Welcome to Zoopraxiscope Hall
Come see flickering images about the 1893 World’s Fair
on the big and small screen
DOCUMENTARIES ABOUT THE 1893 WORLD’S FAIR
- “Chicago: City of the Century Part 3” American Experience Season 5 (PBS, 2003). IMDB; Amazon
- EXPO – Magic of the White City (Inecom Entertainment Company, 2005). Amazon (DVD and streaming); NETFLIX
- Madness in the White City (National Geographic, 2007). IMDB
- “World’s Fair Treasure Hunt” segment in Hidden Chicago with Geoffrey Baer (WTTW-11, 2014) Amazon
- Vintage Chicago: The 1893 Chicago World’s Fair 22 min. (Jonathan Chase Cook, 2017) Amazon video
DOCUMENTARIES ABOUT PEOPLE OF THE 1893 WORLD’S FAIR
- Tesla: Master of Lightning (PBS, 2000). IMDB; YouTube
- Tall: The American Skyscraper and Louis Sullivan (2006). IMDB
- “Annie Oakley” American Experience Season 8, Episode 12 (PBS, 2006). IMDB
- Westinghouse (2008). IMDB; YouTube
- “Augustus Saint-Gaudens: Master of American Sculpture” American Masters (PBS, 2009) IMDB; Amazon
- Make No Little Plans: Daniel Burnham and the American City (PBS, 2010) IMDB: Amazon
- Louis Sullivan: The Struggle for American Architecture (Whitecap Films, 2010). IMDB; Amazon
- Love Under Fire: The Story of Bertha and Potter Palmer (Corn Bred Films, 2013) IMDB; Amazon
- Frederick Law Olmsted: Designing America (PBS, 2014)
- “Black Heart, White City” American Ripper Season 1, Episode 5 (History Channel, 2017)
- The Fabulous Bertha Palmer (Sarasota Fringe Films, c2018); Vimeo
- Paul Laurence Dunbar: Beyond the Mask (Ohio University Press, 2018) Amazon
- 1893 Chicago’s Columbian Exposition (Michael Finney, 2020) Amazon
FILMING THE FAIRGROUNDS: FICTIONAL WORKS SET AT THE FAIR
- The Great Ziegfeld (MGM, 1936). IMDB
- “The Longest Beard in the World” Death Valley Days, Season 4, Episode 20 (1956). IMDB
- “The World’s Columbian Exposition” Timeless Season 1, Episode 11. (NBC, 2017). IMDB
- The Current War (2017). IMDB
- Tesla (2020). IMDB
- “Sister Rising” American Gods Season 3, Episode 5. (Starz, 2021). IMDB
- “1893” Loki Season 2, Episode 3 (Disney+, 2023). IMDB
H. H. HOLMES and THE WORLD’S FAIR
- “Chicago’s White City Devil” Murderous History, Season 1, Episode 1 (Smithsonian Channel, 2021) IMDB
OTHER
- The Surging Sea of Humanity (2006). 10:41 min. silent film based on a stereoscope card of the World’s Fair. WorldCat
RECENT POSTS ABOUT VIDEO, FILM, AND TELEVISION
Ida B. Wells documentary airs on WTTW-Chicago
Civil rights activist Ida B. Wells spoke truth to power through her pamphlet The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in The World’s Columbian Exposition. 10,000 copies were distributed at the 1893 World’s Fair. “With the eyes of the world on Chicago,” explains a new documentary film about Wells, “she would use the international stage to expose the terror of lynching.” On Friday, May 21, 2021, Chicago public television station WTTW will air Ida B. Wells, a one-hour Chicago Stories special at 8 pm. Along with a companion website, the show paints a deeply humanizing portrait of a [...]
“Chicago’s White City Devil” on Smithsonian’s MURDEROUS HISTORY
The latest documentary about the evil doings of H. H. Holmes joins a crowded collection of films and television shows about the “devil in the white city” who killed an unknown number of victims around the time of the World’s Columbian Exposition. It is among the best to date. “Chicago's White City Devil,” the second episode of the Smithsonian Channel’s new series Murderous History, features rather cheesy dramatic scenes along with informative commentary by a group of notable Chicago historians, authors, and journalists. The recreations utterly fail in their design to bring viewers into the historic setting of the [...]
THE GREAT CHICAGO QUIZ SHOW serves up some 1893 World’s Fair trivia
The Great Chicago Quiz Show on WTTW in Chicago has host Geoffrey Baer asking contestants (including some famous Chicagoans) trivia questions about their city. No program about Chicago history would be complete without at least a few tidbits from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, and Geoffrey asked contestants several , including: • The world’s first Ferris Wheel was a hit at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Jackson Park. In fact, it was so popular that immediately after the fair closed, it was moved and reopened. Where was it moved? A. Riverview Amusement Park on the North Side B. [...]
The Wizard in the White City
L. Frank Baum, so the legend goes, used his experience visiting the White City of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago as inspiration for the Emerald City in his best-selling children's book of 1900, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. A new documentary film exploring the life and times of Baum has been released as part of the American Experience series on PBS. "American Oz, the True Wizard Behind the Curtain" (aired April 19, 2021) includes a segment featuring Baum's time in Chicago, where he transformed himself from a traveling salesman into a promotor of store window decorating, into an [...]
“American Gods” at the 1893 World’s Fair
“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 [...]
The World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 and the Library of Congress (video)
C-SPAN is streaming a recorded lecture on “The World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 and the Library of Congress.” In this talk, originally presented for the United States Capitol Historical Society (USCHS) on October 13, 2020, art historian Lynda Cooper reconstructs the relationship between the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago and the Library of Congress’s Thomas Jefferson Building (1889–1897) in Washington, D.C. Working from an art history perspective, Cooper describes the influence the exposition had on the artists and architects who designed and decorated the ornate Jefferson building. She offers an in-depth look at similarities among select mural [...]
“Celebrating the Black History of Jackson Park” Video
The Obama Foundation has released a five-minute video titled “Celebrating the Black History of Jackson Park” that features the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Introduced by President Obama, the video touches upon the Haitian Pavilion, Frederick Douglass, and “Colored Peoples Day” with historical perspectives from Chicago History Museum Assistant Curator Julius Jones, Associate Professor of History at the University of Chicago Adam Green, and President of the Jackson Park Advisory Council Louise McCurry.
WGN-TV Documentary Explores “Hidden History” of African Americans at the 1893 World’s Fair
In honor of Black History Month WGN-TV aired a new half-hour documentary show titled “Hidden History” that included a segment on the experience of African Americans at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. WGN News anchor Micah Materre opened the six-minute segment reminding viewers that “African Americans have a long and storied history in Chicago,” with one important moment of African Americans influence on the world taking place in and around the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago’s Jackson Park. Historian Kay James McCrimon details some of the “hidden history” of how officials systematic excluded African Americans from exhibiting at the [...]
A 360-Degree View of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition (Sneak Peek)
The Chicago 00 Project has released a sneak peek of their upcoming an augmented and virtual reality experience, The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, to be published in early 2020. A partnership between the Chicago History Museum and filmmaker Geoffrey Alan Rhodes, the Chicago 00 Project has been producing a series of interactive multimedia experiences using historical images of important sites and events in Chicago. Their augmented reality app allows participant to overlay historic photos with real-time views at the site of the 1915 SS Eastland disaster on the Chicago River. Other projects showcase film, photo, and sound archival materials for [...]
“The Current War” offers only a dimly lit view of the 1893 World’s Fair
The 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago shines on the big screen, if only for a few minutes. The Current War (2017, released 2019) tells the story of the rancorous rivalry between inventor Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch), who adamantly championed direct current (DC) technologies to electrify and illuminate American cities, and George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon), who banked on alternating current (AC). The legendary “war of the currents” has these titans of the electrical industry setting their sights on powering the Columbian Exposition. Thomas Edison showing off his new incandescent light bulb opens The Current War. ------ SPOILER ALERT ------ [...]