‘America’s greatest flop’: How the nation’s 150th celebration went so wrong

In the first years of the s the mayor of Philadelphia was the city s biggest proponent of having a Sesquicentennial to celebrate the th anniversary of the nation s founding W Freeland Kendrick was a real publicity hound He understood the value of media He was much more of a modern politician than numerous of his contemporaries He knew that hosting a achieving World s Fair would put Philadelphia on the world map that all cameras would be tuned to Philadelphia and they would be watching him disclosed Thomas Keels author of Sesqui Greed Graft and the Forgotten World s Fair of He received a number of dignitaries from around the world presidents foreign leaders royalty and diplomats He was politically ambitious as well He saw the governor s mansion in Harrisburg as his next step so he knew that hosting a profitable World s Fair would enhance his political future immensely Keels announced Originally there was a great deal of consensus about having a World s Fair And Philadelphia had successfully hosted the nation s th birthday party in which saw million people including nearly million paying customers show up to celebrate the nation its people and its industrious spirit Back in John Wanamaker the grand old man of Philadelphia department store magnate etc was the first one to suggest Philadelphia host a second World s Fair Keels noted and he was really its guiding light until he died in At that point things sort of fell apart We had had World War I by that point The country was still mired in a postwar recession Unemployment was high business conditions were depressed reported Keels who added that the prosperity of the decade why we remember it as The Roaring Twenties didn t start until There was also concern in this age of boss politics that the process was being corrupted by the influence of U S Rep Congressman William S Vare Vare basically owned everybody in city leadership disclosed Keels and that included the mayor So he was calling the shots through Kendrick Kendrick was moving the World s Fair from the new Fairmount Park the city s newest civic improvement down to the swamps of South Philadelphia because that was his home his congressional district and where all of his constituents lived Keels disclosed So plenty of Philadelphians began to separate themselves from the fair because they thought that it was becoming a tool of boss politics that Vare was only in it to get as much out of it as he could Philadelphia Mayor Freeland Kendrick and William Vare in Shriners debacle Kendrick was a former supreme potentate of the Shriners and conceived the idea of the Shriners Hospital which opened in One of Kendrick s the greater part unfortunate decisions was to pair a pre-Sesquicentennial visit by the nation s Shriners to their national convention even though various parts of the fairgrounds were incomplete So we do have something very positive to thank Freeland Kendrick for but he was realizing as the fair was getting closer and closer that it was going to be a very hard sell Keels stated It was just not pulling together The Shriners were going to celebrate their annual convention on May st Memorial Day so he arranged to have them hold their convention in Philadelphia Keels revealed The fairgrounds in South Philly along Broad Street They would be the guests of honor for the opening of the Sesquicentennial He knew they would bring lots of pageantry He would have at least visitors from the Shriners alone so there would be a crowd for that and that that might detract from any of the unfinished business the fact that greater part of the buildings were still under construction nothing was really open none of the displays had been mounted Keels commented After three days the Shriners went home with bad impressions and communicated people across the country that the event was a flop and not to bother coming for it And so the Sesqui stumbled coming out of the gate It never really recovered from that first PR nightmare Keels declared Presidential snub Like the Centennial the President now Calvin Coolidge was invited to attend and participate in the opening and closing ceremonies Coolidge however had his own agenda Keels revealed His presidential predecessor was Warren G Harding whose term was rocked by corruption including the Teapot Dome outrage So Coolidge was trying to show that he was a straighten up and fly right president Keels reported He did not really want to be associated with the Sesqui because he like a lot of Philadelphians saw it as a pet project of Boss Vare Coolidge evidenced up on Monday July th He wouldn t go there for July th because that was a Sunday and you had lots of Philadelphians and Americans who were furious that the fair was opening on the Sabbath And so he proved up with Mrs Coolidge for three or four hours He basically took a whirlwind tour of the Sesquicentennial gave a talk then got in a motor car and zipped over to Camden to celebrate the opening of the Delaware River Bridge what we call the Ben Franklin Bridge He really tried to keep arm s length between him and what he saw as a tainted project Keels noted A rendering of the Tower of Light planned for the Sesquicentennial International Exposition Tichnor Quality Views Jefferson University Philadelphia Postcards collection Keels added that plenty of Republicans in Congress felt the same way and held back on the expected financial sponsorship The fair planners were expecting to get million Keels stated From Congress they got about million which was a drop in the bucket even back then and it was not voted through until March of less than three months before the fair opened The exhibition opened with a heavy downpour of rain Within the first hour less than had entered the gates of the fairgrounds The first though at a m was symbolic Jacob J Henderson stated newspapers he had been to the Centennial with his parents and did not want to miss the opening day of the Sesquicentennial The Rainbow City The fairgrounds were called the Rainbow City because multiple buildings were stucco tinted in pastel hues and lit with colored lights at night At the Sesquicentennial entrance was a huge replica of the Liberty Bell without a crack located at Oregon Plaza The -foot -ton Liberty Bell was studded with -watt light bulbs The rim of the bell stood feet above Broad Street allowing cars and people to pass underneath Two -foot encouragement towers decorated with carved garland and topped by stone eagles supported the structure After the fair the bell s components were sold for a combined and the structure was demolished in The fairgrounds of the World s Fair in South Philly in an area that would later become the stadium complex area A giant stadium was built on South Broad Street It hosted a speech by President Coolidge and other events for the fair including the first Gene Tunney-Jack Dempsey fight for the heavyweight boxing championship It had more than seats Afterwards it was called Municipal Stadium and was home for countless years to the Army-Navy college football games Later it was renamed JFK Stadium in honor of the slain president It featured performances by the Rolling Stones and other top acts and hosted Live Aid in It was demolished in During its run the fair drew a much smaller crowd than anticipated about million people half of the Centennial And it rained a lot on of its days Variety dubbed it America s Greatest Flop with millions of dollars lost by August The exposition ended up unable to cover its debts and was placed into receivership in at which point its assets were sold at auction Avi Wolfman-Arent wrote about the World s Fair as part of his Headlines of Yore series The post America s greatest flop How the nation s th celebration went so wrong appeared first on Billy Penn at WHYY