Crayton, founder of the renowned Cherry Blossom Festival in Macon, GA, and well known in International Festival circles says, "Jimmy Drew is the Walt

Disney of the fair and festival business". Dean Chance, former pitcher of the California Angels and Cy Young Award winner, also heavily involved in the fair and entertainment industry says, "Jimmy Drew is the person the other show owners all look up to and try to emulate and he makes it look easy". He is a strong proponent of country and bluegrass music at county and regional fairs. Many fair manages acknowledge that Jimmy Drew may be the one person that has introduced more country and bluegrass music to fair events than anyone else.

Ron and Beverly Burback, and their organization, operates the largest fair entertainment midway in the Pacific Northwest. Beverly Burbank is the founder of the Pacific Northwest Ride Safety programs.

The families of Joie Chitwood and James Drew have remained close friends most of their lives. Joie Chitwood took over the Earl "Lucky" Teeter Helldriver's after Lucky Teeter was killed during a war memorial at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in 1943, while attempting to

jump long ways over a greyhound style bus. Joie Chitwood and sons, Joie, Jr. and Tim, operated the Chitwood Auto Thrill Show. Joie Chitwood, Sr. is in the Indianapolis Speedway's historical Hall of Fame after placing in the top five in over five Indianapolis races. Joie Chitwood, Sr. is the first person to use a seat belt in a racecar and is credited to be the person behind the eventual use of seat belts in passenger cars. Joie Chitwood, III, president for many years of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, is currently president of the Daytona International Speedway.