1939 – Pageant of the Pacific
The idea for the Golden Gate International Exposition came from San Francisco real estate guy Joseph Dixon as a way to celebrate the completion of The Bay and Golden Gate bridges. The idea quickly gained momentum as politicians, businessmen and ordinary citizens pondered over the opportunity to demonstrate local pride & patriotism, not to mention the money it would generate for the region. With a spectacular World’s Fair, San Francisco could claim cultural and economic leadership, proclaiming itself as the gateway to the Pacific.
Publicity and promotion started as early as 1937 as the island was completed and construction of the Fair got underway. Until it’s opening in 1939, the PR was non stop – and so was the schedule of a plucky young woman named Zoe Dell Lantis, the “Treasure Island Theme Girl.” Decked out in a risque pirate costume, she traversed the United States, showing up at country fairs and festivals, meeting with state governors and city mayors, and doing every publicity stunt they could think of. Zoe became the most photographed person of 1939/40 with over 300,000 pictures published!
The Fair officially opened on February 19, 1939. The cost of admission was 50 cents.
The purpose of the fair was to show off the latest advances in technology while entertaining the masses. Here’s what 400 acres of the Golden Gate International Exposition had to offer the fine people of San Francisco in 1939-40:
- A transparent Lucite Packard. That’s right, a see-through car!
- A fine art gallery with works by Botticelli and Salvador Dali
- Naked ladies at the Sally Rand Nude Ranch
- A working dairy and livestock pavilion
- The ‘Art In Action’ exhibit with artists creating their sculptures and paintings live – including a gigantic mural by socialist painter Diego Rivera, which now on display at the City College of San Francisco
- A Japanese pavilion
- A 40-acre carnival, called the “Gayway,” complete with thrill rides, freak shows, popcorn & candy, and a ferris wheel, which incidentally looked down into the dressing room of the Nude Ranch
- The equivalent of a hospital NICU for premature babies, apparently a standard exhibit at Worlds Fairs.
- Chinese rickshaw transportation between exhibits.
- Swimming entertainment by the Billy Rose Aquacade. Remember Esther Williams and Johnny Weismuller (aka, Tarzan)? They were there, along with our boy Sal DeGuarda!
- A fruitcake that weighed 1,000 pounds
- Live concerts & daily parades with dancing
- 5 shiny, new Boeing Clipper Ships….the transportation of choice for cross-pacific travel by the rich and famous.
Pan American Unity Mural at City College of San Francisco
photo courtesy of Richard R. Smith, SF City Guides
…and so much more!
A lot has changed in the past 70 years with regards to entertainment. Now we have television, the internet and Disneyland.
Despite the positive response of the masses, the Expo still lost money to the tune of $4 million.
Time to retool for the second year, the “Fair in Forty”.
Resources:
“An Island and a World’s Fair” by Richard Miller at Sparkletack.com
Reinhardt, Richard. Treasure Island 1939-1940: San Francisco’s Exposition Years. Mill Valley: SQUAREBOOKS, 1978.
Carpenter, Patricia F. & Totah, Paul, editors. The San Francisco Fair: Treasure Island 1939-1940. San Francisco: Scottwall Associates, 1989.
