Twenty-Seven Million People Saw It. Nine Months Later It Was Gone

<p>In 1893, Chicago drained a swamp on Lake Michigan and built a city out of plaster and light. They called it the White City. About twenty-seven million visits were made to it — in a country of sixty-five million people.</p><p>It gave us the Ferris wheel. It settled the argument over how electricity would work. It launched Cracker Jack, Juicy Fruit, Shredded Wheat, and the zipper. Frederick Douglass gave one of the great unscripted speeches of his life there. And then, nine months after the gates closed, almost every building was ash.</p><p>Sarah and Scott go to the fair — and stay for the very strange ending nobody tells you about.</p><p><b>In this episode:</b></p><ul><li><b>Top 10 Greatest Moments of the 1893 World's Fair</b> — the first Ferris wheel, the night they turned on 100,000 electric lights, the dishwasher that won top honors, and the two inventions everyone at the fair completely ignored</li><li><b>Rapid Fire &amp; Would You Rather</b> — you've got one day at the fair, where do you run? Would you rather have invented the zipper or the dishwasher?</li><li><b>From the News Desk: What Happened to the White City</b> — the winter squatters, the fire that took seven palaces in a single night, the Ferris wheel they blew up with dynamite, and the one building still standing in Chicago today</li><li><b>From the News Desk: The Last Saturday</b> — the mayor of Chicago was assassinated two days before closing day, and the greatest celebration ever planned became a funeral</li><li><b>The Hullabaloo Debate</b> — is the Ferris wheel the most overrated ride ever invented?</li></ul><p>Tomfoolery &amp; Hullabaloo is a family friendly comedy and history podcast for ages 8 to 80 — designed to make you laugh and think. New episodes weekly.</p><p></p><p>If you came here from Devil in the White City — we cover the real fair Erik Larson built his book around; not the murderer HH Holmes. We are saving him for another episode!</p><p></p><p><i>Keywords: 1893 Chicago World's Fair, World's Columbian Exposition, the White City, first Ferris wheel, Nikola Tesla, Daniel Burnham, Frederick Law Olmsted, Frederick Douglass, Chicago history, American history podcast, family friendly podcast, history fun facts, weird history, homeschool history, clean comedy podcast</i></p>