Behind every successful man stands a woman. Behind George Ferris, the inventor of The Ferris Wheel, stands the charming, enigmatic, and dark-eyed beauty, Margaret Ann Beatty. She was George's devoted wife and helpmate, his eyes and ears during the construction of the first Wheel at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. She gifted George a golden whistle that George blew to stat the Wheel on its maiden trip on the afternoon of June 21, 1893, while thousands cheered and gaped at "The Eighth Wonder of the World." Then, tragedy. Only a month later lawsuits and financial woes started to tear their marriage apart. Margaret left George and, mysteriously, ended up in California, where she died a spinster in a boarding house that she managed for a friend.