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Opening Day The Jeweled City The Zone Lincoln Beachey Audrey Munson

Appendix

The Zone
The Zone’s attractions included an incredible five acre operating model of the Panama Canal (100 chairs were conveyed along tracks on a balcony carrying passengers around the model as they listened through earphones to a narration played on a phonograph); two open air models covering five acres each of Yellowstone Park (complete with spouting geysers) and the Grand Canyon (large enough to ride a stagecoach through and containing a complete Navajo pueblo); the Aeroscope, looking like half of a giant drawbridge with a two-story house perched on its raised end (riders were lifted 285 feet in the air giving them an unprecedented view of the Exposition).

Gettysburg (a 420ft. long cycloramic painting depicting the end of Pickett’s Charge); The Streets of Seville (featuring the exotic dances of Estralita and bloodless bullfights); Baby Incubators (with a dozen live babies); Stella (a life-sized painting of a reclining nude woman which created the illusion that she might be alive); a 49’er Camp ( so authentically staged that it was closed down due to its unabashed gambling and rowdiness); Submarines (the precursor of one of Disneyland’s most enduring attractions); Safety Racers (side by side roller coasters which featured a “race” to the finish); and Bowls of Joy (coaster cars which ran around the interior of a steeply raked inverted cone. Twice closed due to safety concerns it was eventually deemed so dangerous that it was closed permanently).
Some of the other offerings were London to the South Pole, Japan Beautiful, The Jester’s Palace, Shamrock Isle, Hawaiian Village, Ali Rajah, Tehuantepec Village, Alligator Farm, Toyland, Evolution of the Dreadnought, Dayton Flood, 101 Ranch, and Capt. Sigsbee (the educated horse).

In fact, The Joy Zone contained so many notable attractions that Frank Morton Todd’s five volume “Official History” of the PPIE written in 1916 devoted three entire chapters to their description.

While The Zone contributed immeasurably to the fun and frivolity of the Exposition, most of its concessionaires didn’t do the volume of business that they had anticipated.

Some faulted the half mile long avenue which ran through the middle of the Zone. It stretched from the southeast corner of the main Exposition grounds to the Van Ness gate. Many potential customers who might have spent time and money wandering The Zone if it had circled back into the exhibition area simply transited it to exit at Van Ness. Due to the length of this thoroughfare, many opted to ride a Fadgl Auto Train rather than walk this considerable distance. This prevented them from being lured into an attraction by its ballyhoo. At one hundred feet in width, the street could contain a huge crowd and still not produce the feeling of overcrowding and carefreeness necessary to induce free spending. Others blamed the high cost of many of the exhibits. Admission to the Exposition, which provided a myriad of attractions at no additional cost, was 50¢ (25¢ for kids). Many of these concessions were priced at this same rate. It was rumored that it would have taken an additional $500 to purchase admission to all the amusements and entertainments in The Zone, and these were 1915 dollars when the daily pay of a factory worker averaged just $1.00.

Another reason advanced for the poor showing of these attractions was the weather. The first four months of the Exposition were extraordinarily rainy. Fair goers seemed to prefer the protection offered by the exhibit halls to navigating the exposed and remote reaches of The Zone.

These factors combined to reduce revenues to such a degree that a fairly high proportion of the Zone’s attractions were either forced to close before the end of the season or failed to take in enough to cover much more than their expenses. Though accused of being vulgar and tawdry, The Zone offered many amusing attractions and cleverly staged entertainments that deserved a better fate.