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the clearest glimpse into the hopes, failures, and

successes of the Hollywood Worlds Fair.2Troughtheir coverage, a distinct discourse emerges, one thatechoed that of the organizers, seen through theirpublic statements and private correspondences.Tisdiscourse evoked the eras ideas of respectabilitythrough civic pageantry and educational display.Strikingly similar narratives emerge from thecoverage of the major daily newspapers of theperiodTe Los Angeles Times, Te Los Angeles

Examiner, and Te Los Angeles Evening Herald

though they were politically divergent rivals.3

Usingthe newspaper coverage, we can map out a narrativeof the discourse around the Exposition and betterunderstand why it has been lost to history.

Coming at a time when the Worlds Fairtradition had yet to rebound from the devastationof World War I, the Motion Picture Exposition

would try to invoke this cultural legacy withoutsuccess or the levels of attendance that wouldplace it in the pantheon of such endeavors.4Sincetheir inception in the mid-nineteenth century,

Worlds Fairs had been a way for communities toplace themselves on the forefront of commerce,

According to most sources, Los Angeles has never

hosted a Worlds Fair. Tose massive conuencesof culture, history, amusement, and technology arethe legacy of cities such as Chicago, San Francisco,and New York.1 And yet there was a pivotalmoment in history when Los Angeles and its mostprominent industry came together and evokedthis tradition. It was 1923, when Los Angeles wasgrowing at an unprecedented rate and the rmly-entrenched motion picture industry was workingto recongure its scandal-tarnished image.Te idea

of the areas

lm producers and civic organizationsworking together to host an InternationalExposition seemed ideal in this time of reputationbuilding and civic boosterism. Like Chicago orSan Francisco before it, Los Angeles would tryto use a Worlds Fair to announce itself as a keymetropolis in modern America. However, unlikepast successes in 1893 and 1915, respectively, the

American Historical Revue and Motion PictureExposition would pass like a whimper.

As perhaps the only full record of this

forgotten event, the local newspaper coverage of theFair throughout its planning and execution offers

In the summer of 1923, a pivotal moment in the history of Los Angeles and its lm industry, the leaders of both cametogether to boost their reputations through the traditions of the Worlds Fair.Te Motion Picture Exposition sought totie the city and the industry to the traditions of historical pageantry and educational display. By tracing the discourse inthe local newspapers, this essay shows how this narrative of traditional respectability failed to compel visitors, especiallyfrom the local population, who were more interested in the spectacle and glamour that the lm industry could supply.Tis essay proposes that it was the inability of the lm studios to work together as a united industry that ultimately ledto the failure of the Exposition.

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invention, and respectable culture.5 It wascustomary in this tradition for an exposition tocelebrate an important centennial; in this case,it was the hundredth anniversary of the MonroeDoctrine, rst proposed in 1823 as an assertion

of US dominance over the Americas, whichwould be tenuously celebrated as the basis for theevent. Te cover of the souvenir program for theExposition, likely printed while the exhibits werehastily being built around the new Los AngelesColiseum, consisted of an illustration combiningthe iconic structures from the Chicago, St. Louis,San Francisco, and Jamestown expositions. Byinvoking the successes of these fairs from theprevious era, Hollywood sought to position itself

within a historical and educational tradition farpreferable to the image that was dominating presscoverage at the time.

Te Exposition was conceived at a historicallycontentious juncture for Hollywood. By late1922, exhibitors and regional censorship boards

were regularly banning lms by those involvedin or even associated with scandals like the trialof Fatty Arbuckle and the murder of WilliamDesmond Taylor.6 Newspapers and civic leadersthroughout the country began to question the

amount of inuence Hollywood had on itsmassive worldwide audience.7As a result of suchcontroversies, Hollywood, and by extension Los

Angeles, was seen as a place with no culture andperhaps no morals.In 1922, as movie attendancebegan to decline, the Hollywood studios knewtheir image problem was turning into a nancialone. In response, the major studios banded togetherand formed the Motion Picture Producers andDistributors of America (MPPDA) in order to

present a united front against bad press, skittishexhibitors, and restrictive censorship boards. Teyplaced then-Postmaster General and President

Warren G. Harding condante Will Hays at thehead of the organization. Hays was essentially apublicist for the industry, working to convincethe American public that Hollywood had cleanedup its act. Te Motion Picture Exposition wouldbe part of this attempt to bring Hollywood justthe kind of culture that many believed it lacked,presenting both highbrow art exhibits and

middlebrow wholesome entertainments, such aspageants and morality lectures.8

From its earliest days, it was unclear whowould be the driving force behind the executionof the Exposition.Te MPPDA was not an officialsponsor of the Fair, but there is no doubt of theirheavy backroom involvement. Hays himself was a

great supporter of the effort, urging his West Coastrepresentative, Tomas Patton, and the studioheads to become more and more involved. Pattonhad plans to leave his post in Los Angeles, butHays convinced him to stay specically to watchover the execution of the Exposition.9Hays sawgreat potential in the Fair to further the publicrelations work that was the primary mission ofthe MPPDA at that time. Te Exposition wouldbe run more directly by a man named Walter J.

Reynolds, the secretary of the Motion PictureProducers Association of Los Angeles, one of themany anti-union motion picture organizationsof the day. Tough the Producers Associationhad been formed in the mid-teens in order toimprove relations between the industry and thecity, correspondences between Hays and Reynoldsindicate that it had now come under the swayof the MPPDA.10 Letters to Hays demonstratereluctance on the part of many motion pictureproducers to get involved. Reynolds seemed to

lack any real inuence over the studio executives,as those who did get involved continuously turnedto Hays for consultation on the Exposition. Latein the planning, producer Joseph Schenck took upfundraising duties, complaining to Hays:

It certainly looked as if the expositionwould not take place for lack of funds,and although all the companies workinghere on the coast are members of the

Producers Association, quite a good manyof them refused to come across withmoney. Te Fox Company, the VitagraphCompany, and quite a few others turnedus down.11

Te fact that he would rather go to Hays withsuch a complaint than to Reynolds, who wasan administrator of both the Exposition andthe Producers Association, is indicative oflarger problems of organization and leadership.

Troughout the month of May, Daily Varietyreported from New York the dire fortunes of

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the Fair before its realization was nally assuredby the approval of the Los Angeles Chamber ofCommerce.12 Despite this difficulty in gettinginvestment and cooperation going within theHollywood community, the organizers took it for

granted that the Exposition would be a nancialsuccess, virtually guaranteeing investors a returnon their funds.13

Tis condence in the nancial soundnessof the enterprise led organizers to focus not onthe popular appeals of the Exposition but ratheron the reputation building aspects of the Fair,namely its educational merits and its invocationof traditional American values. Tis focus by theplanners is reected in the rhetoric picked up and

disseminated by the local newspapers. In the LosAngeles Examiners special section on the MotionPicture Exposition on June 27, 1923, one weekbefore its opening, the lm industry was onlyaddressed in three of thirteen pages covering theFair, while the rst four pages were dedicatedto explaining the historical centennial beingcelebrated. Other articles focused on the civic andhistorical organizations presenting educationalexhibits or shed light on the design and architectureof the Fair. Te later included many references to

the Exposition designs Latin American inuence,thus tying the Exposition to the Monroe Doctrinetheme.14Tose articles that focused on the lmindustry emphasized the technical and artisticaccomplishments that would be on display at theFair as well as the industrys role in building thecity itself.15

Like the Examiner the week before, the LosAngeles Times ten-page special section publishedon the opening day of the Exposition focused on

the educational, artistic, and civic components ofthe Fair. Several prominent Hollywood gures,including Joseph Schenck, Maurice Tourneur,and Cecil B. DeMille discussed their hopes forthe Exposition in the Times. Like most of thecomments published, DeMilles emphasized thepositive role of the motion picture industry in thelife of the city of Los Angeles.16Te more populist

Examinerhad featured similar commentary fromprominent Los Angeles citizens rather thanHollywood producers. However, the rhetoric

surrounding the Exposition from Los AngelesMayor George Cryer was surprisingly similar to

DeMilles.17Both men believed that the Expositionwould serve to strengthen the relationship betweenthe city and the industry by advertising both as partof a respectable tradition grounded in Americanhistory.

After all the hype, the American HistoricalRevue and Motion Picture Exposition opened on

July 2, 1923, and ran for ve weeks.Te Coliseum

was the setting for the nightly program of pageants,tableaux, ballets, and reworks shows, while thearea around the arena contained exhibits from localbusinesses and vendors and, most importantly, thelm studios themselves. In a section of the groundscalled Te Location, twenty-ve different lmcorporations hosted bungalows where every detailof the making of lms [was] shown, from thetaking of the picture to its showing on the screen.18Tough some of these exhibits played like large-

scale movie advertising, the more successful onescreated an attraction out of revealing the meansof lm production. Visitors could walk throughreal lm sets, see actual costumes, and even belmed alongside a studio player for a nominalfee. While newspaper articles showed interest inthe studios displays in the days leading up to theFairs opening, it was the educational and historicalexhibits that received the most attention.TeTimesgave detailed descriptions of the opening nighttableaux of Washington crossing the Delaware,

Lincoln freeing the slaves, and Columbus landingin the Americas.19 Tese bore little relation to

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Los Angeles or the lm industry except for theirinclusion of notable lm actors in major parts,including Hobart Bosworth as Columbus andMay McAvoy as Martha Washington; rather,they reinforced the Expositions connection to

American history and tradition.Tese tableaux and pageantspopular forms

of civic education and entertainment since themid-nineteenth centurywere consistent with atype of lm being produced and promoted at thattime through the Better Films Movement.20TeHays Office especially sought to emphasize theeducational value of cinema through historicaland literary lms, thus tying the displays at theExposition to another reputation-building tactic

of the MPPDA. Sumiko Higashi discusses therelationship between the historical pageant andsilent Hollywood cinema in her work on theinuence of such entertainments on the lms ofCecil B. DeMille. During the Progressive Era,the upper classes sponsored these public historydemonstrations not only to counter the newcommercialized amusements, including cinema,but also to project a sense of community basedon visions of an Arcadian past.21 Rather thanbeing part of the problem of mass culture, the

lm industry saw itself as uniquely positioned todisseminate such respectable values to the widestpossible audience, especially if it also served tolessen the threats of censorship and regulation.Te Exposition would serve to emphasize thisparticular role.

Te Motion Picture Exposition consistentlyfocused on creating this connection betweenlm production, the city of Los Angeles, and thegreater American narrative through its programs

and exhibits.T

ere was such a strong emphasis onrespectability that the organizers decided to foregoany petty amusements. As the Times put it:

Only those things have received a placein the grounds that are worthwhile. Teexhibits are all historical, educational orinstructive. Tere is no pike or midway,no galaxy of forty famous beauties. Teyhave been replaced by industrial displays,by art galleries and by one vast living

picture of the birth and development ofthe moving-picture industry.22

Tis proved to be a failing strategy, though onewould hardly know it from the effusive praise andrecord breaking crowds reported in the Times, the

Examiner, and the Evening Herald. However, itis revealing that they all praised the introduction

of a midway full of rides, games, and spectaculardemonstrations, which was hastily built on thegrounds after the disappointing rst week. Te

Examiner hoped that the addition of contests,rides, and stunts would enliven the hours beforethe big evening show.23For the newspapers withtheir eyes on the prospects of their growing city,the Exposition could do no wrong, but Angelenoshad to be convinced that the Exposition was nota bore. Te Times assured, Another idea to be

gotten across to the public is that the expositionis a place where a ne evening of entertainment,dining and dancing can be enjoyed; beside [sic]learning some of the secrets of the motion-pictureindustry.24Tough the newspapers indicate thattourists continued to ock to town for the Fair, itis difficult to discern whether this was a reality ormerely more boosterism. Timeseditorial columnist

Alma Whitaker was one of the only dissentingvoices to be found in the local press. She expressedcynical unfamiliarity with the virtuous and noble

Hollywood described in Mrs. William DeMillestalk at the Womens Pavilion, saying, Te lmpeople are so decorous. If you want a real utter,depicting proigate luxury and all that, you have to

visit an oil companys exhibit.25Shortly after the midway was announced, for

reasons undisclosed to the newspapers, the studiosagreed to more active participation in the Fair, witheach one hosting a day of the proceedings.26Teynally seemed to realize that the Exposition was

operating as if it was being executed through theircombined efforts, whether that was a reality or not.If the Exposition failed, it could do more harm totheir reputations than good, a complete reversalof the intentions of the Fair. Demonstrations bythe various movie studios would now supplementthe evening show at the Coliseum, transformingprestige pictures, such as Te Hunchback of NotreDame (1923) or Merry-Go-Round (1923), intotableaux, thereby reversing the trajectory ofinuence identied above by Higashi. Despite

their praise of the earlier, historical program,the newspapers show a decided shift when this

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further spectacle was added to the Expositionsevening show.Te Timesdescribed the night CarlLaemmles Universal Pictures took over the stagein effusive language:

After more than a week of digniedprogress at the Motion PictureExposition and Monroe DoctrineCentennial, Universal Pictures tore thelid off the place, poured Universal talentinto the great Coliseum and broughtthe thousands who thronged the placeto their feet with a roar of applause, lastnight.27

As the Exposition proceeded, new attractionswere more spectacular and glamorous, inevitablyinvolving movie starsfrom Charles Chaplinlookalike contests to publicity stunts like actressHelene Chadwick ying over Santa Monica todrop free tickets. At the news of the changes in theexhibits and program, Alma Whitaker once againlaid down her harsh assessment of why locals werenot ocking to the Exposition:

I maintain that the motion-picture

industry overestimated its own technicaldrawing charms, that when it consideredit was letting us in on inside mysteriesthey were attering themselves [sic].

We knew all about it before . TeExposition wasnt magnicently high-brow, it wasnt startlingly interesting,not even educational, and it wasnt evenengagingly low-brow. Just neither onething or [sic] the other.28

Whitaker demonstrates a strain of resentment inthe local population toward the lm industry thatthe Exposition had failed to quell and perhaps didmore to exacerbate.

Whitakers take and not the dominant oneoffered by the local newspapers would be the nalassessment of the Exposition. Bankruptcy and theresignation of Walter J. Reynolds from both theExposition and the Producers Association wereannounced before the gates closed.29Te death of

President Harding days before his intended arrivalon the grounds left a dark cloud over the nal days.

But the press continued to boost the Fair, at leastuntil it ended. What was labeled in the Timesasan artistic success and credible commemorationon its closing day was called an unsuccessful

season only two months later in a report onliability hearings after an outside company tookcontrol of the $200,000 debt.30With few in theindustry willing to claim responsibility before theExposition began, none would take blame when itended in nancial ruin.

By focusing on these newspaper reports,we gain a keen sense of the narrative that theorganizers of the Motion Picture Exposition weretrying to convey. Despite the attempted portrayalof Hollywood as a cohesive community with a

new, respectable image, the studios were not yetunied in their efforts.Tey squabbled throughout

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the process of planning and execution over bothnancial and organizational responsibilities, whiletheir decision to fully commit to the Expositioncame too late to fundamentally alter its trajectory.Regardless, it is questionable whether any attempt

to improve Hollywoods reputation through suchtraditional means would ever have succeeded.

While future attractions based on motion picturesreect some of the more spectacular elements of theFair, the historical tableaux and morality lectures

would not become features of Hollywood tourism.Te MPPA, the MPPDA, and the producers seemto have given up on such strategies, as the original

plan to make the Exposition an annual event nevermaterialized. Despite the many successes of theExposition, the narrative of failure stuck to it andit was quickly forgotten. However, it was only afew years later when a very similar group of leaders

found a way to collaborate and form the Academy ofMotion Pictures Arts and Sciences, calling insteadon the veneration of artistic accomplishment toenshrine their medium in respectability.31Ratherthan an annual industrial exposition, it would bethe pageantry of an awards ceremony that wouldeventually become Hollywoods yearly attempt atprestige.

Luci Marzolais a Ph.D. student in Critical Studies at the University of Southern California School ofCinematic Arts. Her research is on American silent lm and early Hollywood.

1 For American Worlds Fair history, see: John Allwood,Te Great Expositions(London: Cassell and Collier Macmillan, 1977);Paul Greenhalgh, Ephemeral Vistas: Te Expositions Universelles, Great Exhibitions, and Worlds Fairs, 1851-1939 (Manchester:Manchester University Press, 1988); Robert W. Rydell,All the World s a Fair: Visions of Empire at American International Expositions,1876-1916(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984).2 Coverage in national newspapers and industry trades was sporadic, while the Los Angeles newspapers covered the events of theexposition daily.3 William Randolph Hearst established theExaminertwenty years earlier as a pro-union alternative to the Times.Te Los AngelesEvening Heraldwas a late edition Hearst paper as well.4 Te rst post-World War I American Worlds Fair of note would not occur until the Philadelphia Sesquicentennial Expositionin 1926. Like the Motion Picture Exposition, it was seen as old-fashioned and boring for evoking the prewar expositions. It wasntuntil 1933 with the Chicago Worlds Fair that a new era of modern World of Tomorrow fairs began. See Robert W. Rydell,Worldof Fairs:Te Century of Progress Expositions(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993).5 Tat most of these fairs relied on cheap amusements and anthropological displays for their nancial success was something theorganizers of this Exposition failed to recognize.6 For a discussion of the early 1920s scandals, see Robert Sklar,Movie-Made America: A Cultural Hisotry of American Movies (NewYork: Vintage Books, 1994), 78-83.7 A sample of the articles being written at the time shows a general concern with the inuence of the apparent loose morals andhedonistic culture of lm industry professions and, by extension, Los Angeles itself. For examples, see: Land of Make-Believe

is Only too Real, Chicago Daily Tribune,7 February, 1922, 2; Hollywood Trouble Due to High Pay for People Often LackingBrains,Te Hartford Courier,12 February, 1922; What Los Angeles is Doing to Love,Te Atlanta Constitution,7 August, 1921.8 For a brief discussion of Los Angeles perceived lack of high culture, see Sklar, 77.9 Letter fromTomas Patton to Will Hays, 4 May, 1923 (Los Angles: Te Will Hays Papers, Grand Avenue Library, University ofSouthern California, Los Angeles, California, 1923).10 Denise McKenna, Te City that Made the Pictures Move: Gender, Labor, and the Film Industry in Los Angeles, 1908-1917(PhD diss., New York University, 2008), 128.11 Letter from Joseph Schenck to Will Hays, 6 June, 1923 (Los Angles: Te Will Hays Papers, Grand Avenue Library, Universityof Southern California, Los Angeles, California, 1923).12 Expo Assured, Daily Variety,30 May, 1923, 19. Te Exposition was also assured by the investment and management of theWorld Amusement Service Association, a Chicago-based group more experienced in live entertainment.13 Letter from Joseph Schenck to Will Hays, 22 May, 1923 (Los Angles:Te Will Hays Papers, Grand Avenue Library, Universityof Southern California, Los Angeles, California, 1923).

14 Los Angeles Examiner, 27 June, 1923, Section IV.

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15 Motion Picture Industry on Dress Parade in Great Film Revue, Public Will See Behind Silver Sheet, and Millions for FilmRealism, Los Angeles Examiner,27 June, 1923, IV5; Modern Studio is a Small City, Los Angeles Examiner,27 June, 1923, IV12.16 Is Seeking Problems of People, Los Angeles Times,2 July, 1923, IV4.17 George W. Cryer, Mayor Cryer Praises Aims of Exposition, Los Angeles Examiner,27 June, 1923, IV3.18 Tousands at Exposition, Los Angeles Times,8 July, 1923, II6.19 Tableaux to Depict Epochal Events of Hemisphere, Los Angeles Times,2 July, 1923, IV5.

20 During this period, it appears that the terms tableau and pageant were used fairly interchangeably in the context of these civichistories, though pageant seems to imply greater action in the scene.Te National Committee for Better Films was establishedin 1923 by the National Board of Review. See the section on the Better Films Movement in Richard Koszarski, An EveningsEntertainment:Te Age of the Silent Feature Picture, 1915-1928 (University of California Press, 1990), 208-210.21 Sumiko Higashi, Antimodernism as Historical Representation in a Consumer Culture: Cecil B. Demilles Te TenCommandments,1923, 1956, 1993,Te Persistence of History,ed. Vivian Sobchack (London: Routledge, 1996), 93.22 Centennial Entertains Times Boys,Los Angeles Times, 13 July, 1923, II1.23 New Features at Exposition, Los Angeles Examiner,9 July, 1923, I4.24 Plan Pep for Centennial, Los Angeles Times, 7 July, 1923, II1.25 Alma Whitaker, Chaste Nudity Reigns, Los Angeles Times,4 July, 1923, II1.26 New Plan to Aid Exposition, Los Angeles Examiner,10 July, 1923, I8.27 Snappy Show at Exposition, Los Angeles Times,15July, 1923, IV12.28 Whitaker, Te Last Word, Los Angeles Times,11 July, 1923, II7.

29 W.J. Reynolds Quits Two Jobs, Los Angeles Times,9August, 1923, II1.30 Exposition to End Today, Los Angeles Times,5 August, 1923, II4; Exposition Liabilities Scheduled, Los Angeles Times,3October, 1923, II6.31Te list of gures that were both organizers of the Exposition and founding members of the Academy includes Joseph Schenck,Jesse Lasky, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Cecil B. DeMille, M.C. Levee, and Charles Christie.