International Flair at the World’s Fair

I was doing some research about the 1904 World's Fair recently, which got me to wondering: whatever happened to the World's Fairs? All kinds of cool things went on at the 1904 Worlds Fair in St. Louis, the coolest of which perhaps was the introduction of ice cream served in cones. Thanks to Syrian immigrant Ernest Hamwi, we can enjoy the sweet creaminess without lapping it out of a bowl like my yellow Lab used to do. Two other personal favorites made an appearance there. Hamburgers were introduced to the world by a fellow known as Uncle Fletch, the owner of a small cafe in Athens, Texas. Now it all makes sense why, as a Native Texan, I can't quit my cheeseburger habit. Curse you, Whataburger! Oh - and the other thing going on at the fair (as if ice cream and hamburgers weren't enough): just a little something we like to call the Olympics. According to Wiki, this was the first Olympics held in a predominantly English-speaking country, as well as the first held outside of Europe. I'm guessing the event planner profession also made its debut here.

Admission to the 1904 World's Fair cost fifty cents for adults and a nickel for kids. In 2016 money that works out to around $12.50 for an adult and around a buck and a quarter for kids.

World's Fairs began, as all cool things do, in France. The first one was held in 1844. The idea was to showcase interesting, innovative products and inventions and entertainment and activities from a variety of countries. It's as if South by

Southwest and the Consumer Electronics Show had an international baby. The fairs earned a reputation for introducing incredible technological advances to the world, such as the telephone, the electrical outlet (making electricity easily available to the general public), the diesel engine, the x-ray machine, and touch screen technology.

The fairs have been held in a variety of locations, which makes sense, considering its billing as an international event. U.S. cities have hosted them a dozen or more times since the first one in Philadelphia in 1876. The fairs are similar to the Olympics in that they are organized by a governing body; countries bid to have them; they are held to a certain schedule (every five years since 1995); and cost a bundle to put on. Unlike the Olympics, World's Fairs tend to linger from weeks to months, presumably to bring in as much attendance as possible and try to make their money back.

Spend an afternoon researching fairs and they will all start to run together. But a few stand out in my mind:

• 1893 Chicago - loads of innovative stuff debuted here, including the world's first Ferris wheel. But they will forever be eclipsed in my mind because the fair was the inspiration for Eric Larsen's terrifyingly non-fiction Devil in the White City, about a serial killer who ran amok at the same time the fair was going on.
• 1962 Seattle - I didn't realize the iconic Space Needle was a holdover from a

  

  World's Fair. I feel like I should've known that. I've never visited Seattle. It's on the bucket list.

• 1964 New York City - speaking of architecture, the observation towers made famous in the original Men In Black movie are not faring too well and are considered 'ruins'. But the Unisphere still stands. I saw it when were attending the U. S. Open a few years ago.

The last fair in the U.S. was held in New Orleans in 1984, and none are scheduled here through 2020. I guess we'll just have to be satisfied with CES and SXSW.

This post originally appeared in the 2016 A to Z Blog Challenge.

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