THE LAGOON RESORT: A THRILLING URBAN ESCAPE (CONTINUED)
The outcome of the controversy over the activities at the resorts was a loosening of Victorian morals and a new playful middle-class in Utah that gradually came to accept leisure and vacations as a given part of their culture. At the turn of the century, progressive movements helped free up time for the working class as well and the country still continued to become more urban. These new urbanites sought leisurely pursuits and contributed to the increased toleration of resorts. The result was a new, very large market of individuals who wanted to be entertained – entertainment that did not require too much work. The amusement park was the answer.
Bamberger and his family were able to afford to take time off from work and had the means to travel to Chicago in 1892 to visit the World’s Columbian exposition. This trip was the pivotal moment that would shape a utopian amusement park in Utah that has endured to today. Many of the elements and ideals of the traditional amusement park emerged from this exposition. The negative connotations of fairs and carnivals were changed with the highly structured, enclosed, and tightly regulated fair. In fact, the president of the exposition, Higinbotham, said "[I]f people came there to commit depredations they were disarmed when they witnessed the matchless beauty of the situation."
According to Robert Rydell, the international fairs between 1876 and 1916 "performed a hegemonic function precisely because they propagated the ideas and values of the country’s political, financial, corporate, and intellectual leaders and offered these ideas as the proper social and political reality." The general message was that America was exceptional and the beacon of civilization. The message was wrapped up in plaster facades and breathtaking vistas of industrial might. The Columbian Exposition was a successful merger of entertainment, a planned, closed utopian city, and industrial engineering. The exposition exhibited grand classical buildings with huge domes and column free enclosed expanses. It attempted to create a "White City," the outward manifestation of the American dream of grandeur and endless accomplishment. The experience was an escape from the brutal industrial world and a vision of what the accomplishments of technology could produce. The façade was only temporary, though; no one was intended to actually live in this city. "The underlying motive of the whole exhibition, under a sham pretence of patriotism is business, advertising with a view to individual money-making."
The fair was socially acceptable and influential in changing the Victorian social norms mainly because of the ‘education’ element strongly implemented by G. Brown Goode, the fair’s main strategist and planner. He made sure the exhibits were geared toward educating the common American and facilitated the advancement of civilization. Countries throughout the world were invited to show their cultures at the fair in an effort to expose Americans to their ways of life. Bamberger would take this idea and implement it in The Lagoon by creating a large exhibit he called the "tour the world installation" as well as many other educational side shows in an effort to promote the progress of civilization in Utah.
In addition, Bamberger, as did many other aspiring businessmen, took to heart the example of the fair and began creating in his mind an exclusive paradisiacal society a short distance from the cities of Salt Lake and Ogden to create an escape from city life. The profits would be enormous. Letters amongst family members about the fair show that he wanted to create a ‘city on the hill.’ This new city would function well because it would not be fettered with real political issues; it would use extraordinary buildings mainly for show, and he would be able to manipulate landscapes, flows, and the placing of amenities to maximize the escape from reality. Bamberger was an industrialist and fully realized the potential of merging new technologies, the appeal of utopia, and good showmanship to create an inescapable attraction in Utah.
Montgomery Schuyler, an architectural critic, called the World’s Columbian Exposition a success in the integration of unity, magnitude, and illusion. These three elements are at the core of amusement park planning. Schuyler explained that unity promoted a sense of feeling or consciousness of one's powers and completeness, magnitude demanded a sense of awe. Illusion was the most dangerous element. He goes on to say that the "World’s Fair buildings have first of all to tell us that they are examples not of work-a-day building, but of holiday building, that the purpose of their erection is festal and temporary." These buildings were not real and not made to be either. These elements and the ideals of the fair were realized by Bamberger as central to the forming of The Lagoon.
Another element found at the core of every amusement park introduced by the World’s Columbian Exposition was the Midway. A Midway is basically the central strip where one can find the concessionaires and small sideshows. The inventor of the Midway in Chicago was Sol Bloom. He created a strip adjacent to the picturesque "White City" full of concessionaires, sideshows, and various games. It was arranged from the perceptively least civilized (such as the African displays) to the Anglo displays creating and solidifying racial and ethnological classes. Bamberger was Jewish and we can assume that he did not appreciate the Jewish element being set near the middle of the ethnological organization of the Midway. This explains the absence of internationally influenced shows and concessionaires at The Lagoon typically found at other similar amusement parks.
The lesson he did learn from the Midway was that admission tickets were not enough to make a profit with the fair, money from renting booths and sales of little trinkets on the Midway created the thin margin. Park frequenters looked to the Midway for part of the fracas experience, for memorabilia, and for food in every park they attended.
