Chicago's Grand Midway: A Walk Around the World at the Columbian Exposition (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780252082429)

Created as a centerpiece for the Columbian Exposition of 1893, the Midway Plaisance was for one summer the world's most wondrous thoroughfare. A journey along its length immersed millions of spellbound visitors in a spectacle that merged exoticism with enlightenment and artistic crafts with dizzying technical achievement. Norman Bolotin, with Christine Laing, draws on his vast knowledge of the 1893 exposition to escort readers down the Midway. Step by step he takes you past forbidding Dahomeyans and dozens of belly dancers until, at last, you reach the colossal Ferris Wheel with cabins the size of street cars. The tour reveals the immense scale and variety of the experience in sensual detail--the thirsty crowds and the pungent aromas of exotic foods, the Libbey Glass Factory and the screams from the Ice Railway, the snake charmers and the hawkers selling a thousand souvenirs. Throughout, Bolotin details how the organizers--encouraging patrons to spend a little here and a little there--brought off an extravaganza that paid its costs and achieved every one of its goals, including profitability for the fair and immortality.

Author: Norman Bolotin
ISBN-10: 0252082427
ISBN-13: 9780252082429
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Language: English
Published: 05/30/2017
Pages: 152
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 10.90h x 8.40w x 0.40d

Review Citation(s):
Booklist 05/15/2017 pg. 12