I am becoming a man. And not in any of the ways you might expect. This isn’t a coming-of-age story. There will be no surgical operations involved. I am not required to read the haftarah aloud. But, I am becoming a man. Not just any man, mind you; the man who invented the Ferris Wheel –George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr.
Born Feb. 1, 1859. Died Nov. 22, 1896. At age 34, Ferris invented his namesake observatory wheel for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, aka the Columbian Exposition, aka the White City. He was also a man, like many of his day, who proudly wore a moustache.
I, on the other hand, was born in 1982 and have never engineered or invented anything besides a pretty excellent piñata costume for Halloween. My moustache-growing abilities are also suspect. Yet, become George Ferris I must.
It’s all in the name of “A Hegeler Carus Christmas: 1893.” I, along with NewsTribune photographer Amanda Whitlock, recently agreed to take part in this year’s Hegeler Carus Mansion Christmas play. The interactive production allows guests to become part of a fictional Christmas party starring the Hegeler and Carus families, circa 1893, along with a variety of celebrity guests from the Columbian Exposition. We are two of the celebrity guests.
Over the course of the next three weeks, Amanda and I will be blogging the experience of becoming Ferris and his wife, Margaret Ann Ferris. Continue to check in for updates and dynamic photos of the process, as well as other interesting tidbits regarding the historic Illinois Valley family and 1893 World’s Fair.
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