I'm not sure why, but the fair in Leroy seemed to be very popular. I know that during the local prohibition men were arrested there for selling alcohol or buying alcohol, but a police article in the Pantagraph suggests another reason for the popularity of the Fair in Leroy in 1915. A sharp eyed mechanic in Bloomington was asked to work on a 6 cylinder Buick and decided to check out the serial number on the car. He found that it was on a list of stolen vehicles as coming from Chicago. He alerted the police to the presence of a stolen vehicle and the police appeared at the time appointed for the vehicle pick up to arrest the purported owners. Two men appeared with a woman. She claimed to have no knowledge of the car and she was allowed to return to Chicago by train. (25 Aug 1915)
The men had been at the fair in Leroy with a group of women who presented "muscle dances." Of course this term intrigued me -- it obviously was not a "nice" dance. Googling this term is not for the faint of heart. I don't recommend clicking indiscriminately, but very carefully if you have any "triggers" as they currently put it.
A book available on line entitled "Girl Show: Behind the Canvas World of Bump and Grind" presents the history of sideshow dancing. (This is a fun book to look at and has much information for people who like sideshows and circuses!!!) http://samples.sainsburysebooks.co.uk/9781554903719_sample_406324.pdf "Muscle dancing" was a term for Eastern or belly dancing. But looking at the costumes in the book, I didn't see much belly in evidence in the photos for the 1910's. Belly dancing would have been a scandalous thrill for the Midwestern men used to corsets and dresses that trailed all the way to the floor!
The photo is supposed to be one of the dancers from the Columbia World's Fair (1893) in Chicago. No photos accompanied the Pantagraph article -- of course.
This article of course indicates the increase of car theft in 1915 and the distrust of strangers in McLean County. But most interesting is the look at the marginalization of women through the "double standard" in the book I have linked to this post.