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Pittsburgh & World War I. |
"40,000 People See War Show at Exposition. Enormous Throng Crowds Buildings as Flyers Thrill Spectators. 'Stunts' Performed." The Gazette Times, 2 December 1918.
All records for crowds at the Pittsburgh Exposition were exceeded yesterday when citizens turned out by tens of thousands to view the great War Exposition at the Point. The crowd began gathering in Duquesne way an hour or more before the doors opened at 1 o'clock. Overhead the big De Haviland bombing plane, which flew from Washington to take part in the show, and the little scout plane from the Wilbur Wright field at Dayton, were performing all sorts of hair-raising feats a couple of thousand feet in the air.
In every street downtown and on all available spots from which the flyers could be seen, thousands of persons had gathered to watch them. In Exposition park the big military observation balloon was tugging at its cable about 1500 feet up. Around and around it flew the biplanes, turning somersaults, looping-the-loop, and skidding sideways, doing nose dives, spins, and all the tricks the expert airman knows.
Speculators Are Busy.
The doors had scarcely been opened until the crowd had filled the big buildings. No tickets were on sale by the Exposition management, but it is said speculators reaped a harvest. However, many of those who had waited until yesterday to buy tickets found it almost impossible to get into the buildings.The crowd was the largest the Pittsburgh police have ever been required to handle. When Police Captain Benjamin R. Marshall viewed the throng, which estimates placed at 40,000 persons, he sent calls to five police stations for policemen. Each station responded within 20 minutes with a motor patrol full of men, who maintained order.
In Music Hall a couple of reels of [moving] pictures of war scenes on the Western and Italian fronts were shown. After each exhibition the crowd which filled the Music Hall to standing room capacity was ushered out at the south doors of the hall, where it wandered around the "Big Bertha" and the tank and cannon parked there. Nine times during the afternoon the Music Hall was filled and emptied and each time it is estimated nearly 5,000 people were fed out of the congestion in the other buildings that way. Still they came and the mass of humanity was as tightly packed in Main and Machinery halls as before.
Military Balloon Is Magnet.
The big military balloon was in the charge of Capt. Frank S. Goodale of the Army Balloon School in Omaha. He was assisted by Lieut. L. S. Lovell, also of the Balloon School. Lieut. John W. Shoptaw, who brought the balloon here from Akron last Friday to take the place of the one wrecked in the storm Thursday night, also was at the balloon field and directed the placing of the passengers who went up on every trip. There was no lack of aspirants for a float in the air.Today will be Belgian and Greek day. Mayor E. V. Babcock has appointed Rabbi Maurice M. Mazure of the Tree of Life Synagogue to serve as chairman of the committee which is to have in charge the practical and patriotic interests of the Jewish citizens in connection with this day. Serving with him on the committee will be Judge Josiah Cohen, Isaac W. Frank, A. Leo Weil, Isaac Seder and Albert C. Lehman.
Next Saturday Pittsburgh's munition workers will parade to the exposition. All the men and women who worked in the munition plants of this city during the war and aided so much in smashing the Hun by their patriotic labor, will march.
There will be about 10,000 workers in the parade. One of the features of the turnout will be a human flag, made up of 500 girls from the munition factories dressed in the national colors to make up the stars and stripes.
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Pittsburgh & World War I. |