The Texas Centennial Exposition was a

world's fair A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...

presented from June 6 to November 29, 1936, at

Fair Park Fair Park is a recreational and educational complex in Dallas, Texas, United States, located immediately east of downtown. The area is registered as a Dallas Landmark and National Historic Landmark; many of the buildings were constructed for t ...

Dallas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

. A celebration of the 100th anniversary of

's independence from

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

in 1836, it also celebrated Texas and Western American culture. More than 50 buildings were constructed for the exposition, and many remain today as notable examples of

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...

architecture. Attracting more than six million people including US President

Franklin Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

, the exposition was credited with buffering Dallas from the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

Background

The Texas Centennial Exposition was held at

, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the stat ...

from

in 1836. It was also a celebration of Texas and Western culture. Three Texas cities (Dallas,

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 ...

, and

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_ ...

) competed to host the exposition, with Dallas receiving the nod from the Texas Centennial Commission because it offered the largest cash commitment ($7,791,000), the existing facilities of the

State Fair of Texas The State Fair of Texas is an annual state fair held in Dallas at historic Fair Park. The fair has taken place every year since 1886 except for varying periods during World War I and World War II as well as 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It ...

, and a strong group of leaders. George Dahl was director general of a group of architects who designed the more than 50 buildings constructed for the exposition at

, a landscaped expanse then comprising 178 acres. Some 30 of the structures remain, representing one of the largest intact groupings of world's fair buildings and open spaces remaining in the United States. Chief among these buildings is the Texas

Hall of State The Hall of State (originally the State of Texas Building) is a building in Dallas's Fair Park that commemorates the history of the U.S. state of Texas and is considered one of the best examples of Art Deco architecture in the state. It was desig ...

, which was not completed until after the opening of the exposition.

Event

The Texas Centennial Exposition was held at

, June 6 – November 29, 1936. The event attracted 6,353,827 visitors, and cost around $25 million.Dallas Historical Society

. Retrieved 20 April 2006. The exposition was credited for buffering Dallas from the

, creating over 10,000 jobs and giving a $50 million boost to the local economy. The Cavalcade of Texas, a historical pageant covering four centuries of

history, was one of the most popular attractions at the Exposition. The Hall of

Negro In the English language, ''negro'' is a term historically used to denote persons considered to be of Black African heritage. The word ''negro'' means the color black in both Spanish and in Portuguese, where English took it from. The term can be ...

Life was another popular attraction and is believed to be the first recognition of

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

culture at a

. The Hall was decorated with four murals by the celebrated painter Aaron Douglas. The Texas Centennial Olympics, held in the Cotton Bowl, hosted the first integrated public athletic competition in the history of the South. Universal produced a newsreel of preparations for the Centennial beauty pageant, which shows models attempting to fit into life-sized cutouts of the Texas Centennial Committee's concept of the "perfect figure." The celebrated

Federal Theatre Project The Federal Theatre Project (FTP; 1935–1939) was a theatre program established during the Great Depression as part of the New Deal to fund live artistic performances and entertainment programs in the United States. It was one of five Federal Pro ...

production of ''

Macbeth ''Macbeth'' (, full title ''The Tragedie of Macbeth'') is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those w ...

'', adapted and directed by

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...

with an all-black cast, was featured August 13–23 in the new band shell and 5,000-seat open-air amphitheatre. The production was one of the most talked-about features of the exposition and drew large, enthusiastic audiences. For many it was their first opportunity to see a professional dramatic performance by African American actors. Integrated seating was a unique experience for theatergoers in Dallas. President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited the exposition in a widely publicized event on June 12.

Gene Autry Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American singer, songwriter, actor, musician, rodeo performer, and baseball owner who gained fame largely by singing in a crooning s ...

's film '' The Big Show'' was filmed on location and shows many of the buildings and events of the event. The Centennial Exposition required a massive publicity effort, but the promotion department was stymied by a lack of photographs. Never before had the state been photographed for advertising purposes. The Centennial Exposition hired Polly Smith to travel the state and tell the story of Texas through photos. After a successful five-month run, the Texas Centennial Exposition was closed. The exhibits changed and reopened the following year as the Greater Texas & Pan-American Exposition.

Legacy

The Fair Park Texas Centennial Buildings were designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places liste ...

in 1986. In October 2010, the

National Building Museum The National Building Museum is located at 401 F Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is a museum of "architecture, design, engineering, construction, and urban planning". It was created by an act of Congress in 1980, and is a private non-profit i ...

in Washington, D.C., opened an exhibition titled ''Designing Tomorrow: America’s World’s Fairs of the 1930s''. This exhibition, which was available for view until September 2011, prominently featured the Texas Centennial Exposition.

References

External links

Videos of archival film footage of the Texas Centennial Exposition
at th
Texas Archive of the Moving Image

Photos of the Texas Centennial Exposition
hosted by th
Portal to Texas History

"Light and Color Magic at Texas Exposition" ''Popular Mechanics'', December 1935
— ''pp. 846–847''. {{Dallas World's fairs in Texas Festivals in Dallas 1936 festivals 1936 in Texas Regional centennial anniversaries United States historical anniversaries History of Dallas 1936 in the United States 20th century in Dallas Articles containing video clips

Background

Event

Legacy

See also

References

External links