Creighton, who has written a wonderful new book, and mark sommer, writer for the buffalo news. Mark will have a conversation with margaret, then we will open it up to members of the audience. Thank you so much for being here. [applause] mark hi, margaret. Argaret hi, mark. Mark welcome to everybody who is here tonight. Good to see such a good turnout. They make history really come alive. It is one of those rare books about buffalo history that does just that. Many people know about the book hat talked about the exhibition, the city, a very prosperous city. Your book is the first fulllength book that focuses specifically on the history of one of the great events that happen in buffalo. Worlds fares were once major events in the United States. It is no longer the case. Buffalo is one of 16 cities to ever host a worlds fair in the United States. It hasnt happened since 1984 in new orleans. The next worlds fair is going to be anyone know . Probably not. It is going to be in 2017 in the united d states is not one of the 101 countries slated to participate in that worlds fair. It was a big deal for buffalo to host the worlds fair. Margaret, talk about that. What did it mean for buffalo at that time to host the worlds air. Margaret great question and first, let me think leslie, queen of the queens city, i think. So buffalo probably as many of you know was a big deal at the turnofthecentury. We are seeing that same type of optimism now, but it was very proud of its accomplishments and its stateoftheart architecture, the finest asphalt streets in the country, electric streetcars, electric ights. It was big. 350,000 people at the turn of the century. It had fathered two president s and it had big dreams. One of the things that hope to do was to become bigger and raise its profile, so one of the ways that cities do this is to host a huge exposition, and buffalo had big ideas that its its panamerican exhibition would be even more grand than the world spare the took place in chicago 1893. So. Ark electricity was still new and it played a really big part of the fair. Buffalo was the beacon of light. Can you talk about how the fair looked that night. Margaret the tower was one of the signature buildings of the exhibition. The fair was all about lectricity in many ways. It celebrated the command over the natural world, represented by Niagara Falls to bring electric current into the fair and illuminate the grounds. He big event was the illumination that took place every night and people were awed by this. Hey sat near the bridge and they tried to move their way close to see what were initially pinpricks of light blossom into a beautiful orange and yellow glow that brought the fairgrounds alive. This is one of the biggest hits of the fair. Mark the choice of colors and how the colors were used told the story. Can you share that . Margaret the fair was about pride in white western civilization, and the fair directors wanted to convey a message about how people had moved, particularly the United States, from a position of savagery to the apex of civilization, so they translated this message into the colors of the fair, so when you entered on the periphery of the grounds, you would be entering at places where buildings were tinted warm reds, oranges, yellows that represented the more barbaric races, and as you move towards the electric tower, the tints of the building grew more and more paleand then you reach the signature tower in yellows and white, so it was not difficult for people to understand the allegory about race. Mark in the way color was used in a racial way, people of color were also portrayed in an amazingly disturbing way, actually. There were signs of conquest everywhere really in the fair from what you have written. There was the Darkest Africa exhibit, the old plantation, the way native americans were epicted, including geronimo, on loan from a state prison, so reading the stories now, it is really shocking. Margaret it is distressing to us now. We have to remember this was the era of jim crow, segregation, lynching, so it should not be surprising as we look back and see how the fair officials put this all ogether, and it is a story about supremacy, particularly race supremacy, and they convey their notions of this through exhibits. You mentioned the old plantation, which brought in africanamerican performers to enact the socalled good old days before the civil war, and hese were performers who picked cotton and sang and danced, etc. Mark this was four decades after the the end of the civil war. Argaret thats right. This was post reconstruction. It placed africanamericans in a position of struggle and challenge. Mark Something Else that people when they read your book will be thrown for a loop has to do with animal welfare. There were a couple of events that were very shocking. One tells about the plan public execution of an elephant, known as jumbo two. The first was a beloved animal araded around the country. The second concerned the mass slaughter of dogs that occurred at the panamerican exhibition, which people were paying extra to witness. So perhaps you can tell us about those . Margaret lets start with the dogs. I said this is one of the most shocking things i came across, which was in buffalo shelters and buffalo parks, dogs were rounded up, poodles, terriers, cross breeds, rounded up and brought to the fair where they were killed, then the native peoples of the fair ate those dogs in a dog feast. The Humane Society in buffalo was very progressive, the Second Society in the United States, and they were very distressed by this, but at the same time they wanted to acknowledge the cultural traditions of the native performers, like geronimo, who helped to orchestrate this, so they didnt want to interfere. So it was a very troubling event, but also an event that revealed the cultural tensions and challenges of this fair. Mark there were some positive aspects about this fair and depictions of people not from the United States, particularly the presentation of latin american countries. It was after all the panamerican expositive i guess. Exposition. From reading your book, it sounded like latin american countries got short shrift in previous fares, not in buffalo. Margaret thats right. One of the things buffalo should be proud of it is the way they invited latin american republics to be part of this exhibition and gave them a platform on which to speak and talk back to the United States, particularly cuba. We have recently fought a war in cuba and were now involved in governing cuba. Cuban dignitaries came to buffalo and said we would prefer if the United States gave us our complete freedom, so the fair gave these countries exhibit space they could show off their accomplishments, art, educational products, et cetera, but also gave him a way to talk back, to rebut American Foreign policy, which i think s interesting. Mark you people the book with many fascinating characters. Maybe we can take them one at a time. There is leon czolgosz, the person whose name is followed or right before with anarchist, the assassin of william mckinley. You have a lot to say about him. He is quite an unusual guy. Argaret the way i frame the story was to talk about his desire to be in anarchist. Im not sure the anarchist community really embraced him, but to talk about his mental illness. He was clearly a sick man, and he also gave a number of short speeches about how he was driven and motivated by being unemployed and unable to get access to hospitals, to physicians, to healthcare. We dont want to have much sympathy with this guy because he did terrible things, but he brought up issues that are real issues and continue to be something we discussed. Mark i never say his name right. Margaret it is interesting. In buffalo, the paper said it was pronounced czolgosz, and yet other interpretations pronounced differently, or perhaps we have people who can help us pronounce this name. Mark anybody . We will go with czolgosz. He is at the temple of music with the revolver in his hand waiting to kill the president. There is someone else named jim parker, an exslave. He was there because he wanted to shake hands with the president. Instead, he winds up corralling czolgosz to the ground, and at first to celebrate it as a black man who got the guy who shot the resident, then later something happens and history is turned on its head as to what actually happened, and it has an unfortunate effect on the rest of mr. Parkers life. Margaret right. Jim parker helped to tackle the assassin and was recognized as one of the heroes of the moment because he prevented czolgosz from firing a third round, and for a while, certainly for the next eight days, he was seen as the hero who mightve saved mckinleys life. But a funny thing happened, after he was hailed as the savior, certainly you have the secret service and other individuals there to guard the president coming out and saying, we certainly did our job. That man was not there at all, then in the trial of czolgosz, James Parkers testimony was never called for, never called on, and he was edited out and erased from the memory of the event. He went around the country for pretty much the rest of his life, talking on street corners, meeting people in various churches and so forth talking about the role he played, begging people to believe him and eventually died in philadelphia, found on the streets and destitute. Mark very tragic. One of the people in your book is the smallest person, only two feet tall, known as chiquita. Margaret she is one of my favorite characters in the story. I say characters, this is nonfiction and these are all real people. Chiquita was born in guadalajara, about 26 inches tall, and was discovered by a showman when she was living in new york and was brought to the fair as one of the highlights of the midway, and she was named the mascot of the exposition, which is interesting, because she was tiny, a little person. They redefined her as a cuban, instead of mexican, and the fact that she was a mascot 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 and was not treated very well by her manager, and at one point late in the exposition, she left very suddenly, and i dont want to ruin the story, but it is quite a traumatic departure. Mark a lot of people are familiar with the story of the over woman to go Niagara Falls in a barrel, and she survived. She hoped to capitalize on that experience and make a lot of money, but it didnt really happen, did it . Margaret poor annie taylor. She was destitute, like so many other characters, and she decided she would make money for her later life by going over the falls and be the first person to survive. Dont have to spoil things, i guess im going to have to spoil things. She makes it and becomes an incredible celebrity, especially on the last day of the fair, but people dont think when they look at her, something does not seem quite right. She billed herself as a 40yearold and is actually 64. She was a dancing teacher. People say she doesnt look that limber. She did this amazing thing, and hen wanted to go on the road with the show, with her barrel, and the problem was her managers could not convince people she had done this daredevil trick because she did not fit the part. She wasnt young, beautiful, she didnt look like a spunky attraction, so eventually one of her managers stole her barrel and put someone else to n to play her part and she was left to sell postcards in Niagara Falls the rest of her life. Mark so there was a lot riding on this worlds fair in buffalo, especially the ruling class, they ponied up 500,000, which is a lot more money than it is today in a matter of hours. They got together and emerged and made commitments for that much money because they wanted the worlds fair in buffalo and not in detroit, right . Margaret thats right. Mark so there was a lot of pressure to get a big return financially. In the end, 8 Million People went through the turnstiles. That would seem to be a lot of people, but there was constant pressure all the time to drum up more interest, get more people to come, and in the end, they still fell short. They made enough money to return money back to everyone who made an investment in the fair. Margaret the producers were extraordinarily optimistic and he press really fueled the optimism. This is going to be possibly bigger than chicago. This is going to be the best fare ever held in the United States because we pulled ourselves out of recession. People have pocket money. Buffalo has Niagara Falls earby. 40 Million People can come to buffalo very easily on overnight trains. It is basically going to be the hit of the century, so there was a tremendous amount of overconfidence. Other things that played into the shortfall, the weather was bad in the spring and early summer, the advertising people say later was a bit off. There was also some speculation that the focus on latin america had not brought in the numbers of people who really wanted to see exhibits produced by parisians or germans, and they were unclear as to what to expect from the latin american shows, so they were concerned by the middle of the summer, but had an answer to this, which was to bring in president mckinley in september. He would effectively turn things around. Mark and he did, but not in the way that was intended. Margaret he did turn things around, absolutely. Mark so there has been a lot of talk is this on . Feel like it just went out. Margaret yeah. Mark i will use yours in the meantime. We will go back and forth. So mckinley heralds the opening of the fair. He comes out. You know, he gives his blessing to the fair, then is tragically killed. I believe there are about two months left in the exhibition at that point, and attendance takes a hit. Clearly that was one of the reasons the attendance goals may not have been met. After mckinley dies, and it took eight days for him to die it looked like he was going to come out from it. They were writing about his ecovery, everything was great, then things took a turn for the worse and he died pretty suddenly, and that cast a pall over the fair and not just the fair but over the city of buffalo. Before we talk about that, maybe, what the doctors and surgeons do that some feel was not enough . I will let you answer that. There is a lot of controversy about that. Margaret sure. Well, there was a lot of secondguessing, as you can imagine, and there was some thought that the bullet had been left in mckinleys back when it mightve been pulled out, and that mightve done the trick, or perhaps there wasnt enough sterilization going on, perhaps they had not closed things properly, but one of the things i did is talk to some trauma surgeons today and asked them to take a look at the case and see whether it might have been possible, and they said even today with imaging and antibiotics that it wouldve een tough, and the problem was is pancreas had been blown apart a bit and had spilled some poisonous enzymes, so he probably couldnt recover back then, but there was this moment that buffalo believed it had done something really miraculous, and it gave rise to not only the sense of relief, but also the belief that buffalo would ow be the temporary nations capital, the cabinet be set up in the buffalo club. It was this amazing moment, again, of relief and exhilaration, then all of a sudden, within a few hours, things taken downturn. The president had been asking for cigars and toast and then all of a sudden, he cant eat the toast, and what is going on . They pull everything out, strychnine, brandy, did everything they possibly can to him to help stimulate his eart, and it doesnt work. Mark so has that continued to cast a dark spell over the city f buffalo . Margaret well, as some of you itting here know, i taught a course on the boston red sox, called the red sox nation, so i became familiar with sports teams. So, am not a big believer in curses or spells, but possibly some of you are. We have to think back to what possibly could have been done differently with regards to mckinley. You know, aside from the confidence people felt that he possibly some of you are. We have to think what possibly could have been done differently. You know, aside from the that people felt it was going to recover, and that included people like the vice , teddy roosevelt, i cant find any fault. Has paid a big price for any sins it made that when i was growing up. I think buffalo is on the upswing. Is about toeir time come the bills in the sabres and i dont think we can look that at mckinley illness. You are part of buffalos history, pan am or otherwise. What caught you to want to research the panamerican exposition . Up a story to make about how as a child i had wandered around and mused about the days long ago and loved history, but that would be a total lie. I majored in english. I dont think i took a history course. Until after college. 100 years ago i was teaching a course on 19th Century America and i find eric larsons devil in the white city. He talked about this amazing efforts. That point i was looking for a story to tell and it occurred to me that there might be another fair that had some drama associated with it. I came back to buffalo, and i began to dig around, and also mark goldman helped me with a lot of this research. Discovered there is all kinds of who broughtaracters the public with not necessarily comic relief, but distracted them in the fall of the fair. Your research is mostly drawn from newspaper accounts of the ,ay along with memoirs scholarly literature that had to be extremely challenging. To read the book it reads so only imagine can how much work it took to kabul all of that together and translate for the average person in a way that was compelling and entertaining. Happy when i turned day that allr one of the panamerican books had been digitized. I was flabbergasted. It made things so much easier. Not that i had not loved coming back to my hometown. It was a long drive. It was challenging. Some of the newspapers took pride in making up fantastic stories. You had to come through the facts. I am going to ask or question and i will ask you people to come up with your own questions in a moment. Whats the legacy of the panamerican experience . I think it is time for us to think beyond mckinley. He was an important man. Obviously, we have monuments to him and plaques to him and so forth, but its time i to think about what else it re