To cause him to run for the house of representatives and the state of michigan and he wanted to be the speaker the house. All of them, they had so many things that were different than i really couldnt have picked a favorite. Did you have a favorite first lady. They are all favorites. [laughter] they will never said. Thank you all for being here. Please come and pick up a book and have it signed and we really appreciate your time and attention. You are watching the tv on cspan2 with top nonfiction books and authors every weekend. Book tv, television for serious readers. Welcome to buffalo new york for our regular book event. My name is leslie, director and i am pleased to welcome our special guest, Margaret Crayton who has written a new book about the panamerican exhibition that did happen here in buffalo. Also mark, writer for the buffalo news. You have a conversation with margaret and we are going to open it up to members of the audience. Thank you so much for being here [applause] hi margaret. Hello mark. Welcome everybody who is here tonight. We have such a great turnout. I really like your book, the electrifying call of rainbow city. I thought it did what the best works of history do. They make history, life. Its one of the books about buffalo history that does just that. Many people here know the city of life which talks about the panamerican exhibition and what buffalo was like in 1901 what one what was the eighth largesti city in the United States and a very prosperous city. It was a great work of historic fiction about that time period. Your book is really the first fulllength book that really focuses specifically on the history of one of the great events that has ever happened in buffalo. As you know World Affairs are one, major events in the United States. Its no longer the case. Buffalo is really one of 15 cities to ever host the fair in the United States. Hasnt happened since 1984 in new orleans. Its gonna be 2017 inc. Has asked on next in the United States is an even one of the 100 countries that are slated to participate. It occurred during what was called the grand era of affairs which was really a big deal for buffalo to host the worlds fair. Margaret, talk about that. What. What did it mean for buffalo and that time to host the world fair . First, let me thank leslie who is really queen of the queen buffalo and as many of you know, it was a big deal at the turnofthecentury. We are seeing that same kind of optimism and resurgence now, buy it was very proud of its accomplishment. It had stateoftheart architecture. It had the finest asphalt streets in the country, it had electric streetcars and lights. It was big. 350,000 people at the turn of the 20th century and one of the things they had hoped to do was become bigger and raise its profile a little bit. One of the way cities do this is to hold a huge exposition. It would be even more grand than a world fair that took place in chicago in 1893. Electricity was still new and it plays a really big part. Buffalo was a beacon of light. Can you talk about how it looked at night with these plaster palaces that were lit up. The electric tower and it was really about electricity. It celebrated. [inaudible] they were set up on the ground to bring electric current. The big event of the day was the illumination that took place every night and people were in all by this. Al they would sit near the bridge, they would try to work their way to see what we were initially little pinpricks of light, and blossom into a beautiful yellow and orange glow that brought the whole fairgrounds alive. This is one of the biggest tipsr of the fair. The choice of colors and how the colors were used at the fair told a big story. Can you share that . The fair was all about pride in western and white civilization and the fair directors wanted to convey a message about how people had moved, particularly in the United States from a position of savagery to the apex ofon civilization. When you enter on the peripheral of the ground, its a place where buildings were tinted red orange and yellow and it represented the barbaric races and said move toward electric tower, and the tips of the building became more pale and faded and then you reach this signature tower which was painted in creamy yellows and whites. An it was not very difficult for people to understand the allegory about ray. Peopl in the same way color was used in a racial way, people people of color were also portrayed. [inaudible] at exhi you to. [inaudible] reading the stories now, its really shocking. Theres the era of jim crow, segregation and lynching and it shouldnt be surprising to us as we look back and see how the officials put this all together. At the story about supremacy. They conveyed their notions about this through exhibits like as you mention the Old Plantation which brought in africanamerican performers to enact the socalled good old days before the civil war and these were performers who picked cotton and sang and danced et cetera. This was for decades after the civil war and yet this was still happening in the United States. Thats right. This is post reconstruction when there has been a reconciliation between the white cells in the t white north which really placed africanamericans in a position of struggle and challenge. Something else that people, when they reach your book will be thrown for a loop, it has to do with animal welfare. There are a couple of events that were very shocking. One in the book tells about the planned execution of an elephant known as jumbo too. The first jumble was this very beloved animal that was paraded around the country. Yes very popular. The second incident concerns the mass slaughter of dogs that actually occurred at the exhibition where people were paying extra tickets to actually witness this so perhaps you can tell us a little bit about those two. Lets start with the dog. Ith i would say this is one of the most shocking things i came across which was in buffalo shelters and buffalo parks, dogs were rounded up, cross beads, they were rounded up and brought to the fair where they were killed and then the native people of the fair eight those date dogs and the Humane Society in buffalo was very progressive. It was one of the second societies in the United States w and they were very distressed by this, but at the same time they wanted to acknowledge the cultural tradition of the native performers like geronimo who helped orchestrate this and so they would want to interfere. It was a very troubling event but it was very much an eventt that kind of revealed the reve cultural tensions and challenges of this fair. There were some positive aspects about this fair and people who are not from the United States. Particularly from the latin american country. It was japan American Exposition from reading your book it sounded like latin american countries wouldve gotten short shrift in previous fares but thats not the case in buffalo. I think one of the things buffalo should be proudest of was the way they invited latin american republics to be part of this exposition and gave them a platform on which to speak and to talk back to the United States, particularly cuba and we had recently thought that a war in cuba and we are very much involved in helping to govern cuba and the cuban dignitaries came to buffalo and said look, we would really prefer that the United States would give us our complete freedom, and so the fair gave these countries exhibit space in which they could show off their accomplishment of their art, their educational products, etc. , but it cetera, but it also gave them a way to talk back, to rebut american policy which i think is pretty interesting. You have many fascinating characters in the book. There is leon who everyones probably familiar with him, the person whose name is usually followed right before with the word anarchy. He was the assassin of William Mckinley at the temple of music. You have a lot to say about him. Hes quite an unusual guy. Yes. Hes an unusual guy, and i think the way i frame the story was to talk a little bit about his desire to be an anarchist, im not sure that community really embraced him or certainly after the assassination they tried to distance themselves, but to talk about his mental illness. He clearly in my mind was a sick man and he also gave a number of short little speeches about how he was driven and motivated by being unemployed and by being unable to get access to hospital physicians and healthcare. We dont want to have much sympathy for this guy because he did terrible things, but he brought up issues that are real issues and continually something we discuss. So i can never say his name right. Is interesting. In buffalo, the papers came out and said it was pronounced a different way. When reading other interpretations that Say Something else. Perhaps we have people here who can help us pronounce his name. Anybody okay. So he is at the temple of music with the revolver in his hand waiting to kill the president. There someone else in mind named jim parker. Hes an x slave and he was there because he wanted to shake print hands with the president. Instead he winds up corralling him to the ground and at first it was celebrated as a black man who got the guy who shot the president and then later something happens and history is kind of turned on its head as to what actually happens. It has very unfortunate effects on the rest of mr. Bergers life. Right. Jim parker, as you say, helped tackle the assassin and immediately was recognized as one of the heroes of the moment because he prevented him from firing a third round and for a while, certainly for the next eight days he was seen as the man who mightve save mckinleys life life. A funny thing happened, after he was hailed as the savior, he certainly had the secret service and other individuals to guarddu the president coming out and saying we did our job, that man really wasnt there at all, and then in the trial, his testimony was never called for, never on called on and he disappeared or he was edited out and a raised from the memory of the event and he went around the country for pretty much the rest of his life talking on street corners, meeting people in various treat churches talking about the role he had played, begging people to believe him and eventually died in philadelphia, he was found on the street and destitute. Erson o one of the people who rained large on your book was the smallest person you write about. She was only 2 feet tall. She was known as chiquita. She is one of my favoritee characters in the story. These are all nonfiction, real people. She was born in guadalajara and she was about 24 or 2626 inches tall. She was discovered by a show man when she was living in new york. She was brought to the fair as one of the highlights of theghl midway and she was named the mascot of the exposition which i think is really interesting. She was tiny, she was a little person and they redefined her as a cuban instead of mexican and the fact that she was a mexican was 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, very late in the exposition she left. Nt i dont want to go to the story but it was very dramatic. A lot of people are very familiar with the story, she was the first to go over a barrel in Niagara Falls and she survived it. She hoped to capitalize on that experience and make a whole lot of money. It didnt really happen. Pour any taylor. She was destitute like so many of these other ones doing crazy things and she decided she would make money for her later life by being the first person to survive and i dont want to spoil things, but she becomes this incredible celebrity, especially in the great day of the fair, but people dont think, when they look at her, something doesnt seem quite right she describes herself as a dancing teacher and people think she doesnt look that limber, et cetera. She did this amazing thing and then wanted to go on the road with the show and her manager couldnt convince people that she had actually done this daredevil trick because she didnt fit the part. She wasnt young and she didnt look like a spunky attraction so eventually one of her managers stole her barrel, put someone else in to play the part of any taylor and she was left to sell postcards in Niagara Falls for almost the rest of her life. So there was a lot riding in buffalo. He basically its the ruling class that ponied up a halfmillionveo dollars which was even a lot more money than it was today. They got together in a room and they emerged and had made commitments for that much money because they wanted the world fair and buffalo, not detroit. There is a lot of pressure to get a big return financially. In the end there were 8 Million People went through the turnstiles. That seemed to be a lot of people, but there was constant pressure, all the time to drum up more interesting get more people to come. They had to make enough money to invest back into the fair. The fair producers were optimistic and the press really fueled the optimism. This would possibly be bigger than chicago. This will be the best fair thats ever been held in the United States because we pulled ourselves out of a recession, people have money and weve got Niagara Falls nearby, trade is basically going to be the hit of the century. There was a tremendous amount of overconfidence. Other things played into thee sf shortfall, the weather was bad in the spring and summer, the advertising of people was a bit off, theres also some speculation on latin america that they hadnt brought in the numbers of people who really wanted to see exhibits produced by parisians or germans and they and were unclear as to what to expect in terms of latin america shows. They are were concerned by thehe middle of the summer but they wanted to bring in president mckinley in september and he would turn things around. And he did, but not in the way that was intended. He did turn things around, absolutely. So there was a lot of talk, is this on . I feel like it just went out. Why dont i use yours in the meantime. Well just go back and forth. Is this better. Okay so mckinley has the opening of the fair and it comes out that he gives his blessing to the fair and hes tragically killed. I think there about two months left and attendance really takes a huge hit. Clearly that was one of the reasons why those attendance poles may not have been met. After he dies, it took eightes days for him, i look like he was going to come out of it. The press was writing about his recovery and then he took a turw for the worst and he died suddenly. That casts a really big shout over the fair and the city of buffalo. Before we talk about that, what do the doctors and surgeons do that some feel wasnt enough . Well, ill let you answer that. Has theres a lot of controversy. Theres a lot of secondguessing as you can imagine. There is some thought that the bulletin had left and his bag when maybe it had been pulled out and that wouldve done the trick. Perhaps there wasnt enough sterilization that was going around and perhaps they had enclosed things properly, but one of the things i had done was talk to some trauma surgeons and asked them to take a look at the case and see whether it mightve been possible and they said that even today with imaging and antibiotics, that wouldve been tough and the problem was that his pancreas had spilled some poisonous enzymes so he couldnt recover back then, but there was this moment that buffalo believed it had done something really miraculous and it just gave rise to this, not only the sense of relief that buffalo would be the temporary Nations Capital and the millburn house would be the temporary white house, the cabinet cabinet would be set up in the buffalo club, theres just this amazing moment of again relief and exhilaration and then all the sudden within a few hours things take a downturn and the president had been asking for cigars and hosts, and all the sudden he can eat the toast and whats going on and they pull everything out and give everything they possibly can to him to help stimulate his heart and it just doesnt work. O so has that continued to cast a dark spell over the city of buffalo. Well as some of you know, i taught a course once on the Boston Red Sox called the red sox nation so i became very familiar with curses, especially regarding sports teams so im not a big believer of persons with spells so we have to think back ,comma what possibly could have been done differently with regard to mckinley and aside from the confidence that people felt that he was going to recover and that included people like the Vice President , teddy roosevelt, i cant find any fault and i also think that buffalo has paid a big price for any since it might have committed in the 20th century. So i think buffalo is on the upswing im sure that the bills in the sabres, their time is about to come and i dont think we can look back at mckinley for this will just blame rex ryan how about that so you grew up in hamburg and you lived in buffalo, just a short distance from the exposition, but you have told me you never really knew much about buffalos history, pan am or otherwise. What got you to want to research the panamerican exhibition. I wanted to make up a story about how i was a child and i had wandered around oregon drive and mused about the days long ago and loved history from the very beginning, but that wouldol be a total lie. I majored in english. Was a number of years ago that i was teaching a course on 19th Century America and i found his remarkable devil in the white city, and he talks about this amazing effort, this grand worlds fair and the white city that was so magnificent and so influential, and at that point i was looking for a good story too tell and it came to me that there might be another fair that had some drama associated with it and so i came back to buffalo, thanks to my friends and i began to dig around and thanks also to goldman who helped me with a lot of this research, we discovered there are all sorts of eccentric characters that provided the public with not necessarily comic relief that distracted them from the misery of the assassination and they also spoke to the themes of the fair and that they all had resisted or opposed or offered rebuttal to some of this themes of supremacy and domination that have been expressed by the fairs directors. Your research is drawn mostly from newspapers which werent always the most reliable. Along with memoirs, legal, medical records, scholarly literature, it had to be extremely challenging. To read the book, it reads so seamlessly and the it so well done, i can only imagine how much work it took and to translate it for the averagege person in a way that was compelling and entertaining. Well, i was so happy when i turned on my computer when i went to discover that all the scrapbooks had been digitized. I was flabbergasted and this made things so much easier, not that i havent loved coming back to my hometown, but it was a long drive. It was challenging but some of the newspapers took pride in making up fantastic stories and others took fact and it was challenging. Im an to more questions. Im in ask everybody out there to think about what questions you might ask in just a moment. What is the legacy of the panAmerican Exposition. Theres 115 years. Well, i think its time for us to think beyond mckinley. He was an important man and hes got some monuments and plaques and so forth, but i think its time for us to think about what else it represented. We could point to the panamerican inference is something that i think was a pretty impressive accomplishment , but we can also point to the event that i write about that speak to the kind of resistance and struggles for social justice that i gave a a window and an opportunity to be challenged and they mark the beginning of the conversation about social justice that went on and continue to go on to this day. Last question so get your question readily. It occurred at a time when we werent a globally interconnected world. World fairs were one of the great ways, it was a great wayis to know what other societies and cultures were doing. Is there still a role. Should the United States be in kazakhstan. Why not ive done some looking up and figuring out why we dont have worlds fair and they say well the olympics take place or disney takes the place of the midway and they say well youve got the world wide web,ha effectively that functions as communication and givesev everybody an opportunity to visit other places and communicate with other people. In a sense, i think there are many reasons why we dont have these events and there also very risky for the investors, but it would be great if we did. I think it would be nice if buffalo did this again and weve seen such wonderful enterprise and optimism lately that if it were to do something again, i think theres great, great opportunity for explaining to the country and the world what buffalo is and what buffalo has become and the resilience of the city which just never ceases to impress me so if anybody wants to start up petition, you can do it in the back of the room are there any questions that people would like to ask . I will do my best to hear the question and say back so everyone can hear. The question was silly talk about social justice, would would you say a word about women at the pan am. M. The panamerican engine american fair offered a vision of the place of pretty much everyone and that included women and im going to speakk particularly of white women at this point. And had a board of women managers and had a womens building that was pretty much used by elite middleclass women, often College Graduates so the fair makers were defining women as cultivated individuals, gracious hostesses and set so for it so one of the stories i tell is about annie taylor and the way she disrupts this narrative about women and propriety and so forth and she is a wild women. She crossed the continent eight times. She doesnt know womens proper place. There she is with her barrel, heading down the niagara weber heard there is a story about women and what i dont discusst enough, and i would love love it if someone pursued this is ay oe story of women, particularly africanamerican and immigrant women who were working at the fair or who wanted to visit the fair but didnt have enough resources to do so. There are more stories to be told. Why dont you talk about mary talbert because she did a lot to get a very good exhibit on thett negro exhibit. She was one of the individuals in buffalo. She was a very accomplished africanamerican activists who took great offense at the idea that africanamerican history would be represented by the Old Plantations. She helped bring, to buffalo, this remarkable exhibit, and it was in the manufacturing of Liberal Arts Building and exhibited the accomplishments of africanamerican since emancipation. The problem was it received very little press in national papers, local papers, the express mentioned it very briefly and it wasnt until around the time of our centennial, when people were doing so Much Research here in town that people realized that this exhibit had actually been cited at this fair. She had done terrific work, but it didnt get the attention then that it deserved. Yes or the question i believe is can you talk about the architectural legacy of the building at the pan am . Im not sure i can do that. People like cary grant and others who have explored the art and architecture of the fair in remarkable books have spoken of the distinction between the architecture of this fair whichn was considered sort of mission style, spanish renaissance as opposed to the architecture of the chicagos white city which is very much neoclassical. They talk about that decision to put in a much more fanciful rainbow colored city site, but in terms of the legacy, there is a lot that set about chicago, the world fair and its legacy in terms of launching modern urban planning and so forth. Im not sure i could make claims like that for this fair. One of the irony is that they are honoring spanishstyle architecture when they were doing work to shoo away spain from the western hemisphere but thats another story the question was, the racial sensitivity was very troubling. Was this viewed as the white mans burden. There is this notion, theres the celebration of the fact that white civilized white folks had been able to contain native americans on this continent and were now addressing people in becoming more civilized through tutorials so there is a sense that this was an obligation for people to educate, reform or to eliminate. I think i can paraphrase what you just asked. The exploitive exhibits, if youa will, that were on the midway were part of the panamerican exhibition. Is that correct . But they were happening on the midway. Th maybe you can explain the difference between the midway and the rest of the fair. The midway was a milelong stretch of the fair on the west side. Its concessions range from incubator exhibits to wild animal show, restaurants to all sorts of different shows and spectacular sights but i wouldnt go so far as to say that all the commentary about race and supremacy but i think the midway echoed some of the commentary that was made near the court of fountains and so forth. Only think about the color scheme of the fair, thats talking about civilization and anthropology exhibits may make some of the same remarks as well and we have to remember that people love to go see the midway. They would dutifully go see various major exhibit halls, but they rarely missed the midway. In terms of influence, i think we really need to look hard at that particular part of the fair margaret, thank you very much thank you mark. Thank you audience. This has been great. Mark and margaret, thank you so much. I hope this gives you a little bit of a teaser to go purchase the book or many bugs. He makes a Great Holiday book. Margaret is going to find a nice warm spot. Thank you for putting up with this chilly night and we have a great crowd. Margaret gave me my title back in an article in 2012. Thank you. It was really special. Thank you for coming out. I hope to see you nice and cozy. Cspan, where history unfolds daily. In 1979, cspan was created as a Public Service by americas Cable Television companies. That is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider.