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Poster for Expo: Magic of the White City
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Released
2005 · FILM

Expo: Magic of the White City

Directed by
Written by
Runtime
116 min
Documentary

Synopsis

The 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago offered a cinematic glimpse into a world of groundbreaking achievements in art, architecture, science, technology, and culture. The fairgrounds were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, renowned for his work on New York City's Central Park, and constructed under the supervision of Daniel Burnham. The event was a major engineering achievement. On its opening day, President Grover Cleveland activated a golden telegraph key, initiating the first widespread use of electricity to power fountains, machines, electric railways, and thousands of lights across the site. The exposition, known as the "White City," attracted nearly 28 million visitors and inspired future figures such as Henry Ford, Walt Disney, and Frank Lloyd Wright. It also marked the debut of the Ferris Wheel and Cracker Jack.

Credits

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

Principal cast & crew: 4

These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.

Why a floor?

This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.

Craft leads on file

Edited by Mark Bussler

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