[inaudible conversations] hayek, while code tonight to buffalo new york for our regular book event, the author series presented by attacking my folks. My name is leslie stansky, director here and its my pleasure to welcome a very special guest, margaret creighton, has written a wonderful new book about the panamerican exhibition, which did happen here in buffalo and mark sommer, writer for the buffalo news. Hes going to be having a conversation with margaret and then we are going to open it up to members of the audience. Thank you so much for being here. [applause] hayek, margaret. Hi there, mark. Welcome to everybody here tonight. Good turnout. I really liked the other side called a rainbow in city. I thought it was the best work of history to make history really come alive. E. Its one of those rare books about buffalo history that does just that. Many people here know the city of light, which talks about the pan American Exposition of buffalo looked like in 1901 the eighth largest city in the United States and a very prosperous city. As the great work of historical fiction about that time period. Your book is really the first yes fulllength book that really focuses specifically on the history in buffalo. I see now, major events in the United States and is no longer l the case. Buffalo is really only one, but without to ever host a world fair in the United States. It hasnt happened since 1984 in new orleans and the next will be, anyone know . Probably not. 2017 and kazakhstan in the United States one of the 101 countries to participate in the world fair. But the position occurred during what was called a squid the grand era of world fairs, whos really at that deal for buffalo to host the world fair. Margaret, talk about that. What does it mean for buffalo at that time to host a world fair . Great question. First, but may thank leslie as well as key banks. So buffalo as many of you know was a big deal in the 20th atur century. We see that same kind of up to medicine and resurgence now. But he was very proud of its accomplishments. It had stateoftheart architecture and had the plainest asphalt streets in the country. It had electric streetcars, electric lights. As big 350,000 people in 20th century and one of the things that help to do was become bigger. Om and raise its profile a little bit. One of the ways cities do this is to host a huge exposition. They have big, big ideas that its exposition would be even more grand than the world fair that took place in chicago in 1893. Electricity was still new and it played a really big part of the fair. Buffalo is kind of a deacon of life. Can you talk about how dazzling it looked dazzling it like to admit that these foster palaces that were the death with 400foot tall tower. The electric tower was one of the signature buildings at the d exposition. It is really all about many ways. It celebrated the commander with the natural world, represented by Niagara Falls. Giant transformers were set up on the ground to bring electric currents into the fair and eliminate. The big event of the day was the elimination that took place and stop every night. Period people were on this. They tried to see what were initially little pinpricks of light, and blossom into a beautiful yellow and orange glos that brought the whole fairgrounds alive. This is one of the biggest hits of the fair. The choice of color, how the colors were used all the big story. Can you show that . Is all about pride and western civilization. The fair directors wanted to convey a message about how people had moved, particularly the United States has moved from a position of savagery to kind of the apex of civilization. So they translated this message into the colors of the fair. When you entered on the periphery of the ground, you would he and cheering at places where buildings were attempted warm reds and oranges and downloads that represented the Margaret Berry gray says and as you moved towards the elect are tower, the building grew more and more pale and faded and then he reached again the signature building, the electric tower which was painted in green, yellow and white. So it was not very difficult for people to understand the allegory here about race. In the same way color was used, people of color were portrayed in a particularly, amazingly disturbing ways. There were signs of conquest from what youve written. The there was an africa exhibit with people, deal plantations, the way native americans were depicted including geronimo, from the state prison in oklahoma. So you know, reading the stories now, it is really shocking. It is distressing to us now. We have to remember this was the era of jim crow, of course the era of segregation in the gene, so it shouldnt be surprising to us as we look back in the how the fair officials put this all together and its a story about supremacy, particularly race supremacy and they conveyed their notions about this through exhibits ,com,com ma because you mentioned the Old Plantation, which brought an africanamerican performers to enact the socalled good old days before the civil war. And these were performers who picked cotton and sang and danced, battery. This is for decades after the civil war and this is happening in the United States. Thats right. Postreconstruction when they had the reconciliation between the white sox and the white north, which placed africanamerican in a position of struggle and challenge. Something else the people i think when they read your book will really be thrown for a loop has to do with animal welfare. Theres a couple of event were very shocking. When in the book tells of a public execution, the plan public execution of an elephant vanish in the two. The first very beloved animal that was paraded around the country. And the mass slaughter of dogs that actually occurred at the panama American Exposition which people were paying an extra t ticket to witness, perhaps you can tell us a little bit about those. Lets start with the dogs. I would say this is one of the most shocking i came across which was in buffalo shelters and buffalo parks, dogs were rounded up, terriers, crossbreed rounded up and then brought to the fair where they were killed and then the native people at the fair if those dogs in a dog feasts. The Humane Society and buffalo was very progressive, one of the Second Society in the united state. They were very distressed by this, but at the same time, they wanted to acknowledge the cultural traditions of the native performers like geronimo that helped orchestrate this. So they didnt want to interfere. It is a very troubling event, but it was also an event that revealed the cultural tensions and challenges of this fair. There were some positive aspects in their depictions of people who are not from the United States, particularly latin american countries. There was after all the pan American Exposition. From reading your book as some think latin american countries wouldve gotten short shrift in previous world fairs is not the case in buffalo. Thats right. One of the things buffalo should be proudest of is the way they invited that american republics to be part of this exposition and gave them a platform on which to speak and talk back to the United States, particularly, for instance, cuba. It had recently a war in cuba and are now very much involved in covering cuba. Cuban dignitaries came and said we preferred the United States would give us our complete freedom. So they gave these countries a vivid space in which they could so show off their accomplishments,t their educational products, it better, but it also gave them a way to talk back, to rebut American Foreign policy, which is pretty interesting. If you dont mind, maybe we can take them one at a time. Mansoor got, everyones familiar with him. The person whose name is usually followed right before with the word anarchist, the assassin from cleveland of William Mckinley at the temple of music. You have a lot to say about him. Hes quite an unusual guy. Yeah, hes an unusual guy and i think the way i framed the story was to talk a little bit about his desire to be an anarchist or the anarchist community really embrace hemp for certain after the assassination himself. But to also talk about his mental illness. He clearly was a sick man and he also gave the number of short little speeches about how he was driven and motivated by being unemployed and by being unablece to get access to hospitals, physicians and health care. We dont want much sympathy because he did terrible things, but he brought up issues that are real issues and the continuous and then we discuss. So, i never say his name right. Its interesting because in buffalo, the papers came out and it was pronounced and yet im reading other interpretations. So perhaps they have people here who could help us pronounce this name. Anybody . Okay, we will go with choate. So he set temple of music with a revolver in his hand waiting to kill the president. As someone else in mind named jim parker. Hes the next play than he was there because he wanted to shake hands with the president. So instead he winds up corralling parker to the ground and that there is to celebrate it, as a black man who, you know, got a guy who shot the president , then later something happened in history has turned on its head and it has very unfortunate effects on the rest of mr. Parkers life. Jim parker of tackle the assassin and immediately was recognized as one of the heroes of the moment because he prevented him from firing a third round. For a while, and he next eight days he was the heroes was the hero who mightve saved his life. A funny thing happened after he was hailed as the savior, hes certainly got the secret service that other individuals for their ticker at the press that, coming out and saying we certainly did our job. Batman wasnt there at all. He and in the trial, James Parkers testimony was never called for, never called on and he disappeared or he was edited out in the race from the of the event. He went around the country for pretty much the rest of his life talking on street corners, meeting people in various churches and so forth, talking about the role he had played begging people to believe him and eventually died in philadelphia, found on the street and destitute. Very tragic. One of the people who rants largest in your book, the person you write about, only two feet tall. Known as chiquita. Chiquita is one of my favorite characters in the story. These are all nonfiction real people. Chiquita was born in guadalajarr and she was about 26 inches tall and was discovered by Frank Bostock living in new york and was brought to the fair is one of the highlights of the midway. And she was named the mascot of the exposition, which she was tiny. She was a little person. They redefine her as a cuban in that of mexican and the fact that she was the mascot was sort of a perfect representation of what the United States saw as its relationship with cuba. Uncle sam, the protector of this Little Island nation. So she became a celebrated individual. She was not treated very well by her manager and at one point area late in the acquisition, she left very suddenly. I dont want to run the story, but its quite a dramatic departure. A lot of people here are familiar with the story. She was the first woman to go and a barrel, go over Niagara Falls and she survived. She lived it. She hoped to capitalize on nymex. And make a whole lot of money. Didnt really happen, did it . She was destitute like so many other characters here, doing crazy things and she decided she would make money were later life by going over it in the first person to survive and i dont want to spoil banks, but she she becomes a credible celebrity, especially in the last days. But people dont think when they look at her, something doesnt seem quite right ensured bills herself as the 40yearold and actions around 64. She describes herself as a dancing teacher. People think you know, she doesnt look that lender. And she did this amazing thing and then one at the go on the road with the show and the problem was her manager couldnt convince people that she had actually done this daredevil trick because she didnt fit the part. She was that young. She wasnt beautiful. She didnt want like a spunky attraction. So eventually, one of her managers stole her barrel, this put somebody into play the part and she was left to sell postcards and Niagara Falls for almost the rest of her life. Said there is a lot riding on this in buffalo that basically the ruling class ponied up half a million dollars, which was even a lot more money than it is today by a long shot in a mattes of hours. They had commitments for that much money because they wanted it in buffalo not detroit. So there was a lot of pressure to get a big return financially. In the end, 8 Million People went through the turnstile. Id be a lot of people. From reading your book, there is constant pressure all the time to drum up more interest, get more people to come and in the end, they fell short making enough money to return money back to everyone who made the investments into the fire. The producers were extraordinarily optimistic and the press really feel the optimisms. This will be the best there ever held in the united state because we pulled ourselves out of a recession. Buffalo scott Niagara Falls nearby appeared 40 Million People can come very easily. Its going to be basically the head of the century. So there was a tremendous amount of overconfident. Other things played into the shortfall. The weather was bad in the spring and early summer. The advertising is a bit off. There is also some speculation that the focus on latin america brought in the numbers of people who really wanted to see exhibit produced by parisians are german and they were unclear as to whay to expect for the latin america shows. So they were concerned by the middle of the summer, that they had an answer to this, which was to bring in president mckinley in september and he would effectively turn things around. And he did. But not in the way intended. He did turn things around. Absolutely. Theres been a lot of talk is this odd . I feel like it just went out. But on why dont i use yours. Is this better . Became the hero theoname, comes out, you know, he gives his blessing to the fair and then his tragically killed. I believe there is about to left at that point and tends to really take a huge hit. Clearly that is one of the reasons after mckinley dies annecy said it took eight days for him. It looked like he was going to come out of it. The press were already writing about his recovery and everything was going to move forward and then he take a turn. For the worse and he died suddenly. That casts a really big fan of paul over the fair going forward. A continuous something over the city of buffalo. Before we talk about that, what is the dock tours in the surgeons do that some feel wasnt enough, ill let you answer that. Theres a lot of controversy. Sure. There is a lot of secondguessing as you can imagine and there was some thought that the bullet had been locked in mckinleys back when it mightve been pulled out and maybe that wouldve done the trick. Or perhaps there wasnt enough sterilization going on. Perhaps they had closed things properly. But one of the things i did was talk to some trauma surgeons today and to take a look at the case and to see whether it mightve been possible. They said even today, with energy and an antibiotics, thata it would then pass. The problem was his pancreas had been blown apart a bit and had spilled some poisonous enzymes. You know, he couldnt probably recover back then. But there was this moment that buffalo believed it had done some really miraculous and it just gave rise to not only a sense of relief, but also thele believe that a fellow was now the temporary nation capital, that the Milford House would be a temporary white house. The cabinet would be set up in the buffalo club. Just this amazing moment that again relief and exhilaration and all of a sudden within a few hours, things take a downturn and the president had been asking for cigars and toast and all of a sudden he can eat the toast. Whats going on . They pull everything out,ing ou. Strychnine, you know, randy, give everything they possibly can to help stimulate his heart and it just doesnt work. So has that continued to cast a dark spell over the city of buffalo . Well, as somebody sitting here know, i taught a course length on the Boston Red Sox called red vaccination, so i became very familiar with curses, especially regarding sports teams. So im not a big leaguer in curses and spells, but possibly some of you are. We have to think back to what possibly could have been done differently with regard toto mckinley and, you know, aside from the confidence that people felt he was going to recover and that included people like Vice President teddy roosevelt, i cant find any fault. I also think buffalo has paid a big price for anything that might have committed the 20th century. So back when i was growing up. So i think weve got buffalo is on the upswing. Swayin im sure that their time is about to come in, you know, i dont think we can look back at mckinley. We will just disclaim rex ryan. How about that. So you know, you grew up in hamburg. He lived for a couple years in buffalo, just a short distance from the actual panamerican disposition. You have told me that you never really knew much about buffalos history, pan am or otherwise. What made you want to research the exposition . Well, i wanted to make up aw story about wandering around and use about the days long ago and loved history from the very beginning. But that would be a total lie. I majored in english. Jo ill try to a history course after college. So it was a number of years ago i was of course im 18th Century America and i assigned airplay since remarkable double in the white city. He taught about this amazing after, the way city that was so magnificent though influential. A at that point, i was looking for a good story to tell. It came to me that there might be another affair than has been trauma associated with it. I came back to buffalo thanks to my friends, the curtains and i began to dig around. And thanks also to mark oldman who helped me with a lot of research, discovered that there were all sorts of eccentricer characters that provided the public but then not necessarily comic relief, that distracted them from the mystery of the assassination in the fall of the fair. They also spoke to some of the themes of the fair and that they all resisted or opposed or offered rebuttal to some of the teams of supremacy and domination that had been expressed by the directors. Seari your research is strong mostly from newspaper accounts of the day, which werent always the most reliable, along with memoirs, legal medical record, scholarly literature, that had to be extremely challenging. To read the book, every so seamlessly and is so well done that i can only imagine how muci work it to tick off all that together to translate it for the average person in a way that wai compelling and entertaining. Well, i was so happy when i turned on my computer one day and went to discover that all the panamerican scrapbooks had been digitized. I was flabbergasted. This made things so much easier. And it was challenging. And to make up a fantastic stories through the evidence and it was challenging. What is the legacy of the panAmerican Exposition . Its now been 115 years. Well, i think that its time for us to think beyond mckinley. He was an important man and, obviously, weve got monuments to him and plaques to him and so forth. But i think its time for us to think about what else the fare meantmeant, what else are represented. We can point to its panamerican as for instance, as something that i think was a pretty impressive accomplishment. We can also point to the events that i write about that speak to the kind of resistance and struggles for social justice, for fair treatment of animals, for racial progress and equality that really come they didnt get started in buffalo, but buffalo, buffaloes fair gave them the window, gave them an opportunity to be discussed, to bed challenged and they marked the beginning of the conversation about social justice that went on and continue to go on tillnto this day. Get your questions ready, please. The panAmerican Exposition occurred at a time when we were not globally interconnectedno world. In a world fair, one of the great ways for the world to know what other cultures and societies were doing. Is there still a role you feel for World Affairs should United States the end congress on in 2017 . Why not cosmic stan. I think that come at a dense him looking up, exploring why we dont have world fairs and talk to people who say well, the olympiakl, the olympics take the place of the world fairs, or disney world takes the place, certainly of w the midway, for instance, and also say well, youve got the World Wide Web effectively that functions as a kind of world affair event, mobilizes communication and gives everybody an opportunity to visit other places and to experience and explore and to make it with other people. So in a sense i guess there are many reasons why we dont have these events. Also they are very risky for Business Enterprises and for ths investors. But it would be great if we did. I think would be nice if buffalo did this again and we seen such wonderful enterprise and optimism lately that if were to do something get i think theres great opportunity for explaining to the country, to the world what buffalo is, what buffalo has become and resilience of the city which never ceases to impress me. Impress me. If anybody wants to start a petition again. Are there any questions anybody would like to ask . [inaudible] the question was on social justice can you say a word about why men . It offered a vision of pretty much everyone in the dead included women and im going to speak particularly of white women at this point. It had a whirlwind of managers and womens building that was pretty much used by elite middleclass women and College Graduates and so forth. They were cultivated individuals, gracious hostesses and so forth. One of the stories that i tell is about the way that she disrupts the shes a wild woman. She crossed the continent eight times. She doesnt know womens proper place, and there she is heading down the niagara river. So there is a story and what i dont discuss enough that i would love if somebody pursued this is a story of africanamerican women that were working at the fair or who wanted to visit but didnt have enough resources to do so, so more stories could be told. It was the negro exhibit is that right . Mary talbert was one of the individuals that was a very accomplished africanamerican activist who took a great defense that it would be represented by the Old Plantation so she helped to bring this exhibit, and it was in the manufacturers building and exhibited as the accomplishment since emancipation. The problem was that it received very little press in the national papers, local papers. It was around the time of the centennial where there was so Much Research people have decided so she had done terrific work, but it didnt get the attention it deserved. Can you talk about the architectural legacy of the buildings . Im not sure that i can do that. Others that have explored the art and architecture in that remarkable books have spoken between the architecture of this affair that would consider the spanish renaissance as opposed to the architecture of the chicagos. They talk about the decision to put it in a much more sensible rainbow colored city. But in terms of the legacy, there is a lot said about chicago and its World Affairs and its launching in the planning and so forth. One of the ironies is that they are honoring the spanish style architecture when of course the United States was doing it best from the western hemisphere but [inaudible] the activity was the racial insensitivity was troubling. Was this viewed [inaudible] absolutely. There is the notion ther is a celebration that theyve been able to contain nativ native ams on this continent and now were directing filipinos and becoming more civilized. It was an obligation on the part of people to educate and reform to eliminate as well. [inaudible] i think i can paraphrase what you just asked. They were seen on midway that were not actually part of the position per se. Is that correct . They were happening on the midway. Maybe you can explain the difference between the midway and the rest. It was a milelong stretch that was the concessions range from exhibits to train the wild animal shows and restaurants in all sorts of different shows and the spectacular sights. But i wouldnt go so far as to say all the commentary i think the midway it goes very much. Its talking about the civilization of the same way and they make some of the same remarks. Also we have to remember that people love to go see the midway. They would go see various major exhibit halls. We need to look hard at that particular part of the affair. Thanthank you, audience. You have been great. Mark and barbara, thank you so much. I hope this gives you a little bit of a teaser to go purchase the book. It makes a Great Holiday gift. Margaret is going to, well find a nice warm spot. Thank you again for putting up with a chillier night so we could accommodate a bigger crowd. I forgot to say mark is the one who gave me my director title back in an article in 2012, so thank you. Its a real special night tonight. Thank you for coming out. I hope you all have been cozy. [applause] [inaudible conversations] this is booktv on cspan2, television for serious readers. Heres our primetime lineup. That all happens tonight on cspan2s booktv. Good afternoon, everyone. It really is an honor and a pleasure to be here today at this incredible event. Miami because does such an outstanding job. He pri more so i get the privilege and honor them introducing probably one of floridas greatest treasures, and i could read out by about it from the blade bycr the crowd that issue that we know exactly who dave barry is. [applause]ving a cha having a chance being born r and raised here in miami and really loving miami, florida, in general, it truly is an honor that we have an author who not only gets us but actually writes and write so well. I want to keep boring you with me because ive nothing to give except an introduction today. It is my pleasure to introduce to you mr. Dave barry. [applause] thank you