[In honor of this once-in-four-years phenomenon, I wanted to highlight and AmericanStudy a few interesting leap years from American history.]
On five of
the many cultural legacies of the 1904
World’s Fair (also known as the Louisiana Purchase Exposition) in St. Louis.
1)
Fair Foods: As is often the case with large
public events like fairs, the 1904 World’s Fair didn’t necessarily debut many
of its striking innovations, but it did feature them and thus bring them to
more widespread attention. That was never more true than with its
culinary highlights, a partial list of which includes: hamburgers
and hot dogs, ice cream cones, cotton
candy, Dr. Pepper
and 7Up sodas, and Puffed
Wheat cereal. Visitors to this epic fair could truly eat their way into
American history!
2)
Flight: The Wright
Brothers’ first manned flight had taken place less than six months before
the fair’s April 30th opening, and as you’d expect flight became a
central focus for the fair’s exhibits. That included the famous “Airship
Contest,” which promised a $100,000 prize (nearly $3 million in our
current society) to any flying machine which could successfully navigate the
“Aeronautic Concourse” while traveling at 15 miles per hour or higher. Although
no vehicle won the prize, the fair did feature a ground-breaking act of flight,
as Thomas
Scott Baldwin and Roy Knabenshue’s dirigible became the first such airship to fly
in public.
3)
The Summer
Olympics: The modern version of the Olympic Games began in 1896 in Athens, and the
second games were held in conjunction with the 1900
Paris Exposition. So it made sense that the first games held
outside of Europe would be similarly paired with the 1904 Fair, but in fact Chicago
was initially awarded the 1904 games and they were only moved to St. Louis
when the fair organizers threatened to hold an alternate contest. Partly for
that reason, and partly because St. Louis was more difficult to reach, Olympics founder Baron Pierre de
Coubertin did not attend, nor did many international athletes (nearly 600
of the 651 competing athletes came from North America). But holding the games
outside Europe at all, and in the US specifically, was a significant step
nonetheless, and one tied to the 1904 World’s Fair.
4)
Kate
Chopin: Chopin, one of America’s most talented turn of the 20th
century authors and both a native and longtime resident of St. Louis, was only
54 when she attended the fair on August 20th (she had bought a season
ticket and had attended many prior times as well). That day was one of the
hottest of the summer, however, and that night Chopin called her son
complaining of a severe headache. It is believed that she had a cerebral
hemorrhage; the next day she fell unconscious, and she died without waking on August
22nd. She would be prominently buried in the city’s
Calvary Cemetery, one more reflection—as was the World’s Fair
itself—of the deep interconnections between St. Louis and this ground-breaking
literary voice.
5)
“Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis”: I don’t want to
end on that tragic note, so here’s one more way the World’s Fair continued to
echo into American culture long after it closed its gates on December 1st.
The aforementioned song was written in response to the fair and recorded by
many artists over the years (perhaps the first being Billy Murray’s version, recorded
while the fair was still ongoing), but became especially prominent through Judy Garland’s performance in the
1944 movie Meet Me in St. Louis. Thanks
to that film, and the late 20th
century Broadway musical adaptation of the same title, the 1904
World’s Fair seems destined to stay in our collective memories beyond even
these various, striking influences.
Next leap
year studying tomorrow,
Ben
PS.
Thoughts on this year or other leap years that stand out to you?
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