We’ll be exploring other films and videos that use the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition as a setting in our “Filming the Fair” series. Check out other WCE videos in the Zoopraxiscope Hall section of our website.
Have you heard of “The Longest Beard in the World” concession on the Midway Plaisance at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition? This fictional attraction plays a part in an episode of the long-running television series Death Valley Days. “The Longest Beard in the World” (Season 4, Episode 20; 26 minutes), with screenplay by Ruth C. Woodman, originally aired on June 1, 1956.
Death Valley Days visited the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in a 1956 episode.
On a spring day in 1893, Barnaby Taylor (Guy Prescott), a small-town lawyer in the “western mining district” of Eldorado is approached by townsmen Ed and Jack. They recruit him to run for Congress in order to help put their district on the map and boost the price of silver. A later reference to women having recently won the right to vote in their state places the district in Colorado.
Ed and Jack visit Barnaby Taylor and his virile beard.
Taylor’s singular merit for public office is his long beard, which he has tended to for 25 years. Needing no more convincing that his beard signifies virility, the pompous lawyer agrees to run for Congress using the slogan that “A Vote for Barney Taylor is a Virile Vote!” [Bonus: consider a drinking game based on how many times a characters says “virile” or “virility.”]
Scheming about “the greatest campaign stunt ever pulled.”
Hanging on the wall of Taylor’s office is a portrait of President Grover Cleveland (“A mere mustache! But, what do you expect from a Democrat?”), indicating that this scene takes place after Cleveland’s March 4 inauguration.
A mere mustache on Grover.
Candidate Taylor calls upon Miss Frances Trent (Patricia Donahue) at her Seminary for Young Ladies to announce his campaign and to ask for her hand in marriage. He apparently believes that towing a wife to Washington will add even more to his virility. Uninterested, the sensible woman announces that she is already wedded …to her career!
Miss Frances Trent is already wedded to her career.
Young Cora (Carol Coombs, who played one of George Bailey’s children in It’s a Wonderful Life) can’t keep her hands off Taylor’s long whiskers. So virile!
Young Cora can’t get enough of that facial hair.
With plans underway to make Taylor the best-advertised candidate in the United States in “the greatest campaign stunt ever pulled,” Barnaby, Ed, and Jack travel to Chicago to attend the World’s Columbian Exposition. Unfortunately, the brief shot of the fairgrounds—showing small tents, a carousel, and a twelve-car Ferris wheel—makes it look more like a county fair than the great Exposition.
The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition … on a budget.
Ed and Jack bring Barnaby to the Midway Plaisance, “the greatest collection of marvels ever staged by man,” where they reveal their scheme. “The Longest Beard in the World” concession will showcase their candidate’s four-foot-two-and-one-half-inch marvel and invite any whiskered challengers to best it.
We never find out about this “Zandra the Mysterious” attraction of the Midway.
Several opponents (including one “bearded lady”) fall short, but Frenchman Henri Charpaud’s magnifique beard wins by a hair.
The “Bearded Lady” comes up short.
Back home and embarrassed by the loss of the contest and the virility of his candidacy, Taylor fears that he can never show his face again in public. “You never have shown it,” quips Miss Trent, urging him to shave off the beard and run on a new campaign of “A Clean Sweep for Barney.” To sweeten the deal, she tosses in her hand in marriage. He storms out, but then removes the offending hair. With an exposed face, Barnaby reveals his new campaign poster touting “clean government.”
Off, damned hair! Off, I say!
Free of the “pretentious, unsanitary, and scratchy” beard, Taylor ends up winning by a landslide, thanks only to votes from the “suffragettes” in town who think along the lines of Miss Trent.
Clean government wins the suffragette vote.
Video of “The Longest Beard in the World” currently is available to view on Starz.