My apologies for not thinking of listing this earlier, for you Fair entertainers in the Midwest and East. Rick Fatland, of the Viking Agency, passed away November 7th, of this year, after a surgury. He had been ill for a year. I know that many of you Fair performers have had contact with Rick, especially if you ever worked the West coast.

Rick and his wife, Judie, ran The Viking Agency. They were talent coordinators for Fairs in the Western Fairs Association territory. Fairs hired them to recommend, hire, and 'administer' the talent at fairs. They handled scheduling and logistics for strolling, found-space, small stage, large stage and etc. From Hyp acts to magicians, clowns to jugglers, ballonists to giant tree people, they worked them all.

Rick was known from the prez's of the fair boards down to the grounds crews for his gentle ways, ability to make necessary things manifest, and his ability to forgive and forget anything except incompetence or being a P.I.T.A.

He loved Children's areas at fairs, and spent 20 years convincing fairs to install them, run them, continue them. Here is where I. personally, benefitted from his ethics and ideals. Fresno is dedicating a facet of their new Fantasy Kid's area to him and his work.

There'll be a memorial thing at the convention, Western Fairs Assoc., in Reno this year, for his years of dedication to the fair industry. If you've known Rick and Judie, and would like to drop Judie a note, PM me for the address. She'd love to hear from you.

It's sad to hear that one of the good guys is no longer with us.