Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Putting the Fair Wheels Into Motion : Recreation: The Antelope Valley gala, which opens Friday, will feature rides, livestock auctions, a virtual reality display and much more.

Happy Jack’s been out of the “carny” business for a long time but like the Ferris wheel that’s been brought out of storage to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the infamous carnival ride, Happy Jack has also come out of retirement, temporarily of course.

Happy Jack, who is known to few by his given name of James Jackson, started putting together Ferris wheels five decades ago when he was 14. He left his family’s Kentucky farm and traveled from carnival to carnival, working as a carny until sometime in the 1960s--he can’t remember exactly when he stopped.

This summer, though, Happy Jack is back living the life of a carny and putting together Ferris wheels. Actually, there’s only one Ferris wheel he’s been assembling--a 1948-vintage Eli Bridge Co. “Eli 5”--and he’s only doing it three times.

The third and final place Happy Jack is erecting the 52-foot high silver Ferris wheel is at the Antelope Valley Fair and Alfalfa Festival, which opens Friday and runs through Labor Day. He assembled it at two state fairs earlier this summer.

The theme at the Antelope Valley Fair in Lancaster is “Critters, Squeals and Ferris Wheels,” a tribute to animals and the 100th anniversary of the Ferris wheel. So it was only appropriate that an old-time Ferris wheel be part of the fair.

Antelope Valley fair officials tracked down the Eli 5 and someone else found Happy Jack. Happy Jack claims that a carnival operator hired a private detective to find him. Not too many people, he said, know how to piece together the old time, pre-hydraulic Ferris wheels.

“It’s like an erector set,” he said, as half a dozen men worked under his direction Wednesday. “You put it together like a card house. If you don’t build it just right it falls down.”

The work of Happy Jack and his crew will be the first thing visitors to this year’s Antelope Valley Fair and Alfalfa Festival see upon entering the grounds. The 52-foot tall silver wheel, with its 822 pieces, is being erected just inside the fair gates. Rides will be 50 cents, just like they were on that first Ferris wheel 100 years ago.

The 11-day Antelope Valley Fair and Alfalfa Festival at the 80-acre Antelope Valley Fairgrounds in Lancaster is one of the region’s most popular and widely attended events. Last year more than 300,000 people came through the gates and officials are hoping to buck the trend at other fairs in the state this year, where attendance has dropped about 15%.

Fair officials have brought back the past with the 1948 Ferris wheel, and Happy Jack, and they have also harnessed the future for the 1993 fair.

A virtual reality display with holograms, computer animation and interaction with computer-generated virtual reality is expected to be a popular attraction.

On the traditional side is the annual Kiwanis’ Junior Livestock Auction in which animals shown by youth at the fair are auctioned. The all-day auction begins at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday. The 1992 auction, which featured the sale of 562 cows, sheep, pigs, turkey, chickens and rabbits, raised nearly $275,000 for the youth in 4-H, Future Farmers of America and Youth Grange members. The money helps cover the costs of raising the animals.

The fair, at 155 E. Avenue I, officially opens at 6 p.m. Friday. A kick-off parade sponsored by the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce is slated for 5:30 p.m. The parade starts at Lancaster Boulevard and 10th Street West.

Many people will know when the fair gates open Friday--a boom-making firework will skyrocket into the air, a preview of the fireworks display at 9:30 that night.

Antelope Valley Fair directors voted in May to increase admission prices from $4 to $5 for adults and from $2 to $3 for children age 6-12 and senior citizens. The first price hike in three years, the move was made in response to the fair losing $59,000 in 1992.

Like many state fairs, the Antelope Valley Fair will offer an antique engine display, bungee jumping, carnival rides, barrel racing and exhibit halls that offer everything from table settings to canned fruit to hanging plants.