It took me months to read it. Now that Kenzie has entered our lives, Kristie and I have found those lazy weekend days where we spent hours reading are gone. So I had to digest this book in 20-30 minute sessions.
But it was worth it.
I’m reminded more than ever of the importance of teaching history. As Burnham is trying to pull off the fair, banks across America are folding. Ritzy hotels are reporting suicides of bank presidents and investors by the dozens.
And just today while checking the news on yahoo, I saw this story
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090119/ap_on_bi_ge/missing_money_manager;_ylt=AuNqoSFmCV7dUS8Jb.Qr4Ves0NUE
which reminded me of this one from lat week.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090114/ap_on_re_us/plane_crash_mystery
I guess we’ll see if these ominous signs foreshadow another great depression the way the bank closings at the end of the 19th century foreshadowed the great depression of the 1930’s.
I never realized the impact that world's fair had on modern America and world events.
It was the first large use of alternating current (AC/DC), which is still in use in every house.
As a result of one person's belief that public school children should take a moment to celebrate both Columbus Day, the fair was designed to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Columbus' landing in the New World, and the Dedication of the fair, Francis J. Bellamy wrote the Pledge of Allegiance, which is also said by countless students each day across America.
Burnham, the chief designer behind the fair, had a park named after him in Chicago and he helped influence the design of Old Soldier's Field in Chicago. If you remember the old stadium, it was done in the Beaux style of architecture, with the Roman columns, that Burnham re-popularized with the fair.
One important figure in designing some of the buildings was a man by the name of Elias Disney, whose son, Walt, would go on to inspire some grand kingdoms of his own, which are still incredibly poplar today.
Burnham traveled on the RMS Olympic while his good friend, Francis Davis Millet, who was an artist for the fair, had the misfortune of being a passenger on the maiden voyage of the Olympic's sister ship, the Titanic.
Because Burnham wanted fair goers to be entertained, he insisted on a midway being formed to occupy and entice visitors. Every single fair still has one.
The same is true of maybe the most remarkable feature of the world's fair, and a feature which almost never happened. Of course, the Paris's World Fair, which Chicago was trying to outdo, had the luxury of debuting the Eiffel tower. What could Burnham do to top that?
The suggestions poured in. My personal favorite was one architect's plan to build a tower twice as tall Eiffel's creation. He then would put gigantic slides at the top. Visitors could climb to the top and slide there way back home, whether it be to Boston, New York, or Los Angeles.
A man by the name of George Washington Farris. Came up with an idea. It took some time, but he designed this - and there has been one in every single self respecting fair since --
Each car weighed 30 tons. It, obviously, towered over the fair. And it attracted thousands and made Farris millions. Ultimately, it would be torn down and sold for scrap metal. But it was the crowning achievement. And it helped the Chicago's fair attract over three quarters of a million people in one single day. After its six month run was over, it would attract 27 million people, about half of the population of the country at the time.
And while all of this was going on, American had its own Jack the Ripper, H.H. Holmes gassing and performing ghastly dissections on females by the dozens. For all of its glory, hundreds of people simply vanished during the world's fair. Some, mostly young females, vanished thanks to Holmes.
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