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The 1904 Videos and DVDs |
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Several videos have been published about the
Louisiana Purchase Exposition, better known as the 1904 World's Fair. These
videos vary in content, quality, and availability.
The videos are grouped and listed to their
currency, newest at the top. The 1904 World's Fair Society sells the first two
videos to its members and at special events in the
Two recent DVDs/videos have been published about the Fair
1. The World's Greatest Fair is a
2-hour documentary about the 1904 World's Fair, composed in a Ken Burns style.
Shot in high-definition digital video, the story of the Fair is told through a
series of theme-oriented segments. Each chapter has vintage pictures that make
the Fair "come alive" with their detail and depth, quotes from Fair
attendees (read by notable St. Louisans), and interviews with contemporary Fair
experts and historians. Several short pictures of the Fair (from kinescopes)
are also included.
Produced in 2003-4 by Technisonic Studios and directed by Bob Miano and Scott
Hugerich, it has won 3 regional Emmys as well as several other major awards.
There's even an entry for it on the Internet Movie Database.
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Some 150 volunteers — writers,
researchers, historians and voice talent (and many from the 1904 World's Fair
Society) — worked more than a year and a half to create this engaging,
critically acclaimed documentary. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch described the documentary
as "one of the greatest gifts to the city of The World's Greatest Fair is available from PBS (DVD or VHS), and on DVD
from the You can find out more at: http://www.civilpictures.com/index.php?fuseaction=main.1904 |
Chapters in The World's Greatest Fair include:
1.
Opening/Introduction: Overview
2. Something to Prove: David R. Francis, President of the Louisiana Purchase
Exposition Company
3. The Great Steel
4. The Mile of Mirth: The Pike
5. The Light of Inspiration: Inventions at the Fair
6. Dead Man's Curve: A Train Wreck in western
7. Dusty Comets: The Auto "Race" to the Fair
8. An American Entrepreneur: E. G. Lewis
9. A Different Tune: Music at the Fair
10. The Third Olympiad: 1904 Olympics held during the Fair
11. A Woman's View: Jessie Tarbox Beals, female photographer
12. Curiosities: Foreign People
13. Savagery on Display: The Igorottes
14. A World of Art: Art at the Fair
15. A Gentle Touch: Tom Bass, an African-American horse trainer
16. The Issue of Race: Discrimination at the Fair
17. Food Fact and Fiction: Food at the Fair
18. Closing
2. I Was There...Memories of the 1904
World's Fair was produced by the
1904 World's Fair Society in 1988-1990. This living history features interviews
with 28 people who went to the Fair when they were children in 1904. Bob Miano,
a Society member, also helped record and produce this documentary (originally
produced on VHS). It's about 43 minutes
of interview and pictures, and is available on DVD from the 1904 World's Fair Society.
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The jacket for I Was There... has
the following introduction and overview: -- World’s Fairs of the
Victorian Era attracted millions of people from around the world, and reached
an apex in 1904 at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in |
Three older videos have also been published about the Fair
3.
NEW
The 1904 St. Louis World's Fair: Yesterday and Today was produced
by Father Bernard Wilkins of St. Louis. It was released in 2008, and is
available from the producer.
The video captures and updates a long-running slide show produced by the author
in the early 1990s. In the slide show (later captured on video), many
views of the World's Fair "blend" into contemporary views of Forest Park.
In this video, the author takes the contemporary views a step further:
black and white views of the Fair "blend" into contemporary color videos of
Forest Park. The blending is done in sections, so that various portions of
a view slowly change into the other scene, the ground, the sky, the foreground,
then the main section. The effects are truly amazing and clearly portray
the magnitude and magnificence of the Fair.
4. A World on Display was written and directed by Eric Breitbart in 1994,
produced by Eric Breitbart and Mary Lance, by New Deal Films, Inc. The video
was released in February 1996. 53 min. VHS video.
Focusing on the experiences of white American fair-goers who marveled at the
architecture, technology, and peoples exhibited at the fair, A World on
Display takes a nostalgic look back at a time "when going to a world's
fair in St. Louis was like a voyage to a far-off universe."
A World on Display begins with interviews with several people who visited the
fair when they were young children. Fair-goers testify to the profound effect
it had upon their lives and their memories of the Fair. Contemporary historians
also provide insight and perspective.
The video presents a wide range of the fair's attractions in segments,
including the carnival-like entertainment available on the Pike, the wonderment
of Fair-goers at new technologies, and the many vistas and exhibits. The views
include both rare pictures and also archival motion pictures, showing the
Fair's gigantic palaces, a concession that recreated the Galveston Flood, and
Westinghouse's films showing its
Though this video is out of print, it is available at the Missouri Historical
Society.
5. Nothing Impossible: The Story of
the
Dick Smith, a
This video is out of print.
6.
Early Motion Pictures of World's Fairs and Expositions. New Deal
Films, Inc, 1997
Several archival "paper-print" films from the Library of Congress are
presented about three major Victorian-era World's Fairs, and also some segments
on amusement parks. The films are silent and presented in their entirety.
Chapters include the Exposition Universelle at
This video is out of print.