The Bizarre Attractions of San Diego's 1935 Exposition

The Bizarre Attractions of San Diego's 1935 Exposition | San Diego Uncovered

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The Bizarre Attractions of San Diego's 1935 Exposition

Imagine walking into Balboa Park and finding a nudist attraction, a miniature city populated by adult performers of short stature, Ripley's human oddities, a gangster's armored automobile, motorcycle daredevils, lions, snakes, a mechanical man and an Old West mining camp.

No, this wasn't a fever dream.

It was San Diego in 1935.

The California Pacific International Exposition transformed Balboa Park into a spectacular celebration of science, industry, architecture and culture. But some of the biggest crowds weren't there for the educational exhibits.

They were heading for the Midway.

San Diego Needed a Spectacle

The United States was still struggling through the Great Depression when San Diego launched the California Pacific International Exposition.

Balboa Park already had an enormous advantage: the landscaping and celebrated architecture left from the 1915–1916 Panama-California Exposition. Rather than start from scratch, organizers refurbished older buildings, constructed new ones and assembled hundreds of exhibits and attractions.

The fair opened on May 29, 1935. President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered greetings by telephone from the White House before the exposition lights came on that evening.

The goal was serious—promote San Diego, stimulate tourism and strengthen the local economy.

The entertainment strategy was considerably less serious.

Welcome to the Midway

The exposition's amusement zone was called El Zocalo. Contemporary promotional material described it as a “kaleidoscopic city of merrymaking.”

It stretched roughly 1,200 feet and offered thousands of feet of concession frontage.

Historical records make one thing clear: visitors loved it.

The Midway and Ford Building became two of the fair's most popular destinations. And the Midway competed for attention using a formula amusement operators still understand today:

Make people curious enough that they simply have to see what's inside.

Ripley's Believe It or Not Was Much Darker Than Today's Version

Robert Ripley's Believe It or Not attraction featured people advertised for unusual physical characteristics and abilities.

Historical accounts describe performers including a woman with four legs, a woman without arms or legs and a man advertised as immune to fire.

These exhibits reflected a sideshow culture common at the time but deeply uncomfortable by modern standards because people with disabilities and physical differences were marketed as curiosities.

The controversy wasn't entirely modern, either.

The San Diego History Center reports that a judge fined the exhibit's manager $150 in December 1935 for displaying people with deformities in violation of California law.

The Fair's Most Popular Concession Was a Miniature City

One of the Midway's biggest attractions was historically promoted as the “Midget City and Farm.”

That terminology appears throughout contemporary exposition material but is considered offensive today. We use it here only when referring to the historical name of the attraction.

More than 100 adult performers of short stature worked and entertained visitors in a miniature community constructed to their scale.

Promotional descriptions listed small houses, a hotel, restaurant, telegraph office, gas station, grocery store, butcher shop and newspaper office.

There was even a miniature farm with small livestock and crops.

According to San Diego History Center research, it led the Midway concessions in attendance.

There Was a Nudist Colony Too

Of course, readers of San Diego Uncovered may already know about Zoro Garden.

Roughly 50 performers occupied a sunken garden where spectators paid admission to watch them read, exercise, eat vegetables and lounge in the sunshine.

They were advertised as nudists, although historical photographs show that the performers generally wore minimal costumes rather than appearing completely nude.

Visitors to neighboring Gold Gulch reportedly discovered knotholes in the wooden fence and used them to peek into Zoro Garden without paying.

Apparently even in 1935, people were looking for ways around admission fees.

“Crime Never Pays” — Except Apparently It Did

Another attraction was called Crime Never Pays.

Among its exhibits was an automobile associated with notorious gangster John Dillinger, promoted as bulletproofed and armed.

The San Diego History Center dryly notes that the attraction's name was something of a misnomer because the concession itself reportedly paid very well.

Crime, it seems, paid at least one concessionaire.

Then There Was the Mechanical Man

Contemporary exposition material also advertised a mechanical figure—sometimes called Alfy the Mechanical Man—among the technological curiosities visitors could encounter.

Robots and automated machines were still extraordinary novelties in the 1930s.

To fairgoers living decades before personal computers, smartphones or artificial intelligence, a machine presented as a mechanical man could feel like a glimpse into the future.

The juxtaposition was classic world's fair: walk a few hundred feet from an Old West mining camp and suddenly encounter tomorrow's technology.

You Could Visit a Snake Farm and a Lion Farm

If human curiosities and robots weren't enough, the Midway also offered animal attractions.

Promotional material advertised a Snake Farm containing reptiles from around the world and Gay's Lion Farm, a well-known attraction brought down from El Monte, California.

There were horses as well. An Arabian mare named Rossika reportedly performed tricks that included firing a salute, lowering a flag and walking a tightrope.

The fair was essentially a museum, zoo, circus, carnival, technology convention and world's fair packed into the same park.

Motorcycles Entered the “Globe of Death”

Daredevil entertainment was another Midway staple.

Motorcycle riders performed inside spherical cages in attractions commonly known as a Globe of Death, while other thrill rides and stunt shows competed for attention.

The exposition even considered daily airplane stunts above the grounds and unusual races involving bicycles, balancing contests, rickshaws and other spectacles.

Subtlety was not the Midway's strong suit.

Gold Gulch Recreated the Wild West

One of the exposition's most elaborate environments was Gold Gulch, a Hollywood-style recreation of a California mining camp.

Designed by Hollywood Western-set designer Harry Oliver, the attraction included an old-time saloon, dance hall performers, miners panning in mud and shops selling souvenirs.

Visitors could drink coffee from tin cups, buy jewelry made from horseshoe nails and pose for photographs dressed as stereotypical Old West characters.

It wasn't intended as rigorous history.

It was the 1935 version of immersive entertainment.

And Then You Could Watch Shakespeare

One of the most enduring exposition attractions was considerably more respectable.

A replica Elizabethan theater presented abbreviated Shakespeare productions to fairgoers.

That theater became the foundation for what San Diegans now know as The Old Globe.

It's a wonderful example of how the temporary entertainment created for the 1935 exposition sometimes evolved into permanent San Diego institutions.

Why Were These Attractions So Popular?

World's fairs were never just museums.

They were enormous entertainment enterprises competing for visitors' money and attention.

Science and industrial exhibits promised a better future. Architecture created spectacle. Cultural displays promised visitors a trip around the world.

But the Midway offered something even simpler:

“You have never seen anything like this before.”

Sometimes that promise produced innovative entertainment.

Sometimes it exploited people or cultures in ways that deserve criticism today.

Understanding both sides gives us a more accurate picture of the era than simply laughing at how strange everything looks now.

The Fair Helped Shape the Balboa Park We Know Today

Behind all the oddities was a tremendously important event in San Diego's development.

The 1935–1936 exposition reinforced Balboa Park's role as the city's cultural center and added buildings and institutions that remain part of the park today.

The City of San Diego credits both the 1915–1916 and 1935–1936 expositions with helping create the cultural core visitors recognize.

So the next time you're walking peacefully through Balboa Park, remember what these grounds looked like in 1935.

There were robots.

Gangster cars.

Lions.

Snakes.

Motorcycle daredevils.

A miniature city.

A fake mining camp.

Ripley's oddities.

And, yes, a nudist colony.

Balboa Park has had an interesting life.

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Sources & Further Reading

• San Diego History Center — California Pacific Exposition 1935–1936: Strange and Unusual Attractions
• San Diego History Center — California Pacific International Exposition
• Journal of San Diego History — San Diego Invites the World to Balboa Park a Second Time
• San Diego History Center — Balboa Park History 1935
• City of San Diego — Balboa Park History