FEATURES 18 Welcome to Philadelphia Preparing for the 1926 Sesqui-Centennial Expo Kevin Welsh, Features Editor This year, millions of tourists will flock to the City of Brotherly Love for the 1926 Sesqui-Centennial Exposition, commissioned to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The notion of the exposition was born in a meeting called by the Mayor of Philadelphia way back in November of 1920. This meeting led to the formation of the Committee of One Hundred, who chartered the Sesqui- Centennial Exposition Association. President Harding himself, with a feather-shaped pen carved from the wood of the yoke of the Liberty Bell, signed the Sesqui- Centennial Act. Since that fateful day, approximately $26 million has been poured into the expo site on League Island. Slowly, yet surely, League Island has taken shape, and the expo, nicknamed “Rainbow City” due to the pastel colours used on the stucco buildings, is generating a buzz up and down the east coast. Rainbow City has largely been erected in various palaces: The Palace of Agriculture and Food Products; The Palace of Machinery, Transportation, Mines, and Metallurgy; The Palace of Education and Social Economy; The Palace of Liberal Arts and Manufacturers; The Palace of Fashion; and The Palace of Fine Arts. These palaces will play home to 34 participating nations and 37 states and territories, each of whom are trying to outdo the oth- ers in a quest for a truly spectacular display. Sparing little in terms of cost and labour, some of the displays promise to be simply stunning, Japan’s display will include the Imperial Art Treasures. Great Britain has secured 50,000 sq. ft. of space in The Palace of Liberal Arts and will include the Royal Worchester and Royal Doulton China. Romania has erected a two-story Peasant House, while the Persian Pavilion has a reproduced ancient building from Persepolis with ancient manuscripts from the middle ages. Not to be outdone, Spain has built a repli- ca of the Tower of Gold of Seville, complete with a moat and a replica of the Castillo de Guadamur drawbridge, which will house Queen Isabella’s Jewel Casket. Surely, none will be as spectacular as India’s pavilion: a reproduc- tion of the Taj Mahal. Of course, the good old US of A means to be well rep- resented. Oklahoma has built a scale replica of the state capitol (at a cost of $100,000). California has erected an old Spanish Mission, while the Kansas Pavilion is in the shape of a sunflower. Not content with simply building a pavilion, Mississippi has also built a railway, where the “Know Mississippi Train” will shuttle visitors to and from the pavilion. Meanwhile, the Virgin Islands are sending the good ship “Vigilant,” an old pirate schooner. Visitors will enter Rainbow City by passing underneath a mammoth, 70-foot replica of the Liberty Bell, designed by engineers at the Washington Electric and Manufacturing Company. Two 55-foot pylons will support the bell, them- selves surmounted by colossal figures the organizers are calling, “Heralds of the New Dawn.” Once inside the gate, visitors will be treated to much more than pavilions. The Court of Honor is home to the Tower of Liberty, a 200-foot high structure that can be seen from most of Philadelphia. As well, two 62-inch searchlights form the Tower of Light. If sporting events are more your style, Rainbow City will have plenty to offer over the next few months. The International Billiards Championships, National Dog Show, National Golf Championship, Davis Cup Tennis, National Amateur Bicycling Championships, National Archery Championships, National ‘Track and Field Championships, and the National Baseball Federation Amateur Championships will all take place on exposition grounds. As well, the National Air Races will feature over 500 par- ticipants, the most ever in aviation competition. But the crowning jewel in the sporting event crown will be the recently scheduled Jack Dempsey-Gene Tunney prizefight. Composer John Philip Souza has composed the official music for the Sesqui-Centennial Exposition, and Leopold Stokowski will lead The Philadelphia Orchestra in two shows a week over 16 weeks in the brand new, 20,000-seat auditorium. A sign of things to come, Rainbow City will also host “talkies” and will display electric refrigerators. For the children, Treasure Island provides over five acres of amusement, complete with fairy-tale characters and miniature train, boat, and airplane rides. For the adult thrill-seeker, The Gladway is home to the entertainment sector and covers over 80 acres. Joy rides include the Missouri Mule, Skooter, Tumble Bug, and Bob’s Coaster. Making their debut at the expo is the Cyclone, a large, wooden roller coaster, and The Jazz Railway, a smaller, steel coaster. Six years in the making, the 1926 Sesui-Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia promises to be a can’t miss exhibit for the entire family and a roaring success for the city of Philadelphia. The gates open on June 1 and will close after the last day on November 30. Flop! What went wrong at Rainbow City? Kevin Welsh, Features Editor Flop—the last word any promoter, investor, or organizer wants to hear. Yet that’s exactly what everybody in Philadelphia is saying now that the 1926 Sesqui-Centennial Exposition has come to an end. At a cumulative price tag of $26 million dollars, Rainbow City had promised to be spectacular. And while it was, not nearly enough people showed up to experience it, despite the fact that more than half the population of the USA lives within a 500-mile radius of Philadelphia. Of course, the official purpose of the exposition was to cele- brate the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence- and it was a grand party. Yet, it is the bottom line that investors and promoters will always look at. Organizers had planned on a daily attendance of 200,000 peo- ple, for a grand total of 40 million visitors over the course of the exposition. In the six months that Rainbow City was open, a total of only 6 million people attended. Congress, which appropriated $2,186,500 for Federal participa- tion, is among those who want some answers, as do many resi- dents of Philadelphia, who feel the reputation of the City of Brotherly Love has been tarnished. Organizers are quick to point fingers at the unlucky bout of weather Philadelphia has incurred—it rained for more than half the days the exposition was opened. Others have suggested people stayed away because nobody knew what Sesqui-Centennial meant, and therefore were afraid of it.