Golden Gate Bridge Opening Fiesta Week, May 27 to June 2, 1937

The Golden Gate Bridge Fiesta was a weeklong celebration that included a nightly pageant at Crissy Field, fireworks, parades, and entertainment. Schools were closed and businesses were either closed or reduced to minimum staff to join the festivities.

The Official Program of the Golden Gate Bridge Fiesta outlined the week-long schedule of events and included the toll rates, general rules and traffic rules for the new bridge. It also included a letter from San Francisco Mayor Angelo Rossi, photographs of the bridge engineers, and various facts about the span.

On May 27, 1937, the Fiesta began at 6 am with Pedestrians Day – the entire roadway was opened exclusively to pedestrians from dawn to dusk. By 6 am, thousands of people were waiting to cross. A number of “firsts” took place that day with people competing to be the first to run, roller skate, tap dance, ride a unicycle or cross on stilts. This proved to be a memorable event, with news reports estimating up to as many as 200,000 pedestrians participated.

At nearby Crissy Field, marching bands and floats that had traveled the flag-decorated parade route passed before a formal “Span of Gold” reviewing stand. Strauss arrived at about 10 am and simply shared his poem, “At last, the mighty task is done.” That night, the city celebrated the bridge with an enormous display of fireworks.

The Fiesta’s second day would be for automobiles. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt pressed a telegraph key in the White House declaring the span open to the entire world. Here are a few of the special celebrations that took place on May 28, 1937:

9:30 am:	Marin approach dedication ceremony sponsored by the Redwood Empire Association with speeches by Governor Merriam, San Francisco Mayor Rossi and others.
10:15 am:	International California Redwood Log-Barrier Sawing Contest.
10:30 am:	Chain-cutting ceremony on Golden Gate Bridge at the Marin tower, the San Francisco-Marin County line. In attendance were San Francisco Mayor Rossi, Board President Filmer, and Board member and treasurer of Redwood Empire Association Frank P. Doyle.
10:50 am:	Floral Gate Ceremony on toll plaza, with Fiesta Queens garlanded with flowers forming a living gate, which opened to official dignitaries following presentation of the completed Golden Gate Bridge to the Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District by chief engineer Strauss, and acceptance by Board President Filmer.
11:00 am:	Flight over the Bridge by 500 planes from Navy aircraft carriers Ranger, Lexington and Saratoga and battleships 60 miles out at sea.
12:00 noon:	President Franklin Delano Roosevelt pressed a telegraph key in the White House declaring the span open to the entire world. Autos traveled over the Bridge simultaneously from the San Francisco and Marin sides.
3:00 pm:	The arrival of the United States Fleet.
10:00 pm:	A grand fireworks display.

	Dedication Address Closing Remarks by Franis K. Keesling We dedicate the Bridge to local, national and international service. It commands faith and integrity. Daniel Webster in delivering the first Bunker Hill Monument oration said, “We wish that this column rising toward Heaven among the pointed spires of so many temples dedicated to God, may contribute also to produce, in all minds, a pious feeling of dependence and gratitude. We wish, finally, that the last object to the sight of him who leaves his native shore, and the first to gladden him who revisits it, may be something which shall remind him of the liberty and the glory of his country.” We wish that this Golden Gate Bridge may remind the traveler as he leaves or approaches his native shore and also everyone who views it of the liberty and glory of his country where life, liberty, and happiness have so long persisted, so that he may be re-consecrated and, as a result of his “high resolve,” actively devote himself, as he should, to his country’s problems so that the continuity of life, liberty and happiness may be assured. Fiesta Queens When the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge was drawing near, a competition was announced to select a Queen for the Golden Gate Bridge Fiesta. There was to be one queen for each of the 19 counties in northern California, and the county queen who received the most popular votes would become the Fiesta Queen. The Fiesta Queen would reign over the week-long activities of the Golden Gate Bridge opening, receive gifts, and be given a screen test in Hollywood! Model Pauline Constance Ferrelly, with the agency Gantner & Mattern in San Francisco, was one of the candidates for San Francisco. There were 200 candidates competing and Pauline was the odds-on favorite early on. Ballots for voting were not free; they cost 25-cents with the funds going to augment the Fiesta budget. When the standings were announced, Pauline led by a 2,000 vote margin; she was in the lead with 26,400 votes and she became the Fiesta Queen. Everywhere she went she was an instant celebrity. Once the formal Fiesta activities started, Pauline and the other 18 county queens moved into the Fairmont Hotel as guests of the management. She kept a schedule that had her running from sunrise to sunset. Pauline attended all Fiesta functions, from Pedestrian Day on the Bridge, to the Great Golden Gate Parade, to the Native Sons and Daughters Ceremonial at the Bridge toll plaza, to “The Span of Gold” pageant at Crissy Field, to the dedication of the Marin Approach, to the Golden Gate Bridge with Governor Frank Merriam, and many more. Pauline’s greatest dream came true when she married Charles Brady in 1940; they had 8 children. She passed away in 1985 of a heart attack.