The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America Part III, Chapter 4 Summary

Night Is the Magician

  • The fair provides visitors with a vision of what a city could be (and should be).
  • "The Black City to the north lay steeped in smoke and garbage, but here in the White City of the fair visitors found clean public bathrooms, pure water, an ambulance service, electric streetlights, and a sewage-processing system that yielded acres of manure for farmers" (3.4.1).
  • Visitors are delighted by live music and see the first moving pictures on Edison's Kinetoscope. They also see lightning chatter from Nikola Tesla's body.
  • Among other novelties at the fair are: an all-electric kitchen including an automatic dishwasher, Aunt Jemima's pancakes, zippers, Juicy Fruit gum, Cracker Jacks, Shredded Wheat, and Pabst Blue Ribbon beer.
  • The fair is so big, the Columbian Guards find themselves being asked all sorts of questions, such as where the pope was staying (he wasn't actually there).
  • Visitors enjoyed the nighttime spectacle, where illuminations were some people's first encounter with electricity.