Thursday, January 01, 2009

New York World's Fair revisited

It's 2009, and I feel fine! Happy New Year, everybody.

I don't know about you, but I welcome the occasional trip back to the 1964/65 New York World's Fair. Here are four nice photos for fellow fans:

First up is this sweet picture of the Bell System building, which housed (among other things) "The Ride of Communication" . "The upper story of the pavilion, which houses the ride, is a gigantic "floating wing" that rests on four pylons. Below is an exhibit hall devoted to the technology of communications. Nearby rises a 140-foot microwave tower which transmits TV shows originating at the Fair."


I love this picture of the Florida Water Ski Show: "In a show sponsored by the Florida Citrus Commission, teams of performers water ski behind fast boats, doing intricate acrobatics, formations and jumps, four times every day between noon and 6 p.m. A highlight of the Seattle Century 21 Exposition, the show is staged on a specially constructed, doughnut-shaped pool in the Amphitheater first used at the 1939/1940 Fair." Pretty cool that the pool was used at the legendary '39 fair!


I've always loved the egg-shaped IBM building, and until seeing this photo, never realized that it had "IBM" embossed all over it! "Beneath the (egg-shaped) theater, fairgoers stroll through a grove of rust-brown steel trees. There they may watch puppet shows and see experimental computers, including one which translates Russian technical data into simple English, and another that can recall headline events of any day during the last 100 years. Architect of the pavilion was the late Eero Saarinen; the display area was designed and the film was produced by Charles and Ray Eames.


The Chrysler pavilion had lots of cool things to see, among them "Bil (one "L"!) Baird's Marionettes". The "Show Go Round" was an elaborate musical. Mr. Baird had performed at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair as well (though apparently he did not perform at the 1939 fair)! According to Wikipedia, after he died in 1987, his children auctioned off his hundreds of puppets. One of them, "Oily Oilcan" from the Chicago Fair, fetched $11,000!


If you are interested in the Fair, then you must check out nywf64.com, it's an invaluable resource!

7 comments:

  1. Great way to start of the year Major. 45 years ago, WOW! How time flies when your having fun.

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  2. Super Fair Shots! I love that huge IBM ball, it reminds me of the printing ball in the old Selectric Typewriters! Thanks Major!

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  3. These are SUPER nice shots...

    In the last photo of the Chrysler Theater, there is a gold 4-door 1965 New Yorker under the funny awnings. My first car was this exact model...Sure wish I still had it!

    Happy New Year Major---

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  4. Happy New Year to everyone...

    i so love images of this World's Fair...

    the first one reminds me of some of the Future World pavillions in EPCOT at WDW, very Tomorrowland! :D

    water skiers always remind me of Coral Gables for some reason, tho ive never been there; i do remember seeing pictures as a child of the lady waterskiers in their lovely colorful outfits, probably from some famous group that ill now have to go and look up...

    the IBM pavillion is also very space-age looking. i wonder which line we got in! esp like those multicolored light fixtures...

    the Chrysler is my favorite color...orange, and i love the orange and pink combo...very 60s. how much do you think i would love to have one of the brochures those two lasses are reading....A LOT!

    thanks, Major. a gorgeous set of pictures to start the new year...

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  5. Anonymous11:48 PM

    A Happy New Years to everyone! Yep I was on holiday "oo you're a holiday, such a holiday." It's nice to be back on the blog.

    What a nice way to start a new year too. Boy (or girl or Major or Gorilla) one thing I look forward to this year is the wonderful images from the Major, Dave and the kind peeps sharing the vintage images they find for everyone to enjoy.

    Now I'll have some fun perusing the pics I've missed before turning in for the night. :)

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  6. Anonymous8:29 AM

    I remember the ride in the Chrysler exhibit that was a car assembly line and you got to ride in the cars as they were "being assembled." They didn't have any doors on yet! I wonder if people would sue over that nowadays?

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