|
~ Jessie Hulbert ~ Official Recorder for The Burroughs, Hulbert & Hulbert Expedition of '93 Landmarks: |
PEOPLE ~ PLOTS ~ PLACES Although previous biographers have paid little attention to the 1893 Columbian Exposition, it probably had more influence on Ed Burroughs' imagination and creative processes than any event in his life.Anyone familiar with his work cannot read Ed Burroughs' Remarkable Summer of '93 without noting the endless string of exciting people and events that touched the life of an impressionable young man throughout that summer.
It takes little imagination and an only small leap of faith to make the connection with so many of the people, places and plots that he wove into his fiction decades later.
The following chart has been compiled to point out some of the more obvious connections -- the significance of which the reader might have missed in reading Ed Burroughs' fiction-based-on-fact first person account.
|
|
|
| MMA cadets camped and paraded on the grounds. ~ graduation ceremonies with Captain King attending ~ admiration from populace and young ladies | A lifelong love of and dedication to the military and fascinaton with heroes -- shown in his writings and his life (Military Academies, Cavalry, Militia, Home Guard, War Correspondent, many friends in the military.) |
| Mastermind of Electricity: Nikola Tesla was the true genius
behind the fair. His alternating current system powered and illumnated
the fair. Visitors to the Electricity Building were mesmerized by the lectures
and displays of his inventions that he delivered with the pizzazz of a
true showman. He even treated his newly invented fluorenscent and neon
light tubes with radium for special effect. His carbon-button lamp was
a working model of an incandescent sun that produced incredibly intense
light and he used it to demonstrate what he believed to be cosmic and other
mysterious rays that are given off by the sun. He manipulated ball lightning,
controlled bolts of lightning and sent millions of volts of electrictiy
through his body during his demonstrations. He believed that electrical
energy could be harnessed to create protective shrouds that could keep
people warm or cool under the most severe weather conditions from the equator
to the poles. He also predicted that the energy will have many medical
uses.
An Overview of Inventions and Discoveries predicted and/or inspired by Tesla's experiments and theories: Atom Smasher, X-Rays, Radio, electro-magnetic power, AC electricity, Solar Heating, Vacuum Tubes, Remote Control Vehicles, Torpedoes, Force Fields, Microwave Transmissions, Diathormy, High Voltage Conducters, Wireless Communications, World Wide Broadcasting Systems, Flying Saucers, Transisters, The Atomic Clock, Cosmic Rays, Phosphorescent Lighting, The Heating Pat, Robots, Liquid Oxygen, Underground Power Lines, Cryogenics, Radar, Guided Missiles, Automobile Speedometer, Highway Systems, Parking Garages, Interplanetary Communications, Laser Beams, Death Rays, Modern Warfare, Geothermal Steam Plants |
Tesla obviously inspired the idea for Ras Thavas, The Master Mind of Mars and for the Barsoomian death rays, radium weapons and lighting, separation of the 8th and 9th rays for propulsion and atmosphere creation, gigantic electromagnets for weapons and transportation, protective domes over polar settlements . . . |
| Inventions: world's largest gun (Krupp Gun Exhibit), revolutionary fireworks, electrical inventions: searchlights, phonographs, the teleautograph, elevators, fans, motors, AC system, thousands of incandesant lights, daring rides, etc. | A multitude of inventions created for his alien worlds.: See ERBzine 0459 for a list of inventions he imagined for his Barsoom novels. Rifles and cannons on Barsoom had incredible range and accuracy. Scientists on Barsoom had the means to view people and places on other planets in great detail. Powerful searchlights similar to those used at the Fair played a major role in the protection of the Zodanga palace from airship invasion. |
| Canals, waterfronts, lagoons, waterways found everywhere on the fairgrounds | Barsoom canals and waterways, Amtor, Pellucidar, mutinies, jungle streams |
| Water transport: every possible floating device: kayaks, gondolas, electric launches, dugouts, arriving steamships, and replicas of Columbus' fleet, a Viking Ship, the whaling ship "Progress" and the battleship "Illinois" | Barsoomian aerial warships and flyers, canals and waterways, Amtorian pirate ships, ships with mutinies, jungle canoes |
| Wooded Island and forest displays by Dept. of Horticulture | A lifelong love of trees, jungles, forests (Africa, Amtor, Pellucidar, Tarzana Ranch, etc.) |
| Food: The excitement of discovering exotic international foods and the American food and drink created for the Exposition | The experience supplied the ideas and the zest for the strange foods found in his stories |
| Gorgeous buildings, clean futuristic utopia contrasting with the general unsanitized squalor of the city surrounding. | Towers and walls and palaces of Barsoom and lost civilizations |
| Transportation: First electric car, Electric street cars, millions arriving from all over the world by speeding trains, new bicycle models, Roman chariots, | A lifelong love of transportation vehicles -- especially cars. Mundane and imaginative vehicles play a major role in most of his stories. |
| Contact with cultures from all over the world: Indian, wild west, business men, ethnic dancers, barbaric battles and music, bombarded with exotic customs, people, food, cultures, | Provided ERB with the ideas and background information that allowed him to write about people and cultures he had never visited and to create alien worlds. |
| He met brilliant minds and thinkers and inventors: Tesla, Edison, Morrison, Frank Lloyd Wright, creators of the Exposition and the multitude of attractions | These contacts apparently gave young Ed Burroughs a new respect for things academic and formal education. Over the next year his grades improved and after graduation he returned to MMA as an Assistant Commandant and instructor in geology, weapons and horsemanship. |
| Eugen Sandow the pioneer body builder and lion fighter adorned in a leopard skin loin cloth. | Obvious inspiration for Tarzan and many of his other fictional characters. |
| Anthropological displays of new theories on heredity and eugenics | Influenced his views on heredity and evolution and figured strongly in so many of the descriptions of his heroes and villains. |
| Arab streets, Bedouin encampments inspired his many desert adventures: | Played a prominent role in many of his novels, i.e. The Return of Tarzan, The Lad and the Lion |
| Mosques, cathedrals and temples and exotic architecture | Ubiquitous in alien worlds and lost cities |
| Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show with its displays of cavalry, Indians, buffalo hunters, trick riders, and riders from all over the world brought together for an extraordinary show he called "A Congress of the Rough Riders of the World." | Reinforced his passion for horsemanship of every style -- and interest that played prominently in his novels: westerns, Apache stories, Tharks and Thoats, etc. |
| Appearance of Captain Charles King at the MMA cadet graduation. | King's presence deepened Ed's admiration and affection for this famous military man and one of the most popular authors of western and military adventures of the day. Much of the spirit and ideals of bravery and heroism in ERB's novels can be traced to King's works. |
| Volcanoes, Crystal Cavern, historical and cultural exhibits from all over the world, inspiring art and music, demonstrations from famous explorers, exhibits of undersea life with submarine divers, recreations of ancient ruins, cliff dwellings in the largest man-made mountain, carnivorous plants, beautiful women from all over the world, including the more risque hootchie kootchie dancers and the daring images in the peep shows, castles, mosques, temples, | Marvels that would excite any first-time observer, especially at a time before mass communication. Visitors entered a futuristic world imposed upon a microcosm of wonders from every corner of the planet. The Midway guaranteed "the earth for fifty cents," |
| Japanese Pavilion on Wooded Island: Ho-O-Den | Multi-syllable names ~ Samurai, sword battles, exotic cultures and languages ~ fascination with Asian cultures (Jungle Girl, Monster Men, Mucker) |
| Ferris Wheel and tethered balloon rides: | Flights to the heavens and "the stars" before the invention of the aircraft. The effect of these rides, especially the Ferris Wheel speeding to great heights, and the unobstructed view of the heavens above and the countless brilliant electric lights below must have been an incredible experience. |
| Art displays | Reinforced his drawing skills and fascination with cartooning - and later his reliance of major artists to illustrate his work |
| The thrill of driving Chicago's first electric carriage around the Exposition | Start of a life-long obsesson with cars: cross-country auto trip in 1916, fleets of Packards and Cords, family trips, military jeeps, etc. |
| Prominent Alumna of schools he had attended: Ziegfeld, Lillian Russell, Oliver Wendell Holmes | Pride in heritage, literature and a fascination with the entertainment business |
| Great showmen in action: Buffalo Bill (Wild West Show), Scott Joplin (ragtime musician), The Great Sandow (strongman), Paul du Chaillu (African adventurer), Nikola Tesla (inventor), Sousa (march composer), Charles King (author and military hero), Little Egypt (hoochie koochie dancer), Hagenbeck (trained wild animal show) | Ideas for selling ideas and products as well as ideas for story themes.
A lasting impression: Hagenbeck's rewards-based animal training that provided an alternative to traditional fear-based training. Tesla was in his mid-30s in 1893, that anyone of that age could accomplish so would surely be an inspiration for a young man of Ed's age -- a goal to strive for. |
| Dahomey villages where women are the warriors and leaders of the tribe. | Provided a model for his descriptions of native tribes and villages as wll as the idea for the society of dominant women in Tarzan and the Ant Men |
| Many Fair visitors arrived on "Exposition Flyers" -- Pullman coaches travelling at the amazing speed of 80 m.p.h. It was before the Age of the Automobile, before the invention of the airplane, before the World Wars, and before so many of the inventions and conveniences that we now take for granted in the 21st Century. | This love of speed, travel and new inventions is a driving force for so many of ERB's imaginative tales. |
| Asian villages and attractions | Background and local colour source for numerous Asian descriptions
in novels: Monster Men, Jungle Girl, The Mucker, etc.
Asian architecture, customs, languages, decorations, etc. influenced his descriptions of Barsoomian cities and races. |
| The award-winning exhibition of Ed's cavalry troupe at the Detroit Riding Club's Columbian Saddle Horse Show before the World's Fair on April 4-6, 1893 and later the appearance of the MMA cadets at the Exposition. | This was a definite ego boost and was a prime reason for his sometimes directionless quest over the coming years. The excitement and success of his performance before a large responsive crowd provided him the first taste of the exhilaration that is felt by successful entertainers and celebrities. It would be twenty more years of drifting through occupations and locales before he could capture these feelings again. |
| World Champion Boxer Gentleman Jim Corbett appeared at the Fair. | Ed became a great admirer of pugilists, and it is reported that he even had dreams of entering the ring himself. This fascination with boxing comes through in numerous novels, especially The Mucker. Throughout his life he regularly attended boxing and wrestling matches. The theme of man-to-man conflict is a common one in his stories. |
| Fair Memorabilia: stereoview cards, books, tickets, posters, photos, coins, postcards, etc. Oliver Wendell Holmes a famous statesman and poet who had also attended Phillips Academy many years before, is actually credited with the invention of the stereoscope. | The effect of the World's Fair on Ed is evident in the great amount of memorabilia that survived in his library and collections. He went on to collect many other stereoview cards in later years, much to the delight of his children and grandchildren who spent many hours marvelling at the 3-D images through his stereoviewer. |
| Through the Fair's displays of the latest in photography equipment and the countless photos it was evident that photography had come into its own and would soon be accessible to the masses. | The emphasis on photography at the Fair was probably instrumental in developing Ed's avid interest in the hobby. The many Burroughs family outings and daily activities are well-documented by his photos. He passed this interest on to Hully, who became a WWII combat photographer and to Jack, who relied heavily on photography in his art projects. |
| Paul du Chaillu the African adventurer adventurer and author appeared at the fair. A contemporary of du Chaillu's was J. W. Buell who wrote Heroes of the Dark Continent. | Du Chaillu's books, Lost
in the Jungle: Narrated for Young People
and Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africahad
a prominent place in Ed's library. Many feel that Du Chaillu and
Buell provided essential background reading which Burroughs used systematically
for his themes and situations.See:
Heroes of the Dark Continent in ERBzine 1151 Coincidentally, a number of Buell boys -- possibly related to the author, attended MMA with Burroughs |
| Famous composer John Phillip Sousa wrote a special march for the Fair | Throughout his life one of Ed's favourite types of music was military marches. His sheet music and record library contains many such marches. This was carried over into his descriptions of ceremonial music on Barsoom. |
| Hagenbeck's Wild Animal Arena and Museum was an immensely popular attraction on the Midway. Carl Hagenbeck's domesticated and trained wild animals included: elephants, lions, tigers, leopards, bears, dogs, pigs, goats, sheep, horses, ponies, zebras, and boars. The whole arena was adorned with countless monkeys and exotic birds -- all performing and displayed in such a way that it was hard to believe they were in captivity. | This exhibit was bound to have a profound effect on young Burroughs. Seeing many of these creatures for the first time, and seeing the interaction of such a menagerie in an almost natural environment amazed everyone who visited the arena. |
| The summer-long stay at the Fair: | This would undoubtedly be an experience of a lifetime: romance, excitement, stimulating company, challenges, awarding accomplishments, wonderful inventions, exotic lifestyles |
| The Fair employed a system of pneumatic tubes that moved cylinders containing money, documents and messages to locations all over the grounds | Pneumatic tube transport systems are part of the rapid transit system between the Twin Cities of Helium. Passengers are propelled through the 75-mile tubes in eight-foot-long bullet-shaped cars. |
| To accomodate the masses of visitors, ramps rather than stairs were used at many areas of the Fair. | Ramps are much more common than stairs over most of Barsoom. |
| Tesla demonstrated many radically different ways of using electricity to produce light. | ERB later imagined many unusually means of creating light: Cylindrical portable lighting devices with a central core which glows when exposed to air (The Torches of Horz). ~ Radium Light Bulbs are the principal means of artificial lighting on Mars ~ Solar Energy used in northern cities for heating, lighting and a source of energy. |
| The Fair created what was a the time revolutionary seaons passes with ID photographs and other relevant information. | ID Machines are used in northern nation of Okar to measure, weigh and photograph people. Copies of this information are reproduced instantly in offices all over the region. |
| It is generally recognized that the technological genius behind the fair, Nikola Tesla, invented radio before Marconi. Many of his remarkable inventions, including radio transission, were demonstrated in the Electricity Building close to the Burroughs ABC exhibit. | There is a great variety of radio-related equipment on Barsoom from large to miniature with various modes of transmission and reception, secret frequencies, transmission codes, headsets, etc. Jason Gridley of Tarzana invented the Gridley Wave |
| Tesla used his radio waves frequencies and electricity to control machines from a distance. | On Barsoom Nerve Index Machines control the bodies of people. The machine is keyed to their nervous systems via shortwaves. Escapees or rebellious subjects can be killed off with the simple pushing of a button. |
| In his lectures and presentations Tesla envisioned the transmission of data over long distances. Automatic writing machines, teleautographs, were also set up on display. | Photostatic copiers which reproduce images in an instant are used in the Temple of Knowledge and he also described computer and teletype machines that recorded and transmited data. |
| A system of standard time chronometers was set up at the Fair to which were connected hundreds of time pieces. | ERB described the sophisticated chronometers that were in use on Barsoom. |
| The Fair's sprawling stock pavilions showcased the latest in purebred livestock and exotic breeds and the Machinery Building exhibited the very latest in farm equipment. | This was probably Ed's first exposure to much of the livestock and machinery with which he would stock Tarzana Ranch when he became a "gentleman farmer" many years later in 1919: Berkshire Hogs, poultry, thoroughbred horses, angora goats, sheep, etc. |
| The impessive Spanish-style architecture of the California Building and exhibits which housed the best features of the California lifestyle, industry and agriculture. | The main house on the Harrison Gray Otis dream estate, Casa Mil Flores, that Ed purchased in 1919, was highly reminiscent of the impressive California building with its arches, tiled roofs, cupolas, pergolas, courtyards, etc. Many of the structures described in ERB's novels appear to have been influenced by this type of structure. |
| The vast machinery that powered the Fair: huge generators, dynamos, pumps, engines. | This machinery coupled with Tesla's ideas revolutionary ideas on the power of electricity and its long distance transmission through the atmosphere and the sprawling buildings on the grounds seem to have come together in ERB's description of ERB's atmmosphere plant of Barsoom. |
| The giant 70-ton Yerkes telescope that enabled visitors to peer into space. | This provided the unique experience of being able to stare into the universe, to see the "canals" of Mars, the brilliant cloud-covered orb of Venus and the countless craters of the moon. Years later ERB would take his readers to these far off celestial places. |
| The anthropological building featured a replica of Galton's Anthropometric lab noted for its research on heredity and promotion of the theory of eugenics. Also on display was Galton's new book, Finger Prints, which presented a revolutionary new means of identifying people. | Galton's ideas of heredity have been employed often by ERB in his novels -- most notably in the creation of Tarzan, son of Lord and Lady Greystoke. The new science of fingerprinting was also used to prove the identiy of young John Clayton. Some of the principles of eugenics have found their way into a number of themes in ERB's books.It is most likely he became aware of these theories at this time. |
| Native Americans were well represented at the Fair. There were numerous aboriginal villages and attractions set up on the grounds and along the Midway. They also played a major role in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show located just outside the gates. | The romantic image presented of the North American Indian probably had some influence on Ed's decision, a few years later, to choose a tough Cavalry posting in the remote Indian country of Arizona -- which in turn resulted in some of his best novels: The War Chief and Apache Devil. |
| Castles and medieval villages were popular attractions on the Midway: Blarney Castle, Donegal Castle, the German Village Castle | ERB's second novel would be an exciting English historical novel, The Outlaw of Torn, and he would make use of castles in many of his novels. |
| Barbaric warriors abounded throughout the Midway Plaisance: bare-chested savages from the Pacific, armoured Japanese Samurai, buckskinned and feathered Indian tribesmen, ebony-skinned natives from Africa, mounted Bedouin spearsmen, scimitar-wielding Persians, spear-throwing Dahomey Amazon Warrior Women, muscled strongmen in leopard skin loincloths, six-gun-firing cavalry men, and Eskimos with their whips and harpoons | All of these warriors would appear regularly throughout ERB's many adventure novels. |
Visit
the Album of Stereoviews from the
Edgar
Rice Burroughs Personal Library
ERBzine
1284s
A SERIES OF
EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS
TIME SHIFT ADVENTURES
By Bill Hillman
BILL
HILLMAN
Visit
our thousands of other sites at:
BILL
AND SUE-ON HILLMAN ECLECTIC STUDIO
ERB
Text, ERB Images and Tarzan® are ©Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.-
All Rights Reserved.
All
Original Work ©1996-2005/2010 by Bill Hillman and/or Contributing
Authors/Owners
No
part of this web site may be reproduced without permission from the respective
owners.