Crusade Douses Fair's Cigarette Giveaway

By JOHN CHANDLER

Aug. 25, 1989 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

When the Antelope Valley Fair and Alfalfa Festival opens today in Lancaster, visitors to the family oriented event will be able to belly up to the bar for a cold beer or even gamble on horse racing.

But finding a cigarette may be more difficult.

Fair officials have been forced to abandon plans for a cigarette giveaway booth after a local religious radio broadcaster launched a crusade against it that drew substantial support.

“I just felt it was akin to giving drugs away free and getting people to like them,” said broadcaster Mike Ezell, a 37-year-old Palmdale resident and former Baptist pastor.

He said even he was surprised by his success in dousing the plan to give away cigarettes.

“This thing spread a lot faster and farther than I thought it would,” said Ezell, who buys an hour each weekday for his show on KAVC-FM, a religiously oriented station in Rosamond.

“It’s a little issue, but it’s a fiery one, I guess,” he said.

Ezell said his crusade, which included calls to local pastors as well as to the area’s state lawmakers, was rooted in health worries rather than on religious grounds.

The matter arose Aug. 10 when the fair’s governing board, a nine-member group appointed by Gov. George Deukmejian, agreed to the giveaway booth for Newport cigarettes.

It involved a sponsorship agreement proposed by the private firm running the fair’s carnival.

When Ezell, who runs a religious-oriented counseling center, read a brief mention of the plan in a local paper the next day, he was outraged.

And he told people so that afternoon on his “Family Matters” radio show, urging listeners to call fair directors at home to protest.

The calls started coming. Just five days after Ezell launched his campaign, fair officials announced that the carnival operator, B & B Amusements, had withdrawn the giveaway plan to avoid community controversy.

“When the issue started, it was a total and complete surprise to us,” fair spokeswoman Sheila Burnette said. She said fair directors approved the giveaway to help the carnival financially and perhaps pave the way for added fair sponsorships in the future.

One existing sponsorship involves the fair’s beer and wine concession, which officials said could net more than $100,000 for the event during its 11-day run this year.

Neither Ezell nor fair officials have suggested that the fair abolish alcohol sales.

“Some of the born-again Christians really look down on smoking,” Burnette said.

But apparently the issue of alcohol is a different one, she said, “mainly because the religions are still split on alcohol . . . Jesus drank wine.”

The fair also offers off-track betting on horse races, televised via satellite from Del Mar and Los Alamitos. That also drew protests when it was introduced last year, said Leroy Harrington, a fair board member.

Year-Round Betting Parlor

But the fair retained the betting parlor, which operates year-round.

Harrington said the directors thought that it was appropriate for fair-goers to be able to buy cigarettes, but agreed with concerns over giving away free samples.

With the giveaway eliminated, it was unclear whether cigarettes could be purchased at the fair, either.

In past years, the fair had a smoke shop concession. But Harrington said that shop may not stock cigarettes this year for reasons apparently unrelated to the protest.

A spokesman for Lorillard, the New York-based company that manufactures Newport cigarettes, said the company commonly tries to market its product through such giveaways.

He said there have been protests elsewhere from health and medical groups, as well as religious organizations.

“We encounter things of that nature quite often,” said the spokesman, who declined to give his name. “There are a lot of religious sectors that are definitely against tobacco and are fighting it constantly. Their basis is that people are a temple of God and tobacco is harming that.”

When asked about the drinking and wagering that will continue at the fair, Ezell said: “I may not agree with everything else, but I could not tackle everything else.”

FAIR SCHEDULEAntelope Valley Fair

Events of Saturday

9 a.m.--Junior sheep showmanship.

Noon--Fair opens, junior dairy goat competitions and tribute to auto racing display.

12:30 p.m.--Satellite wagering opens.

2 p.m.--KUTY’s baby Olympics and the magic of Chuck Jones.

3 p.m.--American karate.

4 p.m.--Movement to Music.

4:30 p.m.--The magic of Chuck Jones.

5 p.m.--Junior beef judging begins and Fantasi Factori.

6 p.m.--First-round team penning and dance connection.

7 p.m.--Grandstand gate opens, Freddy Fender, the Blasters, Dance Magic and Graceful Squares.