Golden Gate International Exposition

The idea to hold a World's Fair to commemorate the completion of the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge began with a letter to The San Francisco News in February 1933.James and Weller (1941), p. 3 Architects W.P. Day and George Kelham were assigned to consider the merits of potential sites around the city, including Golden Gate Park, China Basin, Candle Stick Point, and Lake Merced.James and Weller (1941), pp. 4–5 By 1934, the choice of sites had been narrowed to the areas adjoining the two bridges: either "an island built up from shallow water" north of Yerba Buena Island (which would go on to be named Treasure Island), or the Presidio, which had previously been used in 1915 for the Panama–Pacific International Exposition.{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=HT19341103.2.6 |title=One of These May be Site or [sic] Newest World Fair |date=November 3, 1934 |newspaper=The Healdsburg Tribune |access-date=July 10, 2017}} Yerba Buena Shoals was chosen as the site in February 1935. In August 1935, a $10 million proposal using federal WPA funds for construction work was advanced,{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=HT19350830.2.3 |title=Propose to Build Exposition With WPA Relief Funds |date=August 30, 1935 |newspaper=Healdsburg Tribune |access-date=July 10, 2017}} and in October of that year, Leland W. Culter, president of San Francisco Bay Exposition, Inc., announced that President Roosevelt had approved {{US$|3000000|1935|round=-4}} to help fund the cost of reclaiming land at Yerba Buena Shoals.{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=MT19351004.2.61 |title=Fair Hopes Brighten |date=October 4, 1935 |newspaper=Madera Tribune |access-date=July 10, 2017}}

San Francisco Bay Exposition was incorporated on July 24, 1934.James and Weller (1941), p. 8

Initial schedules called for the fair to open on February 18, 1939, and to close on December 2, 1939, hosting a projected attendance of 20,000,000 people. Construction would employ 3,000, and running the fair would require a workforce of 10,000.

File:Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island, San Francisco (66318).jpg

{{main|Treasure Island, San Francisco}}

Treasure Island, a flat, geometrically shaped, artificial island attached to Yerba Buena Island, was built for the Exposition near where the Oakland span and the San Francisco span of the Bay Bridge join. The dredging of Treasure Island started on February 11, 1936.{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=HT19360210.2.23 |title=Actual Work on World's Fair Will Start On Tuesday |date=February 10, 1936 |newspaper=Healdsburg Tribune |access-date=July 10, 2017}}{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=MT19360221.2.3 |title=Island Rises in San Francisco Bay |date=February 21, 1936 |newspaper=Madera Tribune |access-date=July 10, 2017}} {{convert|19000000|yd3|abbr=on}} of fill were required for the {{convert|385|acre|adj=on}} site.{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=HT19360304.2.19 |title=New Island for Bay Exposition Rising Quickly |date=March 4, 1936 |newspaper=The Healdsburg Tribune |access-date=July 10, 2017}} Initial schedules called for the completion of dredging by the end of 1936.{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=MT19360327.2.69 |title=Great Fair Growing from Speck on the Bay |date=March 27, 1936 |newspaper=Madera Tribune |access-date=July 10, 2017}} The site was named Treasure Island by Clyde Milner Vandeburg, part of the Fair's public relation team, and it stuck.{{rp|8}}

Built by the federal government, Treasure Island was intended to serve as the municipal airport for San Francisco, an idea which had first been advanced in 1931.James and Weller (1941), pp. 6–7 Air service would have included Pan American's transpacific flying boats, like the China Clipper. During much of the Fair, Pan Am offered two arriving and two departing flights each week, aboard the Boeing B-314s from Treasure Island; it took 16 to 20 hours to or from Hawaii.{{cite book |last1=Cotter |first1=Bill |title=San Francisco's 1939–1940 World's Fair: The Golden Gate International Exposition |date=2021 |publisher=Images of America, Arcadia Publishing |location=Charleston, South Carolina |isbn=9781467106160 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NLImEAAAQBAJ&q=cotter+san+francisco}}{{rp|48}}

Due to wartime needs, the Island was taken over by the US Navy as Naval Station Treasure Island from 1941 to 1997.{{cite book |url=https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=treasure+island |chapter=Treasure Island |title=American Heritage Dictionary |edition=Fourth |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company |date=March 1, 2004 |access-date=October 19, 2006}}

Losing money, the organizers petitioned under reorganization laws and closed the fair earlier than planned on October 29, 1939.{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=MT19391021.2.14 |title=Fair Closing Moves |date=October 21, 1939 |newspaper=Madera Tribune |access-date=July 10, 2017}} Efforts to reopen the fair in 1940 were initially abandoned in early December 1939 {{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=MT19391202.2.44 |title=Abandon Efforts to Reopen Fair |date=December 2, 1939 |newspaper=Madera Tribune |access-date=July 10, 2017}} before a compromise was ultimately reached before the end of December; a frantic reorganization ensued to open a partially revamped fair for a second shorter season in 1940.{{rp|79}}

File:Golden Gate International Exposition 3c 1939 issue U.S. stamp.jpg

The theme of the exposition was "Pageant of the Pacific", as it showcased the goods of nations bordering the Pacific Ocean. The theme was physically symbolized by "The Tower of the Sun;" by an 80-foot statue of Pacifica, goddess of the Pacific ocean; and by architect Mark Daniels' Chinese village,[http://www.outsidelands.org/daniels.php "Mark Daniels: Landscape Architect of Forest Hill, Sea Cliff and More"]. Western Neighborhoods Project, Outsidelands.org, April 2, 2003. built and managed by San Francisco's George Jue.{{cite book |title=San Francisco Fair: Treasure Island · 1939–1940 |editor1=Carpenter, Patricia F. |editor2=Totah, Paul |date=1989 |publisher=Scottwall Associates |isbn=978-0942087024 |quote=George Jue, at age 31, built and managed the Chinese Village at the request of the Chinese government, which was busy defending itself from Japanese invaders. He personally canvassed Chinese-Americans to raise money for the exhibit and supervised its construction...| page=vii}}{{rp|41–42}}

{{blockquote|text={{pad|1.0em}}As the boundaries of human intercourse are widened by giant strides of trade and travel, it is of vital import that the bonds of human understanding be maintained, enlarged and strengthened rapidly. Unity of the Pacific nations is America's concern and responsibility; their onward progress deserves now a recognition that will be a stimulus as well.

{{pad|1.0em}}Washington is remote from the Pacific. San Francisco stands at the doorway to the sea that roars upon the shores of all these nations, and so to the Golden Gate International Exposition I gladly entrust a solemn duty. May this, America's World's Fair on the Pacific in 1939, truly serve all nations in symbolizing their destinies, one with every other, through the ages to come. |author=President Franklin D. Roosevelt |source=via radio, during the opening ceremonies.James and Weller (1941), p. X}}

The San Francisco Downtown Association created the 49-Mile Scenic Drive to promote the exposition and the city. The drive started at San Francisco City Hall and ended on Treasure Island after winding around the "City by the Bay."

W.P. Day, a locally prominent architect, was appointed director of works and George W. Kelham served as the chief architect until his death in October 1936, when he was succeeded by Arthur Brown Jr.Shanken (2015), pp. 30–32 The fair was built in a specially created architectural style called 'Pacifica', a streamlined mix of Art Deco incorporating various Asian and Latin American (such as Maya or Inca, but also Spanish Colonial) architectural elements.{{Cite web |title=Pacifica in 1939: San Francisco's Art Deco World's Fair |url=https://www.artdeco.org/san-francisco-1939-worlds-fair |access-date=June 23, 2024 |website=ArtDeco.org |language=en}}

During the Expo in 1939, Master carver John Wallace (Haida) demonstrated the art of carving totem poles for visitors.{{cite web|title=I. The Totempolar Region|url=http://www.alaskool.org/projects/traditionalife/monumentsincedar/mic_one.htm|website=Alaskool.org|access-date=March 10, 2017}}

The Art in Action exhibition was staged at GGIE during its second session in the summer of 1940 to show artists at work and attract visitors.

As part of the exposition, the California Coliseum, located near the grounds' northeast corner, hosted the Western Regional semifinal and Final rounds of the first-ever NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. The Coliseum, listed in NCAA guidebooks as having a capacity of 9,476,{{cite web|title=2018 NCAA Men's Final Four Record Book|url=http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/m_final4/2018/MFFBook.pdf|website=NCAA.org|publisher=NCAA|access-date=February 25, 2018}} hosted two Elite Eight games and a Final Four game (before 1952, there were only two regions and the champions met in the National Championship game, which was the only game played at what is now considered a "Final Four" site). The Western regional included the Oklahoma Sooners, Oregon Webfoots, Texas Longhorns, and Utah State Aggies. In the opening of round of Regional semifinals (now referred to as the Elite Eight), Oregon beat Texas 56-41 and Oklahoma beat Utah State 50-39. In the Regional Final round (now known as the national semifinal round), the Webfoots beat the Sooners 55-37, advancing to the National Championship game in Evanston, Illinois, where they won the first ever national championship 46-30 over the Ohio State Buckeyes. There was also a regional third-place game played in the Coliseum, which was won by the Aggies, 51-49.

File:Gayway G.G.I.E. Treasure Island (4158617150).jpg

The GGIE featured a {{convert|40|acre|adj=on}} midway named the "Gayway" after a contest was held in 1938 to name the Amusement Zone.{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=MT19380103.2.70 |title=Colorful Fun Zone for San Francisco Fair |date=January 3, 1938 |newspaper=Madera Tribune |access-date=July 10, 2017}}

One of the more successful attractions in the Gayway featured Sally Rand, who starred in "Sally Rand's Nude Ranch" (styled as "Sally Rand's NDude Ranch"); a contemporary publicity postcard shows Rand posing with female ranch hands, called "Nudies", as strategically placed fence boards conceal implied nudity.{{cite web |url=https://calisphere.org/item/220d6c6f7ffdf79fc71337159fa368d4/ |title=Sally Rand's Nude Ranch, Golden Gate International Exposition #4 |date=1940 |publisher=California State Library |access-date=July 10, 2017}}{{cite news |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=MT19390520.2.51 |title=Life on a Nude Ranch |date=May 20, 1939 |newspaper=Madera Tribune |access-date=July 10, 2017}} Other Gayway sights included sideshow-style attractions, such as little people in a Western setting and a racetrack featuring monkeys driving automobiles.{{cite news |url=http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/The-39-world-s-fair-an-island-of-joyous-excess-4739306.php |title=The '39 world's fair: an island of joyous excess |author=Kamiya, Gary |date=August 17, 2013 |newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle |access-date=July 10, 2017}}

The Key System ran special trains to the fair from the East Bay area during the first year, bearing the "X" designation for "Exposition". These trains ran along the same East Bay routes as the Key transbay trains, and used the same rolling stock, the "bridge units", but instead of using the newly opened bridge railway, they were diverted to the old Key System ferry pier ("mole") as there was no stop available at Yerba Buena Island. A ferry crossed the relatively short span of water between the end of the pier and Treasure Island. This service ended at the close of the first phase of the exposition at the end of 1939. In 1940, the "X" train-ferry service was entirely replaced by Key System buses, also designated "X". (Unfortunately a proposal to place Thunderbolt Roller Coasters on both bridges never got beyond the blueprint stage inasmuch as their projected speed of 175 to 200 miles per hour would have distracted drivers.){{Cite book |last=Demoro |first=Harre W. |url=https://archive.org/details/keyroutetransbay0000demo |title=The Key Route: Transbay Commuting by Train and Ferry, Part 1 |publisher=Interurban Press |year=1985 |isbn=0-916374-66-1 |series=Interurbans Specials |volume=95 |location=Glendale, California |ref={{harvid|Demoro1|1985}} |pages=100–103}}https://archives.cdn.sos.ca.gov/pdf/vol-1-no-4.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=August 2024}}

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway started a passenger train, the Valley Flyer, to carry passengers between Bakersfield and Oakland during the exposition.{{cite web|url=http://www.trainweb.org/fredatsf/flyer39.htm|title=Santa Fe's Valley Flyer, 1939–1940|website=www.trainweb.org}} The Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad, Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, and the Western Pacific Railroad launched the Exposition Flyer passenger service between Chicago and Oakland, named for the Golden Gate International Exposition.http://calzephyr.railfan.net/pmef1.jpg {{Bare URL image|date=March 2022}}

The adventurer and travel author Richard Halliburton, sailing his Chinese junk Sea Dragon to San Francisco from Hong Kong, perished in a typhoon while crossing the Pacific on his way to the exposition in March 1939.

In 1939, James A Kilpatrick's Travel Talks issued "A Day on Treasure Island" a ten-minute Technicolor short exploring the Golden Gate International Exposition.{{Cite web |title=A Day on Treasure Island |url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/400068/a-day-on-treasure-island |access-date=July 31, 2023 |website=Turner Classic Movies |language=en}} In 1940 it was followed by "Night Descends on Treasure Island", an eight-minute short focusing on the art exhibitions among other features of the GGIE, anticipating its closing in September 1940.{{Cite web |title=Night Descends on Treasure Island |url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/400083/night-descends-on-treasure-island |access-date=August 14, 2023 |website=Turner Classic Movies |language=en}}

In October 2010, the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. opened an exhibition titled Designing Tomorrow: America's World's Fairs of the 1930s.{{Cite web|url = http://www.nbm.org/exhibitions-collections/exhibitions/worlds-fairs.html|title = Designing Tomorrow: America's World's Fairs of the 1930s|date = October 2, 2010|access-date = September 26, 2014|website = National Building Museum|url-status = dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140702154800/http://www.nbm.org/exhibitions-collections/exhibitions/worlds-fairs.html|archive-date = July 2, 2014}} This exhibition, which was available for view until September 2011, prominently featured the Golden Gate International Exposition.

Many of the art pieces that were created from the Art in Action exhibition, including the Pan American Unity mural by Diego Rivera, three Dudley C. Carter wood carvings, and two Frederick E. Olmsted sculptures are now housed and displayed at City College of San Francisco.{{Cite web |url=http://www.league.org/publication/showcase/edition.cfm?id=1033 |title=Diego Rivera's Pan American Unity |date=December 2006 |access-date=September 26, 2014 |website=League for Innovation in the Community College |last=Maynez |first=William |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140804110352/http://www.league.org/publication/showcase/edition.cfm?id=1033 |archive-date=August 4, 2014 }}

The Fauna and Flora of the Pacific mural by Miguel Covarrubias is now on display at the de Young museum in San Francisco. The colorful and oversized map depicts the four Pacific Rim continents with examples of their flora and fauna suspended in a swirling Pacific Ocean populated with sea creatures.{{Cite web|url = http://www.famsf.org/press-room/covarrubias-mural-now-view-de-young|title = Covarrubias Mural Now on View at the de Young|access-date = September 27, 2014|website = de Young museum|date = October 15, 2009|publisher = Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco}}

• Art in Action, the live art exhibition that took place at the GGIE 1940
• Panama–Pacific International Exposition (1915 San Francisco World's Fair)
• Pan American Unity mural

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book |title=San Francisco Fair: Treasure Island · 1939–1940 |editor1=Carpenter, Patricia F. |editor2=Totah, Paul |date=1989 |publisher=Scottwall Associates |isbn=978-0942087024 }}
• {{cite book |last1=Cotter |first1=Bill |title=San Francisco's 1939-1940 World's Fair: The Golden Gate International Exposition |date=2021 |publisher=Images of America, Arcadia Publishing |location=Charleston, South Carolina |isbn=9781467106160 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NLImEAAAQBAJ&q=cotter+san+francisco}}
• {{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/offboo00gold|title=Official guide book : Golden gate international exposition on San Francisco Bay.|last=Golden Gate International Exposition|date=1939|publisher=The Crocker Company|others=Frances Mulhall Achilles Library Whitney Museum of American Art|language=en}}
• {{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/treasureislandma00jamerich|title=Treasure island, "the magic city," 1939–1940; the story of the Golden gate international exposition|last1=James|first1=Jack|last2=Weller|first2=Earle Vonard|date=1941|publisher=San Francisco, Calif., Pisani printing and publishing company|others=Prelinger Library}}
• {{cite book |title=Treasure Island: San Francisco's Exposition Years |author=Reinhardt, Richard |date=1973 |publisher=Scrimshaw Press |isbn=978-0912020242 }}
• {{cite book |url=http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520282827 |title=Into the Void Pacific: Building the 1939 San Francisco World's Fair |author=Shanken, Andrew |date=January 2015 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0520282827 |access-date=July 10, 2017}}

• {{HABS |survey=CA-2785 |id=ca3486 |title=Golden Gate International Exposition |photos=3 |data=20 |cap=2}}
• {{Cite magazine |last1=Gray |first1=Michael |last2=Schnoebelen |first2=Anne |date=April 19, 1992 |title=A Fair to Remember |url=http://treasureisland.toolworks.com/treasures/fairtoremember.pdf |newspaper=San Francisco Examiner Image |access-date=March 23, 2018}}
• {{Cite web |last=Schnoebelen |first=Anne |title=Treasures: Splendid Survivors of the Golden Gate International Exposition |url=http://www.treasureislandmuseum.org/media |access-date=March 23, 2018}}
• {{Cite web |url=http://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Treasure_Island_Fair:_Golden_Gate_International_Exposition |title=Treasure Island Fair: Golden Gate International Exposition |author=Shea, Gail Hynes |date=2009 |publisher=FoundSF |access-date=July 10, 2017}}
• [http://www.studylove.org/worldsfairs26.html#1939sf 1939 San Francisco] – approximately 140 links. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
• Golden Gate International Exposition Publicity Records. Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
• [https://oac.cdlib.org/search?style=oac4;Institution=California%20State%20Library::California%20History%20Room;idT=ACT-6823 Golden Gate International Exposition, 1936–1946. California State Library::California History Room.]

• [http://www.ccsf.edu/en/about-city-college/diego-rivera-mural/mural_project.html The Diego Rivera Mural Project] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190124041731/http://www.ccsf.edu/en/about-city-college/diego-rivera-mural/mural_project.html |date=January 24, 2019 }}

• [https://archive.org/details/Californ1939 Color movie footage of 1939 SF World's Fair]
• {{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/cbpf_000071 |title=Home movie. Golden Gate International Exposition, Treasure Island, San Francisco, 1939 |publisher=Pacific Film Archive |access-date=July 10, 2017}}

{{commons category|Golden Gate International Exposition}}

• [http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf2h4nb66p/ Snap Shooting Around the Golden Gate International Exposition (online photo archive)], The Bancroft Library
• [http://spotsunknown.com/photos-of-san-francisco-in-1939/ Seymour Snaer photos from 1939]
• [http://thenedscottarchive.com/commercial-photography/san-francisco.html Documentary Exposition photos] by Ned Scott
• [http://www.postcard.org/ggie01.htm Golden Gate International Exposition]
• {{cite web |url=http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/cushman/results/result.do?action=browse&query=state%3A%22California%22+AND+city%3A%22San+Francisco%22+AND+year%3A%221940%22 |title=Photograph Collection |author=Cushman, Charles W. |date=June 1940 |publisher=Indiana University Archives |access-date=July 10, 2017}}

{{List of world's fairs in the United States}}

{{List of world exhibitions}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1930s in San Francisco

Category:1939 in California

Category:1940 in California

Category:1940s in San Francisco

Category:Historic American Buildings Survey in California

Category:History of the West Coast of the United States

Category:Treasure Island, San Francisco