“In the summer of 1893 on the shores of Lake Michigan, the United States took its place on the global stage, not through war but through technological innovation ….”

The television series American Gods paid a short visit to the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago during Season 3, Episode 5 (“Sister Rising”).

The episode opens with an action shot of an elongated coin machine—an unusual but effective historical reference to one of so many “firsts” exhibited at the World’s Columbian Exposition. Props to the props department for using what appears to be an authentic Isabella commemorative quarter for the shot. (Let’s just hope they did not actually press it through the machine!)

An Isabella commemorative quarter appears to get sent through an elongated coin machine at the entrance to the 1893 World’s Fair to open the American Gods episode “Sister Rising”.

A narrator describes others:

“The World’s Columbian Exposition also introduced the Ferris Wheel, the Moving Sidewalk, Juicy Fruit gum, and Cracker Jacks. All things seemed possible as technology leapt into the modern age. The future looked brighter than ever …”

An entrance to the fairgrounds in Jackson Park brings visitors into the opening scene of the “Sister Rising” episode of American Gods.

The camera passes above an entrance gate to the Exposition, revealing a beautiful, but all-too-brief, scene-setting aerial shot of a fantasy fairground in Jackson Park—instantly recognizable yet strangely disorienting. Artists created a vista of the White City that combines a familiar view of the Midway Plaisance, looking east from atop the Ferris Wheel, with a bird-eye view of the Grand Basin, looking west from above Lake Michigan. Despite the digital forgery, many buildings are easily identified. Structure from he Turkish Village and German Village on the Midway sit in the foreground of the shot, while the Illinois State Building, Fisheries Building, Woman’s Building, U.S. Government Building, and Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building line the horizon. The Statue of the Republic appears in a Grand Basin that has been relocated to the south side of the Midway.

(Top) A vista of an imagined Columbian Exposition from the TV series American Gods (S3 E5). (Bottom) A source image from the 1893 World’s Fair, photographed from the Ferris Wheel looking east.

Some of the identifiable buildings appearing in the digitally (re)created Columbian Exposition fairgrounds for American Gods (S3 E5).

“ … and in its shadow, hucksters, con men, and grifters plied their craft as they had since the dawn of civilization.”

The action then moves to a less authentic Midway, shot inside of a covered pavilion and looking much more like a circus side show. Populating the scene are barkers, Chinese dancers, jugglers, stilt-walkers, fire breathers, acrobats, boxers, and the tent of a magician billed as “The Magnificent Maximillian, Illusionist Extraordinaire,” who opens the story.

Scenes from a reimagined Midway Plaisance featured on American Gods.

Although the entire scene lasts only about a minute and a half, it whets the appetite for how creative design and digital artwork can (re)create a world’s fair for the screen.

“Sister Rising” aired on the premium cable network Starz on February 14, 2021.