The Magic City on Treasure Island

The 80-foot goddess, sparkling Fountain of Western Waters, Buddha, and other sights in the Court of Pacifica  

The Magic City, formally known as the Golden Gate International Exposition, opened on February 18, 1939, to much fanfare and excitement. Billed as a “Pageant of the Pacific,” and in various stages of creation for six years, it not only featured exhibits from international participants—but was being held on its very own, 400-acre, man-made island in San Francisco Bay. 

Over a 14-month run, more than 17 million visitors viewed dazzling, extravagant, innovative exhibits showcasing the latest in science, technology, the arts and entertainment. The Pacific theme was most prominent at the Court of Pacifica, and in the Pacific area.

In the Court of Pacifica, an 80-foot goddess of Pacific unity towered over a sparkling, tiered fountain, populated by 20 sculptures representing peoples of the Pacific. An enormous, low-relief mural entitled “Peacemakers,” with its 40-foot Buddha and a kneeling, white-robed woman, depicted the spiritual values of Eastern and Western cultures. The Pacific area was composed of the several pavilions and exhibits of participating Pacific countries, and represented the traditional architectural styles of each individual culture. “Pacific House”—the fair’s educational cornerstone—stood in the center of this area, offering lectures, concerts, a library, and massive maps of the participating Pacific countries, their histories, and their relationships to each other.   

In other exhibits Art Deco architecture dominated, creating spectacular displays when combined with the fair’s special lighting effects. Of note were Donald Macky’s “Elephant Towers,” with its suggestion of Mayan pyramids scaled by Malaysian elephants; and the “Temples of the East” designed by William Merchant and Bernard Maybeck, with their gold finials and lotus entryways that formed gateways into the exhibit’s “palaces.” The Palace of Fine and Decorative Arts featured art from all eras, loaned from collections worldwide. On display were Ansel Adams photographs, animated cinematic art from Walt Disney Studios, and “live art” as Diego Rivera created his “Pan American Unity” fresco right before the eyes of an audience. Even Botticelli’s Birth of Venus came to the expo briefly, because Mussolini had arranged for certain Italian masterworks to take a world tour.

In other areas the overall layout of the exhibits displayed a classic architectural symmetry: for example, the 300-foot Tower of the Sun, surmounted by a gold-plated phoenix. The tower’s lantern held a 44-bell carillon, to be permanently installed later at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. Other structures were likewise intended for future use after the exposition ended: the Federal Building, designed by Timothy Pflueger; and two massive hangers for Pam Am Airways.   

Lights, music, and entertainment were always present to captivate visitors: opera, ballet, a symphony orchestra, a carnival, the puppets in Levi Straus & Company’s mechanical rodeo. Dramas and other performing arts were available daily; and of course there was a nightly fireworks display. Passengers on the Delta Queen luxury riverboat reported seeing spectacular fireworks, and their colorful reflections shimmering on bay waters, as the ship passed by Treasure Island in 1939.

However, before the fair’s first season ended, Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, prompting France and Britain to declare war. Anxiety over possible escalation of warfare, combined with competition from the much larger world’s fair in New York, kept attendance below expectations in 1939. The next year, the fall of Paris prompted countries in the path of the German war machine (and others) to close their exhibits at the Golden Gate Exposition.  The fair closed on Sunday, September 29, 1940, and six months later the US Navy moved in.

From the time site construction began in 1936, to the fall of 1940 when the fair closed, the Golden Gate International Exposition employed thousands—a definite boon to the local economy during the early years of the Depression. Nevertheless, for all its benefits and all its glory, the San Francisco fair had its detractors, who pointed out that it wasn’t really a “World’s Fair” as its promoters claimed, because the planners had never requested this status from the French organization that regulated world fairs. The New York planners had done so—and therefore New York’s “The World of Tomorrow” was the official 1939-1940 world’s fair.