It Happened at the Fair (48 page)

TOWER ON COLD STORAGE BUILDING

As for the conflagration itself, there was much more than what I actually included. The biggest gap in description was what happened after the tower collapsed. The heat building up inside the remaining structure made the roof that Chief Murphy and his men stood on so hot that it began to bubble and threatened to collapse. There was another scene of intense drama as the men all scrambled to get off the roof. The soldiers, sailors, and marines of other countries came out of the crowd to help contain the gathered multitude. Many of those same men, along with volunteers from the crowd, stayed to help recover bodies. And as I depicted in the novel, the Sunday after the fire was indeed designated as a memorial for the firemen. All ticket sales, as well as a percentage of the proceeds of many of the concessionaires, went to the families of the fallen and wounded.
I

I never could confirm where the Fireman’s Week competition (which occurred toward the end of my novel and well after the Cold Storage fire) actually took place. I do know fair officials were considering a few options, including the shoreline. I chose the shoreline because I liked that better than some far-removed corner of the fair. (I can’t imagine them putting it on the shoreline, though, especially not with the way the wind whips off the lake. But who knows.)

I took a shameful amount of creative license with the historical time line of automatic sprinkler systems and twisted it in all sorts of ways in order to make Cullen’s plight more dramatic. My reasoning was that it was more in keeping with the fair to have his sprinkler new and cutting-edge than to simply be new and improved. But the truth is that the automatic fire sprinkler was first conceived in 1806 by John Carey. It became much more practical when it was improved in the 1870s and 1880s by George Parmelee and Fredrick Grinnell. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) was formed in 1895, but obviously Cullen and Vaughn weren’t founding members. So to all of those fire sprinkler history buffs—sorry! Forgive me?

As long as I’m asking for forgiveness, I ought to mention the animal treadmill Cowboy (my family’s beloved border collie who makes a cameo appearance) hopped onto at the beginning of the book. Again, this wasn’t a new invention. It was patented by Nicholas Potter in 1881. I had Cullen “rig one up” in order to show readers his mechanical genius. The treadmill was for dogs and sheep to run on while powering butter churns, cream separators, early washing machines, or whatever.

The Columbian Exposition was a fair of firsts, not just in its size and grandeur but in products that debuted there. Several became household names, many of which we still recognize today. Among them are Cracker Jack (though it wasn’t called that until after 1900), hamburgers, picture postcards, the Ferris wheel, chili con carne, Aunt Jemima, and shredded wheat.

The medals awarded at the Columbian Exposition were noncompetitive, a change from previous fairs. All bronze and all exactly alike, they were awarded to articles that indicated some independent and essential excellence and also denoted improvement in the condition of the art or industry they represented. I have no idea if any of the sprinkler systems exhibited were awarded medals.

The official fair medals should not be confused with souvenir medals. There were a plethora of those in all sizes, shapes, and colors and with all manner of engravings. You didn’t earn those; you paid for them.

Something I regrettably was forced to overlook were the designated days and weeks of celebration. The fair had a Children’s Week, German Day, Miller’s Day, Chicago Day, Irish Day, and many more. The only one I managed to work in was Fireman’s Week.

RECORD ATTENDANCE AT CHICAGO DAY

The Pennsylvania Home for the Training in Speech of Deaf Children Before They Are of School Age, which became known as Bala Home, did transport the school to the fair as an official exhibit. I could find no record of how many teachers and pupils there were, nor where they all boarded, so I took complete creative license there.

Neither was I able to discover how they taught lip-reading back in the day. I found a lot of information about why it was taught, but I couldn’t find a thing on how it was taught. So I used one of today’s methods. If I made mistakes—and I’m sure I did—it wasn’t for lack of trying. I just couldn’t find the resources I needed.

The same thing with sign language. At the time of the World’s Fair, if I’m not mistaken, America was using a French-based sign language. In my novel, however, I have Della teaching Cullen American Sign Language (ASL). Again, it wasn’t for lack of trying, I just couldn’t find the resources I needed concerning sign language in 1893.

What I did find plenty of material on was the heated debate the country was having about whether sign language should be taught or used. The advocates of lip-reading were called “oralists,” and the advocates of sign language, “manualists.” The debate represented a much bigger issue, however: the one where society was so busy striving to make everyone the same that it failed to look at a person’s character and integrity and instead concerned itself only with the superficial surfaces.

Alexander Graham Bell was a purist when it came to oralism. His wife was in fact deaf, so I firmly believe his heart was in the right place, as was everyone else’s. The manualism versus oralism topic is still a sensitive one. It is my deepest desire that I have not hurt any feelings or stepped on any toes. If I did, I apologize and ask for your forgiveness.

You might have wondered why I didn’t end the book with the closing ceremonies on October 31. They were to be as magnificent as the opening, but two days before the fair ended, the mayor of Chicago was murdered. So tragic. He was, of course, a major player in the success of the fair, so the closing ceremonies ended up becoming a funeral dirge. Not exactly the tone I wanted to end the book on.

As for weddings and honeymoons, I found reports of people wanting to say their vows on the Ferris wheel and such, but official permission was always denied, so it is my guess that Cullen and Della would not have been allowed to get married on the Wooded Island. Still, there are folks today who had grandparents or other relatives who claimed to have married on the grounds. I did find confirmation of a couple who honeymooned inside the fair. It was a specially prepared bridal chamber in one of the bastions of the miniature Fort Marion in the Florida State Building. Since neither of my characters was from Florida, I decided to use Blooker’s as a substitute.

Just as Della mourned the temporariness of the Columbian Exposition, so do I. Its buildings were burned to the ground the following year by union members involved in the Pullman strike. Only the Art Building survives today. Because of all the masterpieces it displayed, it was the only build-to-last structure of the fair. Its walls were brick based, its floor and roof, iron. It was also the only fire-proofed building. It is now the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry and still looks out over the north end of the lagoon in Jackson Park.

REMAINS OF THE WORLD’S FAIR 1894

Other evidence of the fair can be seen by driving on one of Chicago’s highways that runs along the shore, roughly on the same route as the elevated train. The Plaisance is now in the middle of the University of Chicago’s campus. It’s still called the Midway Plaisance, and the Chicago Bears are called the “Monsters of the Midway.”

I’m an avid scrapbooker and save every piece of memorabilia imaginable from every trip our family takes. Evidently there were more than a few of us back in 1893 too. Because of it, we can find souvenirs of the fair here and there—some more expensive than others. For example, you can find a picture postcard from the fair for a few dollars on eBay. While in 2011, Coca Cola’s soda fountain from the fair was auctioned off for $4.5 million. I’d love to hear from you if you have a piece of the fair or if you know of one. E-mail me from my Web site, IWantHerBook.com.

Well, my friends, it was great fun to research and write this book. I cannot tell you how much it means that you came along for the ride with me.

Many blessings,

I.
After It Happened at the Fair had already gone into publication, I discovered that the statue of Columbus the firemen pulled down so they could better fight the Cold Storage Building fire actually survived. It was originally placed in front of Engine Company 51’s firehouse, because it was Battalion Headquarters and the chief there was a veteran of the Cold Storage fire; today, you can see it in all its glory at the Fire Museum of Greater Chicago.

IT

HAPPENED

AT THE

FAIR

D
EEANNE
G
IST

READING GROUP GUIDE

Introduction

Cullen McNamara didn’t set out to be an inventor. He had long ago settled on a life of farming, but his debilitating allergies to cotton—and a tragic history with his mother—continued to steer him toward his idea for inventing an automatic fire sprinkler system. With the support of his father, Cullen attends the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair and finds more than just a platform for his invention. A beautiful lip-reading teacher quickly turns his world upside down, and everything he thought he knew about himself—and life—changes.

Discussion Questions

1. In It Happened at the Fair, we are introduced to a hard-of-hearing farmer with severe allergic reactions to his crops. What are your first impressions of Cullen McNamara? Why do you think he was so resigned to a life of farming, even though it made him miserable?

2. Cullen’s father manages to persuade Cullen to attend the fair after confessing he has paid the nonrefundable money for Cullen’s travel expenses and fair fees. Despite Cullen’s protests, do you think he was privately happy about this? Why or why not?

3. Describe Cullen and Wanda’s relationship. How does he view his girlfriend? Why is he hesitant to set a date for their wedding?

4. Adelaide Wentworth, the beautiful lip-reading teacher at the fair, is hesitant to trust Cullen at first. Even when he proves his loyalty, she suspects he is lying. What makes her so distrusting? How do you think that defined her character?