Art Smith, aviator
with his wife and plane
Exposition Band playing in front
of the Sacramento Valley Building
Sombrero Blanco
Spanish Dance Troupe
Women’s Christian Temperance
Union offered respite
People did some funny things even in 1915
The Exposition had four bands of its own: the 13th Artillery Corps Band, the 4th Regiment Marine Band, the First Cavalry Band, and the 30-piece Spanish Band. Concessions, such as the Cristobal Cafe and Hawaiian Village and dance halls on the Isthmus had their own orchestras.
The Women’s Christian Temperance Union maintained a room for women in the Science and Education Building.
Aviator Art Smith performed loop-the-loops over the tractor field, August 11 and 12, 1915.
Flyer Joe Boquel began an engagement October 28, 1916, by doing evolutions above the Tractor-Aviation Field. While doing a “corkscrew” November 4, Boquel drove his airplane into the ground near Cabrillo Bridge, causing his death. The accident happened five minutes before he was to have been awarded an Exposition gold medal.
Spanish musicians and dancers enlivened the plazas, patios and balconies of the Exposition. Women in the troupe had a habit of addressing their most ardent love passages to modest-appearing young men in the audience, to the mock consternation of the male guitarists who escorted them.
