Harry Lewiston - Chicago World's Fair

Chicago World's Fair

In late 1932, Lewiston was hired by sideshow impresario Duke Mills to organize a freak show for the upcoming "Century of Progress" World's Fair in Chicago, and to serve as the barker and managing director. The freak show opened in 1933, but competed poorly with Ripley's Believe It Or Not located just down the midway, and closed early after approximately six weeks. Lewiston was soon hired by showmen Lew Dufour and Joe Rogers to design the "Darkest Africa" show on the Midway at the World's Fair, featuring Africans from Nigeria, Uganda, Belgian Congo, and French Congo, and representing the Ubangi, Karamojo, and Ashanti ethnic groups. Sometimes calling himself "Major Lewiston" or "Captain Lewiston," ranks above what he had earned, he worked as a barker for this show as well:

"Another of the lecturers, Capt. Harry Lewiston, formerly of the British army, also spoke of the blacks with genuine respect, adding, apropos of the Nigerians, "You know, those men have eyesight about 300 per cent better than ours. Brave and strong! Look at the play of muscles on those backs! Give me a hundred thousand such men, trained in the use of modern arms, and I'll conquer the moon -- as the German officers used to say." "

That winter, Lewiston and Rose did their duo mindreading act for Morris Miller's Traveling Museum.