Panama Pacific Expo World's Fair in San Francisco 1915 - rare narrated nitrate films

"The Fair Had Everything , When You Tired Of The Auto Racing , You Could Always Watch The Camels Run"... and so begins the "The Innocent Fair": a documentary of amazing rare nitrate film footage from the Panama-Pacific exposition shot in San Francisco 1915. The clips include John Phillip Sousa, Mayor James Rolph Jr, Fatty Arbuckle and numerous visitors. There are shots of patriotic parades, the Liberty Bell, polo matches, stunt bi-planes over Chrissy Field, costumed vikings, the Daffodil Girls of Santa Cruz, and info on the 30 grand pavilions that lined the waterfront where the current Marina District of San Francisco is now. The program, which closes with footage of the last remaining pavilion, The Palace of Fine Arts, was credited with saving the structure from demolition. It has since been restored and is a popular spot for wedding photography to this day almost 100 years since its temporary construction. The historical silent film footage was found in 1961 in Tiburon and Ray Hubbard wrote and produced it for KPIX TV with help from Lee Mendelson . R.E. Pusey edited, Walter Johnson narrated it for broadcast.

This digitized copy sourced through the San Francisco Bay Area Television Archive.