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THE NEW WORLD'S FAIR OF 1934

The Twelfth Street Entrance is the main gate to a land of magic, education, thrills and entertainment. New buildings, sixteeen picturesque villages, transplanted to the shore of lake Michigan from Ancient Europe, from the mysterious east and from historic times in this country, unique water spectacles built out over the lagoons, great additions to the scientific and industrial exhibits, a new Midway built along the island beach on the lake side, every spectacle on the Exposition grounds enlarged and improved, the world's Fair of 1934 will seem a different place to those who saw it last year.

New Lagoon Spectacle

A Century of Progress Fountain, largest in the world, 670 feet long, is illuminated by an Aurora Borealis of colored flood lights, and from beneath.

New piers, plaisances and opera stages are built over the lagoons from the bridges, the new structures including exhibit buildings and gay terraces and balconies above the water. Free musical entertainment of the highest class is a feature of this year's fair. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra presents free concerts daily at Swift's Open Air Theatre.

The Sixteenth Street Bridge connects the mainland with Northerly Island. The Armour Co. and Hiram Walker Exhibits are located on this bridge.

The Great New Automobile Exhibits

Hugely augmented, with great new buildings and marvellous displays, you see the whole story of the construction, design and materials of the modern automobile. You see the operation of the complete assembly of automobiles of today, driven away under their own power.

The Foreign Villages: A Huge New Attraction

Nowhere on earth has ever been assembled such a series of strange, picturesque villages from far foreign lands and from past times as the foreign villages at the World's Fair of 1934. There are the Italian Village with its leaning tower; the Swiss Village at the foot of the Alps; "Schwarzwalder Dorf"—the German Black Forest Village; The Tunisian Village; the Saharan "Oasis;" the Spanish Village with its ancient castles; Merrie England with its many historic shrines; the American Colonial Village and the Irish Village with its background of Lake Killarney.

The Black Forest Village offers a glimpse of life in winter in the black forest. An air conditioning plant keeps the snow and ice in its natural effect. Merrie England is a reproduction of English life and culture. Here may be seen Dickens' "Old Curiosity Shop," also Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.

The Colonial Village is a replica of early American life. Mt. Vernon, Ben Franklin's Print Shop, Betsy Ross House, and many other interesting scenes of our forefathers.

Visitors will see this year again the famous Belgian Village and a new Streets of Paris. "The Bowery" shows the life of this landmark of the streets of New York in the "gay nineties." The Hawaiian Village entertains with native dancers.One can dine and dance to the strains of island music or watch a lady dive into the flaming volcano of Mt. Kilallua.

On the Midway are "The Streets of Shanghai," a slice of the swarming China Coast, and the Dutch Village with its windmill and canal. The Mexican Village, on Northerly Island, brings its picturesque community to the Fair.

Eating Places at the Fair

An array of restaurants and cafes of every kind, appealing to every taste and purse, caters to visitors. There are free picnic grounds. Sandwich stands are convenient in every part of the Expositions grounds where a substantial meal may be enjoyed at minimum cost.

Accessibility of the Fair

Chicago is a central point of the national transportation system, by rail, by highway, by water and by air. Fourteen major motor highways enter Chicago. Tourist camp accomodations are abundant. Rooms for rent and hotels are in plenty with high class accomodations at every style and price. Parking space near the grounds is abundant.

New Colors

An article in the New York Times on May 20, 1934 described the differences as follows:

Last year many artistic souls raised loud outcry over th color scheme of the architecture. Others liked it. Nobody disputed the claim that it carried a kick. It was vivid, blatant, challenging under the Summer sun. Its reds and greens and blues were raw; its orange and yellow shrieked.

This year the fair will be colorful, but not so loud. The raw reds have been tempered to a purple red. The blues are quieter. The greens less strident. White has been used much more extensively. The effect of this sensible modification of the color scheme is to preserve the atmosphere of gayety while eliminating the jazz.

Gala Opening

A huge parade of civic and military organizations, with scores of bands playing patriotic tunes, wound along Michigan Avenue to the fairgrounds. President Roosevelt and Mrs. Roosevelt each addressed the opening crowd in separate "sound pictures." the President declared that "the most critical days of a national emergency have for the most part passed" and expressed his belief that the exposition would contribute to the objective of "restoration of our national well-being." At the end of his address, the President pressed a button which turned on the lights of the fair. Mrs. Roosevelt pressed a button which turned on the new lagoon fountain. Another feature of the evening was the arrival of the Burlington Zephyr stream-lined train which set a speed record in a non-stop run from Denver to Chicago.

The End

Total attendance at the 1934 fair was 16,304,906 compared to 1933 attendance of 22,565,859. The attendance for the last day, Halloween, was a record 362,553 up to midnight. Newspaper accounts described the last night as resembling New Year's Eve celebrations, with merrymakers running wild.

The closing of the fair added 25,000 to 30,000 workers to the 500,000 already unemployed in Chicago. The fair brought millions of visitors and millions of dollars to Chicago, but its permanent accomplishments were questioned. A New York Times article (October 28, 1934) concluded:

Most of the visitors have taken it much as they would a motion-picture show. Carnival features have been exploited out of all proportion, and the fair is held responsible for the epidemic of naked dancers who have captured even the smallest of country roadhouses. Scientific and industrial exhibits, except in transportation, have not had either the magnitude or originality of the 1893 exposition, and while curiosity has been satisfied and something added to the general knowledge of the millions of visitors, it is doubtful if invention has been stimulated or business efficiency enhanced to any important degree. The fair has been a great show, with all that the name implies, and has given the city a reputation for putting over something big in the midst of a depression. But in its major emphasis it has been more of a splash than anything else.

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