The Innocent Fair

the fair had everything when you tired of the auto racing you could always watch the camels run that is if you weren't chasing after the penny tasar or gawking at the movie stars and celebrities fa Buckle in mael Norman for instance or listen to John Phillips Souza lead the band in the court of universe there were Daredevils to amaze you some were in the water and others in the air there was plenty of culture and history too beautiful girl and beautiful animal it was the most wonderful thing that ever happened to San Francisco [Music] for [Music] [Music] it had been a very busy Century first the city had been shaken down and then it burned [Music] down 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 at Harbor View near what was called cow Hollow by 1912 San Francisco was nearly rebuilt you could ride up Market Street for 5 cents either in a Jitney or a street car or get a nine course dinner for a [Music] dollar out at har viw that year president Taff turned the first Spade of Earth to the cheers of thousands who gathered for the groundbreaking [Music] ceremonies and from what was once a swamp a sunset city of pale travertine with Green Bronze Dom began to rise [Music] it stretched from Chestnut Street to the water from vanis Avenue to Fort Point in the procedo a marvelous array of cloistered 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 and the Marin Hills Beyond it truly was a world apart a world of Wonders of Lights an innocent world for by May of 1915 the Lucitania had been sunk and we would never be so young so innocent [Music] again opening day February 20th 1915 200,000 people stood inside the Scott Street gate in the South Garden they waited for President Wilson to press a golden Telegraph key it sent a wireless message 3,000 M to an antenna on the tower of Jews this signal started the wheels of the giant diesel engine in the Palace of Machinery rotating and the Fountain of energy gushed forth and a magical Summer started for the people of San [Music] Francisco if you went to the movies that year you might have seen this trailer advertising the Panama Pacific International Exposition along with blanch sweet and Thomas Mayan in the secret sin and the latest chapter of pearl White's new cereal the exploits of [Music] Elaine here the spirit of San Francisco mixes the gold of the poppies with the memories of 196 and never forgetting how the world once befriended the ruined City creates a wonderful furry 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 jewels the exposition was the first to have complete artistic supervision even the colors of each building were chosen from a master pallet and the sand on the paths was burned in a 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 mcclaren's Gardens were 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 the war that raged in Europe it had had very nearly wrecked their plans for any form foreign exhibits and buildings 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 Nations 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 was a thing alive on it hung 125,000 polished jewels of Bohemian glass backed by bits of mirror shrouded by fog they gleamed mysteriously in the sun caught by every Breeze they shimmered and sparkled at night in the glare of a thousand Ark lamps they danced and Shone like a mar marvelous colored [Music] Sun the exposition was huge like all World fares people walked until their feet hurt then they rode in the overare train traps horse carts wicker work carry alls and the famous fagil trains While most people had become pretty Blas about automobiles the air airplane still was the new thrill Lincoln beachi was the first aeronaut after all he had even flown through the Palace of Machinery in 1914 as a promotion stunk it was the world's first indoor airplane flight beichi usually flew a biplane but these films show him flying a new and daring monoplane and minutes after this film was taken beachi crashed into to the Golden Gate he was given a hero's funeral and the exposition was in morning for days AR Smith was the next hero in the [Music] 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 as a background he attached flares to the fragile linen covered wings of his [Music] plane he was absolutely incredible Daredevil You Bet Your Life [Music] [Music] anyone could see what art saw from an aeroscope for just a quarter there it is whirling around 230 ft in the air designed by Joseph stra who would later design 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 children to many people this is their only memory of the fair the sensation of the Zone was Stella every World's Fair has its Queen Little Egypt Sally ran but the Zone had Stella and no one who ever saw her forgot her [Music] Charmed she was so real that she even seemed to breathe that's a lot of loveliness for a [Music] dime at the opposite end of the fairground stood everybody's favorite building Bernard maybeck's 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 Sam were demanding that the Palace of Fine artarts be preserved this colorful pageant was staged to help publicize their effort 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 Maybeck wanted us to remember his Palace millions of visitors came to the exposition a relative newcomer to the movies but already a star came over from Niles where he was making two real comedies for sna Charlie Chaplan 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 [Music] plan Burbank displayed his Texas feeder a spineless cactus developed for cattle feed they then saw other wonders of the age including an automatic post office while Teddy Roosevelt waited for them in the car it was a time when secure 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 [Music] 1915 Madame Schuman hke was there and Mabel Norman and Fatty Arbuckle got a free pass from Mayor Rob on the steps of the new city hall they were at the height of their careers unaware of the tragedies that with Shadow boast their lives [Music] [Applause] [Music] the entire world was at San Francisco's door [Music] [Applause] for entertainment dancers from each country presented their folk dances [Music] here Vikings come ashore on Norwegian day pretty girls landed too watch this charming delegation of daffodil girls representing Santa Cruz County take the marina by [Music] storm where are they going to the californ building of [Music] course past the Forbidden Mission Garden to Grace the Santa Cruz County [Music] exhibit no one has ever forgotten how Magnificent the exposition was and it was beautiful an Indescribable Aura of magic filled the many [Music] courts Lewis mulg guard's Tower of abundance rooted over his mysterious Court of Ages this strange Gothic fantasy was much admired for the deep thought behind its [Music] architecture the Fountain of the earth sometime shrouded by clouds of steam depicted man's rise from a primordial ooze in 19155 you didn't just build a courtyard you built a way of life inside the sheltered walls all was Serene and calm but outside all the new excitements of our Century of speed were dazzling in AR raay good old number nine wins again and To the victor belongs the spoil a garden party celebration [Music] the daily list of events was staggering this Stock 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] 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 [Music] patriotism was running High the most Shish visitor was the Liberty Bell brought on a special flat car 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 [Music] Jewel the ventilator manned by Marines projected patterns of light on great clouds of steam thrown into the air from a locomotive painted to look like marble everyone stayed to watch the lights 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 Art still stands there gently crumbling but gently reminding the exposition has lived on in the hearts and memories of every man woman and child that spent an enchanted summer at at the city of Jews [Music] I [Music] [Music]