Norman Bolotin

*** This review is of an uncorrected pre-publication proof version. I would like to thank Netgalley for the opportunity to review an advance copy. ***

My interest in this book was piqued having read Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City a while ago, also set at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. This is quite a different book to Larson's however, written by a much more serious researcher into the Fair.

Bolotin starts with a preface explaining how his keenness on this subject was engendered during his childhood in Seattle, where a World's Fair was also conducted. It's clear that this book is the result of a long and abiding passion for the subject matter.

The book proper starts with a brief account of how Chicago unexpectedly won the right to host the 1893 Fair over New York and the early planning. Bolotin then delves into the heart of the book: the Midway Plaisance, which formed such a crucial part of the Fair.

The Midway Plaisance was a 1 mile long boulevard that ran from the White City, where the main country and industry exhibitions were, down towards the shores of Lake Michigan. Fair organisers struggled to figure out how to incorporate the existing Midway into the fair site, and what could be done with it. Relatively late in the piece, it was decided to use it to house a range of entertainment and food concessions plus a range of ethnographic "villages" that fairgoers could visit and observe cultures from other countries. Austria, Germany, Java, Egypt, Persia, the South Seas, Lapland and Dahomey (now Benin) were among the countries and cultures exhibited.

Bolotin structures his book as a walk down the Midway Plaisance from West to East, and then back again on the other side. Each attraction that fairgoers would have passed on the Midway is described, often with some background about its origin. Bolotin's research even extends to giving us details of the number of visitors that each concession attracted, and how much revenue they took.

Dominating the Midway Plaisance was the first ever Ferris Wheel, a gigantic 264 feet high structure that Chicago commissioned as an attraction to compete with the Paris Fair's Eiffel Tower. George Ferris' wheel was positioned roughly in the middle of the Midway and cast its huge shadow down on the throngs of visitors. It had cars similar to railway carriages, each holding about 60 people, and the Wheel overall carried up to about 2,000 riders at once. Its 71-ton axle was the largest ever built. Little wonder that this engineering marvel was the must-do activity of the 1893 Fair.

This description of a walk along the Midway is accompanied by a copious amount of contemporary photos of the attractions, plus tickets, programs, architectural drawings and other memorabilia, mostly from the author's own collection. The photos in particular reward close examination, giving a great insight into the characters roaming around the Midway and its villages, their dress, and the activities that they got to do. There are some priceless moments captured in some of these photos, notably a little girl on her first donkey ride, and a man trying to climb onto a camel. The book also includes a range of beautiful colour plates by contemporary artist Charles Graham; it is fun to compare these to the photos and observe the artistic license taken.

Bolotin does a great job of transporting the reader back to a time when things that we take for granted were new and strange, and getting us to see these wonders as the fairgoers would have. If I would quibble at all, I would say that he gives us the feast for the eyes, but he does not quite capture the sense of the crowds, the noise and the strange smells that must have gone along with it.

I read this book as an e-book but I really think that, with the photos, illustrations and colour plates, this is one of those books that cries out to be enjoyed in physical book form.… (mais)

Book received from NetGalley.

I thought this was an excellent history of Chicago's Worlds Fair and all that went into planning it and designing the area. I have seen the few things left in Chicago from the Fair but had no idea of just how big it actually was. The book has some wonderful photos of people enjoying their time in Chicago along with photos of souvenirs that were available for purchase to commemorate the day out. I think that the Colombian Exposition can be overshadowed by the murders that took place during the fair and the focus around it. This book lets you know that good things happened as well during that time.… (mais)