Chicago can claim not one, but two World’s Fairs. The World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 is famous for reshaping the city and boosting Daniel Burnham and John Wellborn Root (who passed away before the fair) to legendary status in the world of architecture. But the city also hosted another, if not equally infamous, exposition in the mid-1930s.
This short film, dug up by DNAinfo, offers a look at the fairgrounds and some of the expo’s attractions. The theme was “Century of Progress,” and as the name suggests, this fair was about looking into the future. Many of the buildings featured a colorful Art Deco aesthetic, meanwhile, the muscular Chrysler Motors Building was strikingly modern for the time. Narrator Graham McNamee describes the building as a “dazzling performance of architectural effort” and a “tribute to structural perfection.”
Here’s a short look into the past and the excitement of the Century of Progress International Exposition.
- Chicago World's Fair 1934 Technicolor short [Youtube]
- See Chicago's 1933 World's Fair ... In Color! [DNAinfo]