The Devil in the White City

Before a visit to Chicago a few years ago, a friend told me to be sure to read Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City: A Saga of Magic and Murder at the Fair that Changed America. 

While in Chicago, one of the places we visited was the Museum of Science and Industry. It's housed in the former Palace of Fine Arts from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, which was part of "The White City."

According to Wikipedia, "The World's Columbian Exposition (the official shortened name for the World's Fair: Columbian Exposition, also known as The Chicago World's Fair) was a World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The iconic centerpiece of the Fair, the large water pool, represented the long voyage Columbus took to the New World. Chicago bested New York City;Washington, D.C.; and St. Louis for the honor of hosting the fair." 

Before we planned our trip, I'd known a few things about the Chicago World's Fair. However, I'd never heard about the existence of a serial killer there! That story is told in Larson's The Devil in the White City. Wikipedia says,"The book is set in Chicago, circa 1893, intertwining the true tales of Daniel H. Burnham, the architect behind the 1893 World's Fair, and Dr. H. H. Holmes, the serial killer who lured his victims to their deaths in his elaborately constructed 'Murder Castle.'"

There was talk about the book being made into a movie. Yet now it seems it'll be a TV series. Here's the latest from The Hollywood Reporter:

Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese's Devil in the White City project is going from a film to a TV series.

Hulu and Paramount Television are developing a small-screen adaptation of Erik Larson's New York Times best-selling nonfiction thriller. The news was announced onstage Monday at the Television Critics Association's winter press tour.

The Devil in the White City tells the chilling true story of two men, an architect and a serial killer, whose fates were forever linked by the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. Each embodied American ingenuity at the dawn of the 20th century: Daniel H. Burnham, a brilliant and fastidious architect racing to make his mark on the world, and Henry H. Holmes, a handsome and cunning doctor who fashioned his own pharmaceutical "Murder Castle" on fair grounds — a palace built to seduce, torture and mutilate young women.

The project has been in development at various studios since 2003. It was previously at Warner Bros., before moving to Paramount — but the studio let the rights lapse in 2004 and again in 2007, as the period setting posed budgetary challenges. At one point, Tom Cruise was set to star in and produce an adaptation, and later Kathryn Bigelow was attached to direct and produce. It wasn't until 2010 that DiCaprio, said to be long fascinated by the dark subject matter, nabbed the rights himself.

The whole story is morbid, yet fascinating, and I admit,  I am looking forward to seeing it as TV series! Did you know about Dr. H.H. Holmes, the serial killer at the Chicago World's Fair? Thanks for visiting and have a great week!