Happy New Year! And what better way to celebrate than with a burlesque performance? Sally Rand’s Fan Dance is credited by many as being the main attraction at the 1933 Century of Progress – despite its having gotten her arrested numerous times. See it here in 3D via an early filmstrip from Tru Vue, taken at the Chicago World’s Fair!
The Century of Progress World’s Fair – held in Chicago in 1933 and again in 1934 – was among the most successful World’s Fairs of all time, actually turning a profit. It was also the launch-pad for Tru Vue’s toy-format 3D filmstrip system, which documented the Fair over 8 different filmstrips. This is the first one.
With most sets of stereographic images, you can get a sense of what’s going on from the captions, action, provenance – all sorts of things. Here, I’m more or less at a loss – but the stereoviews are pretty darn cool!
In the spirit of the holiday season, I present the Carnaval de Nice from 1933, from a fantastic set of glass positive slides in my collection. I hope that these pictures of joy, jubilation, and celebration will bring happiness to my readers, regardless of which (if any) holidays they are celebrating around this time of year – and that they will transform these feelings into kindnesses towards others. Because that’s truly in the spirit of any joyous celebration, is it not?
Unlike our previous “Christmas present” from Tru Vue, this 1933 filmstrip is not a creepy, low-budget romp through a garage and then a weird scene in a little girl’s darkened living room. Rather, it is a fairly interesting peek into messaging for kids during the Great Depression, with MUCH higher production value.
