Let's All Go To The Fair!
Time for a little side trip to 1964, Flushing Meadows, New Yawk.
Arg, I say, ARG! I wanna go to this fair! My time machine was almost ready, but you know those little loopy things, the things with the wires? Those dealy-bops, you know? I forget what they're called. Well, OSH doesn't sell 'em. And without them, I'm screwed. Time for plan B!
Meanwhile, these slides will just have to do. Here we see Britney Spears on the upper level of the entrance to It's A Small World. Her backup dancers are sadly out of step, but the girl still knows how to put on a show!
I generally stick to Disney-related stuff from the Fair, but I'm going to break that tradition! This photo shows the "floating wing" design of the Bell Systems pavilion. "FROM TOM-TOM TO TELSTAR. The visitor, sitting in a moving armchair fitted with stereo earphones, sees filmed and three-dimensional scenes that include primitive signaling by drums, the development of the alphabet, the advent of the telephone and a communications satellite orbiting in space." Sounds like fun! And it certainly sounds like the kind of thing that Disney would have done - - and in some details they actually did do it at the park!
In this photo taken from the top of the Better Living Center, you can see the Bell building again, with the Continental Insurance building just offscreen to our left. Just past that is the stroller rental (sorry, Daveland!), and behind the trees in the Rheingold restaurant with a "little old New York" theme. 
7 comments:
Meet me at the Fair!
Nice work Major---
Actually, Major, there was a connection between the Bell Pavilion and Disneyland--a Picturephone connection, where people in Anaheim and New York could talk to one another!
This is the beauty of blogging. Eventually you will see the best pictures ever. Thanks Major.
It's hard to believe that this much time, money, and creativity were put into temporary buildings.
I would encourage anyone living/visiting in New York to take a field trip out to Flushing Meadows to visit the stunning and trespass-worthy remains of the 1964 WF. And, the Queens Museum of Art in Flushing Meadows has a stunning scale model of NY that was originally constructed for the fair. It needs to be seen to be believed.
I was there several times as a kid, and it was wonderful. Unfortunately, when I go the Flushing park now and see the tattered remains, all I can think of is the last scene of Planet of the Apes: "They blew it all to hell!"
fairs are boring
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