Three-year-old Lois was mad. She had awoken to find her grandmother preparing breakfast and her parents gone. Her grandmother explained that they had gone on a trip without her but would be back tomorrow.
Chester and Emma Acton had gone to the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. They made it a two-
day trip with a night spent in Chicago.
Given the belt-tightenings of the Great Depression, 1933 may seem like an odd time for the grand and expensive undertaking of a World’s Fair. But the year had been carefully selected. The theme, A Century of Progress, referred to the centennial birthday of the city of Chicago. The public must have been ready for such a diversion, for over 39 million visitors came, breaking all previous fair records.
The emphasis of the fair was science, industry and technology. The Homes of Tomorrow featured pre-fabricated homes made from modern materials such as Masonite. Visitors were told that soon dishwashers, air conditioning and even personal heli-pads would become commonplace.
A robot greeted visitors in the Agriculture and Foods Exhibition. Art deco style dominated the architecture of the buildings. On the Sky Ride, rocket-shaped gondola cars carried visitors from one side of the Fair to the other, 200 feet above the ground. The promise of atomic energy was proclaimed. Everywhere corporate displays assured Americans that they could be part of this shining future – if they spent their money on new, improved products.
The Acton family brought home a souvenir – a large metal key showing the featured 
Sky Ride. Unfortunately, souvenirs are about all that remain of the 1933 fair. The buildings were dismantled and the displays disbursed across the country. There is one lasting benefit of the Fair. The Fair was built on 427 acres near downtown Chicago created by filling in the coast of Lake Michigan with landfill. McCormick Place Convention Center now stands on that land.
Chester and Emma Acton were my grandparents. Lois is my mother.
See a video of the 1933 World’s Fair : https://chicago.curbed.com/2017/5/12/15629342/1933-chicago-worlds-fair-color-film-footage
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