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Classic Archives Listing
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The San Francisco World Fairs
1915 and 1939-1940
An original production published by The Classic Archives!
Think of it - just nine years after the devastating 1906 earthquake, San Francisco staged the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, celebrating the opening of the Panama Canal in August, 1914 and showing more than 18 million visitors from around the world that it remained "the city that knew how." Understandably, the universal reaction of fair-goers was "a sense of wonder."
The building of the canal itself was, of course, an incredible feat: Over 50 years in the making, it was dubbed "The 13th Labor of Hercules." And so was the creation of the Exposition, beginning with the placement of 300,000 cubic yards of fill to create land for the site from what had formerly been San Francisco Bay and is now San Francisco's Marina district. The times were heady, and rapid strides were being made in engineering and manufacturing. Consider just a few notable aspects:
In 1939, the city of San Francisco hosted an international exhibition, named the Golden Gate Fair in honor of the construction by the city of the world's two largest suspension bridges, the Golden Gate and San Francisco-Oakland, which spanned the San Francisco Bay. With all the skill that could be mustered by American engineers, an island was constructed amidst the Pacific waters, becoming the largest ever manmade island. Christened Treasure Island, this would be the location of the 1939 Exhibition. The visions of a fair surrounded by the glory of the Pacific Ocean had finally materialized. However, this captivating scene took place as Europe verged on the edge of disaster. Germany had already begun its annexation of neighboring countries and threatened to unleash conflict on a global level. In only two short years the United States would be fully involved in this catastrophe. Furthermore, at the time of the fair the United States had just emerged from the Great Depression, which had affected the country in many ways. This fair seemed to provide a brief interlude between these two very difficult times in American history. For this event the U.S. decided to turn attention away from the international climate and focus on the beauty of the Pacific, which ironically is named for peace.
This DVD attempts to chronicle these 2 historic events in the San Francisco area.
This DVD runs about 2 hours and has a fully interactive menu. A list of films is as follows:
Frisco Fair -Pacific Northwest (ca. 1939-40)
Kodachrome home movies from San Francisco's Golden Gate International Exposition (1939-40); views along the coast and highways of California and Oregon. Even though it is unknown I’m certain that this is the Wathens, whose films grace this archive, adventures through the pacific Northwest. Here, they drive through the coastline, marvel at the redwood trees, marvel at the goats on the shoreline, and take some very wobbly shots through the car window and then go to the expo at SF. While there, they take some VERY nice photos of the place, with the central tower, some of the exhibits and of course, the flowers.
Silent, Color, 17:05
Golden Gate International Exposition (ca. 1939-40)
Kodachrome footage of the San Francisco World's Fair, held on Treasure Island. Some dazzling footage of the Golden Gate fair held in SF, shot by a person very much in love with the glowers growing there, as the camera seems to dwell on the flowering plants. On the opposite end, comes huge hulking buildings.
Silent, 2 Parts, Color, 19:24
Golden Gate International Exposition, colorized 2nd version (ca. 1939)
Views of pre-World War II San Francisco and the Golden Gate International Exposition. GREAT overview of San Fransisco and the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge, with the festival and ultimately the exposition! After a funny intro about how SF was formed, we then get a whirlwind tour of SF, stopping on the tall streets, Chinatown and Fisherman’s Wharf, some really nice photography here, as we go into Chinatown.
Sound, Color, 7:44
Dead Fair 1940
Treasure Island, in San Francisco Bay, shown after the closure of the Golden Gate International Exposition. It shows the Pan Pacific fairgrounds after the big fair.
Sound, B&W, 1:11
Farewell to Treasure Island (1940)
Conclusion of the Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay, California. Short promotional film from 1940 trying to get people to visit the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco before it closes. This has lots of color footage of the fair's architecture, giving it historical value.
Sound, Color, 2:53
Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1915)
Various images, Dignitaries and ceremonies at the Fair.
Silent, 1 Part Color, 2 Parts, B&W, 21:39 total
Panama-Pacific International Exposition (ca. 1940s)
Revisitation of the 1915 San Francisco Exposition, with added narration that focuses on nostalgia and memory. With excellent footage of many aspects of the Fair, beginning with groundbreaking on February 25, 1911. Frank W. Vail's overly sentimental production of the Panama Pacific International Exposition held in San Francisco in 1915. Made in 1940, I suppose some people at that time liked the nostalgic treatment of this event that had taken place 25 years before. The motion pictures of the fair are quite interesting.
Sound, B&W, 10:13
San Francisco World's Fair
News Parade newsreel footage of the San Francisco World's Fair in 1939, the Golden Gate International Exposition. The fair was intended to celebrate the opening of two bridges, the Golden Gate and the Bay Bridge. It was held on Treasure Island.
Sound, B&W, 9:27
The Story of Jewel City (1915)
A highly sentimental and simplistic film made by D.W.Griffith for the San Francisco Exposition of 1915. The film gives you a glimpse of a long past era. Looking at the buildings of the exposition were historically interesting. Fantasy film produced for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition.
Silent, B&W, 9:03
Treasure Island (ca. 1939)
Dignitaries open up the World's Fair on Treasure Island (Kodachrome).
Silent, Color, 9:57
DVD Menu Sampler:
DVD format and quality
All of our DVD's sold are formatted NTSC, without region coding. This means that they will play on any NTSC DVD Player in the world. The standard in USA is NTSC. For those in Europe, your DVD player may be a PAL format, which will not work. For those overseas customers, please verify that your DVD player can play NTSC disks.
Please note, that most of the films on our disks were made 40 years ago or more. Some perhaps as old as 80 or 90 years! As you can imagine, the movie making equipment of the time was a lot more primitive than the high tech equipment that they use today. Also, many of these films were stored improperly for decades before being digitally coded. As a result of this, these films are not what one would consider to be "DVD quality" today. Many, if not most, are black and white. The sound and picture quality is not perfect. There are those occasional "snap, crackle, and pops" across many of these films. We feel that these imperfections add to a film's charm, and provide for a more authentic viewing experience. With that in mind, this collection may not be for those wishing to find digitally remastered and professional recolored duplications of the original work in perfect DVD quality. Please keep that in mind prior to purchase, since we have fully disclosed that to you.
Catalog Number
This item is our catalog #J57. If you purchase another item with this same catalog number, you will get two identical items. Given this, we cannot offer refunds for customers who accidentally purchased two identical disks without reading this sale fully. Questions and Answers:
Why should I buy from you? There are lots of places to buy similar stuff on . What makes you so special?
What separates us from the rest is that we want you to be happy. If you're happy, you'll buy from us again and tell your friends. Getting one sale from you is great, but we want the next sale from you and the next one after that. It isn't worth a few bucks to us to have one unhappy customer. If you are unhappy, tell us and let us try to fix the problem. How many sellers will say that?
Yeah, so, there are lots of other sellers on . Are you saying the rest of them will rip me off?
No, of course not. But, beware of what people sell on . Many sellers on here will charge you an exhorbitant amount for shipping. Many will "claim" to provide discount shipping only when you contact them, they'll tell you they'll take a quarter off the shipping price for each additional item. We never do that. Our combined shipping policy is clearly spelled out for those to see. No tricky or cheap discounts. Just Buy 3, Get One Free. Simple as that. Also, when comparing our films to those of others, take note of not only the price of the item, but also the content. You'll see that we not only offer more films per package then our competition, and not only at the cheapest shipping, but also at the cheapest price too.
I live in country ABC, will your DVD work in my DVD player?
Short answer, probably. Long answer, it depends. There are two formats of DVD in the world. NTSC and PAL. NTSC is the standard for the US and I believe Japan, along with some other countries too. PAL is popular in Europe. If you have an NTSC DVD player (all USA customers), this disk will work for you. If you have a PAL player, this won't. Also, many commercial DVD's out there have region coding. Without getting in a long discussion on it, none of our DVD's have any region coding, so that won't be an issue. All you need to know is whether or not your DVD player is an NTSC format.
What if my disk arrives damaged?
We offer a no muss, no fuss guarantee that all damaged disks are replaced free of charge.
Testimonial emails from customers:
"Just got it,and I love it. Where did you find this stuff? I've been looking for these films forever. I'm a high school Social Studies teacher and a big part of my lesson plan is World War II. These films are invaluable, and they have been keeping my students engaged. Thank you so much." Andrea P., Memphis, TN.
"My father served in WWII and I bought these films from him. Many of them brought a tear to his eye. We will treasure this collection." Jeff H., Trenton, NJ.
"...Very moving and hard to watch. I couldn't watch the whole thing. Just brought tears to my eyes." Lucy N., Atlanta, GA.
"Those old fair films are absolutely amazing. It really is like watching another world like you said. I was glued to them for hours." Jake P., San Diego, CA.
"My uncle was a firefigher for 36 years and I bought this collection for him. He just loves it. Thank you." Sarah P., Boston, MA.
"I'm a high school physics teacher and I bought your A-bomb films for my students. Unbelievable footage. Its hard to believe that we lived in fear all those years, and we are getting back to that time again." Robert S., New York, NY.
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The estimated delivery dates shown above are 's estimates, not ours. Sometimes 's dates are completely unrealistic. Every effort is made to get your item out the next day, but once it leaves us, we ask that you please understand that we do not guarantee delivery by any date, since the USPS does not give us a guarantee either. Below is our estimates on what to expect:
USA CUSTOMERS: Most times, your package will arrive in about 1 week after we ship them depending on where you are at. However, lately the Post Office it seems has not been very cooperative with us and we've had a couple of customers wait a few days longer than that. If the item does not arrive, please email us directly and let us know, and we will make it right.
NON-USA CUSTOMERS: Same deal above, except your packages typically have been taking about 2 weeks or so after we ship them. We've noticed that maybe 20% of overseas customers have been waiting as long as 4+ weeks for these shipments. The only explanation we can come up with is that it must be stuck in some container in some dock waiting on customs clearance. It happens, and for those 20% of customers, we apologize, but there is very little we can do about that. Your disk will arrive or we will replace it.
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Copyright notice and disclaimer:
We ARE THE AUTHOR OF THIS DISK. We have full rights to distribute this collection. Per policy, we have ownership and rights to these disks and have full legal authorization to replicate the content at our discretion without any further permission. All of our disks and other media are copyrighted by ADVPlans, LLC, and redistribution without our consent is prohibited. We also believe that many takedown requests on originate from competitors trying to gain an unfair advantage.
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