The Ridiculously Ambitious History of the World's Fair, Part Two: Things Don't Always Work Out

Summary

Ridiculous History: The Ridiculously Ambitious History of the World's Fair, Part Two: Things Don't Always Work Out

Release Date: January 16, 2025
Host: Ben Bullen & Noel Brown
Produced by: iHeartPodcasts

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Introduction

In this episode of Ridiculous History, hosts Ben Bullen and Noel Brown delve deeper into the ambitious yet tumultuous history of the World's Fair, focusing on two significant but ill-fated expositions: the 1923 Motion Picture Exposition in Los Angeles and the 1984 Louisiana World’s Fair. Through engaging storytelling and insightful analysis, the hosts explore how grand visions can sometimes lead to spectacular failures.

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1. Hollywood Scandals and the 1923 Motion Picture Exposition

a. Background: The Golden Age of Hollywood

The early 1920s marked a turbulent period for Hollywood, characterized by high-profile scandals that threatened the burgeoning film industry's reputation. Notable incidents included the murder of film director William Desmond Taylor and the manslaughter charges against comedian Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. These scandals created a public relations nightmare for the film studios, prompting the need for a strategic response to restore public trust and legitimacy.

[06:09] Ben Bullen: "Hollywood is as ever, experiencing a public relations crisis because the world of entertainment is often not as shiny as appear to the audience."

b. Creation of the Motion Picture Exposition

In response to these crises, the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) orchestrated the Motion Picture Exposition in Los Angeles in 1923. Aimed at showcasing Hollywood's positive contributions and fostering a wholesome image, the exposition sought to parallel the grandeur of traditional World's Fairs without officially being one.

[12:33] Ben Bullen: "The motion picture producers and distributors of America... created the Motion Picture Exposition in Los Angeles. They wanted to present what they called the Motion Picture Exposition..."

c. The Exposition’s Endeavors and Challenges

The exposition featured highbrow art exhibits, pageants, and lectures on morality, striving to shift the public's focus from scandals to the artistic and cultural achievements of Hollywood. However, the event struggled to attract the desired star power, relying on last-minute additions to bolster attendance.

[23:27] Ben Bullen: "They did not get all the celebrities they wanted. They did not anticipate the public demand."

d. Financial Missteps and the Monroe Doctrine Half Dollars

To add legitimacy and generate revenue, the MPPDA minted commemorative 1923 Monroe Doctrine Centennial half dollars. Unfortunately, only a fraction of the coins were sold prior to the exposition, leading to significant financial losses when the unsold coins returned to circulation.

[16:24] Noel Brown: "Only 27,000 of them were purchased ahead of opening day. That's like kind of an early, like, crypto scam almost, right?"

e. The Demise of the Exposition

The exposition's failure was cemented when President Warren G. Harding passed away just before his scheduled appearance, eliminating the final draw intended to boost attendance. As a result, the MPPDA incurred substantial debts, leading to the exposition's financial collapse.

[24:43] Ben Bullen: "Uncle Sam lost so much money that we decided to make it illegal to lose that money that way again."

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2. The 1984 Louisiana World’s Fair

a. Economic Context and Ambitions

Nearly six decades later, the 1984 Louisiana World’s Fair emerged amid economic struggles in the region, heavily reliant on the volatile oil industry. Organizers hoped the fair would revitalize the local economy by attracting tourism and diversifying industry interests.

b. Execution and Features

The fair, held in New Orleans' warehouse district, featured a mix of garish color schemes, temporary facades dubbed the Wonder Wall, and various global exhibits, including an Italian village and a Louisiana swamp ride. Despite these attractions, the event failed to capture the public's imagination.

[31:02] Ben Bullen: "It reminds us of episode one, where Chicago's World's Fair, the Colombian one, had a bunch of white plaster over things and they called it the White City."

c. Competition and Public Interest

The fair faced stiff competition from other major events, notably the 1984 Summer Olympics and Disney World's Epcot, which overshadowed the exposition's appeal. Additionally, nearby Knoxville, Tennessee had hosted a World's Fair just two years prior in 1982, further diluting potential attendance.

[40:00] Noel Brown: "Because it was built as a permanent World's Fair... with the Spaceship Earth and all of that."

d. Financial Catastrophe and Bankruptcy

By the time the Louisiana World’s Fair concluded, it had amassed debts exceeding $350 million (equivalent to over $1.06 billion in 2024 dollars). With attendance falling short by 40%, the fair uniquely became the only World's Fair in history to declare bankruptcy while still in progress.

[26:06] Noel Brown: "This was the only World's Fair in all of history to declare bankruptcy while it was still happening."

e. Legislative Aftermath: Code 245

The monumental failure of the 1984 exposition led to the enactment of Code 245 in 1999 by Congress, effectively preventing the U.S. Department of State from funding future World's Fairs through government subsidies. This legislative move aimed to avert similar financial debacles in the future.

[32:38] Ben Bullen: "...the Department of State from using funds for a United States pavilion or other major exhibit at a World's Fair."

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3. Evolution and Decline of World's Fairs

a. Rise of Specialized Expos and Competing Events

Over time, the allure of broad, all-encompassing World's Fairs waned as specialized expos like CES (Consumer Electronics Show) and G3 (video games) emerged. These targeted events offer focused experiences that cater to specific industries, making them more appealing and manageable compared to the grand scale of traditional World's Fairs.

[46:26] Noel Brown: "Everything from poisoners and pirates to art thieves and snake oil products and those who made and sold them."

b. Fragmentation and Broad Themes

Modern World's Fairs, such as the upcoming expo in Osaka, Japan, often adopt overly broad themes like "Designing Future Society for Our Lives", making it challenging to maintain coherence and relevance. This broadness, combined with competition from other large-scale events like the Olympics, diminishes their unique appeal.

[45:34] Noel Brown: "The theme under which they are taking these submissions is Healthy People, Healthy Planet."

c. Challenges in Attracting Global Participation

With the proliferation of international events and the specialized nature of modern expos, attracting a global audience has become increasingly difficult. The United States' attempts to revive interest in World's Fairs face hurdles in reestablishing the prestige and allure that once defined these grand exhibitions.

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Conclusion

Ben Bullen and Noel Brown poignantly illustrate that while the ambition behind World's Fairs is grand, the execution often falls prey to financial mismanagement, shifting public interests, and fierce competition from other events. The failures of the 1923 Motion Picture Exposition and the 1984 Louisiana World’s Fair serve as cautionary tales about the complexities of organizing large-scale exhibitions. As the United States continues to explore future bids for specialized expos, the legacy of these historical flops underscores the importance of strategic planning and understanding contemporary audience dynamics.

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Notable Quotes

• Ben Bullen ([06:09]): "Hollywood is as ever, experiencing a public relations crisis because the world of entertainment is often not as shiny as appear to the audience."

• Noel Brown ([16:24]): "Only 27,000 of them were purchased ahead of opening day. That's like kind of an early, like, crypto scam almost, right?"

• Ben Bullen ([24:43]): "Uncle Sam lost so much money that we decided to make it illegal to lose that money that way again."

• Noel Brown ([26:06]): "This was the only World's Fair in all of history to declare bankruptcy while it was still happening."

• Ben Bullen ([32:38]): "...the Department of State from using funds for a United States pavilion or other major exhibit at a World's Fair."

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Final Thoughts

This episode of Ridiculous History offers a fascinating exploration of how monumental events like World's Fairs can falter despite ambitious intentions. By examining historical missteps and financial fiascos, Ben and Noel provide listeners with a nuanced understanding of the challenges inherent in orchestrating such large-scale endeavors. As they look forward to future possibilities, the hosts remind us that history is as much about its failures as it is about its triumphs.

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For more episodes and related content, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or your preferred podcast platform.

Transcript

[Ben Bullen]

Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you as always so much for tuning in. In let's hear it for the man, the myth, the super producer, Mr. Max Williams.

[Noel Brown]

Ooh la la. There goes Max. He looks so fly with his amazing, like, you know, like deep smoker voice today. Oh, really?

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah. The weather's on top of all of us.

[Noel Brown]

Right, right, right, right. Yeah. And don't worry, Max is not taking up a trendy smoking habit.

[Ben Bullen]

Max, what does your shirt say? What's on that shirt?

[Noel Brown]

Oh, oh, oh, it's. It's the newest shirt from my Michigan blog. I follow mgo blog. It says they have to learn how to lose. Which is what Khalil Mohling said to reporters on the field in Columbus a couple couple weeks back when Michigan pulled a massive upset. And Ohio State's players response to losing the football game was we're going to assault those people and rip their flag up and then get the flag stolen from us. And then it has a score of all four games in a row that they've lost because they don't know how to lose. Ben, this is you get for asking questions.

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah, yeah, I was gonna say. Look at us, Noel. Furrowing our brows and nodding meaningfully together as though we have any idea. That's Mr. Noel Brown. They call me Bury the Flag Brown.

[Noel Brown]

I'm giving myself that, that nickname for now.

[Ben Bullen]

That's good. Yeah, that's good. That's your Super K for today. They called me Ben Bullen. In various parts of the world, we are journeying together through the concept. That sounds wild when you first explain it. Like if an alien landed on the planet Earth and you said, how do I explain a World's fair? You would essentially have to say, what if all the nations of the world had a big science fair? And the alien would say, what is going on with you folks?

[Noel Brown]

What's the science fair? Is probably what the alien would say. We need to come up with a little more of a common language with the alien. Maybe numbers. Maybe we'll throw some math at it.

[Ben Bullen]

Math? Yeah, the universal language. Also, it's crazy in such an unfair civilization that we call something a World's Fair in the first place. Please check out episode one. Thanks to our research associate Renowned, we learned about some of the wins in the fairs of world fairs. And in this follow up episode we are going to learn about the times that to Max's shirt, the World's fair took a big swing and did lose.

[Noel Brown]

And then maybe a bit of a dive. We are starting today's episode in the fair city of Los Angeles, which, as we record this, is dealing with horrific disasters related to wildfires there. And I know Ben, and you've been checking on some of your pals there, and I have as well. And Max, I think you have too. And I think our hearts collectively go out to everyone that's dealing with loss of homes and property and livelihood during this really awful situation.

[Ben Bullen]

Agreed, and well said. We're keeping you in our thoughts.

[Noel Brown]

Not to put a damper on today's topic, but we just thought it was worth mentioning right up front here. So let us venture back to the golden age of Hollywood in the year of 1923 at the motion Picture Echo Exposition.

[Jon Stewart]

Jon Stewart is back in the host chair at the Daily show, which means he's also back in our ears on the Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. Join late night legend Jon Stewart and the best news team for today's biggest headlines, exclusive extended interviews and more. Now this is the second term we can all get behind Listen to the Daily Show Ears edition on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Maria Tremarke]

Welcome to the Criminalia Podcast. I'm Maria Tremarke.

[Holly Fry]

And I'm Holly Fry. Together we invite you into the dark and winding corridors of historical true crime.

[Maria Tremarke]

Each season we explore a new theme, from poisoners to art thieves.

[Holly Fry]

We uncover the secrets of history's most interesting figures, from legal injustices to body snatching.

[Maria Tremarke]

And tune in at the end of each episode as we indulge in cocktails and mocktails inspired by each story.

[Holly Fry]

Listen to criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Danny Trehlve]

You should probably keep your lights on for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadow. Join me, Danny Trehlve, and step into the flames of Fright, an anthology podcast of modern day horror stories inspired by the most terrify legends and lore of Latin America. Listen to nocturnum on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast.

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[Ben Bullen]

Yes, Hollywood is as ever, experiencing a public relations crisis because the world of entertainment is often not as shiny as appear to the audience. For some context, we must remember a film director named William Desmond Taylor, most well known today for the adaptation of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, real name Samuel Clemens. Check out our earlier episodes on Mark Twain. This guy, unfortunately was murdered in his bungalow and there are some pretty crazy rumors about what went down.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, this is exactly the kind of stuff that our buddy Jordan Runtog is super fascinated by.

[Ben Bullen]

Ooh, I can't wait for folks to meet Jordan.

[Noel Brown]

He is also another one of our fantastic new research associates for ridiculous history and a podcaster in his own right. Check out his show TMI or Too Much Information. And also Stone's Touring Party, which is a show that we did together about the Rolling Stones exile on Main street era. But he is fascinated with the dark side of Hollywood and the kind of true crimey, noirish parts of that city's storied history. A lot of which is quite dark. And yes, Ben, you're right. Rumor has it that he was. William Desmond Taylor was having an affair with an underage person. An underage young woman named Mary Miles Minter. Her nightgown was found in his bedroom along with a love letter. But officially, this case does, you know, fall under the category of unsolved today.

[Ben Bullen]

Unsolved. Yeah. And then we have to go to Roscoe Arbuckle, better known as Fatty Arbuckle, who was in his day a preeminent comedian. He was the kind of guy you would compare to Charlie Chaplin, who has his. Charlie Chaplin, by the way, has his own dark backstory.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, and if I'm not mistaken, we talked about both of these fellows on a joint episode with our pals at the Tossed Popcorn podcast.

[Ben Bullen]

Absolute legends. Yes, and neither toss popcorn nor ridiculous history has ever engaged in the unclean acts that we have to describe. We are ethically required to be honest. Fatty Arbuckle was charged with manslaughter after an actress died as a consequence of something that happened during his known drunken hotel ragers, all occurring during prohibition. This is all what we're giving you here is the context in which the motion picture exposition occurs. So there's another piece to add to the fire here. Mabel Norman, another very well known person in the entertainment industry of the time. She ended up in the tabloids in the muckraker yellow press for a dangerous drug habit. And then she. You know, the media can be so brutal, you guys. She was also apparently, perhaps having an affair with William Desmond Taylor. And then in a separate incident, her driver took her own gun and shot, and not fatally, but shot and wounded an oil tycoon. So, look, the public, like the theater going public, is increasingly having a moral panic about the creators of their favorite shows. Movie ticket sales are super down. Local censorship boards and morality police are trying to hold someone accountable.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, this era would have been akin to what was portrayed in the film LA Confidential. Danny DeVito's character runs kind of a muckraking tabloid. I believe it's like hush hush, maybe, or that was the motto, keep it on the hush hush. But this is the early days of paparazzi kind of feeding frenzy and certainly hasn't gotten any better. But folks in those days would go to extreme lengths hire private detectives, you know, to bust a celebrity for something like this cocaine habit that Mabel Norman had. And it was really just kind of a dark time in the history of Hollywood. But to your point, Ben, this required maybe a bit of a PR effort on the part of the major film studios to sort of draw the attention away from some of these scandals that were breaking and maybe reintroduce the public to the magic of the pictures, you know?

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah, let's imagine one of those studio heads do tune in to our stuff they don't want you to know series on the dark side of Hollywood, by the way. But imagine one of those studio heads, you know, chopping his cigar and slamming his fist and going, we need something wholesome. We need something wholesome. We're losing Oklahoma. So to your point, Noel, the major film studios banded together. They created something called the mppda, Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America. And they created this organization to present what they called the Motion Picture Exposition in Los Angeles. And they said, all right, we're going to make this legit. We're going to pitch to Middle America, as they called it, and we are going to pull in some government guys to help us out.

[Noel Brown]

And lest you be asking yourself, wait a minute, this doesn't sound like a World's Fair or a World's Expo, and you would be absolutely correct, but it really is akin and on the same scale as a World's Fair and a first of its kind for highlighting, you know, the entertainment industry in Hollywood. So we thought it was worth mentioning.

[Ben Bullen]

Definitely an exposition, and to the point of chasing credibility, as these folks were wont to do. The point I was making here is they pull in a Postmaster General named Will Hayes to give them a patina of credibility and to make it seem a little bit less like a PR stunt. It was trying to bring Hollywood the kind of wholesome culture that a lot of people thought Hollywood lacked. They wanted highbrow art exhibits, they wanted middlebrow kind of everyman entertainment like pageants, lectures on morality. So in a very real way, this attempt by America's entertainment industry echoes the earlier ideas from England. When Prince Albert built the Crystal palace to impress people with England and the idea of the Industrial Revolution, Hollywood tried to do the same thing with this motion picture exposition.

[Noel Brown]

And just for another moment of clarification here, the motion picture producers and distributors of America, the mppda, didn't want to be directly linked to the World Expo, to the World's Fair, to that governing body. However, they did legally. Right. They very much wanted to capitalize on the kind of excitement and sort of match the kind of scale that the Expo is known for or that the Expo is known for.

[Ben Bullen]

Like buying air jorbins on temu. Yeah.

[Noel Brown]

Like transmorphers the Movie.

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah, yeah. Or auto gods.

[Noel Brown]

100%.

[Ben Bullen]

We could do this all day. Oh, my gosh, I want so many more. I want so many more off, like, slightly off brand products. Let's see, instead of Apple. Wait, Snapple's already a thing? Moving on. These guys decide the exhibit they're holding will be a celebration because again, they're searching for legitimacy. And they say, what shall we celebrate? How do we connect with the Zeitgeist? Well, it's the 100th anniversary of the Monroe Doctrine, which is where former President James Monroe decided he would fight against European interference in the Americas and the Caribbean.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, that's pretty. I don't know, it's a little. It's a bit of a reach. Yeah, yeah, it's like around and not find out. That's what it is. Cause everyone's like, okay, James boy.

[Ben Bullen]

Okay, well, also, the Monroe Doctrine. If I could just take a step here. The Monroe Doctrine is cartoonishly hypocritical.

[Jon Stewart]

Yeah.

[Noel Brown]

It's not great. Certainly. This was a hundred years, Right?

[Ben Bullen]

This was a hundred years.

[Noel Brown]

So even by then, history had sort of, you know, shaken out. Maybe there were some issues with the Monroe doctrine.

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah. The LA Exposition occurs in 1923, when James Monroe was president. He first pitched the idea of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823. So it feels like they were looking for any sort of tie in a.

[Noel Brown]

Hook, as they call it in Hollywood.

[Ben Bullen]

And so that's what they did. The super relevant and super accessible statements of a dead president.

[Noel Brown]

And in another pretty Hollywood move, the MPPDA actually bribed Congress to mint the commemorative 1923 Monroe Doctrine Centennial half dollar. They made 275,000 of these, but only 27,000 of them were purchased ahead of opening day. That's like kind of an early, like, crypto scam almost, right?

[Ben Bullen]

It is like a puppet dump. Oh, my gosh. I didn't think about that. No, you nailed it. To me, it calls to mind those late night TV commercials of old with a commemorative coin.

[Noel Brown]

100%.

[Ben Bullen]

You know what I mean?

[Noel Brown]

Targeted at, you know, a lot of times, older folks that would maybe be willing to pump their life savings into these kind of things. Yeah, it almost reminds me of the pump and dump scam that just happened with the. The hock to a girl. Only 27,000 were purchased, and the rest of them were returned to circulation, which effectively made them worthless in terms of, like, their extra cachet. Right, right, right.

[Ben Bullen]

Because legally they would be a half dollar, they would be 50 cents, and they would have more value if they were exclusive. So when they all enter into the public sphere, the remaining hundreds of thousands of bribery coins celebrating the Monroe Doctrine, they do become less valuable. You can buy one now for any fan of coinage. You can buy one now for about $78.63 on Amazon. As Ren points out, they have rave reviews. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

[Noel Brown]

Not bad, not bad, not bad. But this already doesn't particularly bode well.

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah, they start exploring different names even before they open. They end up calling it the American Historical Review and Motion Picture expos? Opens on July 2, 1923. They had a thing. I'm laughing because one of their big tent attractions was supposed to be something they called in a burst of creativity, the location.

[Noel Brown]

Ooh, that's very hush hush.

[Ben Bullen]

It's like the condition, right?

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, it's vague and a little bit odd. It was an area of the grounds that 25 film companies demonstrated the technology behind film production, displaying actual film sets and costumes from major motion pictures that the public would have very much been aware of at the time. However, the media were a lot more interested in the historical exhibits that the exposition had to offer, including the opening night tableau of Washington crossing the Delaware, where they were really leaning into the rah rah America of it.

[Ben Bullen]

All Right. Because if you have a problem with our show, you have a problem with America. That's right. That's the implication they're going for.

[Noel Brown]

They had some other kind of dramatizations. Lincoln freeing the slaves, and of course, a callback to maybe our Colombian exhibition Columbus landing in the Americas.

[Ben Bullen]

Cristobal Colon, still very, very famous in that day. And I think perhaps today most well known for being mentioned in an episode of the Sopranos.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, that's right. This is a Christopher Columbus. And also maybe now I'm a little bit more known for being a bit of a war criminal.

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah, yeah, I agreed. Absolute monster. The public, however, is not interested in what the studios are attempting to sell. They're like people who go to a fan convention. Yeah, we can go hear a lecture. Yeah, we can go hear a TED Talk and learn about Washington, crossing the Delaware, et cetera, et cetera. But we're really here to party and meet our favorite celebrities. The problem is the studios mess up.

[Jon Stewart]

Jon Stewart is back in the host chair at the Daily show, which means he's also back in our ears on the Daily Show Ears Edition Podcast. The Daily Show Podcast has everything you need to stay on top of today's news and pop culture. You get hilarious satirical takes on on entertainment, politics, sports and more from John and the team of correspondents and contributors. The podcast also has content you can't get anywhere else, like extended interviews and a roundup of the weekly headlines. Listen to the Daily Show Ears edition on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Danny Trehlve]

Welcome. I'm Danny Thrill. Won't you join me at the fire and dare enter Tale from the Shadows presented by I Heart and Sonora. An anthology of modern day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America. From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters to bone chilling brushes with supernatural creatures.

[Noel Brown]

I know you.

[Danny Trehlve]

Take a trip and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of Michael Tura Podcast Network. Available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or or wherever you get your podcast.

[Maria Tremarke]

Welcome to the Criminalia Podcast. I'm Maria Tremarke.

[Holly Fry]

And I'm Holly Fry. Together we invite you into the dark and winding corridors of historical true crime.

[Maria Tremarke]

Each season we explore a new theme. Everything from poisoners and pirates to art thieves and snake oil products and those who made and sold them.

[Holly Fry]

We uncover the stories and secrets of some of history's most compelling criminal figures, including a man who built a submarine as a getaway vehicle. Yep, that's a fact.

[Maria Tremarke]

We also look at what kinds of societal forces were at play at the time of the crime, from legal injustices to the ethics of body snatching, to see what, if anything, might look different.

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Through today's perspective and Be sure to tune in at the end of each episode as we indulge in custom made cocktails and mocktails inspired by the stories. There's one for every story we tell.

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Listen to criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ben Bullen]

I'm just gonna be honest. They did not get all the celebrities they wanted. They did not anticipate the public demand. So at the very last minute, they pulled in a few actors, primarily based on the incredibly strange studio contracts that all actors had. It's similar to K Pop today. You have a governing body that can just tell you to jump around, jump.

[Noel Brown]

Around, get out your seat and check out the Stuff They Don't Want yout know, episode that we mentioned earlier, where we go into a lot of this contract stuff and how the big studios really had a stranglehold on a lot of their talent. But unfortunately, in this case, it would seem their stranglehold was not tight enough to get the top earners, the top performers to show up. And so at the end of the day, they had one final Hail Mary they were hoping was gonna, you know, get the butts in the seats or the feet on the location. And it was President Warren J. Harding, everyone's favorite president. I guess he was supposed to show up. He was scheduled to make an appearance at this event, but in a continuing series of unfortunate events, he died just before his scheduled appearance on August 2, 1923, of a heart attack.

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah. And that Hail Mary being unsuccessful was really the financial and optic nail in the coffin for the mppda. And this exposition that is not legally associated with the World's Fair, but is definitely trying to make you think of the World's fair. They were 200 in debt as a result of this strange debacle. Could we get an inflation calculation? $200,000 in 1923. Money is the equivalent of. Drumroll thank you, Max. $3,689,976.61 in 2024.

[Noel Brown]

61 cents is really just adding insult to injury. So, yeah, I mean, even that amount, we know movie flops today lose way more than that, so it's still kind of a modest loss by today's standards. Even when you figure inflation into the mix, but not a good look. The whole thing came off as quite a flop. Yeah.

[Ben Bullen]

And speaking of belly flops, we have to note that if you go to the governing body of the World's Fair, the Bureau of International Expositions, you'll see that they do not acknowledge this strange, ridiculous and doomed LA Exposition. You will see other belly flops like the Louisiana World Exposition, which is recognized by the governing body and happened just before our ridiculous history cutoff in chronology. Noel, can you take us to 1984?

[Noel Brown]

Oh, I will. Travel with me to the lovely city of New Orleans. New Orleans. New Orleans.

[Ben Bullen]

Smell that. You know, smell that beignet. Smell that coffee.

[Noel Brown]

Smell that horse crap. The vomit and stale beer smell. No, I love New Orleans, but it's got some sensory overload opportunities, let's say.

[Ben Bullen]

One of my buddies who is not from the United States was attempting to be diplomatic with me and she described New Orleans as, quote, a very specific city.

[Noel Brown]

It very much is love it or hate it. I've only been once and I very much enjoyed myself. Though since I've stopped drinking, I don't know if I would enjoy it quite as much. But we'll see. Who knows? I'd love to visit and try. So, as described by Time magazine writer Michael Demarest, the sole spirit and stomach of the World's Fair is the city itself. Brooding and flamboyant, raucous and urbane, devout and dissolute. That's good writing. The fair stirs together the razzamatazz of Mardi Gras, the harmony of New Orleans. Elegant old buildings and French, Spanish, African, Italian, Irish, German, Creole, Cajun gumbo, gusto.

[Ben Bullen]

Those are all hyphenated.

[Noel Brown]

They sure are. Of its everyday, every night street life. Good on you, Michael Demares. What a turn. I could turn a phrase.

[Ben Bullen]

Very well done. And having been to New Orleans, if you have the chance, please go. I am also no longer a partier and I love the place. The history is amazing. The culture is different. Also, side note, nothing to do with the World's Fair. You can buy a parade in New Orleans. You can buy a personal parade. A lot of folks don't know that it's super affordable. Just go nuts, you know what I mean? Take the money you would have spent at the bar and get yourself a good squad with a tuba. I can't wait to go back.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, well, I mean, the parades are like life there in New Orleans. If anyone's familiar with, you know, New Orleans funerals, I mean, there's a parade involved in that. It really is just kind of ingrained the culture of that city.

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah, we can't wait to go back. We should also do a history of Mardi Gras. That's cool. We won't get too true detective with it. So the Louisiana World Exposition takes place in what we Call the New Orleans metro area. The main location is the warehouse district. At this point, the warehouse district is defunct. It's burned down. You know, the city doesn't really care about it. And they gentrify it. Let's be honest. They gentrify 84 acres, or renovate, they would call it. At first. This fair is defined by a garish color scheme. They got a big series of statues. There's a mermaid, there are alligators. And then. I know you'll love this, Noel. They have a wacky collection of temporary facades, veneers, and they call this together the Wonder Wall. Which is why it reminds us of episode one, where Chicago's World's Fair, the Colombian one, had a bunch of white plaster over things and they called it the White City. So now Louisiana and New Orleans responds with the Wonder Wall.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah. After all this. Maybe. I don't know. I wonder if Oasis knew about this. It's hard to say.

[Ben Bullen]

I'm sure Liam and Noel spend a lot of time on the lyrics.

[Noel Brown]

Probably. Well, you know, I mean, people like them.

[Ben Bullen]

It's good to hear. I like them.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, for sure. They've got some bangers. No question about it. I just never need to hear that song ever again. But this was another example of kind of trying to gussy up something that maybe was not as appealing otherwise. Sort of like trying to put a little bit of a shiny veneer on what might be considered by visitors as like a little bit more of a rundown kind of look.

[Ben Bullen]

It's rough, right? Is it a hat on a hat? Are we unnecessarily zhuzhing up things? The fair had some big ticket, big tent items. There was a 300 foot French gondola. Gondola that connected the warehouse district to Algiers. There was an example of the space shuttle the Enterprise. Not the cool one, the real one, flown in on the back of a 747. There was the International Women's Pavilion. There were all these again, global exhibits. Thankfully nothing exploiting indigenous people. But there was an Italian village, there was a German beer garden, and there was a Louisiana swamp ride. By the way, fellow ridiculous historians, this was unsuccessful. The exposition was a huge poop in the pants.

[Noel Brown]

Yes, it was such a financial failure that many, many, many Years later, in 1999, Congress implemented Code 245 to be international expositions, which prevented the Department of State from using funds for a United States pavilion or other major exhibit at a World's Fair. Because this event was seen as such a waste of taxpayer money that it served as a precedent to ultimately make sure something like this didn't happen again. Though it certainly took a while for them to get to it. But, you know, I love it, Justice.

[Ben Bullen]

I love it. It is peak ridiculous history. Uncle Sam lost so much money that we decided to make it illegal to lose that money that way again. That's how much money we lost. The total cost of this exposition was about $350 million at the time, 1984. So, Noel, if we could return to our inflation calculator, I'm gonna set you up with a boop. And then let us know how much money America lost in 2024.

[Noel Brown]

The total cost of the expedition was around $350 million in 1984, money which today would be a whopping $1,062,777,189. Could have made three Avatar movies for that amount.

[Ben Bullen]

Right, and we have to wonder whether you could pay part of that off with a Monroe Doctrine centennial half dollar. The news is still developing. So this is. This is a quagmire, right? This is a boondoggle. Attendance is 40% lower than they had. The Louisiana World Exposition is the only World's Fair in all of history to declare bankruptcy while it was still happening. And it's a sad story. We're taking the piss a bit, as our British friends like to say. But the exposition was meant to do good things. It was meant to revitalize the economy of the overall region. If you cast your memory back there to the 1980s in the Gulf, you'll see that they were in dire straits. Not the band. They were situated in the Gulf of Mexico. There was a lot of offshore drilling. Louisiana was even more heavily dependent on the oil industry. And oil has often been a geopolitical leverage point. In a very quick summation here, we can tell you, as several of our fellow ridiculous historians will recall, the United States and Iran sometimes don't get along.

[Noel Brown]

Oh, say it ain't so, Ben. Say it ain't so.

[Ben Bullen]

I wish I could say it wasn't so, but that's the case, Noel. In 1979, in particular, President Carter, Jimmy Carter, a fellow resident of Atlanta, God bless, he embargoed oil trade with the nation of Iran. The US Public panicked because they thought there would be no oil, no gas for cars. The price skyrocketed, and all of a sudden, Louisiana was in an economic bubble. However, we know how bubbles work. First a bubble forms and then a bubble.

[Jon Stewart]

Jon Stewart is back in the host chair at the Daily show, which means he's also back in our ears on the Daily Show Show Ears Edition Podcast the Daily Show Podcast has everything you need to stay on top of today's news and pop culture. You get hilarious satirical takes on entertainment, politics, sports and more from John and the team of correspondents and contributors. The podcast also has content you can't get anywhere else, like extended interviews and a roundup of the weekly headlines. Listen to the Daily Show Ears Edition on the Ice Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Danny Trehlve]

Welcome. I'm Danny Thrill. Won't you join me at the fire and dare Enter Nocturnal Tale from the Shadows Presented by iheart and Sonora an anthology of modern day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America. From ghastly encounters with shape shifters to bone chilling brushes with supernatural creatures.

[Ben Bullen]

Take.

[Danny Trehlve]

A trip and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of Michael Tura Podcast Network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast.

[Maria Tremarke]

Welcome to the Criminalia Podcast. I'm Maria Tremarke.

[Holly Fry]

And I'm Holly Fry. Together we invite you into the dark and winding corridors of historical true crime.

[Maria Tremarke]

Each season we explore a new theme, everything from poisoners and pirates to art thieves and snake oil products and those who made and sold them.

[Holly Fry]

We uncover the stories and secrets of some of history's most compelling criminal figures, including a man who built a submarine as a getaway vehicle. Yep, that's a fact.

[Maria Tremarke]

We also look at what kinds of societal forces were at play at the time of the crime, from legal injustices to the ethics of body snatching, to see what, what, if anything, might look different through today's perspective.

[Holly Fry]

And be sure to tune in at the end of each episode as we indulge in custom made cocktails and mocktails inspired by the stories. There's one for every story we tell.

[Maria Tremarke]

Listen to criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Ben Bullen]

The bubble burst in the 1980s, or in 1980s specifically, when Uncle Sam renewed ties with the Middle Eastern nation of Iraq so they could still keep pulling in oil. Louisiana was left out in the cold and a lot of people lost their jobs. So the fair organizers were hoping that the exposition could bring tourism in, could somehow bring other industries right that were not oil dependent. It didn't work out. I mean, break it down for us, man. What went wrong?

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, by 1984, the World's Fair structure had really kind of become something very different from what it was originally intended to be, which was, of course, a showcase of invention and innovation and progress, it seems to have kind of devolved into a much more commercial, state fair kind of situation without that draw of new revolutionary technology being right.

[Ben Bullen]

Where's our telephone? Where's our television? Right.

[Noel Brown]

Where's our flying car?

[Ben Bullen]

Where's our Ferris wheel? So this. Yeah, this is an excellent point there, Noel. The exposition occurs often in step with the Olympics. So at this point, we talked about the 1904 stuff in a previous episode. The Olympics in 1984 are taking some of the public's front of mind space from the exposition and it's taking money from sponsors. So imagine you're a big to do kind of guy, Right. You have some money, but not all the money. You can help fund the 1984 Olympics or you can help fund this exposition in Louisiana. A lot of people decided to focus on the Olympics. Now, we can't blame them. We're just telling you what happened. There were a series of competing international events.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah. And like we mentioned in the first episode, there's a reason for the World's Fair not seeming to have the same prominence as the Olympics does today. And this may have been the beginning of that backslide. Actually, it probably began quite a bit before the 1984 World's Fair. This is just sort of a good example of where it landed.

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah. And then adding on to the complications, something we mentioned in episode one of the World's Fairs, we were talking about the wins. There was another big win in Florida that also competed with Louisiana. It is Disney World's newest theme park, Epcot. Oh, and also, we should point out there was a recent World's Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee, just two years before 1984, in 1982. So the world's Fair is supposed to be for the world.

[Noel Brown]

People were worlds fared out a little bit.

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah, they were. I think that's fair to say. And now you're thinking, I've been to Knoxville, which is a great town. I'm required to say that. No spoilers. And we have to imagine the tourists, right? The people with money to travel. Money and time to travel. They're saying, we've been to America. We visited Knoxville. Shall we return to Louisiana? If we go again to the Americas, we must go to epcot.

[Noel Brown]

Because it was built as a permanent World's Fair. It's sort of that quintessential city of the future kind of look with the. What is it, Spaceship Earth and all of that. It's pretty cool. Even still today, I visited a couple of years ago and I had a good old time. And it really is a neat attraction, especially with all of the international areas, you know, and the different cuisine and, you know, sort of recreations of all of these incredible architectural things from everywhere from China to South America, India and beyond. So what do I need to go to Louisiana for when I can just pop over to Epcot and then hit the Magic Kingdom for some teacups? And the photo op with Cinderella, Mr. Toad's wild ride is a banger.

[Ben Bullen]

Yes. Yeah, I love Epcot, folks. Oh, my gosh, I'm such a fanboy for it. To top all of this off, the complications for this exhibition in New Orle, the federal government usually subsidizes these events. And Noel, we mentioned earlier that this was such a disaster that Uncle Sam decided to make a law saying they will not pay for these sorts of things. But even before stuff was getting rolling, the US government had slashed its contribution to the cause by $10 million. So. So the exposition found itself over US$100 million in debt by the day they closed. But, I mean, look, not everything's going to work. That's the spirit of the World's Fair. Right? It's a great drawing board. And the idea is some things are going to be a television, some things are going to be electro. The smoking robots. Not everything's gonna work.

[Noel Brown]

And forgive me if I'm repeating this, but I just think it's. Maybe it bears repeating. This was the only World's Fair to ever actually declare bankruptcy while in progress.

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah, that's absolutely true. Now, we've given you two examples of when things went wrong, but we wanna be positive boffins. So let's close on a positive note. The United States has started. Started submitting bids again. Enough time has passed, enough water under the bridge. So our buddies, the country we live in, started asking the Bureau of International Expositions for another chance. You know what I mean? Take us back in. Let's go get coffee. They've submitted a bid to host what is called a Specialized Expo. So you know how there are TED Talks and then there are TEDx talks. Yeah. The spinoff Specialized Expo is kind of like the TEDX to the World's Fair. TED Talk.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah. And the theme under which they are taking these submissions is Healthy People, Healthy Planet. Although the United States ultimately did lose this bid to Serbia. Serbia, I know, Serbia. You never see him coming. Hopefully we may one day have a World's Fair in the States again. And, you know, it's something that occurs to me now, Ben, that we maybe didn't mention the idea of this singular event for showcasing all of the new tech and innovations or whatever. It makes sense that it would be difficult to maintain that with all of the fragmented little expos that take place. And when I say little, I mean you're huge. Things like CES, for example, or G3, you know, for like video games. Every kind of industry has their own World's Fair, you know, that's specifically surrounding a certain genre of innovation. Innovation. So you just can't really compete with that.

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah, that's a great point. Because the current world expos tend to, as a result, go broad. Right. CES, G3, they specialize in certain things. Just like the DEFCON conference in case.

[Noel Brown]

Which is a hacker kind of thing. Right?

[Ben Bullen]

Well, let's say Internet enthusiast.

[Noel Brown]

They can you. Thank you.

[Ben Bullen]

Always the diplomat. Yeah, yeah, because I don't want them to get us. So just in case, folks, you want to learn more about world expos, tell us what you're doing later because this year the World Exposition will be held in Osaka, Japan. Going to our point about keeping things broad, the theme of the idea here, Noel, is is designing future society for our lives. That's so broad. What does that mean? Designing future society for our lives? It's gonna be a banger. We're working with accounting right now to see if we can take ridiculous history there. Just. That's what we call a big swing.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, for sure, for sure. And what would be a ridiculous history episode if we didn't wrap up with a couple of related, unrelated, adjacent bits of tangents and trivia. Angus Young, you know, the lead guitarist of the Aussie rock band acdc. He's the guy that dresses like a little schoolboy, you know, with the shorts.

[Ben Bullen]

What is music?

[Noel Brown]

That is the question. Bam. He thinks, you know, music is shredding on the electric guitar. They apparently, or Angus himself, proposed the group's name after his sister in law pointed out that the alternating current direct current cymbal on her sewing machine looked kind of cool. And so the band adopted that name because they felt it symbolized the raw power of rock that they hoped to bring across in their music.

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah, man, there's so many interesting pathways about, like, related to the World's Fair. Do you want to. Do you want to kick us one more callback before we end the show?

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, we talked about that kind of really dark period in the golden age of Hollywood causing the producers of motion pictures to band together to create some kind of distraction, we mentioned William Desmond Taylor being murdered in his bungalow. Well, Mary Miles Minter, who I believe was his mistress, confessed in her unpublished autobiography that she and her mother were at William Desmond Taylor's bungalow the night he was murdered. And another Hollywood player, King Vidor, known for films such as War and Peace with Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda, claims Minter once admitted that her kind of helicopter mother, bit of a control freak, was actually the one who pulled the trigger when she came across her daughter and Taylor perhaps engaged in some hanky panky there in his home.

[Ben Bullen]

And lest we leave you on a negative note, we'll give you just a couple more fun facts about the Expo occurring in October of 2025. Noel, you know how we lost to Serbia? Osaka won the new one. I know, I know. Serbia. The countries that the countries that Japan went against were Azerbaijan and Russia. The Azerbaijani theme was developing human capital, building a better future. The Russian pitch was changing the world Innovations, better life for future generations. I gotta tell you, I hope we can convince accounting to take us to Osaka. Wouldn't that be cool? How do we pull that off? Like you're a people person. Can you make that happen for us?

[Noel Brown]

I'll see if I can put my people person powers to good use.

[Ben Bullen]

Oh, I love that alliteration, dude. Okay, so when you talk to accounting, Noel, please, and thank you in advance, tell them we're not just going to explore designing future society for our lives. Tell them also the sub themes of the next World Expo are saving lives, empowering lives and connecting lives. And then if they're still on the fence about it, bro, toss them one of those Monroe coins.

[Noel Brown]

Indeed. Exactly. That's a great call. Huge thanks to our incredible research associate extraordinaire, Ren Jones. Huge thanks to super producer extraordinaire Max Vaughn Williams.

[Ben Bullen]

Yes, Big, big thanks to you, research associate Renfest. Hope you like the sobriquet, the Monica, the nickname Big. Big. Thanks, of course, to our pal Mr. Max Williams, as well as his biological brother, Alex Tijuana Williams, who composed this slap and bop. Who else? Who else? Who else?

[Noel Brown]

Oh, you know, the usual. Christopher Assiotis Neves, Jeff Goats here in spirit. Jonathan Strickland, the Quizzter, AJ Bahamas Jacobs.

[Ben Bullen]

The puzzler, Rachel Big Spinach Lance, everybody who has gone to a world exposition and everyone who is tuning in to join us on the show today. Perhaps most importantly, Mr. Noel Brown.

[Noel Brown]

You as well, Ben. We'll see you next time, folks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

[Jon Stewart]

Jon Stewart is back in the host chair at the Daily show, which means he's also back in our ears on the Daily Show Ears Edition Podcast. Join late night legend Jon Stewart and the best news team for today's biggest headlines, exclusive extended interviews and more. Now this is a second term we can all get behind. Listen to the Daily Show Ears edition on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your your podcasts.

[Maria Tremarke]

Welcome to the Criminalia Podcast. I'm Maria Tremarke.

[Holly Fry]

And I'm Holly Fry. Together we invite you into the dark and winding corridors of historical true crime.

[Maria Tremarke]

Each season we explore a new theme. From poisoners to art thieves, we uncover.

[Holly Fry]

The secrets of history's most interesting figures, from legal injustices to body snatching.

[Maria Tremarke]

And tune in at the end of each episode as we indulge in cocktails and mocktails inspired by each story.

[Holly Fry]

Listen to criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Danny Trehlve]

You should probably keep your lights on for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadow. Join me, Danny Drehl and step into the flames of Fright, an anthology podcast of modern day horror stories inspired by the most terrifying legends and lore of Latin America. Listen to nocturnal on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast.

[Tech Stuff Host]

Do you want to see into the future? Do you want to understand an invisible force that's shaping your life? Do you want to experience the frontiers of what makes us human? On tech stuff we travel from the mines of Congo to the surface of Mars, from conversations with Nobel Prize winners to the depths of TikTok to ask burning questions about technology, from high tech to low culture and everywhere in between. Join us Listen to tech stuff on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.