This 1933 Technicolor film from Wilding Picture Productions, Inc. gives viewers a look at the 1933-1934 World’s Fair in Chicago, IL and doubles as an advertising piece for the Chrysler Corporation. The film opens with a shot of the fairgrounds. People walk through the park. Viewers see the Avenue of Flags (01:04), the Hall of Science across the lagoon, the Chrysler Motors Building (01:46; 05:57), and several of the international architecture buildings (Italy, China). A tower of the Sky Ride looms above the grounds (02:50); the transporter bridge moves the “rocket cars,” cable-car gondolas, across the lagoon. Men (possibly mounted Chicago policemen) ride horses down one of the main avenues of the fair (03:25). People walk through the European bazaars. Visitors ride a rollercoaster. Viewers see Admiral Richard Byrd’s flagship City of New York on display (04:52). There is a good panoramic shot of the fairgrounds. The film shows several buildings, including the Travel and Transport Building (05:35). Next to it is Chrysler’s Test Track (06:14). Cars are run through the proving ground track as viewers watch. Racecar driver and daredevil Harry Hart climbs into a Plymouth and races around the proving track. He stops the car and waves to the crowd. Two men climb into two cars (which also appear to be Plymouths), and they race across the dirt off-road section of the course (08:30). One of the cars flips over and it appears that water or gasoline leaks out. Men help tip the car upright and the driver starts racing the car again. The film concludes with the cars racing on the track.
A Century of Progress International Exposition was a World’s Fair registered under the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), which was held in Chicago, as The Chicago World’s Fair, from 1933 to 1934 to celebrate the city’s centennial. The theme of the fair was technological innovation. The fair’s motto was “Science Finds, Industry Applies, Man Adapts”, giving out a message that science and American life were wedded. Its architectural symbol was the Sky Ride, a transporter bridge perpendicular to the shore on which one could ride from one side of the fair to the other. One description of the fair noted that the world, “then still mired in the malaise of the Great Depression, could glimpse a happier not-too-distant future, all driven by innovation in science and technology.” Fair visitors saw the latest wonders in rail travel, automobiles, architecture and cigarette-smoking robots. The exhibition “emphasized technology and progress, a utopia, or perfect world, founded on democracy and manufacturing.”
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
