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
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 ------ [...]
1893 World’s Fair Coming to the Big Screen in THE CURRENT WAR
The lights are back on for a film partially set on the fairgrounds of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Scheduled to open in October 2019 is The Current War, a historical drama about the legendary “war of the currents” between titans of the electrical industry who are setting their sights on powering the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. The Current War tells the story of the vicious rivalry between inventors Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Nikola Tesla (Nicholas Hoult), who is back by businessman George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon). After premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, [...]
“Devil in the White City” to be a Hulu Mini Series
One man built a dream city on the shores of Lake Michigan, attracting tens of millions of visitors from around the world. Another built a nightmare hotel in a neighborhood near the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Erik Larson entwined the true stories of architect Daniel H. Burnham and serial killer H. H. Holmes into a fascinating narrative in his 2003 bestseller The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America. Twelve years after Paramount acquired the film rights to adapt Larson’s book into a film, the project is now moving [...]
Oct. 5, 2018: “Art and Design Chicago” episode “If You Build It….” on WTTW (Chicago)
Public Television station WTTW-11 in Chicago will be broadcasting a new four-part documentary series called Art and Design Chicago beginning on October 5 with an episode about the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. “If You Build It....”, hosted by Museum of Contemporary Art curator Naomi Beck, will explore the 1893 World’s Fair and sculptor Lorado Taft through stories told by artist Dessa Kirk and Mark Pohlad, Associate Professor of History of Art and Architecture at DePaul University. This first episode also highlights the School of the Art Institute (SAIC), the Institute of Design, the Southside Community Arts Center, and the [...]
Video of “The 125th Anniversary of The World’s Columbian Exposition: A Celebration” at Chicago History Museum (May 29, 2018)
A video recording “The 125th Anniversary of The World's Columbian Exposition: A Celebration” held at the Chicago History Museum on May 29, 2018, is available from CAN TV. The program featured Donald C. Meyer, Professor of Music at Lake Forest College, discussing his project to preserve sheet music associated with the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. Pianist Chris White, violinist Kate Carter, and baritone Brad Jungwirth performed pieces featured on their 2018 album Souvenir Music from the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. The video can be streamed at: https://archive.org/details/738122 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3plBfqML6uo
Virility on the Midway: “The Longest Beard in the World” (Death Valley Days, 1956)
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. [...]
Chicago: City of the Century (2003)
News of the passing of David Ogden Stiers on March 3 has garnered tributes to the actor’s unforgettable role on M*A*S*H and his voice performances for several animated film from Disney Studios. Mr. Stiers also played a small but valuable role in the history of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, serving as the narrator of one of the first documentaries about the great fair. Chicago: City of the Century, based on the 1996 book of the same title by Donald L. Miller, constituted three episodes in season 15 of the American Experience television series produced by WGBH Boston. Narrated [...]
“I’ll take the 1893 World’s Fair for $200, Alex”
Columbian Exposition fan Dorothy McFarland kindly shared with us some screenshots of the episode of Jeopardy that aired on January 17, 2018, which included the Round 1 category "The 1893 Chicago World’s Fair" ("You remember that," adds host Alex Trebek). The contestants did remember the fair, making a clean sweep of the category. Amanda Griggs provided the correct question to the $200 answer: "Illuminated by thousands of light bulbs, the building seen here was devoted to this new innovation for the home." Gilbert Collins knew the question for the $400 answer: and for the $600 answer: "The building at [...]
See the Midway, German Building, and Palace of Fine Arts on Film
The Chicago Tribune has posted a video mash-up of Chicago aerial scenes, pairing vintage film footage—shot in 1914 from a dirigible flying over the city—with modern video of the same locations. The German Building (looking south) Of particular interest to fans of the 1893 World’s Fair are scenes of the Midway Plaisance (shown at 3:45 minutes in the video) followed by a fly-over of the 58th Street Beach (at 4:15), where during the fair were the Great Britain Government Building ("Victoria House"), North Pier, and the (replica) U.S.S. Battleship Illinois. The dirigible then flies right past the [...]