San Francisco World's Fair 1915

the fair had everything when you tired of the auto racing you could always watch the camel to room that is if you weren't chasing after the penny toss car or gawking at the movie stars and celebrities share buckle and Mabel Normand for instance or listen to John Philip Sousa lead the band in the court of universe there are readers evel's to amaze you some were in the water and others in the air there were plenty of culture and history two beautiful girls and beautiful animals it was the most wonderful thing that ever happened to San Francisco [Music] [Applause] [Music] it had been a very busy century first the city had been shaken down and then it burned down [Music] and while the st. Francis was still a burned-out shell plans for the exposition were being made in the little st. Francis a temporary hotel on Union Square the site selected was this mud hole out of Harbor View near what was called town power by 1912 San Francisco was there to be built you could ride up Market Street for five cents easier than it hit me or a streetcar or get in line course dinner for a dollar on a harbor view that year President Taft turned the first spate of Earth to the choose the fountain who gathered for the groundbreaking ceremony [Music] and from what was once a swamp a sunset city of failed travertine with green bronze dome began to rise it stretched from chestnut street to the water from vanna's Avenue to Fort Point in the Presidio a marvelous array of pleasure palaces filled with the treasures of the world the sheltered courtyards and arcades protected visitors from the bay winds and summer fogs separated from the rest of the world open only to the waters of the Golden Gate in the marine hills beyond it truly was a world apart a world of wonders of light and innocent world for by May of 1915 the Lusitania had been sunk and we would never be so young so innocent again opening day everywhere a 20th 1915 two hundred thousand people stood inside the Scott Street gate in the South garden they waited for President Wilson to press a golden Telegraph key it send a wireless message 3,000 miles to an antenna on the Tower of June this signal started the wheels of the giant diesel engine in the palace of machinery rotating and the fountain of energy gush forth and a magical summer started for the people of San [Music] if you went to the movies that year you might have seen this trailer advertising the panama-pacific International Exposition along with Blanche sweet and Thomas Mayim in the secret sin and the latest chapter of pearl wife's new serial the exports of Elaine here the spirit of Sam Sisko mixes the gold of the poppies for the memories of 1906 and never forgetting how the world won't be friend of the ruined City creates a wonderful fairy land and invites the world to come and share it this charming and naive film helps to explain the tremendous emotional life the city received from the fair why it has remained so vivid a memory after all these years the exposition was really a symbol a triumphant sign to the world that San Francisco had risen from the ashes we had not only rebuilt the city itself we had even built a second city a city of jewel the activation was the first to have complete artistic supervision even the colors of each building were chosen from a master palette and the sand on the path was earned any kill to turn it the same color as the travertine walls of the palaces this was the first exposition with indirect lighting the first in which the flowers of the gardens were completely changed overnight as they faded indeed John MacLaren's garden for the talk of the horticultural world hundreds of full-grown trees were transported from all over Northern California to the exposition ground the fair was a crowning artistic achievement of the city that knows how the directors of the exposition were terribly aware of war that raged in Europe it had very nearly wrecked their plans for any foreign exhibits and building it took all the efforts of the directors to convince the nations of the world to participate at all but by the opening day 30 elegant pavilions lined the avenues of nation despite this the shadow of the war hung over the fairground as if in a premonition the light seemed brighter the music more gay the world was shrinking we were becoming more a part of it each day and we sensed it the Tower of jewels were the thing alive on it hung 125,000 polished jewel of bohemian glass backed by bits of mirror shrouded by fog they gleam mysteriously in the Sun caught by every breeze they shimmered and sparkled at night in the glare of a thousand arc lamps they danced and shone like a marvellous colored Sun the exposition was huge like all world Fair's people walked until their feet hurt then they rode in the over fair trading traps for scars wickerwork carry all and the famous agile train while most people had become pretty blasé about automobiles the airplane still was the new thrill [Music] Lincoln be she was the first arrow not after all he had even flown through the palace of machinery in 1914 as a promotion stud it was the world's first indoor airplane flight be she usually flew it by plane but these films show him flying a new and daring monoplane and minutes so this film was taken beach he crashed into the Golden Gate he was given a hero's funeral and the exposition was in mourning for Dave arch Smith was the next here in the air most afternoons he thrilled the crowds by just looping over the marina Green [Music] but at night with the moon over the Golden Gate of the background he attached flares to the fragile in uncovered wings of his plane he was absolutely incredible daredevil you betcha life [Music] [Music] anyone could see what art saw from a narrow scope for just a quarter there it is whirling around 230 feet in the air designed by Joseph straw who would later designed the Golden Gate Bridge it was the top thrill of the zone the zone was joy unconfined this is Toyland grown up a 14-acre playground for the showroom to many people this is their only memory of the fair at the opposite end of the fairground stood everybody's favorite building Bernard makes wonderful Palace of Fine Arts it stood reflected in its Lagoon as if it were a dream solidified even before the exposition was over the people of time just were demanding that the Palace of Fine Arts be preserved this colorful pageant was staged to help publicize their efforts there is a bold imaginative quality about this pageant here is a lost art lost along with our innocence for who would take all this as seriously today as it was taken in the fall of 1915 [Music] surely this is how Maybach wanted us to remember his column millions of visitors came to the exposition a relative newcomer to the movies but already a star came over from miles where he was making two-reel comedies for SM a Charlie Chaplin [Music] and three famous men met at the palace of machinery Henry Ford Thomas Edison and Luther Burbank Ford showed his friends a complete auto assembly plant [Music] Burbank displayed his Texas feeder a spineless cactus developed for cattle feed they then saw other wonders of the age including an automatic toaster while Teddy Roosevelt waited for them in the car it was a time when pure in the past people could face the future without any fear mrs. Edison was fascinated for instance by a new life-saving device the baby incubator these were the only incubators for premature infants on the west coast at the time and they saved the lives of several tiny children born that summer of 1915 [Music] Madame cumin hike was there and Mabel Normand and Fatty Arbuckle got a free pass from mayor raw on the steps of the new City Hall they were at the height of their careers unaware of the tragedy that was shatter both their lives [Music] [Applause] the entire world with a San Francisco door [Music] [Applause] for entertainment danja from each country presented their folk dances [Music] dear Vikings come to shore on Norwegian be pretty girls landed - what's this charming delegation of daffodils girl representing santa cruz county take the marina by storm where are they going to the California Building of course [Music] pass the forbidden mission garden to the grace the Fanta Cruz County exhibit no one has ever forgotten how magnificent the exposition was and it was beautiful an indescribable aura of magic fill the mini court [Music] Louis Mull guards tower of abundant brooded over his mysterious Court of Ages this strange gothic fantasy was much admired for the deep thought behind its architecture the fountain of the earth sometimes shrouded by clouds of steam depicted man rise from a primordial ooze in 1915 you didn't just build a courtyard you build a way of life inside the sheltered walls always serene and calm but outside all the new excitements of our century of speed were dazzling in the raid [Applause] good ol number nine wins again and to the victor belongs the spoil a garden party celebration [Music] [Applause] [Music] the daily list of events was staggering this thought show competed with the Japanese wrestlers and a choice had to be made between watching the Marines land or entering your child in the baby parade [Music] [Music] [Music] one of the great charms of the panama-pacific International Exposition was that it combined all of the blandishments of a country fair with the rising sophistication of the young 20th century patriotism was running high the most surest visitor was the Liberty Bell brought on a special flatcar all the way from Philadelphia there were parades every day sometimes several parades every day [Music] the fair closed officially on December 4th of 1915 closing ceremonies were filled with emotion and nearly half a million people wept as the flag was lowered from the Tower of June the scintillator manned by Marines projected patterns of light on break clouds of steam thrown into the air from a locomotive painted to look like marble everyone stayed to watch the light wandering quietly in the gardens looking for the last time [Music] the lights finally went out but no one went home until dawn as the lights went out something left our youth but the fair has endured the beautiful Palace of Fine Arts still stands there gently crumbling but gently reminding the x-position has lived on in the hearts and memories of every man woman and child that spent an enchanted summer at the city of June [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: King Rose Archives

Views: 85,785

Keywords: San Francisco earthquake, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Theodore Roosevelt, Worlds Fairs, The Panama–Pacific International Exposition

Id: u47URbxlVIg

Length: 24min 35sec (1475 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 07 2017