Street Fair’s Food, Rides, Novelties Draw 70,000 : Festival: Even super-heroes show up for the third annual event in Sherman Oaks. Organizers improve access to local businesses.

Mary Mallinson saw it all through her kitchen window: the throng of pedestrians milling along Ventura Boulevard, the teen-agers with too much lipstick, the smoke curling into the hazy white sky, the police cars.

“At first I thought we were having a riot,” Mallinson, 82, said Sunday. “But then I remembered--the fair.”

In its third year, the annual Sherman Oaks Street Fair and Carnival drew thousands Sunday to a quarter-mile stretch of the San Fernando Valley’s main drag to try everything from catfish to falafel, buy everything from yo-yo balloons to temporary tattoos, and fry in an unforgiving sun.

Mallinson’s leg was bothering her “but there’s no way I could miss my own fair.” So like about 70,000 others, she braved the heat and meandered through the bazaar set up between Van Nuys Boulevard and Willis Avenue.

Just east of Willis, 4-year-old Meryn Beckett of Sherman Oaks slipped into a Velcro jumpsuit and had her 46-pound frame tossed upside-down onto a wall of the same stuff.

Her hair cascading down the wall and her face getting redder by the second, Meryn stared meekly at the crowd gathered to watch this future princess of late-night television.

“She’s been trying to learn to stand on her head,” said Meryn’s mother, Luann Beckett. “I guess this is one way.”

Perhaps not the way Meryn would choose again, however. “It was like I was flying,” Meryn said as her mother helped her slip on her fake ruby slippers. “It was a little bit scary.”

Elsewhere along the boulevard--which was closed to auto traffic between Van Nuys and Willis--children shook the hands of comic book super-heroes and spun themselves sick on carnival rides.

Save for the bank towers and the occasional police helicopter overhead, Sunday’s fair felt like a small-town get-together, a place where neighbors shared a coffee while their kids hounded them for more cash.

When one woman launched a string of obscenities within earshot of children, a man nearby told her: “This is the wrong place to have an attitude. If you want to have an attitude, go to Venice.”

Please, not in Sherman Oaks.

“It really brings the community together,” said Jeff Brain, president of the Greater Sherman Oaks Chamber of Commerce. “We all know each other better. It’s a good place for families to come and have fun.”

Brain, one of the event’s principal organizers, said this year’s fair will probably make slightly less money than last year’s, which netted about $50,000, because more was spent on attractions and transportation. Part of the profits are donated to local schools.

Despite the generally festive feeling of the fair, some merchants along the boulevard have complained in years past that their businesses suffer because of restricted auto access.

This year, Brain said, precautions were taken to ensure that the impact on businesses would be minimal, including hiring more parking lots and a shuttle bus.

Mike Milhollen, manager of the Marie Callender’s restaurant between Willis and Cedros Avenue, said his concerns had been addressed. Last year, his restaurant lost about $1,000 in business, but this year “we anticipate it being better,” he said.

So did the Los Angeles Police Department, which reported no problems and only one missing child by midday. He was eventually found, pushing an empty baby stroller.

As the black-clad police officers sought shelter from the heat, the comic book hero Shadowhawk mingled with wide-eyed children. A couple of them asked how he could fight with plastic weapons.

“What are your powers?” asked one boy.

“He doesn’t have any powers,” the hero’s consort replied. “He’s one of the good guys who fights the bad guys.”

“No powers?” the kid asked again, disgusted, before turning his back on the guy in tights with the plastic weapons.

Beyond the Tarot card booth and the guy selling King Kong pencil sharpeners, two young women turned from a place specializing in temporary tattoos, both looking at their chests for just the right spot.

“We could do it for the Sagebrush Cantina tonight,” said one to the other.

Meanwhile, 4-year-old Jessica Verdugo of Canoga Park took her first ride in a hot-air balloon, hovering about 35 feet above a drugstore parking lot.

“I liked it because we went up in the air and I like going up in the air,” she said. “But I don’t like heights.”

For her part, the older and wiser Mary Mallinson took one look at the balloon, muttered, “I’m chicken,” and headed home. Her leg was getting the better of her. And, besides, she could see it all from her kitchen window.