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| Brief History of
White City
Opened in 1905, White City was one of the South Side's most popular entertainment venues. The amusement park, which for many years overshadowed the North Side's Riverview Park as the city's favorite, was located at 63rd Street and South Parkway (now Martin Luther King Drive). White City's front gate sat just a few steps from the South Side Elevated, which made the park an attraction not just for South Siders, but for West and North Siders as well. Brightly lit at night by thousands of lights, the park was a dazzling sight to behold. But patrons were equally taken with White City's enjoyable attractions, including several roller coasters, a chute-the-chutes, two ballrooms, inexpensive eats, and its landmark Electric Tower. Though parts of the park remained in operation into the 1950s, most of White City was shut down in 1934, when financial difficulties sent the park into bankruptcy. The park's name--White City--was a reference to the monumental, Beaux Arts architectural style of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Jackson Park.
As "wholesome" as White City may have been, it was not considered without its temptations, at least in the eyes of many Chicagoans. In 1909, members of the conservative Chicago Law and Order League publicly denounced many of the park's amusements as lewd, immoral, and bad influences upon young children. They were especially upset over dancing shows in which young male patrons, for a few pennies, were entertained by female performers wearing little more than a few well-placed silk scarves. In later years, the Casino dance hall was often criticized by members of the Juvenile Protection Association as morally suspect. They cited, among other things, how little clothing many of the female dancers wore and the carefree consumption of alcoholic beverages by many of the Casino's teenage patrons. That much of the music was played by all-black jazz bands such as the Charles Elgar and Charles Cook bands likely heightened racist observers' suspicions about the "wholesomeness" of White City for white middle-class youths. Partly due to a large fire in the late 1920s and partly due to the economic hardship of the Depression, much of White City's amusements had been shut down by the mid-1930s. Stiff competition from the growing Cottage Grove entertainment district, particularly the new Trianon Ballroom, also drew thrill-seekers away from the park. In 1937, only one dance hall, the roller rink, the basketball courts, and the bowling alleys remained in operation. White City closed for good soon thereafter. Opening Year Attractions From its first day of operation, White City was jam-packed with thrilling rides and entertaining attractions. What follows is a summary of the major features of the park in 1905, White's City's opening year. As with any amusement park, many of these attractions were replaced in subsequent years to keep attendance figures as high as possible.
Devil's Gorge Exhibit, White City Amusement Park, ca. 1908 White City's Boardwalks One of White City's more unusual attractions were its two boardwalks. Like pathways through a modern shopping mall, the parallel boardwalks ran the length of the park and had been designed to channel visitors from one end of White City to the other. There was only one way into White City and that was through its colossal front gate at the corner of 63rd Street and South Parkway. Once inside the park, visitors proceeded down either the east or the west boardwalk to the south end of the park. From there, they generally returned to the north end via the opposite boardwalk, pausing along the way to enjoy rides and attractions that caught their interest. Together with the park's other structures, the boardwalks helped distance visitors from the troubles of urban life. The buildings that housed the White City's shows, rides, and eateries surrounded the boardwalks and provided a visual buffer between the fantasy world inside the park and the wild metropolis just beyond its gates. 
West Board Walk and the Canals of Venice Ride, White City Amusement Park, ca. 1908 The boardwalks, however, were much more than a mode of transportation for park patrons or a way by which to obscure White City's urban setting. For one, they were a key component to the park's rather whimsical appearance that, in various ways, burlesqued the typical street scenes of everyday Chicago. Through their use of wooden walkways, garish statuary, and dazzling light displays, the park's designers offered patrons an outlandish version of the Loop and other crowded parts of the city. The aim was to amuse and lighten the hearts of urbanites who felt overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle and soaring skyscrapers of the booming metropolis. By surviving White City's physical oddities, including its extraordinarily peculiar walkways, Chicagoans presumably might be better equipped to withstand the psychological trauma of walking through crowded streets in the Loop and other Chicago neighborhoods. At the same time, the boardwalks provided what was in all likelihood the most widely experienced form of entertainment at White City-- people-watching. As thousands of Chicagoans streamed up and down the boardwalks, there were ample opportunities for visitors to observe others and to be observed by others. The art of people-watching was no different at White City than at any other place where crowds gather in a safe, but anonymous urban setting. Park-goers entertained themselves by assessing the clothes people wore, eavesdropping on passing conversations, and stealing furtive glances of attractive members of the opposite sex. Park managers heartily encouraged visitors to people-watch. They placed hundreds of park benches along the boardwalks facing the crowds and held shows in the park's sunken gardens that attracted crowds that were easily surveyed from the boardwalks above. On a more practical level, White City's boardwalks helped the park's managers deal with the unending problem of litter and waste disposal. Certainly, trash receptacles and cleaning crews were crucial to maintaining the park's generally tidy appearance, but the boardwalks chipped in as well. Raised four feet above the ground and laid out with one-half-inch crevasses between planks, much of the daily accumulations of popcorn, peanut shells, candy wrappers, soda straws, and ticket stubs produced by visitors simply fell through the cracks in the boardwalk, never to be seen again. When the park opened in 1905, White City's owners heralded waste management as the most attractive, but least appreciated feature of the boardwalks. Apparently, they had few concerns about the health risks posed by this practice and the varmints it surely attracted. Related Newspaper Articles "White City is Opened" "White City Makes Its Bow to Thousands of Guests..." "White City, Host to 35,000,000, Welcomes Crowds..." "Trip Down the Boardwalk Nets Laughs, Thrills" Online Resources Photograph: Fun House Interior, White City, June 1915 [Library of Congress] Photograph: Crowd in White City Ballroom, August 1915 [Library of Congress] Photograph: White City at Night, July 1916 [Library of Congress] Photograph: Roller Coaster, White City, 1926 [Library of Congress] Photograph: Carousel, White City, 1926 [Library of Congress] Photograph: Roller Coaster Incline, White City, 1927 [Library of Congress] Photograph: Women on Ride, White City, 1927 [Library of Congress] Photograph: Fire Damage and Debris, White City, 1927 [Library of Congress] Photograph: Fun House Interior, White City, 1927 [Library of Congress] Photograph: Gondola Ride, White City, 1927 [Library of Congress] Photograph: Fun House Exterior, White City, 1927 [Library of Congress] Photograph: Children on Airplane Ride, White City, 1927 [Library of Congress] Photograph: Fire-Eater, White City, 1928 [Library of Congress] Photograph: Group of Newsboys on Ride, White City, 1928 [Library of Congress] Photograph: Miniature Train Ride, White City, 1928 [Library of Congress] Suggested Reading · Stan Barker, "Paradises Lost," Chicago History 22 (March 1993), 26-49. · Judith A. Adams, The American Amusement Park Industry: A History of Technology and Thrills (Twayne Publications, 1991). |
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Page authored: 12
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