JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (WJAC) — This week’s journey into our archives looks back at the beginnings of the Pennsylvania Lottery as the agency developed an extraordinary plan to draw attention to its lottery games.

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Video shows one of the weekly, traveling lottery road shows from the summer of 1972.

The lottery was launched just the year before and it looked to promote its games by taking the drawings into cities across the state, including Johnstown’s Central Park in May of 1972.

That summer, the lottery took its road show to 22 towns.

As you can see in the video, it featured an elaborate performance that included dancing women, and drew an audience of hundreds, if not thousands.

Even local children were pulled out from the crowd to draw the numbers. 

Windber would host a lottery show later that summer.

At the time, you had to check the newspaper to see if you had a winning ticket.

However, the lottery drew some scrutiny about its traveling show.

Many state officials and media outlets questioned the spending of nearly $200,000 for a New York based company to orchestrate the show.

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