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| 1933 Century of Progress Exposition Documents |
Deny Official Status to Nazi Fair Envoy
Chicago Is Ready for Role of Host to Fifty Million
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By John Stone
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Source: Chicago Daily Times, 26 May 1933, pgs. 1, 3.
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Scrubbed to glistening cleanliness, Chicago today was ready to play host to the world in one of the greatest gatherings of modern times at A Century of Progress exposition.
But one of the official delegates speeding to the city from all corners of the earth for the grand opening tomorrow morning, will be just another paid admission, so far as the fair official staff is concerned.
He is Hans Weidemann, representative of Adolf Hitler, chancellor of Germany, whose dodging of crowds in New York caused a riot.
Not Recognized by Fair
"Germany was asked officially to join in plans for the exposition long ago and declined," an official of the fair said today. "Since then President Rufus Dawes has issued no official invitation and any delegate sent by Germany will be an individual, not recognized by Mr. Dawes as the representative of Germany.
"He will be welcome," the official said, "as will be the 50,000,000 other guests expected."
More than 350,000 of that huge expected attendance will be on hand when the great show opens tomorrow morning, officials believe. Other thousands will be lining Michigan ave. for the inaugural parade.
Meanwhile, under proclamation of Mayor Edward J. Kelly, the city was set for a blast of joyous clamor to "be heard round the world" and signal a march back to prosperity.
The day was proclaimed as one of celebration and rejoicing by Mayor Kelly and he asked that all factory whistles, all auto sirens, all bells and everything that can make a joyous noise, sound out to the world at 9:30 a.m. The fact that the second Chicago World's Fair is open and ready to show what the "little [pg. 3] village on the swamps of Lake Michigan" has done since growing up.
Centers on Fair Buildings
All the excitement centered round a bizarre architectural symphony of white, green, red, yellow and blue on the lake front just south of the downtown family of skyscrapers.
For five months that striking collection of odd structures set in a modern landscaping as untraditional as the music of Strawinsky, will house the best the world can offer in science, the arts, industry and pleasure.
Fifty million people are expected to come, see and be conquered. They will bring money and the will to spend. Spending will set the wheels of industry going, and when it's all over Chicago will have pointed the way to good times.
So hope Mayor Kelly, Rufus Dawes, president of the fair, and all the others of general headquarters staff.
Chicago Says, "Come, See"
Hence the ringing of bells, the screaming of sirens, the closing of workshops, public buildings and many offices on the day when Chicago says to the world, "Come and see."
Advance guards of the millions were entrenched in downtown hotels today and preparations to greet the main army were under way. From the star Arcturus, a beam of light which left home during the Columbian exhibition 40 years ago was traveling towards Chicago 186,000 miles a second, bent on setting up a photo-electric impulse which will turn on the fair's spectacular lighting system tomorrow evening.
The star whose beam is to set off one of the most brilliant electric effects ever seen, will be visible to the naked eye tomorrow night at 9:15, when the fun starts, Prof. Walter Bartky of the University of Chicago said. It will be slightly east of the center of the heavens. It is orange in color. It is the sixth brightest star in the heavens. Its volume is 20,000 times that of the sun.
Four Observations Aid
Four observatories will have their telescopes trained on Arcturus at the zero hour in case local cloudiness interferes with the celestial plans. Yerkes observatory of the University of Chicago, those of Harvard university, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Illinois will all be hooked up with the Chicago fair lighting system. When the signal is given the star beam will pass into the photo-electric unit, be stepped up thousands of times, and send the impulse that starts things off.
[End of news article]
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Page compiled: 14 January 2006
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