Phantom City: 1915 Expo 1932

This 1932 silent film, The Phantom City: A Retrospect of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915, from the Frank Vail collection, revisits San Francisco’s 1915 World’s Fair in black-and-white 16mm. Shot amidst the fair’s ghostly remnants—crumbling pavilions and faded glory—it recalls the Panama Canal’s celebration with sweeping pans of the Palace of Fine Arts, Jewel Tower aglow, and lost Midway joys. A pre-war reflection crafted 17 years later, it mourns a vanished marvel while echoing 1915’s triumph over quake and time, preserved in Vail’s wistful lens.