Expo - Magic of the White City (Narrated by Gene Wilder) | 1893 Chicago World's Fair - Full Movie

so [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] on the morning of may 1st 1893 a crowd of over 300 000 people began gathering at a new city built on the shore of lake michigan seven miles from downtown chicago the morning began gray and overcast but around 10 30 the sky cleared [Music] the sun shone down on a gleaming city filled with structures of almost impossible size and grandeur a new rome or venice an elegant city of canals and classical columns but unlike rome or venice this was a temporary city built in just two years on a reclaimed swamp in chicago the press had dubbed it the white city which was built to be the home of the world's colombian exposition of 1893 the chicago world's fair the fair was built to celebrate the 400th anniversary of columbus discovering america in 1492 even if 1893 was one year late for the anniversary after three years of planning and building today the fair would officially [Music] [Applause] [Music] open the enormous crowd waited through the morning while a parade of dignitaries spoke from a platform in front of the fair's administration building which looked like a slightly smaller version of the u.s capitol sitting on the west side of a group of buildings known as the court of honor six enormous blinding white classical buildings surrounding a basin of water the fountain sat at one end of the basin in the shape of a mammoth boat rode by figures of classical allegories symbolizing columbus's discovery of the new world two other fountains flanking the administration building held a special surprise for later at the other end of the basin rose a looming statue symbolizing the american republic a robed woman 65 feet high crowned with laurel leaves and holding up an orb in one hand and a staff in the other behind her on the east side of the basin a portico of classical columns known as the peristyle separated the court of honor from the waters of lake michigan all morning people had arrived at the railroad terminal directly behind the administration building where dozens of railway lines from all over the united states converged at the colombian exposition no crowd of this size had ever before been assembled in one place in the united states [Music] the enormous crowd found it hard to see the dignitaries speaking on the platform surrounded by a sea of people it was almost impossible to hear them they could barely pick out chicago's bearded and rotund mayor carter harrison a popular and corrupt booster of the fair toward noon the familiar bulk and the bristling mustache of u.s president grover cleveland made his way to the front of the platform he announced that the colombian exposition would mark the amazing progress of the new world in the 400 years since columbus landed that it would show the world the glorious story of the united states of america the unparalleled advancement and wonderful accomplishments of a young nation the triumphs of a vigorous self-reliant and independent people cleveland concluded that we and our guests from other nations cooperate in the inauguration of an enterprise devoted to human enlightenment in the noblest sense the brotherhood of nations the president walked to a table covered with an american flag on the table was an oversized gold telegraph key the sun glinting off the key could be seen by every one of the three hundred thousand people in the crowd cleveland brought his hand down on the telegraph key [Music] the air began to hum as george westinghouse's enormous dynamos started whirring in machinery hall the great alice engine began to churn all over the fairground electric lights and engines turned on the key set in motion miles of shafting innumerable engines and machines in a labyrinth of belting and gearing in the giant exposition buildings the roar and hum of these modern marvels showed everyone that the fair was alive [Music] on either side of president cleveland the two electric-powered fountains suddenly shot brilliantly colored streams of water 150 feet into the air electric arc lights played on the 65-foot tall statue of the republic and glinted off the alabaster maidens rowing the enormous fantasy boat in the middle of the columbian fountain three hundred thousand people let out a deafening cheer that seemed to go on for minutes the crowd was momentarily awed into stillness before people began to scurry in a thousand directions purring to take in the wonders assembled on the shore of lake michigan the world's colombian exposition of 1893 best known as the chicago world's fair was officially open in many ways this moment was the real beginning of the 20th century there's never been anything else like the chicago world's fair there will probably never be anything like it again even in the modern age of theme parks and olympic spectacles the world's fair would have dwarfed them [Music] all the world's colombian exposition was the biggest world's fair that had ever been held in the size of fairgrounds in a number of exhibits it was considerably larger than its nearest competitor the 1889 paris world's fair where the eiffel tower had debuted the entire fair with planning construction personnel and operational fees cost an estimated 22 million dollars in 1893 if it can be assumed that the greatest cost was labor and the average worker made 10 cents a day in 1893 with a total of 40 000 workmen working more than one and a half years to build the fair the fair construction alone would cost over several billion dollars today let alone the massive cost of operating the fair for six months and it actually made a small profit thanks to the nearly 28 million people that visited the fair in its six months of operation the expo was awesome in the sheer size of the buildings and the exhibits one building alone the manufactures and liberal arts building standing in the court of honor was the largest building in the world in 1893 the gigantic coral hall hosted the largest choir in the world a staggering 2500 singers gardens in the horticultural exhibits boasted 50 000 roses and a million tulips the number of workers and visitors at the colombian exposition was so large that the fair printed its own newspaper exhibits included the world's largest lump of coal and the world's largest telescope chronicles of the fair are endless lists of things that were the world's biggest the exposition influenced many of the coming centuries innovators henry ford was an enthusiastic visitor as was walt disney's father architect frank lloyd wright was there and drew inspiration for his innovative buildings from the asian architecture at the fair even l frank baum the author of the wizard of oz visited the fair and later modeled oza's emerald city on the fair's magical white city the expo was not just about america it was the world's biggest most congenial melting pot before all hell would break loose in the 20th century countries like france and germany were great friends at the fair so was america and the arab countries from the middle east [Music] the chicago world's fair embodied the 19th century's progress optimism ambition and sheer delight in variety and discovery the people who built the colombian exposition the people who attended it and even the many people who merely followed the fair through newspapers saw only a great future of progress and peace that would go on without end if the world could accomplish so much in the 19th century they thought how much will it accomplish in the next century if all the nations of the world could come together in chicago peacefully to learn from one another surely the brotherhood of mankind could not be far off their hope was as fleeting as the fair itself for all the grandeur of its buildings nothing at the fair was built to last what looked like gleaming white marble was actually a plaster mixture called staff that was spread over wood and iron frames what looked like global peace didn't last much longer after the world's fair of 1893 america and the world would never be the same the colombian exposition was not just a big party it foreshadowed all that was to come in the 20th century both good and bad which leaves us with the question how did the fair come to be [Music] world's fairs had grown out of the trade fairs in europe that dated back to the middle ages towns and cities held fairs to show off their wares and to trade in an isolated time there were also great social events throughout the 19th century world's fairs were held throughout europe but it was the french who led the way in creating the modern world's fair under the french national glory became as important to the fairs as trade the fairs became big parties and the place to introduce technological marvels that were on their way to the marketplace thomas edison unveiled his phonograph and incandescent lights at the paris exposition in 1882 then came the famous paris exposition of 1889 it was at that time the grandest world's fair that had ever been held 1892 was the 400th anniversary of columbus discovering america a few years earlier in 1885 the interstate commerce commission had proposed the idea of a fair in the united states to mark the anniversary the monumental paris expo in 1889 gave the project a jolt and by that fall congress was feverishly working on a bill to create a commission for the exposition which would top paris of course because of the long political battle over choosing a city and delays in the ambitious construction projects the fair actually didn't open until 1893 one year too late for the anniversary looking back now the years around the chicago world's fair seemed like a good time for celebrating peace and progress america not being involved in a single multinational war perhaps but they were still years filled with violence and economic turmoil the early 1890s witnessed the most violent labor struggles in american history many of the most violent events happening in chicago only a few miles away from the white city chicago reached the front page of newspapers after the 1886 haymarket riot when seven chicago policemen were killed by a bomb while breaking up a striker's meeting rioters were killed when the police returned fire while the buildings for the colombian exposition were nearing completion in 1892 an armed confrontation erupted between striking steel workers and pinkerton security guards at andrew carnegie's homestead works outside of pittsburgh after deaths on both sides from gun battles and even cannon fire the pennsylvania militia put down the strike immigration and race were also hot button topics in the early 1890s often accompanied by violence in 1891 11 italian immigrants were lynched in new orleans after they were acquitted of murdering a police superintendent it was the biggest mass lynching in united states history and the first time that the word mafia appeared in american newspapers chinese immigration had been suspended in the 1880s and in 1890 congress extended the ban for 10 years in the rest of the country racial discrimination was unquestioned and segregation was the word of the day the numbers of american indians were dwindling and many people thought that they were headed toward inevitable extinction the united states at the time of the chicago world's fair was only 117 years old and not so far from the great civil war which had ended only 28 years earlier a mere 17 years before the world's fair general custer was killed at little bighorn and the apache war chief geronimo had been captured in 1886. the johnstown flood happened four years earlier in 1889. the west was wild and legends like billy the kid wyatt earp wild bill hickok were made famous in 1890 a declaration was made that resounded throughout the country the american frontier was closed there was no longer a front line of settlement americans had spread to fill in every territory from coast to coast the population of the united states was 65 million people [Music] the next question was where in the united states to hold the fair there was no obvious national center like paris which was in the heart of europe and a reasonable distance for almost every european to attend the united states was far more spread out than europe for a while washington dc looked like a favorite but washington had no representative in congress and nobody to lobby for it there were really only two serious choices new york or chicago new yorkers thought the country west of manhattan was all boondocks and couldn't imagine why anything so important would not be held in new york chicago had many advantages in the lobbying particularly because the surrounding area looked more like the rest of the country than new york did flat and empty and by voting for chicago congressmen could be standing up against pretentious east coast snobs the competition in congress was fierce representatives and delegations from the two cities lobbied twisted arms and horse traded for months in the end the heartland won out on february 4 1890 a majority in the house of representatives voted for chicago to host the fair on april 25th president benjamin harrison signed the exposition bill into law creating a national commission to oversee the fair the u.s government invited countries from around the world to send exhibits the exposition bill politely skirted the question of money no congressman was going to ask voters to pay taxes for some other cities fair unlike france no federal money was going to be spent on the chicago world's fair the city of chicago had the sole responsibility to plan organize and pay for the fair which meant that the fair had to make money the exposition company was formed and comprised of prominent money-making persons from the city including carter h harrison chicago's popular and cheerfully corrupt mayor who was the director of the company carter harrison knew how to make money and he knew what the people wanted they wanted fun novelty and a few glasses of beer the fair would have trade exhibits manufacturing exhibits and cultural exhibits but the directors did not turn up their noses at any exhibit likely to make a buck this often brought them head to head with a national commission the commission insisted on certain standards in the exhibits that threatened to eat into profits buffalo bills enormously popular wild west show for instance which included annie oakley the fastest female gun in the west and scores of performing indians was deemed too low-brow to be associated with the fair in the end buffalo bill pitched his tents just outside of the fairgrounds and made a killing the busiest group of busybodies appointed by the national commission were the women of the board of lady managers the gentile lady managers represented social propriety and american protestant piety the colombian exposition was to be about high moral purpose not cheap fun money grubbing or lurid spectacles the lady managers raised objections to everything there was to be no nude art at the fair there were to be no lascivious dances at the fair there was to be no alcohol at the fair the directors in chicago fought each objection seeing the upright ladies cutting into profits at every step one of the most contentious issues was sunday openings the lady managers insisted that the fair close for sunday faced with the prospect of losing a day of revenue every week the directors came up with a novel idea that closing the fair on sunday would only be increasing sin because if visitors didn't go to the fair it spent the day at chicago's many bars and brothels in the end the chicago directors won nearly every dispute with the lady managers the fair would be open sundays booze would flow like a river risque art would be proudly featured and dancing of such vulgarity never before seen in america would bring in the customers for a thousand miles around nothing could be allowed to trump the need to make the fair pay for itself at the world's fair of 1893 almost every kind of attraction would be fair game the city of chicago had a reputation for doing everything in a big way both in its vices and its virtues the city was described as first in violence deepest in dirt lawless unlovely ill-smelling irreverent and overgrown gawk of a village it attracted visits from scores of shock reformers who tallied up its prostitutes bars impoverished immigrants and the ungodly stink from the world's biggest slaughterhouses in the chicago stockyards victorian reformer william stead visited the fair in 1893 and was so appalled that he wrote a book if christ came to chicago only divine intervention he seemed to say could rescue this city on the other hand chicago's phenomenal growth and enterprising spirit embodied america in 1893 and impressed everyone who saw the city no chicago man ever tires of doing business one observer wrote it was the world's biggest boom town everything about chicago was immense in 1893 it was the manufacturing and agricultural center of the nation with its proximity to the grain of the midwest and the cattle of the west the stockyards and the slaughterhouses shipped almost a billion pounds of beef every year by 1893 chicago's economy was approaching two billion dollars annually no one was more impressed with chicago than chicagoans mention the stink from the stockyards and a chicagoan would point out the city's park system which is over twice as large as new york mention oppressive working conditions and a chicago one would point to the city's rich cultural life and opera houses point out the prostitutes and the chicagoan would point out the business opportunities the boasting of chicago boosters lobbying for the world's fair caused the new york press to dub chicago the windy city not because of the weather they said but because of all the air coming out of it chicago wanted to have the world's biggest world's fair ever chicago's problem now was where to build a fairground as there was no obvious site within the city the 1889 paris expo had been built in the middle of paris the magnificence of paris was the center of the expo chicago was nothing like that chicago was built for business the railroads and skyscrapers in the bustling downtown were impressive but hardly beautiful in the way that the 19th century thought of beauty and any fair would have to be built well away from the stench of the stockyards and the shacks and tenements surrounding the city rather than having the fair in chicago chicago would build an entirely new city with its own rail lines and terminals to accommodate millions of visitors the directors first looked toward the vast prairie surrounding the city which offered immense amounts of land to build on the problem was the flatness and dullness of the landscape the fairground would be dropped in the midst of miles of nothing at a loss the directors hired famed landscape architect frederick law olmsted to find a site and design the landscape for the fairground hiring olmsted was a stroke of luck he was the visionary who had designed new york city's central park a giant figure in the design of american cities olmsted developed a vision for the fairground that none of the directors had thought of looking at chicago he turned his back on the city and the prairie olmsted looked out onto lake michigan and declared that the world's colombian exposition celebrating the world's most famous voyage would be set on the water the drama of the lake would make the most magnificent setting imaginable the spot that olmsted settled on seemed hard to believe at first called jackson park it was a park only on the map in reality it was an unimproved swamp along the lake seven miles south of downtown chicago there were no buildings standing in the park and no rail lines the ground was too wet to dig foundations clouds of mosquitoes swarmed out of the breeding ground in the stagnant water olmsted's plan for the fair meant reclaiming 700 acres of swamp wild oak and sand the idea seemed mad but olmsted's reputation carried the day the directors were getting nervous at the delays and a mad plan was better than no plan the work of digging and dredging began before olmsted was even finished sketching his designs as he laid out lagoons and canals carved into the swamp the vision began to emerge the white city of the colombian expo would be a city built on water like venice venice was not only the inspiration for the fairground the builders had to use many of the same techniques to create it because the ground was too wet to dig laborers had to create foundations for the buildings by driving vast forests of wood pilings deep into the mud driving the pilings was hard dirty and very dangerous work and for all the technological wonders that would be unveiled at the fair the grounds were largely made by thousands of men digging with shovels for days on end [Music] in the end they dug and reshaped over 600 acres and paved a mile and a half of beach they built a 1500 foot pier out into lake michigan as the land emerged from the water workmen spread loam to grow grass and planted thousands of flowers trees and shrubs meanwhile as the landscaping was going on the directors commissioned the chicago architectural firm of burnham and root to design the main buildings for the fair architects from all over the united states and the world were asked to submit designs for fair buildings [Music] construction of the buildings began as the groundwork was still in progress and throughout 1891 the venetian landscape of the white city began to emerge from the mud of jackson park in 18 months of working around the clock the carpenters bricklayers painters and plasterers raised every building and sculpted every statue on the fair site what was truly remarkable about the main buildings was not just the designs but the techniques developed to build them it wasn't possible to build conventional buildings of this size in such a short time besides the buildings were never meant to last longer than the fair the builders turned to a plasterer's material called staff a kind of stucco made of a mixture of plaster cement and fibers it was flexible strong molded easily and dried fast the staff was laid over wood and steel frames to create the walls of the buildings it was set in molds and sculpted over frames to create the building's decorations and the statues what looked like shimmering marble at the fair was really just molded staff as the buildings went up they needed to be painted the enormous surface area of buildings like the liberal art and manufactures building would take crews of men years to paint by brushes what the engineers on the site did was to invent spray paint hooking spray hoses up to a vat of paint and a pump the painters finished in a fraction of the time that brushes would have taken for the most part the men who built the white city have remained anonymous in the accounts of the fair many of them couldn't even afford to go every day at 6 pm the day laborers lined up at the casino going up on the shore of the lake to have their work times checked off the construction was such a popular spectacle that thousands of visitors paid 25 cents just to watch the buildings go up some of the buildings were dedicated in 1892 and the finishing touches were put on throughout that winter as the construction workers labored in the freezing snow and howling winds to have the white city completed in time for the may opening the world's fair was about to begin tickets were purchased at 50 cents each after president cleveland hit the key on may 1st every fairgoer asked where to go first as the fountains shot forth their streams of water most visitors started their fare experience by gawking at the size of the building surrounding the grand basin people stepped into the court of honor the columbus fountain was right in front of them and the statue of the republic was across the basin the hard to believe bulk of the manufacturer's building rose up to the left and the capital-style dome of the administration building was directly behind them all around the basin were the buildings that looked like roman temples the gods of america's strength the agriculture building the machinery building the mines building the electricity building the court of honor was the embodiment of america moving beyond the yankee agrarian republic it was now a great civilization equal or better than greece rome and europe behind the statue of the republic was the peristyle remembered by everyone as one of the truly beautiful things at the fair the peristyle was a roman looking colonnade with double rows of 48 columns representing the states and territories of the united states all supporting a roof that was lined on both sides with huge allegorical statues secured to rails on the roof by cables it looked like vatican square on lake michigan the two sides of the colonnade met in a massive arch that looked like the arc de triomphe on top of the arch was a group of statues of horses pulling a wagon symbolizing explorers the peristyle was like the gateway between the fairground and the outside world many visitors who came by water entered the fairground through the arch it was a great spot to see both the court of honor and the lake especially from the roof walking between the rows of massive columns stretching for what looked like hundreds of yards it was an intimidating and awe-inspiring experience mobbed by the crowd surrounding the grand basin many walked north to visit the exhibits of their own states just about every state and territory in the union put up a building on the north end of the fairground visitors gazed with pride on the exhibits of their home states with the unbridled boosterism of the 1890s most states were not humble about showing off [Music] the state buildings came in quite a variety of shapes sizes and degrees of flamboyancy with historical exhibits and displays showcasing their local histories the grander states buildings each try to outdo the others like the monstrous illinois building just about every state had something to show like the lavish new york building with its ornate banquet hall vermont's building wasn't remembered for being terribly exciting and neither was delaware's massachusetts was styled in the way that our forefathers would have styled their mansions and maine's was built of granite wood slate and marble to demonstrate the state's resources [Music] one of the great successes of the fair was the liberty bell brought from philadelphia to the pennsylvania building which was built to look like independence hall california built an enormous old spanish mission with exhibits that showed the lush rich life on the west coast like a vision of paradise a fountain on the rooftop poured out streams of red wine california's giant fruit displays were hard to believe among the various citrus sculptures there was a night on horseback made out of dried prunes known as sir preserved prunes there was a liberty bell made out of oranges lemons and grapefruit and a tower of fourteen thousand oranges every week the fruit was given away when fresh fruit arrived from california no place in america looked more bountiful most of the state's exhibits of products weren't found in their respective state buildings but were located in huge displays located within the main fair buildings surrounding the court of honor the immense agriculture building had some of the most bizarre and entertaining exhibits at the fair showcasing u.s and global agricultural diversity and innovation the exhibits stretched their imaginations to do something interesting with the crops as there wasn't much to do with the food if it wasn't going to be eaten at the center of a midwest exhibit was a building made out of corn on the cob missouri sculpted a horse out of grains and oats other liberty bells appeared at the fair pennsylvania had one that was made out of wheat oats and rye it was not impressive wisconsin's dairyland contributed a bigger than life chocolate christopher columbus but more popular for the men at least was the schlitz brewery exhibit pennsylvania not content with the oddity of its wheat and rye liberty bell contributed a map of the united states made of pickles silly as it may seem to some the displays highlighted the food processing industries like heinz pickles that were making american food and national and no longer a regional business the huge mines building on the north side of the court of honor held the displays of the wealth of america's mighty western silver mines along with displays of precious gems from around the world and the newfangled mining equipment of the day like this electric rock drill montana whose silver mining industry was in free fall as the fair began brought a solid silver statue of the figure of justice modeled on the popular actress ada rahan silver girls were very popular colorado's display included a girl known as the silver queen who was supposed to be 17 the same age as the state there were exhibits of iron ore copper and petroleum salt was featured in many of the state's mining exhibits including the statue of liberty carved from salt and it was left to missouri to recreate the st louis bridge entirely out of sugarcane after sampling all the states visitors could sample the world every country in what was known as the civilized world and some that weren't had exhibits at the fair most of the european nations built their own buildings just to the south of the state buildings a mini europe clustered behind the north pool on the shore of lake michigan with a dose of latin america turkey india and the exotic empires of france holland and britain thrown in these national buildings were meant to impress the fair goers and to sell products visitors could sample the world with a dazzling array of food clothes art and cultural exhibits you could sample rare coffees and tropical medicinal plants at the guatemala building the british victoria house looking like a half-timbered english country estate was a gentleman's club you only got in by invitation or rank if you didn't have an impressive calling card you had no chance the canadian building was popular because of its location and the fact that they were friendly and far less pretentious than the british the big spenders at the fair were france and germany france built a recreation of a wing of the palace of versailles with columns and great statuary and then seemed unsure about what to put in it germany knew just what to put in its national building a reconstruction of a medieval bavarian town hall with an enormous imperial german eagle in it were the crown jewels of the kaiser's family plus books and artwork the national building was only one of germany's many attractions that caught attention at the fair and proved to be some of the most popular christopher columbus who died a poor man in an ungrateful country after discovering america was proudly celebrated by spain at the expo visitors could go through a recreation of la rabide monastery in spain the place where columbus and his son were said to have taken refuge and forged the idea of the voyage the monastery was in a place of honor on the lakefront right next to the pier and the buildings of the court of honor next to it in the south pond were the reproductions of the nina pinta and santa maria that had been sailed all the way from spain norway built huge wooden buildings in the style of medieval churches even more popular was the reproduction of a thousand-year-old viking ship that the norwegians built in norway and sailed to the new world a subtle reminder to spain that the vikings got here first sweden put up an enormous ornate wooden building that had been brought piece by piece from sweden the brazil national building was truly impressive in 1893 brazil was considered one of the richest countries in the world and its exhibit showed it widely regarded as the most pleasant national exhibit was japan's ho'odan buildings on a wooded island in the middle of the lagoon the first real contact with japanese culture was a surprise japan was a country that wasn't even open to the west until the 1860s but 30 years later the japanese government had been the first to apply for space at the fair and they spent six hundred and thirty thousand dollars on their exhibits almost as much as france everyone who went to the fair like the japanese their buildings and the japanese workers what bright and nimble fellows these workmen are one harper's magazine correspondent said if they represent the average of japanese artisans then the average must be very high indeed the quality and style of the japanese exhibits attracted favorable attention and respect even in a time of rampant unblemished white supremacy the japanese were the only non-westerners that no one snickered about visitors enjoyed the simple elegant architecture of the hohoden buildings the beauty of the japanese pottery and the patient care of japanese workers unpacking exhibits it was the world's first good look at the unique culture of a talented nation [Music] in the midst of the crowds and the hucksters in the fairgrounds the japanese ho'odan buildings and the wooded island was one place at the fair where people just relaxed and took a break it was a spot for lovers too as the sun went down the island was lit by little fairy lamps of colored glass arranged along the paths unlike the bright light of the electricity that drove the rest of the fair the fairy lights were little warm colored oil lamps surrounded by the delicate flickering lights with the white beams of the arc lights playing on the buildings across the lagoon the wooded island was the one still spot where you could stop long enough to take it all in in 10 more years japan would crush the russians in the russo-japanese war the first modern victory of an asian country over a western power within another 40 years japan would challenge the united states and the british empire for dominance in asia and the pacific today one can't go five feet without seeing something influenced by the japanese [Music] just a short stroll south along the waterfront from the states and foreign government buildings and you came across the centerpiece of the fair the manufacturers and liberal arts building nothing like it had ever been built no other building at the fair could match it its purpose was to hold thousands of national state and business exhibits showing off an eclectic array of products and art internally it was divided into booths with exhibits from manufacturers from all over the world exhibits that were a monument to human ingenuity and peaceful commerce and with so many exhibitors it was impossible for one country alone to have the bragging rights and stand out when the building was dedicated in october 1892 100 000 people attended the ceremonies inside the crowd was described as being lost in its vast interior promoters reckoned that the building could actually hold three hundred thousand people each with six square feet of elbow room at a time when electric street lighting was still a novelty outside of the downtowns of america's largest cities the manufacturers and liberal arts building alone was lit by ten thousand electric lights the entire fair used three times as much electricity as the whole city of chicago the manufacturers in liberal arts building dwarfed every building at the fair in fact when it was built it dwarfed just about every building on earth it was the largest building ever made at 1 687 feet by 787 feet the enormous roof reached over 245 feet into the sky supported by eight 100-foot pavilions at the corner and center of each wall the floor space covered an area of 540 000 square feet or 44 acres the great pyramid of giza could easily fit inside one writer claimed that the full standing army of russia could fit inside the building the builder said that the metal and glass roof contained enough iron and steel to build two brooklyn bridges sure the roof leaked a bit but that could be expected from such a building put up in only 18 months a few exhibitors got damp but everyone was in awe the building needed to be giant the whole earth it seemed was inside the number of exhibits in the building was impossible to count there were hundreds of categories of exhibits art chemical and pharmaceutical supplies paints colors dyes varnishes paper stationary upholstery ceramics mosaics stone monuments watches jewelry china porcelain glassware furniture stoves clothes musical instruments more jewelry medical supplies dolls asbestos and firearms many new and recent inventions showed up in the building some that lasted and some that didn't there was a gigantic mineral water exhibit some exhibits were fun like the windsor castle made out of soap and if that wasn't enough clean fun there was also a brooklyn bridge made out of soap who knew that there were so many kinds of shoes in the world one newspaper man described the shoe and leather exhibit as hides by the mile there were exhibits of lace and mattresses and pillows there were billiard tables and fire extinguishers there were exhibits of church furniture and caskets and there were even not just one or two exhibitors in these categories but often dozens no one could see all the exhibits or even count them according to one reporter there were tens of thousands of things that need not be enumerated the insurers tried to put a value on the exhibits they came up with 50 million dollars it was a wild and probably insufficient guess this was the impossibly biggest bazaar in history called a city under one roof it was more like a country or several countries for many the appeal of the manufactures and liberal arts building wasn't just in its size but in its overwhelming variety through the center of the building was a 50-foot wide aisle known as columbia avenue in the very center of the aisle was a 120-foot clock tower built by the american self-winding clock company it chimed on the hour with nine bells that weighed seven thousand pounds you always knew the time inside the manufacturers and liberal arts building at one end of columbia avenue was the largest telescope in the world the yerkes telescope that had been given to the university of chicago it was 65 feet long and 70 tons the most prestigious big national exhibits got spots close to columbia avenue france britain germany austria and italy but there was plenty of room for everybody the german national exhibits were heavy on jewels golden goblets silver services in a nine-foot vaz which drew thousands of visitors but one of the most striking german exhibits was one of the most humble dolls venerable german doll makers sent a display of thousands of dolls including a wind-up bunny that hopped a cow that moved and a little lamb that jumped and barred for displays of jewelry not germany not france not england could compete with the tiffany pavilion the tiffany exhibit was one of the things in the fair that no one missed there was a silver encrusted toilet and the revolving gray canary diamond which was virtually priceless italy which almost didn't come put on quite a show in the manufacturer's building forty thousand dollars worth of venetian lace filled its own room in the italian exhibit austria had a massive exhibit packed with displays of ornate glassware bronze works hungarian and bohemian goods the french pavilion was a highlight for the fashion minded at the fair it was 300 by 200 feet with 26 entrances all leading to a different salon one for furniture one for fashion one for silver china and porcelain fashion of course was a centerpiece a salon full of wax figures wore the latest styles from paris a french display of furs included a carpet made of 35 otter skins there were skins of polar bears lions tigers and leopards in 1893 there weren't many animal rights activists french perfumers built a fountain of perfume in the middle of one display which sprayed out a different scent every day fairgoers were welcome to dip their handkerchiefs in the fountain for a free sample along with the bigger european exhibits there are more than 30 countries displaying their wares in the manufactures building countries like siam argentina haiti zanzibar and bulgaria all put up their booths in america's great bazaar no one saw everything in the manufacturers and liberal arts building it was too overwhelming but every adventurous fairgoer who could fork over 25 cents went up in the otis hale company elevator to the observation deck on the roof of the building a waist-high chain-link fence kept you from going off the edge of the observation deck but more than one fairgoer lost their nerve on the roof and quickly returned to the elevator for those who could look down it was one of the great spots to view the fair like the top of the ferris wheel or the wooded island the deck looked out over the court of honor and the lagoon with lake michigan behind if you lingered on the roof until the sun began to set you could watch thousands of electrical light bulbs switching on all over the fair next to you on the roof the searchlights would fire up beaming down onto the fair below out in the lake the reflections of the lights rippled on the water you can understand why the people who went to the fair describe themselves as dumbfounded in another world it was here that olmsted's vision could be appreciated from the roof it looked like paradise in 1893 the widespread use of electric light awed fairgoers electricity wasn't necessarily new new york city had its first electric street lights on broadway in 1882 by 1893 most large american cities had electric street lighting in their downtowns but not on anything remotely like the scale of the white city at a time when most american homes were lit by flickering gas flames the expo at night was the brightest thing that had ever been seen on earth something like 120 000 incandescent electric lights lit the fairgrounds along with what seemed like thousands of arc lamps the electricity building was almost 700 feet long and 350 feet wide its high glass curved windows 170 foot high spires looked out over the lagoon at its feet the building housed exhibits by bell telephone general electric edison westinghouse and every other american company in the electricity business france and germany also had large electric exhibits there were huge dynamos lighting systems streetcar generators and every other kind of conceivable electric gadget electricity also powered the launches the little boats that took visitors around the waterways they were powered by fuel cells that were charged every 12 hours with electricity from the dynamos george westinghouse had secured the main contract for providing the lighting for the fair beating out his perennial competitor thomas edison the rival electrical pioneers both had large displays at the fair westinghouse may have won the contract for the lighting but edison clearly won the competition for the most creative use of lighting the centerpiece of the electricity building was edison's tower of light it was a column 80 feet high covered with colored jewels that were lit from inside by incandescent lamps and the lights were choreographed to music [Applause] an opening night an orchestra in the building struck up strauss's blue danube waltz the crowd of thousands was dumbstruck for a moment and started to chant the name edison no doubt inflating his already over-inflated ego the tower was just one of edison's triumphs he also built the electric fountains in the central court edison himself spent five hundred thousand dollars on displays at the colombian exposition almost as much as britain spent for the entire fair [Music] the electric light was spectacular but it wasn't the only marvel in the electricity building edison's kinetoscope was on display where an audience could see comic scenes flickering by as cars were flipped like animation like so much else movies were born at the chicago world's fair another giant of the expo buildings was machinery hall sitting next to the administration building on the south end of the court of honor the hall was over four stories high and 850 by almost 500 feet the outside of machinery hall had the same towers and classical columns as the rest of the buildings in the court of honor but the interior of the hall was anything but classical the tools of heavy industry and every other kind of manufacturing were on display here you might say that machinery hall created what was on display everywhere else it was literally the engine of the fair almost all the electricity powering the rest of the fare was generated here the power flowed through underground lines to light the fair to power elevators and to operate exhibits the building literally pulsed with the unprecedented power of the industrial revolution you could see every kind of machine in the world from all over the world all running in operation at once machines for making hot baths machines for making candy ice cream making machines smokeless furnaces rock drills machines that washed windows and baked bread the machines that printed the fair's newspaper the daily columbus the very latest mechanized looms turned out textiles the very latest washing machines washed them however there was one great problem with machinery hall that kept it from becoming a popular exhibit and the reason was simple machinery hall was possibly the loudest place on the face of the planet the sound of all the machines running at once enclosed in one giant hall was deafening few people could stand it for long including the men who worked there just one printing press or one turbine or one steam engine by itself was loud multiply that by a hundred and it was beyond human tolerance everyone at the fair enjoyed the electricity that the hall produced but only a brave few could learn the secrets of the power hidden in its mind-bending noise [Applause] electric colored lights turned the water the colors of sunset and fireworks exploded over the lake for people of 1893 it was like being on another planet the gleaming white buildings waterways and the statuary may have been the heart of the fair but its soul was on the midway plaisance [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] the midway was a mile long strip of park extending inland towards chicago and away from the lake it wasn't part of the official fair it was separated by a line of the illinois central railroad the midway was all paying exhibits most of them 25 cents it was where the fair recouped the operating costs of the brilliant buildings and fountains the midway was not classical people experienced the world there but it was not the very high-minded side of the world it was about low-brow fun and therefore the midway was the most popular part of the fair it was just what the board of lady managers had worried about exotic vulgar and full of beer and cigar smoke one reporter passed it off as strange people on the midway plaisance coming into the midway from the 59th street entrance you came onto the street of cairo the largest exhibit on the midway hundreds of men women and children theaters camels donkeys and dogs it was a recreation of a cairo bazaar entrance to the bazaar was free but all the attractions had a price the camel rides for 50 cents were about the priciest one great attraction in cairo street was people watching and booth shopping in the bazaar writers were fascinated with a variety of people on the cairo street there were street fights wrestlers boy acrobats and musicians playing what one reporter called hideous music squeaking along the thoroughfare there were facsimiles of mummies and hieroglyphics of ancient egypt the street was cluttered with donkeys magicians and snake charmers the cairo street was a place of unknown exotic pleasures for americans in 1893 the theater put displays of sword dances candle dances and other dances that one lady visitor called weird and indescribable dancing girls were easy to find and very popular for 10 cents you could watch the woman known as little egypt do her famous dance de vantra which became known for the first time at the fair as belly dancing some reporters tried to pretend that they weren't enjoying little egypt one of them wrote her beauty lessened in the western imagination no ordinary western woman looked on the performances with anything but horror but odds are that he really enjoyed it next door to little cairo the algerian theater featured what one writer called naughty girls from algeria who do the kuta kuta dance every male visitor to the fair went down cairo's harem street straining to look inside at the enticing female world the fantasy of the harem allured many men it is not the music that attracts wrote one reporter for it is as hideous as the musicians the women dancing publicly scandalized the public and brought in paying customers america of 1893 was schizophrenic about sex on one hand every american city and especially chicago teemed with brothels on the other hand a belly dancer could bring in the church ladies and the police to shut it down one reporter suggested only half joking that the midway was sure to cause a rise in divorces also in the midway was the world congress of beauty which consisted of girls in native dress from all over the world reporters argued over whether the scottish beauty was pretty or the english girl prettier or whether the french peasant girl was simply too pretty they said france was unjust to its women by not storming the beauty contest of the american girl reporters said the robes too regal the features too heavy and the proportions to ample after the erotic thrills of the middle east visitors paid a quarter to visit the dahomey village the homie in west africa had only very recently been conquered by the french and reporters noted that they looked like they were still ready to fight the dahomes were reputed cannibals it was said that they were known to sacrifice prisoners or offenders and to serve them as a feast in honor of their king fairgoers were scared to death but still flocked to see them everyone admired the fighting amazon dahomey women who had done much of the bloodiest fighting against the french one reporter noted that they were not to be trifled with the dahomey exhibit fascinated people of the day who heard horror stories of the far off african jungles one exhibit in the village was labeled the hell of serpents a room full of writhing snakes few fairgoers went in rumor has it that the dahomeys ate their own kin in times of food shortage it was noted by several sources that their numbers diminished throughout the six months of the fair on the midway those tired of walking paid 75 cents an hour for two servants to carry them around in a sedan chair like some noble and the midway had a lot of ground to cover in those sedan chairs capping the west end was the bedouin encampment with the highest concentration of camels in the entire united states at the east end toward the fairgrounds was the java settlement of the dutch east indies which was surrounded by bamboo and covered some four acres in the javanese theater performances had no speaking only pantomime those who could follow it enjoyed it of course everyone enjoyed the exotic javanese ladies [Applause] one impressive recreation was the replica of the kilauea volcano in hawaii in the cyclorama building standing in the middle of a circular painting you seem to be in the center of the nine-mile circumference of the crater of the volcano pyrotechnic displays and colored electric lights made it seem as if the volcano was coming to life in the german village you could see a castle surrounded by a moat in the middle of the village the castle displayed 60 iron figures in armor and weapons the biggest collection of weapons in germany the exhibit showed centuries of the evolution of german soldiers maybe to remind visitors that they meant business there was no such drama at the two separate irish villages though each had its own castle donegal castle and blarney castle after a stout beer visitors could kiss the blarney stone or at least a replica of the original in a sentimental touch sure to bring a tear to chicago's many irish immigrants the irish village gave each visitor a piece of the old sod people from the cold lands eskimos and laplanders were also on display throughout the chicago summer in the heart of the midway was the lapland village where 24 laplanders in native costumes suffered through the heat along with nine of their reindeer that were used to put on a show pulling sleds most of the reindeer didn't make it to the end of the fair the eskimos and laplanders didn't do well either most of them left after the summer got hot and those who stayed didn't have much to do everyone was disappointed in the show the sleds had wheels the eskimos put on displays with long black whips they tried to hit coins that were set up as targets and missed a lot [Music] there were people from all different countries cultures professions scattered throughout the midway a mexican dandy a syrian swordsman a bulgarian gentleman the samoans an egyptian donkey driver persian club swingers an irish dairy maid a businessman from beirut a scottish bagpiper a group from fiji a zybeck and a ceilingese from ceylon and yes there was still so much more on the midway to see karl hagenbach's animal exhibit was popular with 1500 animals that he brought to the show there was an exciting panorama of the swiss alps the chinese had a chinese theater that shocked viewers with their plays full of excessive violence and high body counts not unlike the popular hong kong action films of the modern era you could visit the immense moorish palace watch the bedouin national dance on cairo street or pay a fee and look at a miniature toy version of the eiffel tower putting france's world's fair in its place [Music] there were even a few rides on the midway the ice railway was a popular one sleds raced along an 850 foot ice track that climbed up and down and turned like a bobsled run kept frozen by electric powered ice machines the passengers gripped the sides and screamed as the sled raced down the hill and around the curve another ride in the midway was the captive balloon a hot air balloon on a tether it rose around 1 490 feet over the fair one reporter claimed that the homies thought it was a god a ride in the captive balloon was the most expensive attraction at the fair at two dollars including a photo of the passengers in the balloon at one point a group of passengers went up and a heavy wind off the lake blew the balloon around until it crashed no one was reported dead but the captive balloon was out of business for the rest of the fair [Music] at the center of the rides at the center of the midway was the colossal ferris wheel the original wheel was the largest ever built at 264 feet tall weighing over 1200 tons [Music] it dominated the skyline of the fair no one could miss it ferris wheel cars today are two seaters george ferris's cars were the size of small holes forty persons could fit in one car sixty if they were standing if any one thing was the symbol of the fair it was george ferris's wheel from the start the fair planners wanted to build an engineering marvel to top the eiffel tower but no one could agree on a plan or a design as the fair drew nearer george ferris approached them with his idea george ferris was a bridge builder from pittsburgh he'd come to chicago with a vision that looked like a suspension bridge rising and falling powered by steam and its own weight one reporter called it a mighty bicycle ferris was persuasive and raised a lot of capital so they granted him a concession it became the most popular attraction at the whole fair the wheel grossed almost seven hundred and thirty thousand dollars at fifty cents a ride opening in june it paid for itself by september 1st the royalties that ferris paid to the exposition put the fair into the black [Music] the wheel was as tall as a 25-story building 250 feet in diameter it carried 36 cars each 30 feet long by 13 feet wide 2 000 people could ride the wheel at one time the wheel revolved around an axle which was the largest piece of steel ever forged at 45 feet long and 56 tons one reporter described the inside of the car as like being in a giant bird cage the windows were covered with wire netting and a conductor was in each car to look after distressed passengers it was said that no crank will have an opportunity to commit suicide from this wheel no hysterical woman shall jump from a window like many of the wonders of the world's colombian exposition the ferris wheel didn't long survive the end of the fair george ferris planned that the wheel at chicago would be only the beginning he thought that he could make the wheel a permanent monument like the eiffel tower none of his dreams came to be at the end of the fair he fought with the exposition officials over the prophets from the wheel and in patent court against two other men who claimed they invented it he was never able to find a permanent home for america's eiffel tower three years after the fair he died at age 37. [Music] the wheel was put up one more time at the st louis world's fair in 1904 after the st louis fair the wheel was broken up for scrap metal [Music] beneath the shadow of the ferris wheel and the mighty buildings the fair had a dark side because of chicago's legacy of fire there were elaborate preparations for firefighting at the fair unfortunately for the firemen the colombian exposition had given more thought to fighting fire than to preventing it the cold storage building was another technological marvel of the fair one newspaperman called it the greatest refrigerator on earth it made the ice and kept cold the huge stalks of meat consumed at the fair it was another giant building at 130 feet wide by 255 feet long it was not just a big refrigerator it also boasted an ice rink where fairgoers could skate in the middle of the summer it could have been the first indoor skating rink like everything at the fair the cold storage building was put up quickly and more attention was paid to the aesthetic design of the building and the equipment than to safety it was built out of staff and wood like the rest of the buildings at the fair no one knows for sure but on july 10th it's thought that a spark from an ice-making machine landed on an exposed wood beam in the middle of the day with a full crowd of fair-goers smoke began to billow out of the building as the fire spread most of those inside had enough time to get out firemen from the nearby station responded and rushed into the building to look for survivors and wait for the pump trucks because the cold storage building was built to seal out the heat there were no windows and few exits once the firemen were in the building the fire quickly blocked the exits it was too smoky to find another way out the fire was burning out of control there were 17 men trapped in the building 13 firemen and four workers with no hope of reaching the door they climbed to the top of one of the towers to escape the flames the crowd on the ground watched horrified as the flames climbed up to reach them the efforts of the firemen were futile they couldn't get into the building and their hoses couldn't spray high enough to reach the flames that were threatening the men all people could do was watch mesmerized gasping calling to the men the men on the roof called out for help but there was nothing anyone could do as the flames rose up to them the men knew they were finished maybe they prayed maybe they cursed the fair one by one the men began to jump to their deaths from the tower below the crowd screamed and watched the whole thing it was like a bizarre exhibit one fireman acknowledging his audience threw a kiss to the crowd before he jumped one or two of the 17 didn't jump their charred bodies were found the next day as the police and the fair officials searched to see what was salvageable in the building there was a grand jury inquest into the fire in august it was inconclusive officials produced testimony that blamed the fire on a gang of thieves presumably they were stealing ice no one was held responsible in the end one sunday at the fair was dedicated to the firemen who died receipts from that sunday from the entire exposition were set aside for the families of the 13 firemen it wasn't recorded how much the families received but sunday was usually a busy day at the fair there were dozens of other major buildings at the fair containing a seemingly endless array of subjects and exhibits the palace of fine art was an impressive building with plaster work and classical columns that sat on the north shore of the north pond near the state buildings unlike the rest of the fair buildings the palace was built to stay because this building had to be fireproof to get insurance for all the irreplaceable paintings inside the walls were built of brick covered with staff and the floors and roof were iron inside it was a sensory overload over ten thousand pieces of art arrived it was literally too much to display it was so densely arranged that people had trouble taking in any one part of it the galleries were too small for the art that arrived paintings were hung willy-nilly in a jumble of however many could fit on the wall in some places paintings were crammed into corners and hung four high on the wall sculpture covered so much of the floor space that there was only a few feet to walk between them the galleries were arranged by nation the french exhibit was the biggest next to the us exhibit the french exhibit had hundreds of paintings all by the most renowned french painters of the day most of the paintings were technically perfect portraits and realistic scenes of historical events battles allegories peasant life and animal hunts but in europe the end was approaching for this kind of painting and impressionism was gaining a foothold regrettably most visitors made only an obligatory dash through the palace of fine art there was never a very long wait in line in an attempt to get some visitors there were copious amounts of skin on display at the palace french and italian painters from the school known as orientalism had exotic and romantic depictions of life in arab countries a favorite subject was of course women in harems just like the exhibits on the midway it was an outlet for victorian fantasies and sexuality but in the art palace they were under the guise of art nobody protested the palace of fine art [Music] [Applause] the japanese art exhibit stood out from the european exhibits and got as many favorable reviews as the other japanese exhibits at the fair the japanese exhibit was the only one that really was put together as a whole rather than a mishmash of paintings and sculptures and with a decided different style than the europeans for the artists who saw it the japanese exhibit was one of the most influential things at the fair in bringing eastern art to the west in the progressive spirit of the colombian exposition and under the influence of the board of lady managers was the woman's building full of exhibits by and for women dedicated to a woman and her works almost unheard of for the time the woman's building was designed by a young architect sophia hayden who won a competition among 14 women the board of lady managers intended that the building would show women's great achievements for the physical and moral good of humanity they only accepted exhibits from organizations that were made up entirely of women the art gallery was hung with drawings and paintings only by women fittingly the most powerful woman in the world took a great interest in the woman's building britain's queen victoria for whom the victorian era is named and whose empire ruled a third of the globe sent a special message of her interest in what this exhibition was doing for women and donated embroidery by the royal school of needlework the empress of russia and the queen of italy both sent their personal collections of laces the russian empress also donated some of her own court costumes one member of the board of lady managers said judging from the contours of these gowns her imperial majesty is an extremely shapely woman [Music] the colombian exposition was the stage for the world debut of the nation that would be the central player in some of the bloodiest military conflicts of the 20th century in stark contrast to the woman's building the industrial heart of german military might was on display in germany's crop gun pavilion built like a castle with towers and turrets kaiser wilhelm ii of germany was crowned in the spring of 1893. he sent his regrets that he could not personally attend the fair but he made sure that the german empire was well represented alfred krupp known as the cannon king had run the company since 1826 the crop works was an enormous industrial plant in essen germany with over 25 000 workers the family-owned company specialized in artillery guns krupp wasn't officially part of the german national exhibits but they might as well have been krupp's might was germany's might and the company spent almost one million dollars on an exhibit that would make any nation think twice about confronting germany sixteen artillery guns lined the side of the exhibit facing the lake from the middle of the guns stuck the barrel of the gun known as the thunderer the dimensions of the gun sounded unreal at the time the barrel was 46 feet long and 17 feet in diameter it weighed 124 tons it could fire a one ton explosive projectile 15 miles and was the largest gun in the world gizet gilhausen the engineer running the crop exhibit suggested that after the fair closed they could fire the thunderer the concussion would knock down all the great buildings and save the time of dismantling them the fair officials laughed nervously hoping that he was kidding major general john schofield of the us army was quoted as saying the canon of hair crop makes a fit addition to an exhibition to the arts of peace ironically these contributors to peace would be bombarding paris in just over 20 years in 1914 kaiser wilhelm led europe into the bloodbath of world war one the kaiser's armies blasted their way to paris with crop guns that were even bigger than the guns at the expo in 1893 general schofield also said the people of the united states are a peace-loving people and as such they should learn that the only way to preserve peace is to prepare for war and the united states was doing just that and they let the world know it in the government building the army exhibited an american-made 58-ton artillery gun for coastal defense and all the latest and antique military innovations as one headline put it all the paraphernalia for killing men were placed on exhibition the u.s navy's exhibit drew generally favorable reactions but some observers seemed embarrassed to point out that the navy's model battleship the illinois that was moored in lake michigan wasn't a ship at all it was a brick building shaped like a ship that sat in the shallows on the edge of the lake she would not float even if bricks and mortar could float said one observer for she has no bottom but the gatling and the hotchkiss machine guns mounted on the deck were real enough so was the 13-inch artillery gun that could throw a thousand-pound shell 13 miles the united states may have still been behind krupp but in 1893 they were catching up fast there were a few more awe-inspiring buildings at the fair the fisheries building was tucked between the north pond and the lagoon like many of the buildings it contained a modern marvel the world's largest aquarium in fact several of the world's largest aquariums the only aquariums that anyone had ever seen this was a novel idea the fish were not just products to be harvested and eaten they were for the first time seen as things of beauty crowds watched the fish sharks turtles crabs even a whale in a way that had never been seen the fish were not only edible they were beautiful colorful and fascinating to watch even the most commercially minded observer found himself struck by the unexpected gracefulness and beauty of the fish it was another sea change in attitudes that started at the fair this was the birth of the modern aquarium [Applause] one building that left a legacy was the transportation building which was kept out of the court of honor tucked behind the mining building near the lagoon the transportation building was one of the busiest places at the fair chicago architect louis sullivan refused to go along with the classical style of the buildings in the court of honor an american fair he insisted should look like america not europe the striking red and gold art deco arched entryway was in striking contrast to the uniform classical white of the court of honor the 19th century was fascinated by movement and the transportation building fed that fascination from 1820 to 1896 the speed at which people could travel had increased more than it had since the domestication of horses in under 80 years rail travel had increased to the point where a new york to chicago trip was two days steamships had cut ocean passages from months to days and the model t and the wright brothers were not far off speaking of movement from the midway to the grand basin the fair covered more than 600 acres and there was obviously a lot to see quickly transporting people from one end of it to the other was a big job fortunately exhausted walkers had many other ways of getting around at the fair estimates were that a person would have to walk over 150 miles if they were to see every exhibit one of the most basic methods of transportation was wheelchairs not for the handicapped but for people tired of walking 75 cents an hour would get you a student to push you around in a wheelchair for an hour so many of the young men pushing the chairs were theological students that the chairs became known as gospel chariots you could also rent the wheelchair and push yourself for the sale price of 40 cents an hour the intramural railway was popular called intramural because it stayed within the borders of the fair it ran from the south pond behind the agriculture building along the waterfront to the north inlet next to the viking ship it was an elevated electric third rail railway like a metro for 20 cents it didn't cover a great distance but it took you quickly where you needed to go there was also the movable sidewalk which was a big deal in the promotional material for the fair but it didn't work very well the idea was to have a flat escalator with benches like the people movers in modern airports that would take people from the boat landing at the end of the pier to the casino on the waterfront next to the paris style the movable sidewalk wasn't ready until the middle of the fair and after that it broke down so much that the directors figured that it wasn't worth maintaining the movable sidewalk turned into a white elephant and the crowds had to walk the length of the pier water transport was a big part of the practical transportation at the fair you could travel by water all over the fair by way of the lagoon the canals and the ponds the boats were also one thing that added to the romantic venetian feel of the white city there were all kinds of boats including the quaint electric launches that carried groups from one spot to another but most romantic of all there were gondola rides around the lagoon to complete the feeling of venice the directors claimed that the gondolas were steered by real venetian gondoliers nicknamed the champions of the lagoon [Applause] walking throughout the miles of the fair everyone was bound to get hungry and thirsty food and drink at the fair was another massive undertaking fairgoers had a lot of restaurants to choose from and the casino at the end of the pier was probably the biggest and the most prominent but there were places to eat everywhere visitors wondered why the fair's official restaurants offered a lot of the same menus it turned out that the wellington catering company of chicago had been awarded a monopoly on food concessions by the fair directors in a sweetheart deal that had the fingerprints of chicago's mayor harrison all over it other restaurants were required to buy all their food from wellington who slaughtered 50 cattle a day to keep the restaurants in meat wellington's concession went beyond food and meat vendors were also required to buy cigars spring water and other items from them the chicago newspapers during the fair were full of stories about price gouging by wellington the directors promised several times to look into the prices in the fair pork and beans and pumpkin pie cost 50 cents which was expensive in 1893 one writer reported paying 90 cents for a sweet potato bread and butter a lot of people ate outside of the fair where chicago vendors sold a 25 cent meat supper if you wanted to eat at one of the enormous ritzy restaurants like old vienna or the marine cafe you waited a long time in line even though each restaurant could have had a staff of around 2 000 cooks and waiters the crowds didn't move very fast a big crowd got quick meals every day at the new england clambake building which was near the foreign buildings on the north end of the fair and would seat several thousand patrons clams and oysters were a very common meal in america then and the clambake produced a mountain of shells every day if you were like most ordinary visitors with only a day or so to visit the fair you didn't waste time in the restaurant lines most fair visitors ate lunch at a counter selling quick meals or at a snack vendor chocolate and cocoa were especially popular people strolling between exhibits stopped at the dutch hooten and zun coco concession in a large exhibit building strategically placed along the lakefront walk right in front of the manufacturer's building [Music] walking around the fair in the summer was hot especially in the heavy jackets and vests that almost all the men wore in victorian america but the women were even more overdressed in hats bustles petticoats and long-sleeve dresses buttoned severely at the neck women could always have ice cream or seltzer water from the concession stands at the wellington company but the men had a relief from the heat that most respectable women wouldn't resort to in 1893 [Music] beer [Music] there was quite a variety of beer at the colombian exposition and because of chicago's large german population there was a brewing tradition at a time when water quality could be bad beer was the daily drink of a lot of working men there were several beer gardens on the midway plazans you could get beer at the german garden in the austrian village at the irish villages you could get a sampler of stouts and ales that were not often brewed in america you could get beer in the algerian theater and the alhambra and beer and wine in the turkish village near the beer gardens were the cigar vendors that were all over the fairground full of the cigar smoke and the clink of foaming schooners of beer the beer gardens were a man's world they were nearly always full a lot of men it seems didn't see much of the fair other than the beer gardens and the dancing women on the midway tucked away in the horticultural building next to the wooded island was the most discreet and the classiest way to get a drink at the fair wine because winemaking involved working with vines and fruit it made sense that the horticultural building would have wine exhibits among the flowers and pear trees it was probably the biggest selection of wine that had ever been available in america with exhibits tastings and bottles for sale from every winemaking country in the world california easily led the american wine makers others came from missouri ohio new jersey and new york the french had the largest exhibit with 60 varieties of their best clarets and an even larger number of burgundies germany had a large selection of moselle's and other rhine wines and a display of an operating wine cellar italy sent its famous dry red wines there was sweet wine from spain and portugal new south wales displayed the first exhibit of wine from the growing australian vineyards [Music] [Applause] [Music] a lot of the firsts credited to the colombian exposition are related to food and drink a new treat made of popcorn and molasses first appeared at the fair although nobody called a cracker jack until after 1900 chile con carne first appeared in america at the chicago fair ground beef and chili sauce with beans modern chili like on a chili dog and jemima made her first appearance at the expo a new word appeared at the fair for a place to get an informal fast meal the cafeteria along with food visitors found music everywhere that they went with everything from enormous classical orchestras and choirs to exotic ensembles on the midway like so much else the less planned popular music did much better than the carefully planned serious music the directors put a lot of money and effort into attracting renowned composers and orchestras which almost all went to waste they built the coral hall which could hold an enormous choir with thousands of voices and a music hall for classical works and 114 piece orchestra the director's efforts didn't go very well the biggest problem was the size of the buildings the enormous halls were impressive but the buildings were just too big to hear anything the sound was lost in the vastness another problem with the serious music was the piano war western piano makers led by chicago's kimball piano company were determined that the eastern piano makers led by new york steinway would not dominate the fair it was a replay of the competition that brought the fair to chicago in the first place the music directors tried to create a competition for the best piano which steinway refused to take part in because it was beneath the company's dignity pianos were banned from the fair when the famous pianist ignacy jan perezki offered to perform a free concert at the fair his steinway had to be smuggled in fairgoers were simply not interested in hearing heavy symphonic music anyway the evening concerts of serious music only drew a few hundred people the big empty music halls seemed even bigger and even emptier the only orchestra that anyone really wanted to hear was the javanese orchestra performing on the midway [Music] among the wealthy and royalty of europe and the united states everyone who was anyone came to the fair the american press fawned over their every move some of the most popular were the duke and duchess of baragawa from spain the descendant of columbus seemed to be everywhere at the fair at center stage clearly enjoying himself but the biggest royal celebrity was the teenage infanta donna e alia who caused a commotion wherever she went she was the princess diana of the day reporters covered what she visited what she wore what she ate who she met archduke franz ferdinand of the austro-hungarian empire visited the same franz ferdinand who would be assassinated in sarajevo in 1914 to spark world war one an endless list of american celebrities came to the fair but most of the visitors were from the american middle class visitors from as far away as new york could arrive at the fairground without changing trains like modern tourists a lot of visitors arrived at the colombian expo with a definite plan of what they were going to see on their day and relied on guidebooks beside the cost of railway tickets food lodging and the 50 cents to get into the fair there were the extra costs if you wanted to do anything the 50 cents only covered seeing the exhibits in the main fair it didn't cover any fun on the midway 25 cents for an elevator ride here 50 cents for a ferris wheel ride there for working people the fare could add up [Music] quickly the fair had one great free convenience for all visitors toilets the discretely named bureau of public comfort provided toilet facilities on a huge scale even on a busy day the 1500 lavatories and 2000 urinals kept the lines short there were even more fees visitors weren't allowed to take photos for free two dollars which was as much as the most expensive attraction at the fair bought a photo permit for one day only cameras of the day were too big and bulky to sneak into the fair and the photo ban was strictly enforced which is why you rarely see photos not taken by an official fair photographer the colombian guard the official police force for the fair spent much of their time watching for errant photographers [Music] among the visitors to the chicago fair were an untold number of pickpockets thieves and con artists the huge crowd with money in their pockets unfamiliar with chicago was just too tempting the colombian guards when they weren't stopping illegal photographers and arresting drunks were chasing down reports of stolen purses and wallets the guards weren't very effective by most accounts they sound like the keystone cops some guards got into an argument with waiters at the hungarian orpheum that led to a fight the waiters beat up the guards the guards arrested the head of the commission from paraguay another commissioner was punched in the face by a gatekeeper the guards also arrested the chief of the manufacturers and liberal arts department to be fair the directors had laid off 700 of the guards in june to cut costs and they were understaffed and annoyed the fair was set to officially close on monday the closing ceremonies were to be as grand as the opening instead they became a show of optimism in the face of terrible events on saturday night october 28th mayor carter harrison was at home he could bask in the triumph of the fair harrison hadn't organized the fair but his lively money-making spirit even if a bit corrupt was behind every part of it carter harrison had made the expo a great success for chicago even if the fair hadn't made much money the people of chicago had and the people of chicago voted for carter harrison and all around the globe the name of chicago was on everyone's lips outside of harrison's house a young man named patrick eugene prendergast was pacing the walk prendergast had been a great admirer of the mayor and worked in his home ward for harrison's election frendergast felt he was owed something for his loyalty harrison had doled out hundreds of patronage jobs and contracts around the fair where was prendergast's reward he had watched the progress of the fair all summer he had sent the mayor letters that he never answered surely he was not going to be left out as the fair came to an end prendergast realized that there would be nothing for him as he paced to work up his courage to face harrison he fingered the small revolver in his pocket maybe he was coming only to intimidate harrison maybe harrison would give him that plum job prendergast knocked on the door [Music] the mayor was available to the people it was not unusual for him to greet a constituent at the door harrison opened his own door and let prendergast into his foyer trendergast forgot whatever speech he may have rehearsed with a mad shout he pulled out the revolver and shot harrison three times harrison bled to death within a few minutes prendergast didn't try to get away from the police the public concluded that he was insane the celebration of the end of the fair became a funeral dirge harrison's body lay in state in city hall throughout the ceremonies many people in chicago lined up to see him in his casket rather than seeing the end of the fair his funeral was held on november 1st the day after the closing charles dudley warner covering the last day of the fair for harper's weekly wrote there is always a touch of tragedy in the career of chicago it is the pathetic penalty of great achievement while it lasted the fair seemed like it would go on forever nothing so big so proud so full of life could just end in one day but on october 31st it did end after midnight the exterior lights shut off one by one and the white city began to pass into history the lights remained on inside the buildings where the untold number of exhibits from every corner of the world were being packed into crates it was a huge job and the work had started even before the fair was over out in the midway the last night was anything but simple calm beauty it was probably the biggest party of the whole fair as the crowd sought to have one last beer one last cigar buy one last trinket and camel ride and say goodbye to the arabs javanese and the homies the whole little world of people that had sprung up on that one-mile strip would be missed george ferris and his crew of mechanics began planning the careful work of dismantling the wheel chicagoans started arguing through the newspapers about what to do with the fair buildings even before the fair was over some even wanted to let them stand but everyone who understood the construction of the buildings knew that they couldn't stand they wouldn't last as the cold storage showed all the wood framing under the staff was a fire hazard in january a fire broke out in the casino and the peristyle the fire damaged a number of buildings in the court of honor and a fireman died fighting it as the chicago winter of 1894 settled on the white city newspapers reported that there was snow falling through the great roof of the manufactures building a few of the buildings found new homes some of the state buildings were dismantled and relocated and so was the german building the swedish building was taken apart piece by piece and shipped back to sweden just as it had come the japanese buildings on the wooded island stayed up they were a permanent gift from japan permanent until they were burned down by an arsonist during world war ii but the great buildings at the center of the fair were too big to move and couldn't be spared chicago was too practical a town for nostalgia and picturesque ruins when the fire started the white city's fate was sealed the great buildings were torn down even faster than they had been built even in its ruins one writer said the expo will be grand among the colombian expo buildings only the palace of fine art survives the only one of the main buildings that was ever intended to be permanent the palace was refaced strengthened and rebuilt in the 1930s and is now the chicago museum of science and industry it still looks out over the north end of the lagoon in jackson park the rail lines and the great terminal are gone but the landscape of jackson park still looks much like frederick law olmsted's vision of venice on the shore of lake michigan the wooded island is still at the center of the lagoon in the middle of the park [Music] a highway runs along the shore roughly on the route of the intramural railway [Music] the midway plaisance is in the middle of the university of chicago campus it's still called the midway plaisance the chicago bears are nicknamed the monsters of the midway after the landmark the midway is laid out as it was in 1893 but it's hard for one to imagine the ferris wheel the cairo street and the thousands of people strolling through gawking at the marvels and the curiosities that had camped there [Music] there's not much evidence of the most memorable event that ever took place here in the summer of 1893 this park was the center of all the earth the place where all thoughts turned the goal of every traveler where the newspapers of the world all had correspondents to tell the story for the folks back home the chicago world's fair is gone nothing like the expo's glorious immense confident and hopeful spectacle will ever be seen again or will it if history repeats itself then perhaps we can all look forward to another glorious exposition bringing the world together in peace for a few beers and to gawk at the wonders of a diverse planet progress optimism ambition and humanity's sheer delight in variety and discovery foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] please [Music] me [Music] me [Music] is [Music] you

Channel: Janson Media

Views: 842,681

Keywords: 1893 World's Fair, Chicago Worlds Fair, white city chicago worlds fair, devil in the white city, free american history documentaries, gene wilder, EXPO - Magic of the White City, worlds fair, white city, columbian exposition 1893, columbian exposition ferris wheel, columbian exposition coin 1893, magic of the white city, chicago world fair, chicago worlds fair 1893, chicago worlds fair 1893 video, chicago worlds fair 1893 documentary, expo magic of the white city

Id: f6HuBYiQEeM

Length: 115min 44sec (6944 seconds)

Published: Thu May 20 2021