ABSTRACT
At the turn of the twentieth century, large amusement areas had become a key feature of European and North American world’s fairs. Exhibition experts in various countries viewed this development in different ways. Whereas some argued that the amusement areas would distract attention from the more serious exhibits, others stressed that it was only by offering amusements that it was possible to attract an audience that was suffering from acute “exhibition fatigue.”1 As a consequence, the early twentieth-century exhibitions presented their visitors with a summary of contemporary developments in an emergent and increasingly transnational entertainment industry. In addition to a wide range of new and old media, theaters, and traditional fun-fair attractions, these venues were characterized by an almost endless variation of panoramas and multimedia reenactments of scenes from war, natural disasters, and the exotic colonies. One of the most remarkable examples was the Pike, the amusement area of the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. In all, the Pike offered its visitors more than 500 amusements and concessions, many of which created the illusion of movement in time and location.2
