Exhibit Statictics:
Building cost: 70,000 dollars
Price of Admission- 25 cents adults 15 cents children.
Exhibition Profit- 173,403.58
A 200 x 50 foot full-sized replica of the ocean liner- "Discoverer," in water was the starting point for the proceedings. Visitors would board the Atlantic liner and observe the daily life of an arctic adventurer. Inside, mechanisms and moving artwork outside the portholes gave the illusion that the vessel was at sea. Storms brought forth lifeboats and the visitors were evacuated until it was `deemed safe,’ to return the boat, where the entertainment continued. The showstopper was Senor Cameroni hanging from his teeth 150 feet high, until he swung down 2,142 feet to the ground.
The final leg of their journey was in a large auditorium that gave the illusion that they were still on the boat, moving through ice flows. A realistic Aurora Borealis was shown in the sky.
After a 20 minute voyage, visitors arrived at the North Pole, which was shown to look like a Jules Verne-like Hyperborean world of tropical climate surrounded by the cold world of ice. 500 visitors at a time could partake of this attraction.
Lee Gaskins' AT THE FAIR The 1904 St. Louis World's Fair
Web Design and Art/Illustration copyrighted 2008
A view from the southeast of the New York to the North Pole concession under construction for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition -- the 1904 World's Fair. A Pike concession, it was located south of the Pike strip, west of the Palace of Transportation
