Dewey Decimal Project: 607.3474 CRE The electrifying fall of Rainbow City : Spectacle and assassination at the 1901 World’s Fair

The 600s are technology which managed to yield The Electrifying Fall of Rainbow City courtesy of the Buffalo Pan American Exhibition’s exhibition of technology alongside the various cultural displays and sideshow acts.

This book is a sort of unofficial sequel to The Devil in the White City. As in that book, there is the intersection of a grand exhibition and a killer. In this case it’s Buffalo and the assassin of William McKinley, Leon Czolgosz. Where this falls short is that the Rainbow City was a somewhat less spectacular affair than Chicago’s White City and Czolgosz a less grotesque character than Dr Holmes. Even with that, there’s still plenty of interest between the electrification of Buffalo courtesy of generators at nearby Niagara Falls (along with an assortment of sideshow antics at the falls including the first person to go over the falls in a barrel). Creighton does a good enough job with the material that she has to work with.