“Hereafter” was one of the most popular and profitable attractions at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. The attraction enticed visitors’ curiosity as to what happens in the afterlife. So, what was this attraction like for those who entered it? Let’s step inside and find out!
First, a barker outside the attraction would announce in an ominous tone in order to draw crowds, “Hereafter in progress…something you have never seen before – Hereafter!” A guide would lead visitors into the entrance of the attraction.
As visitors walked through the entrance, they found themselves in a large arch-shaped tunnel with mirrors running the length of the tunnel on all sides. Sounds of screams and moans could be heard coming from deep within the attraction. At the end of the mirrored tunnel, the attraction divided two ways. One way led to Hell (or Hades, inspired by Dante’s Inferno), and the other way led to Heaven, though the only way to walk was toward Hell.
Upon walking into Hell, visitors found themselves in a large dimly lit room named “Café of the Dead”. There, tables were made out of coffins and chandeliers were made out of real human bones. A fascinating new technology, rear-projection illusion, created a hologram-type illusion of a patron in the café frustratingly unable to pick up his plate or utensils from a table as if they weighed hundreds of pounds. At another table, also using rear-projection illusion, an angry waiter approached a diner at a table who had requested a beer. Rather than place the bottle of beer on the table, the waiter lifted it high in the air to smash it down over the diner’s head. However, just before impact, the diner and waiter vanished.
Visitors then stepped into an elevator for a simulated ride down into Hell. As they descended (or seemed to during the simulation), screams, howls and groans could be heard. Once the doors opened and visitors stepped out of the elevator simulation, they stepped into Charon’s boat, which floated on the River of Death, underneath sharp stalactites. On occasion, a skeleton would drop down unexpectedly. Whether the skeleton consisted of real human bones is unknown, though real skeletons were used as props many times during this era.
In the ride on Charon’s boat, stationary figures were displayed along the way. Whether they were made of wax or another substance is also unknown. The figures illustrated the many punishments of Hades as depicted in Dante’s Inferno. The guide leading the tour would describe the punishments in detail as they passed each stationary scene, which consisted of various bloodless tortures. One scene included a man sticking his nose into other people’s affairs and was sentenced to have his nose clamped in a vise, as he cried out his errors in life. Another scene included a successful robber with a bagful of money which he was unable to spend in Hell. Many other such examples depicted the guilty being punished for their actions.
As the boat entered Satan’s lair, a skeleton would drop down. Once in the lair, a scene of hellish torture made of stationary figures was seen. It depicted a chaotic scene out of Dante’s Inferno. Along with the stationary figures, adults in devil costumes would jump in and out of smoke and simulated fire, scaring the boat riders. Billows of smoke shot up from the ground as Satan himself threatened the riders. (This part of the ride was so terrifying to an 8-year-old boy that he felt the need to admit to his mother right there on the boat of something wrong he did in order not to end up in Hell. His mother had been unable to find her wedding ring for days. The boy admitted to taking the ring and accidentally losing it.)
The boat then descended down a short ramp, where it came to float in the beautifully colorful Daphne’s Grove, a scene out of Greek mythology.
The ride’s finale took the boaters through Paradise, which featured the birth of the Star of Bethlehem as well as passages and visuals from English poet John Milton’s “Paradise Lost.” Angels ascending into Heaven, likely with the aid of rear-projection illusion, ended the attraction.
On June 30, 1859, between 5,000 and 10,000 spectators arrived at both the American and Canadian sides of Niagara Falls to watch 38-year old French daredevil Jean-Francois Gravelet, better known by his performing name of Monsieur Charles Blondin, or just simply Blondin, become the first tightrope walker to cross over the Niagara gorge, 160 feet high and 1,100 feet long, just down river from the falls. It would be Blondin’s first of an estimated 300 tightrope crossings at Niagara Falls.
Blondin, standing 5’5″ and trained as an acrobat since the age of five, attempted new stunts with each crossing of the falls, making a round trip, always starting and finishing on the American side. He performed the same stunts in other countries as well but it was his Niagara Falls crossings which brought him fame and earned him the nickname “The Hero of Niagara”.
On this particular day, June 30, 1859, Blondin sat down on the rope about a third of the way across to the Canadian side and called for the Maid of the Mist (the famed Niagara Falls tourist vessel, established in 1846) to come and stop beneath him. When it did, he lowered a line, pulled up a wine bottle and began drinking (some sources say it was wine and some say it was actually water). He then stood back up and completed his crossing to the Canadian side. One spectator on the Canadian side, who couldn’t handle the suspense, rushed out to pull Blondin across the last few feet, then exclaimed, “I wouldn’t look at anything like that again for a million dollars!”
After a short rest, Blondin then crossed back over to the American side. After just 200 feet, he stopped and took out a daguerreotype camera he was carrying on his back. He set up the camera and took a picture of the crowd over on the American side of the falls. He then packed up his camera and continued on his way. The entire crossing, both ways, took roughly 30 minutes.
Some of Blondin’s other stunts while crossing Niagara Falls included walking backward, putting a sac over himself so he couldn’t see, hanging by his legs and by one hand, balancing on his head and somersaulting and backflipping…and those weren’t even his most impressive feats! He once carried a table and chair to the center of the rope, setting them up and sitting in the chair while propping his feet up on the table. The chair slipped and fell into the water. Blondin nearly followed but grabbed the rope just in time to save himself.
On occasion, he would ride a bicycle across the falls. Other times, he would push people across in wheelbarrows, sometimes while blindfolded.
One of his better known stunts was carrying a 50-pound stove on his back, setting it up and calling for the Maid of the Mist to come stop beneath him. Dressed as a chef, he then fired up the stove, proceeded to cook an omelette and lowered the omelette to passengers aboard the Maid of the Mist before packing up his stove and continuing his crossing. Blondin performed this particular stunt numerous times across Niagara Falls as well as in other countries.
He once carried his manager, Harry Colcord, on his back both ways across the falls, instructing him, “Look up, Harry…you are no longer Colcord, you are Blondin. Until I clear this place, be a part of me, mind, body and soul. If I sway, sway with me. Do not attempt to do any balancing yourself. If you do we will both go to our death.”
Many years later, at age 65, Blondin carried his son on his back across the falls.
Blondin crossed Niagara Falls for the last time in 1896 at age 71. He passed away the following year of complications from diabetes.
