Off Track

new nation apart after the Civil War. The Reconstruction era did little to heal the nation as intended with the Gilded Age, Rapid economic growth brought a flood of immigrants looking for a better way of life, causing not only culture clashes, but divisions of classes. The nation was always in turmoil, and it suggested that Americans may not have

been as civilized as the thought. Politicians looking to improve America's status followed in England's footsteps and held a world Exhibition in Philadelphia in eighteen seventy six, but the fair suffered lackluster attendance and lost money. They didn't give up, though, and began to make plans in nineteen hundred for a better, larger, and more elaborate fair designed to showcase America's inventions and emerging prominence. So Congress convened to decide on a location.

Four cities placed bids New York, Washington, Chicago, and St. Louis. The stakes were high. The winning city would bring in profits, raise real estate values, and elevate their standing among American cities. JP Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and William Waldorf Astor collectively pledged fifteen million dollars to host the fair in New York.

In Chicago, Marshall Field, Philip Armor, Gustavus Swift, and Cyrus McCormick also put up a substantial amount, but it wasn't until Banker lyman Gage came forward with several million dollars had raised in just twenty four hours. The Chicago took the lead. Impressed with the effort, Congress voted to accept the bid. The World Fare Committee quickly decided on Jackson Park for the site and hired premier landscape architects to

develop the plans. The committee envisioned a stunning seascape attraction along Lake Michigan. Plans included a showcase of world class technology, agriculture, fine art, entertainment, and cuisine. Wanting only the best, Chicago officials hired sculptor Augustus Saint Gaudens as artistic director. Later he'd go on to create the Statue of Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial. When the plans were complete, their concept

rivaled Central Park. Now Developing six hundred ninety eight ers and directing two hundred temporary buildings was no small feat, but Chicago saw it as an opportunity to show how well they had rebuilt after the infamous seventy one fire, and unlike the exposition in New York, Chicago's event would prove successful. Over twenty million people visited the fair and continued to talk about it long after it ended. The

spectacular event became a cultural touchstone. It's even said that a young Henry Ford found inspiration for his invention the horseless carriage after seeing an internal combustion engine at that fair. Despite a smallpox epidemic and a fire that destroyed part of the fairgrounds, Chicago had established itself as one of the nation's most premier and elite cities. Dismantled exhibits found permanent homes and museums across the country. Chicago had set

the standard for all other World fairs. Everyone in America and the rest of the world seemed pleased with the city progress, everyone except David Francis, the mayor of St. Louis. Chicago's industrial and economic growth had outpaced St. Louis for years, and every time the Windy City's popularity increased, David Francis seethed a little more so when the International Olympic Committee

decided that Chicago would host the nineteen o four Olympics. St. Louis mayor was more than just bitter, with a deep seated hatred for the city, he became determined to outshine Chicago at all costs. I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, Welcome to American shadows. Though he had no real grounds to complain about the Olympic Committee's decision, David Francis did have a plan. In nineteen hundred, he proposed to Congress that St. Louis would host a World Fair a a centennial celebration of the

Louisiana purchase, to take place in nineteen o three. Congress agreed, and while that should have pleased him, he wanted more. He still wanted the nineteen o four Olympics. That would take some scheming, though the Fair, which he already had plans to make bigger and better than Chicago's, was just the start. He just needed time. Literally. If he could quietly delay the fair by a year, he thought he could force the Olympics to come to him without tipping

off Chicago until it was too late. B. C. Francis had friends in influential places, namely thirty one year old Count Henri de Penaloza, a French national and prominent businessman living in St. Louis. The Count's father, Louis Fuss, was also a businessman, and wouldn't you know it, served on the board of directors for the fair, which became known

as Louisiana Purchase Exposition. In April of nineteen o one, exactly one month before the Olympic Committee met to solidify Chicago as the next host, Penaloza happened to be in France and showed up at the Paris home of the Baron Kupeton, the president and founder of the Olympic Committee. After some small talk, Penaloza made a strong pitch for the Games to be held in St. Louis instead of Chicago.

He explained to the Baron how the Olympics might benefit from the exposition, and assured him that Saint Louis's mayor had expressed genuine interest in hosting the Games. There was a small catch, however, the delicate political situation of the Games having already been promised to Chicago. Penaloza promised that

Mayor Francis would soon send a formal letter to the committee. Kubatan, feeling that his fellow countrymen had made a strong argument, presented the idea to the rest of the Olympic Committee, but after no such letter arrived, Penaloza sent the Baron a telegram informing him that St. Louis city officials were requesting to congress a formal delay of the exposition, which was a lie. St Louis couldn't keep their shady plan

under wraps for long though. An interview in the Olympics official publication reported on Penaloza's visit, and as you probably would have, newspaper editors, city leaders, and athletes all noticed the conflict between the nineteen o three date for the fair and the nineteen o four Olympics. Officials in Chicago wrote the committee several letters stating that they had already been offered the opportunity and had started planning St. Louis.

They pointed out lacked an official representative and hadn't spoken to Congress about delaying the exposition. In the end, the Olympic Committee dismissed St. Louis as a viable host. Then, in the summer of nineteen o one, The New York Times reported the Committee's announcement and Chicago and celebrated. Thousands of students from the University of Chice Aago campus attended a bonfire to hear Henry Fuber, tasked with organizing the event,

give a celebratory speech. While Chicago set to work on plans, Mayor Francis finally requested the one year delay for the St. Louis exposition. The new starting date would be April four, just two days before the Olympics. Meanwhile, unaware of Francis's plans, Kubatan sent President Roosevelt a letter asking him to accept

an honorary presidency over the Games. Henry Fuber wasn't immediately concerned when he heard that the St. Louis exposition was set to open just days before the Olympics, he set sailed to Europe to garner support from European leaders and convinced top rated athletes to compete. While Fuber was away, Francis wasted no time with his next move. He and the St. Louis Director of Exhibits decided that the amateur sports competition planned for the Fair would fall under the

jurisdiction of the Amateur Athletic Union. With that in place, he requested the best American track and field champions to be part of the Fairs events, effectively removing them from the Olympics. In August, Fuber learned about Francis's meeting with the Amateur Athletic Union. He realized that the mayor was attempting unsebtly to steal the Olympics. Finally, worried, Fuber contacted the game's officials. The Olympic officials tried to work out

a compromise, but Francis was less than cooperative. He insisted that the only resolution would be for Chicago to transfer the games to the St. Louis Exposition and made his case to President Roosevelt. He claimed that transferring the games to St. Louis made better sense financially and prevented a division in attendance. Naturally, Chicago was furious. Newspapers printed reasons against having the Olympics in St. Louis, ranging from limited

sports facilities to the climate. Francis was unshaken. He began a campaign to strong arm officials in New York and the Olympic Committee, while launching a flurry of press releases designed to turn public perception in his favor. As part of his rather divisive marketing campaign, Francis stated that the celebration of the Louisiana Purchase was a prominent American event and that if the Olympics were held in Chicago, the fair would be overshadowed. And the mayor didn't stop there.

He used one of those anti St. Louis newspaper articles to his advantage. The article quoted Fuber, and Francis sent the article to the Olympic Committee along with a note twisting his words and painting his opponent as weak, casting doubt that he could effectively plan the games, and Francis contacted the French Commissioner of Commerce, who just happened to have strong ties to the Louisiana Purchase celebration, to apply political pressure on American and Olympic Committee officials to transfer

of the games. On February tenth of nineteen o three, Baron Decoupton believed he had little choice but to transfer the Olympic Games to St. Louis underhanded. Absolutely, As it turned out, Francis's methods could have won a gold medal of a different sort. Corruption. Newspapers across the country reported the conflict between St. Louis and Chicago, and it didn't take much to figure out that Mayor Francis had been rather underhanded in obtaining the Games. While other mayors might

have been embarrassed, Francis was delighted. In nineteen o two, the journalist Lincoln Stephens published an article in McClure's magazine telling of deep seated corruption in St. Louis, from the mayor to the police department. In nineteen o four, just before the Olympics, Stephen collected this and other work in the book The Shame of the Cities, which highlighted corruption in several American cities. He called out the shameless manner in which the Olympics had been stolen and dubbed St.

Louis the worst governed city. In America. He warned that its political leaders were intent on quote devouring their own city. None of the cities he wrote about were painted prettily, but Stephen's description of St. Louis was particularly dismal. Tap Water contaminated with mud, trash filled streets, badly paved roads, and fire trap apartments, vote buying, blatant fraud, and misuse of power. In short, he wrote St. Louis was more urban decay than world class city. Still, Mayor Francis believed

his city deserved recognition. Over five hundred and seventy five thousand people called it home, and it had the largest train station, brewery, chemical plants, and electric plant. He had been planning the X position since nineteen hundred, and it's settled on land just outside the city proper in Forest Park. Workers lived on the one thousand, two hundred and seventy two acre site in tents, earning one to five dollars a day that's around thirty to forty five dollars in

today's income. As a final insult to Chicago, Francis appropriated two items used in their World's Fair, a golden telegraph key that signaled machine operators to start up equipment and the famous two hundred and sixty four foot ferris wheel that had been a pinnacle of the fair. Reconstruction of the ferris wheel cost nine men their lives. Francis also managed to get the Liberty Bell on loan. It had

never left Philadelphia before and has never left since. He had former President Ulysses S. Grants Country log cabin removed from its foundation and brought to the fair grounds. He also had the rail car that had transported Lincoln's body brought in. On the morning of April thirtieth, nineteen o four, a brilliant blue sky greeted patrons gathering at the fair entrance for opening day. At nine a m. A band led a procession from the Hall of Congress to the

fair grounds. Mayor Francis took to the podium. Enter here in ye, sons of men, he shouted, learn the lesson here taught, and gather from it inspiration for still greater accomplishments. From the East Room in the White House, President Roosevelt made a short speech by telegraph. Once the golden telegraph key was pressed, the whir of machinery hummed, fountains flowed, and bands played. The gates swung open, and the fair began inside. Patrons delighted at a horse taught to do

tricks in a nearby corral. Ostriches drew onlookers who had never seen such a creature further in an expanse of food court hosted vendors from all over the country. Mark Twain, Henry James, and Frank Lloyd Wright, among others, were spotted at the fair. Future President Woodrow Wilson attended an academic presentation in the main auditorium. Helen Keller gave her own lectures for the science minded. X ray machines and a primitive version of the fax machine were on display to

showcase progress in the medical field. People could visit an exhibit of infant incubators containing real infants. While a doctor was on hand, he knew little about premature babies. Instead, ten nurses worked around the clock to care for them. The incubators overheated quickly in the hot sun, fed nothing but cow's milk and oatmeal that infant's digestive systems couldn't adjust. As a result, both incubators and infants were frequently soiled,

drawing thousands of flies. During the length of the fair, thirty nine of the forty three infants died, and infants weren't the only humans on display. France had wanted to not only showcase the city, but to suggest that human evolution had peaked at the fair. To demonstrate he hired an anthropologist to build a human zoo inside. Visitors passed

exhibits described as most primitive to most advanced. Francis's objective was to prove that the conquering of land and of people's considered to be unintelligent uncivilized heathens, had been worthwhile to their benefit. Even to him, such a display was the penultimate celebration of American ingenuity and progress. The fair paid fifty groups of people from around the world to participate. Deemed most primitive were Indigenous American, South American and Filipino people's.

These groups were labeled savages and instructed to act as such for the patrons. While America wasn't the first to put humans on display, Francis had been determined that St. Louis's would be the biggest display of human hierarchy. Yet. The vast villages drew thousands of visitors. For five cents, patrons could pose for a photograph with an Indian chief. For another five cents, they could coax a cannibal to show them his teeth that had been filed into points.

Go to Benga, a man from the booty people of the Congo who had been purchased from slave traders years prior for an exhibition at the Bronx Zoo, wasn't cannibal at all. Benga and other Africans had been paid to behave aggressively and appeer warlike. The dances and chants were often improvised to mimic those in the Native American exhibits. The Human Zoo became the talk of the city. A riot nearly broke out when a rumor spread of dating occurring between some of the Igorot men in the Filipino

exhibit and white women. Viewers were aghast at the minimal Native dress. Sporting events leading up to the Olympics drew even more crowds. To demonstrate how successfully Native Americans had been assimilated into a more civilized culture, the Fort Shaw Indian School basketball team showed off their skills, investing every team who challenged them. The exposition may have showcased technological, industrial and other advances, but in terms of human compassion

and equality. There was nothing to be proud of, and when the Olympic Games began, that continued lack of humanity disguised as superiority in glory was on full display. Baron de Pubaton wouldn't attend. He was still harboring resentment that the games had been moved from Chicago. He later recalled that the quote Olympiad would match the mediocrity of the town.

Francis had been successful in creating a fair unlike any other, and while he had schemed hard to steal the Olympic Games from Chicago, he didn't consider them the highlight of the fair. He had failed to secure many of Europe's best athletes. After all the bad press, Sure, the Games did have their moments of spectacular performances. Gymnast George iSER, who had a wooden leg, won three gold medals. Frank Kegler won medals in wrestling, weightlifting, and tug of war.

James Lightbody from Chicago came away with the gold for the eight hundred meter dash, the steeple chase, and the race for which he set a new world record. Two Irish athletes and a German swimmer also won gold medals, while Canada took the Golden football. But with the lack of competitors from other countries, the United States won the majority of the events. As a nod to the ancient Greek Games, the organizers thought a marathon would be the

Pinnacles sporting event. Some of the participants had won or placed well in the Boston Marathon, while others had competed in prior Olympic marathons, but oddly most were not runners at all. Ten had never run an a marathon before entering. The most experienced runners and favorites were American Sam Miller, Albert Carey, Arthur Newton, and Thomas Hicks. Another American long shot, Fred Lours, also joined his countrymen at the starting line, as well as two men from the South African Human

Zoo exhibit. A former mailman from Cuba, Felix Carba Hall, had raised funds to enter. Still flush with money upon his arrival, he gambled it away and had to walk in hitchhike from New Orleans. He hardly seemed ready to compete, wearing a long sleeved shirt, long dark pants, street shoes, and a beret. With temperatures in the nineties and stifling humidity. The twenty four point eight five mile course and come

at grueling terrain. Runners not only had to deal with the oppressive heat, but seven hills to some three hundred feet high with steep ascents, debris and cracked pavement created trip hazards. Then there were the cars. You see. Officials hadn't thought to block off the course and the runners had to dodge cars, wagons, trolleys, trains and pedestrians, making things worse. Water stops were limited to a water tower at mile marker six and a well at twelve miles.

The competitors didn't know it, but the marathon was also a part of an experiment testing the effects of dehydration. Coaches and doctors drove alongside the runners, often kicking up dust clouds. Without water, the runners experienced frequent coughing spells. One runner collapsed from inhaling dust and was taken to the hospital where he was treated for hemorrhaging. Another runner gave up after several bouts of vomiting. Felix maintained the

lead even after stopping to chat with bystanders. He grabbed two peaches from onlookers and ate them while he ran further along, he ate apples he had come across in an orchard, and the apples caused him cramps, and he sat under a tree to rest. There he fell asleep. Sam took the lead but fizzled out with a bad case of runners cramps. Fred caught a ride in one of the cars pacing the runners. He cheerfully waved the

other runners in the crowd as he passed. Tom Hicks begged his assistance for water and received mere drops of warm water from a sponge, and seeing he had seven more miles to go, they gave him egg whites laced with strychnine. The poison is also a stimulant in small doses, and no rules barring the practice of doping had been implemented. Meanwhile, Fred Lource, now well rested after riding in a car for eleven miles, got out and resumed running. He crossed

the finish line first in just under three hours. The President Roosevelt's daughter Alice, was on hand to present the medals, and just as she was about to place the gold around Fred's neck, someone called him out for cheating. Caught, Fred told the angry crowd that he had no intention of accepting the metal. Still on the course, Tom Hicks plowed onward, though his face had become ashen. He was given brandy and sponged down with water. With just two miles to go, he gave it all he had. Then

the hallucinations set in. He began to lament that the finish line was still twenty miles away. He begged for food and a chance to rest. His assistance gave him more brandy and spiked egg whites. Tom pushed on over two more hills. He shuffled past the stadium, swaying barely on his feet. Assistance kept upright until he made it across the finish line. After he was declared the winner,

doctors finally took him to the hospital. Albert Cray finished second and Arthur Newton third, with Felix Carba Hall in fourth. Eighteen other runners failed to finish the race. Tom Hicks survived, but barely. Another dose of poison would have killed him. He lost eight pounds during the race. He told reporters that the course was the worst he'd ever run. Mayor Francis achieved his goal of putting St. Louis in the

history books, but probably not the way he expected. The nineteen o four Games were considered the worst in Olympic history, and the marathon had the dubious distinction of being not only the slowest in Olympic history, but also the strangest. By the time the nineteen o four s More Olympics ended, the United States had won more medals than any other country.

Never satisfied, though, David Francis planned more events. For two days, people from the human Zoo would compete in a variety of sporting matches such as baseball, growing shop put running, broad jumps, weightlifting, and tug of war. The head of the fairs Department of Anthropology, William McGee, believed the people on display there were intellectually inferior yet physically superior. McGee was excited about proving out his theory with these events

as experiments. Many of the test subjects lacked formal schooling and no intelligence, and no intelligence tests were given. McGee and the organizers expected the participants to compete in sports that had never been exposed to and with little explanation of the rules. About a hundred men competed in the events. Women were not permitted. Each was told old to mimic their white Olympic counterparts. McGee stood on the sidelines, jotting

down data on what he called racial hierarchy. In one of the sprints, participants stopped before hitting the ribbons run across the finish line, choosing instead to wait for the rest of their team. The tug of war didn't appeal to the contenders, who saw no value in pulling others into a mud pit. Participants from Uganda were more curious about the use of a starting gun than in running sprints. They chose to run backward in Wobbli figure eights rather

than racing to the finish line. In the poll climb, one man decided to remove his clothing before climbing, while another man chased away the photographer. Like the marathon, the Anthropology days flopped. The participants, although paid, didn't care about competing against others and what they considered silly games. McGee concluded that they were primitive natives, either ignorant, bent on making a spectacle of the events, or lacking proper incentive.

In the end, all of it, the incubators, the human zoo, even the sporting events, all of it came across as more of a side show than a demonstration of humanity. Greed, it seems, was the anchor holding back the ship of progress. All we can do today is hope that this won't always be the case. There's more to this story. Stick around after this brief sponsor break to hear all about it. As lackluster as the nineteen o four Summer Olympics had been,

nineteen twelve was a different story. After winning the Pentathlon and Catalan, Jim Thorpe stood for the metal ceremony, King gust Of the fifth of Eden draped the two gold medals round Thorpe's neck and pronounced him the world's greatest athlete. Thorpe's modest reply thanks. He shunned being the center of attention, declining invitations to parties in his honor. When questioned about his lack of celebration, Thorpe replied, I didn't wish to be gazed upon as a curiosity. He loved sports, but

disliked the spotlight. His elusiveness led to stereotypical stigmas, and some believed he didn't appreciate the natural and raw talent gifted him and called him lazy, blaming his native American heritage. Nothing could be further from the truth. He trained hard, harder than most athletes. He ran all night through the woods, often at the heels of his dogs, and since he was six, he had known how to shoot a gun and accompanied his father on thirty mile hunting tracks. He

was an exceptional wrangler. He tamed wild horses, which he spent hours watching. It would be their fluid movements he sought to emulate. To watch him run always brought about comments positive and negative. He either moved like the wind or had a certain indifference. Either way, the looseness and fluidity had copied from nature made him a star athlete. Along with his training and hard work. When he was in high school, he broke the school's record for the

high jump while wearing his street clothes. From there, he played both football and baseball. At twenty four, had entered the Olympics out of love for his sweetheart, Iva Miller. You see, her parents disliked him, Not thinking that his race had anything to do with their objection, he sought to prove that an athlete could earn good money. The two married a year later. In nineteen thirteen the Olympic Timitty stripped Thorpe of his medals because he had played

semi professional baseball before entering the game. He wasn't the first to do so, some of his white counterparts had done the same thing without consequence. He wrote a letter explaining his mistake had been just that, but the Olympic Committee denied his request to return his medals. When the word got out about his minor league passed, two professional offers came in, the New York Giants and St. Louis Cardinals. Thorpe chose the Giants, who went on to win the

nineteen thirteen League championships. After the Giants lost the World Series, the team joined the Chicago White Sox in a World tour. Later, during a game against the Chicago Cubs, Thorpe drove in the winning run during the tenth inning. By the time he left baseball, he had ninety one home runs and a two fifty two batting average from two hundred and eighty nine games. Olympic medalist, professional baseball player, high jumper, wrangler,

horse tamer, runner. But that wasn't all. During college, he excelled at hockey, boxing, lacrosse, swimming, and basketball. It seemed he could do anything. His first love, though, was football In high school, Thorpe was a two time All American. He went on to play for the Ohio Canton Bulldogs, who won three championships. He also played for several All American Indian teams as they were called at the time.

Aside from high school and college football, he's known for his time in what would become the National Football League. He excelled at passing, catching, tackling, kicking, and punting. He played for six teams during his career, and in n when the NFL was first organized, the charter members named him as league's first president. As the years went on, public outcry pressured the Olympic Committee. Besides stripping Jim Thorpe of his medals, they refused to restore his name in

the records. It had been an act designed to do more than just punish him for his pre Olympic status. We're using to acknowledge his victories. Was meant to obscure him. He once told his daughter Grace, why he didn't continue fighting to defend his reputation in the Olympics. I want him, he told her, And I know I want him, and that he did. He had beaten his closest competitor in

the run by five seconds. His record stood until nineteen seventy two, and in the pouring rain, he had won the hundred meter dash in a time that remained unequaled until nine. He won the high jump and mismatched shoes since his own mysteriously went missing that morning, and in the hurdles he said a record that lasted until ninety eight as well. Even his other competitors said that Thorpe was deserving of the medals. Sadly, Jim Thorpe passed away in nineteen fifty three at the age of sixty five

from heart failure. He had been living in poverty. Two years after his death, the NFL's and EP Award was named the Jim Thorpe Trophy. In nineteen sixty three, the Associated Press named him the best athlete since the turn of the century. That same year, the NFL inducted him into the Hall of Fame. In nineteen two, biographers Robert Wheeler and Florence Ridland gained assistance from Congress. The two provided evidence that the International Olympic Committee hadn't followed their

own rules in rescinding medals. They had waited a year. The limit for reviewing medals is just thirty days. In three the committee delivered replicas of his medals to his family. Though they had reinstated his medals, the committee listed him as co winner and refused to overturn the expudgment of his record breaking winds. Their excuse, they claimed that his winds may be unofficial since Native Americans were not recognized as American citizens until nineteen twenty four, twelve years after

Thorpe competed. Even today, though he continues to make history. Since nineteen eighty six, the Jim Thorpe Award has been given the top defensive back in college football, and in two thousand one, Thorpe was named the greatest athlete of the century. In several groups headed up by Picture Works Entertainment, which is developing a movie about Thorpe's life, came together to circulate a petition for the Olympic Committee to list Thorpe as the sole winner of the events he won

in nineteen twelve. After all, the government's refusal to acknowledge Native Americans rights as citizens until nineteen twenty four is itself an injustice? Why punished Thorpe for it? Jim Thorpe is buried in Pennsylvania, the town of Maosh Chung bought his remains from his third wife, who needed the money at the time. They erected a monument to him, where

visitors still flocked to gaze upon the memoria. His children have fought for their father's remains to be reinterred where he grew up on sac and Fox Nation Land in Oklahoma. They appealed to the Supreme Court that their father is not a museum piece, and sadly, on October the case came to an end when the court refused to hear

the matter. Perhaps the words of Mayor David Francis on opening day of the nineteen four World's Fair are appropriate, after all, May we all learn our lessons that were taught here and gather from them the inspiration necessary for greater accomplishments. American Shadows is hosted by Lauren Vogelbaum. This episode was written by Michelle Muto, researched by Ali Steed, and produced by Miranda Hawkins and Trevor Young, with executive

producers Aaron Mackey, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. To learn more about the show, visit griman mild dot com for more podcasts from iHeart Radio visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts, M