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    Chicago's 1933-34 World's Fair: A Century of Progress
    Chicago's 1933-34 World's Fair: A Century of Progress
    Chicago's 1933-34 World's Fair: A Century of Progress
    Ebook211 pages54 minutes

    Chicago's 1933-34 World's Fair: A Century of Progress

    By Bill Cotter

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    It took six years and cost $100 million, but on May 27, 1933, the gates swung open on the biggest birthday party the city of Chicago had ever seen. The Century of Progress Exposition, better known as the 1933-34 Chicago World's Fair, commemorated the amazing progress that had been made since the founding of the city just 100 years earlier. Many of America's largest companies joined with countries from around the world to showcase their histories and advertise their newest products. The road to opening day was not an easy one, with the Great Depression making it look like the fair might never be built, but thousands of small investors stepped forward to help close the financial gap. The fair went on to an unprecedented second season, and when the gates finally closed after the last of the 39 million visitors went home, it had achieved something quite rare among world's fairs: earning a profit. This collection of rare photographs, previously unpublished, highlights the major attractions of the fair and the astonishing changes made between seasons.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateFeb 2, 2015
    ISBN9781439649473
    Chicago's 1933-34 World's Fair: A Century of Progress
    Author

    Bill Cotter

    Bill Cotter is the author of the novels Fever Chart, The Parallel Apartments, and The Splendid Ticket. He is also responsible for the middle-grade adventure series Saint Philomene’s Infirmary, published by Henry Holt. His short fiction has appeared in The Paris Review, Electric Literature, and elsewhere. An essay, “The Gentleman’s Library,” was awarded a Pushcart Prize in 2013. When he is not writing, Cotter labors in the antiquarian book trade. He lives in Austin with his wife, the retired opera singer Krissy Olson.

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      Book preview

      Chicago's 1933-34 World's Fair - Bill Cotter

      collection.

      INTRODUCTION

      I was first introduced to the wonders of world’s fairs when my aunt visited Expo 58 in Belgium. She treated the family to the inevitable slide show and home movies, and as soon as I saw the Atomium, I was hooked. I spent so much time devouring her guidebook from the fair that she eventually gave it to me—the first item in my world’s fair collection.

      Over the years, I have been fortunate to attend several of these international extravaganzas and to share some of my photograph collection through these books from Arcadia Publishing. My interests focused mainly on the fairs that I or members of my family had been to, until one day I made a very unexpected acquisition.

      A purchase of what was advertised as black-and-white photographs of the Belgian Village at the 1964–1965 New York World’s Fair had me stumped. There were all of the buildings I knew so well, but for some reason all the people in the pictures were dressed in much older clothing styles. A little research revealed that the 1964–1965 Belgian Village was, in fact, an almost identical copy of one built decades earlier for the Century of Progress Exposition held in Chicago in 1933.

      Intrigued by the similarity of the two villages, I began collecting more items from the 1933 fair, starting with the official guidebook. This only added to my confusion when many of the pictures I was acquiring showed pavilions and shows that were nowhere in the guidebook. Further investigation showed that there had been massive changes to reopen the fair for an originally unplanned second season.

      The more I learned about the fair, the more I was intrigued. Like most fairs, this one began with the plan to attract attention and, hopefully, new business to the host city. Unlike other fairs though, this one was not launched with the support of the local government; indeed, at times it seemed like the politicians of Chicago did not want the fair. They had ample reason to feel this way, as most fairs run a sizeable deficit and leave the citizens responsible for paying off the debts. Looking back at the nation’s financial situation in those years makes their initial reluctance seem quite prudent.

      Luckily, the leaders of the nascent fair did not take no for an answer, and instead plunged headlong into the formidable task of designing, financing, building, and operating the fair. They faced many obstacles along the way, but by amply demonstrating Chicago’s motto of I Will, they found some innovative solutions to the challenges. For example, when funding was running low and money was needed to keep the effort alive, they turned to the public with a fundraising appeal. Thousands of average citizens stepped up with $5 contributions, which not only paid the bills, but also garnered attention from the investment community.

      When the first season of the fair failed to attract the crowds that had been forecast, the leaders refused to accept that the fair had failed and lost money. Instead, in another unprecedented move, they encouraged more investors to join in for a second season, one that found major sections of the original season demolished and replaced with even more amazing shows. The daring gamble paid off, and the fair eventually turned a profit—another rarity among fairs.

      This was the fair I wanted to show in this book. Rather than using publicity photos prepared by the fair or its many concessionaires, I chose to use amateur images taken by people who had gone to the fair to be entertained, educated, and amazed. My belief is that photographs like these show the items of most interest to the average visitor. Some areas of the fair, like many of the midway shows, were of little interest, and thus rarely photographed. Other sections were a completely new experience and were happily documented in these photographic souvenirs.

      It was common at the time to have the name of the fair over-printed on photographs developed at or near the fair; photographs in this book showing such titles are all amateur images and not part of the photograph collections sold at the fair.

      I read one article that referred to the 1933–1934 fair as the last black-and-white fair. Kodachrome was introduced in 1935, so all we have from this fair are monochrome images or hand-tinted postcards and prints. Even in black-and-white images though, the fair looks to have been a truly amazing event. I dare you to look at the Sky-Ride, for example, and not be impressed by what awaited the lucky visitors who experienced the fair in person.

      One final word: the fair has been called by many names over the years. The official name was A Century of Progress International Exposition, but it was commonly called the Chicago World’s Fair in the newspapers of the time. I generally have used the shorter version.

      —Bill Cotter

      www.worldsfairphotos.com

      August 2014

      The 1933–1934 Chicago World’s Fair

      A Century of Progress Exposition

      May 27, 1933–November 1, 1933

      May 26, 1934–October 31, 1934

      One

      THE NORTH END

      The 1933 Chicago World’s Fair came into being when a group of business leaders began exploring ways to celebrate the city’s upcoming centennial in 1933. One of the first ideas they considered was a world’s fair, for Chicago had been home to the immensely popular World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893, an event that drew in more than 29 million visitors. Governmental officials initially rejected the plan, but the group forged on, promising to build the fair without any tax money or government subsidies. On December 13, 1927, they received approval to move forward with what was then called the Chicago Second World’s Fair Centennial Celebration.

      Later formally named A Century of Progress International Exposition, the fair was launched during an economic boom, but soon ran into problems as the world lurched into the Great Depression. While some parts of the original plan had to be scaled back or canceled, the fair’s leaders saw the Depression as an opportunity of sorts, for there was a large skilled workforce in desperate need of jobs. The fair quickly became one of the largest employers in the area, making it quite popular with local politicians, businesses, and even the general public. When the fair asked for supporters to invest $5 each to help fund the exposition, a total of 118,773 people rose to the challenge. The funds raised were a welcome infusion of cash, but even more importantly, the effort showed naysayers that the fair was gaining

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