The Electrifying Fall of Rainbow City

Starred review from August 22, 2016
The 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, N.Y., is primarily remembered for being the site of President William McKinley’s assassination by anarchist Leon Czolgosz, but there were many other notable moments during its five-month existence. In this engrossing study, Creighton (Colors of Courage), a professor of history at Bates College, chronicles the ups and downs of the colorful, fanciful, beleaguered fair, showing how it reflected the changing attitudes, social dynamics, cultural conflicts, and technological advances of the early 20th century. “They staged a spectacle of development,” he writes, “where, at every turn, they taught fairgoers about which sort of humans had advanced, and which had not.” It’s easy to read the story presented and see racism, sexism, and American-centric arrogance as defining that era, but Creighton skillfully maintains objectivity, showing the good and the bad, the fair’s pageantry as well as its seedy underbelly. Creighton sheds light on McKinley’s assassination, the midway’s tawdry animal acts, stunts involving barrels over Niagara Falls, and the Exposition’s final moments, skillfully depicting the “Rainbow City” where “the rich and powerful, the poor and the desperate, the human and the animal, and the natural world, in all its fragile fury, met in dynamic alchemy.” Agent: Jennifer Lyons, Jennifer Lyons Literary.

January 30, 2017
In the tradition and style of Erik Larsen, Creighton explores the intersecting lives of common and elite people as they came together at the 1901 World’s Fair in Buffalo, N.Y., where President McKinley was assassinated. Though McKinley’s assassination is a major focus, Creighton presents many other fascinating people who were also present, from animal tamers and barrel riders over the Niagara Falls to the man who tried to protect the president and many others. Reader Beaulieu moves deliberately through the narration, with intentional pauses and hesitations when the prose demands it and a bit more pitch and vigor in the more intense scenes. Her straightforward style of delivery coupled with Creighton’s keen scene setting and mix of characters serves listeners well in this fascinating slice of history. A Norton hardcover.

How scandals undermined the success of a world's fair that ushered in a new century.In May 1901, the Pan-American Exposition opened in Buffalo, New York, with the ambitious goal of elevating the city to the prominence of Chicago, host of the dazzling 1893 World's Fair. The Queen City of the Lakes, as Buffalo was known, reinvented itself as the Rainbow City, for the fair's multicolored design and illumination. Despite attracting millions of visitors--although fewer than hoped for--the event ultimately failed its backers' goal; it became, instead, infamous as the site of President William McKinley's assassination. In a lively, well-researched history, Creighton (History/Bates Coll.; The Colors of Courage: Gettysburg's Forgotten History: Immigrants, Women, and African Americans in the Civil War's Defining Battle, 2005, etc.) juxtaposes that momentous national event with three other scandals that beset the fair: a plan (that ultimately failed) to publicly electrocute Jumbo II, a performing elephant; a woman's daring stunt of riding in a barrel over Niagara Falls; and the personal and professional travails of Alice Cenda, a midget called Chiquita, under contract with the shady animal trainer Frank Bostock. The scandals connect to a theme of exploitation: of workers by capitalists, which motivated Leon Czolgosz, McKinley's assassin; of animals by unscrupulous trainers; of vulnerable sideshow performers by impresarios; and of hopeful entertainers by a culture that rewarded sensationalism, as represented by Annie Taylor, the 63-year-old who plummeted down the falls. Drawing on newspaper reports, contemporary records, and memoirs (although one schoolteacher's banal record of her many visits to the exposition could well have been dropped), the author creates a richly detailed narrative. She reveals, for example, that at an exposition boasting its "grand illumination," the surgeons operating on McKinley worked under an eight-watt bulb. Ultimately, the author's choice of events that "offered a rebuttal to the grand Exposition" seems arbitrary, and setting them in the context of a president's murder trivializes them. An entertaining history that could have more potently exemplified power and oppression in turn-of-the-century America. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 1, 2016

The 1901 Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, NY, came on the heels of Chicago's White City of 1893, an event Buffalo promoters hoped to surpass. Creighton (Colors of Courage) demonstrates the spectacular ways in which they failed to achieve that goal. While the author draws on memoirs and secondary sources, she primarily brings the story to life through the press accounts of the day. Newspapers made much of President William McKinley and his wife attending the fair, although things quickly unraveled when the president was shot by self-styled anarchist Fred Nieman. Jumbo II, an ornery elephant made famous by showman Frank Bostock, was to be publicly electrocuted, and his death would establish the amazing power of electricity. Bostock's other star feature, Chiquita, aka the Cuban Doll, owing to her small stature, attempted to wrest herself from Bostock's control by eloping. To add to the general mayhem, 60-year-old Annie Taylor rode a barrel over Niagara Falls, barely surviving. VERDICT By turns tragic and amusing, Creighton's work effectively makes the case that, instead of exhibiting how far white men had come in civilizing the West, the 1901 World's Fair subverted that narrative. An excellent and entertaining history for all readers.--Barrie Olmstead, Sacramento P.L.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2016
Forget the Windy City and its 1893 World's Fair. Buffalo, the Queen City of the Great Lakes, was going to show upstart Chicago a thing or two when it hosted its own grand event, the Pan-American Exposition of 1901. The Pan-American opened at a time when major cities used such milestone gatherings to showcase their industrial prowess. Unfortunately, the Pan-American grabbed the spotlight for all the wrong reasons: President McKinley was assassinated while attending the fair, and all manner of mistreatment of animals and workers surfaced to mar the slick image Buffalo was banking on projecting. Creighton (The Colors of Courage, 2005) shines in her meticulous research and lively descriptions of the many characters who stood out at the Pan-American, including a cruel animal trainer, a charming young Mexican named Chiquita, and two stunt women who attempted to ride Niagara Falls in sealed barrels. This compelling slice of American history exposes capitalism's dark excesses even in the midst of a dazzling celebration of the nation's technical know-how and belief in progress.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

August 15, 2016
How scandals undermined the success of a worlds fair that ushered in a new century.In May 1901, the Pan-American Exposition opened in Buffalo, New York, with the ambitious goal of elevating the city to the prominence of Chicago, host of the dazzling 1893 Worlds Fair. The Queen City of the Lakes, as Buffalo was known, reinvented itself as the Rainbow City, for the fairs multicolored design and illumination. Despite attracting millions of visitorsalthough fewer than hoped forthe event ultimately failed its backers goal; it became, instead, infamous as the site of President William McKinleys assassination. In a lively, well-researched history, Creighton (History/Bates Coll.; The Colors of Courage: Gettysburgs Forgotten History: Immigrants, Women, and African Americans in the Civil Wars Defining Battle, 2005, etc.) juxtaposes that momentous national event with three other scandals that beset the fair: a plan (that ultimately failed) to publicly electrocute Jumbo II, a performing elephant; a womans daring stunt of riding in a barrel over Niagara Falls; and the personal and professional travails of Alice Cenda, a midget called Chiquita, under contract with the shady animal trainer Frank Bostock. The scandals connect to a theme of exploitation: of workers by capitalists, which motivated Leon Czolgosz, McKinleys assassin; of animals by unscrupulous trainers; of vulnerable sideshow performers by impresarios; and of hopeful entertainers by a culture that rewarded sensationalism, as represented by Annie Taylor, the 63-year-old who plummeted down the falls. Drawing on newspaper reports, contemporary records, and memoirs (although one schoolteachers banal record of her many visits to the exposition could well have been dropped), the author creates a richly detailed narrative. She reveals, for example, that at an exposition boasting its grand illumination, the surgeons operating on McKinley worked under an eight-watt bulb. Ultimately, the authors choice of events that offered a rebuttal to the grand Exposition seems arbitrary, and setting them in the context of a presidents murder trivializes them. An entertaining history that could have more potently exemplified power and oppression in turn-of-the-century America.

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.