From the Vault: Historical Accuracy vs. Sex Appeal at the Pan-American Exposition — 1937

by Paula Bosse

A tense situation in Fair Park…

by Paula Bosse

The four-and-a-half-month Greater Texas and Pan-American Exposition, held at Fair Park in 1937, was the extravagant Latin-themed follow-up to the previous year’s even more extravagant Texas Centennial celebration. A bitter disagreement about whether the reenactment of an Aztec human sacrifice would star a man or a woman pitted the Mexican Consul (who insisted on a male warrior in a bid for historical accuracy) against a profit-minded director (who just wanted a sexy, flesh-baring girl to draw the crowds). Things got pretty tense. Read about this politically-charged contretemps in the 2015 Flashback Dallas post “When a Virgin Sacrifice at Fair Park Almost Caused an International Incident — 1937,” here. One of my favorite weird slices of Dallas history.

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