“The fair vibrates faster than the larger world, a mosaic of skill, competition, curiosity, noise, color and excitement,” a man wearing a black tailcoat, a black top hat and sporting a handlebar mustache says. He stands in front of the now-aged camera and takes the audience through the many wonders and exhibits of the North Carolina State Fair.
It may seem like this elegant man is advertising the 2018 NC State Fair, but the truth is far from it. Indeed, this video is from the 1970s, and is one of the three historical clips shown at the recent A/V Geeks event, titled “The Greatest Show on Earth,” which took place at Hunt Library on Oct. 19.
At this event, Skip Elsheimer, a NC State alumnus and A/V Geeks founder, Tammy Gordon, associate professor of history, and Marilyn Drath, a doctoral student completing her research on World Fairs and the historic preservation movement in the United States, screened and discussed multiple clips about all different kinds of shows on earth, from amusement parks to the once-in-a-lifetime World’s Fair.
The theme of the event is introduced by Elsheimer, who then begins to roll the clips that were chosen for the event, which is then followed by Gordon and Drath’s discussion and contextualization of these videos. At the end, there was a Q&A for the participants to get involved in. According to Drath, many of the students shared their opinions on the clips, what they might have found interesting and how the clip may connect to modern times.
In addition, Drath described all of the interesting clips they discussed at the event and their historical context.
“The first clip is a promotional video from the 1970s of the N.C. State Fair. Then, there is one on the 1939 New York’s World Fair,” Drath said. “This one is very interesting in particular, because the United States is just getting out of the Great Depression, so it is very fascinating to see all of the new consumer products being advertised. Also, some of the international exhibits didn’t show up again for the next fair, because they were embroiled in the European war.”
The event also featured a 1980s Disney promotional video.
“The third clip is a 1980s promotional video for Disney World’s Epcot,” Drath said. “At the 1939’s World Fair, there was this big structure called the Perisphere. You could go in and look at model cities, [and] it was a portrayal of future dreams and future plans for a hypothetical city. That fair in general talked about what could be, progress and technology. In a similar way, Epcot has the big Epcot Ball. So, the promotional video takes you through some of the attraction. It takes visitors and guests on an evolutionary communication journey. It has dioramas of people going from cutting into stone to fancy computing technology! The Disney clip also shows many visitors traveling to the international exhibits, so it emphasized the idea of ‘you don’t have to travel the world, you can visit all these countries right here at Epcot.’”
Anna James, a second-year student studying aerospace engineering, attended the event and spoke about her time there.
“The event was very fascinating,” James said. “I am not a huge history fan, but using different types of interesting videos and learning through them caught my attention and kept me engaged more than a class ever has. It is such a great and different way to learn more about our world’s history.”
If you are interested in attending an A/V Geeks event, the next event in the series will be held on Nov. 16 from 6-7 p.m. at Hunt Library, where Carlos Goller, a teaching assistant professor of biological sciences, will be joining Elsheimer to talk about some of our favorite things: beer, cheese, other types of food and drinks and how they are made possible by microbes.
