Friday, August 28, 2009

NYWF Unisphere, September 1964

I know, I know, most of you don't much care for the World's Fair photos. But you'll just have to indulge ol' Major Pepperidge and his many eccentricities!

The wonderful, iconic Unisphere was the symbol of the Fair, and I have to say that it is pretty cool. In no particular order, here are three photos of the giant globe.

This one looks like late afternoon, and those tiny pipples milling around the base gives a great idea of the size of the Unisphere. It's BIG, goshdarnit. See the pipples? And those three large orbit rings supposedly represent the orbits of Yuri Gagarin, John Glenn, and Telstar (the first active communications satellite). Once again, Ham the space chimp gets the cold shoulder. Notice the helicopter in the background, and the tiny moon, it almost looks like it is orbiting the Unisphere!


Here's a much more colorful view, looking through the avenue of multi-hued flags...


... and one more lovely shot!

15 comments:

  1. yellow_sub12:28 AM

    something very similar sits out front of "leisure world" in seal beach where my grand mother used to live til she passed away. nice childhood memory for me there

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  2. There's still a lot of us that love the World's Fair pictures. I'll happily devour them as you keep posting them.

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  3. I care...and can't get enough of the World's Fair pics. I wish I could have seen this fair in person. I've thought about going to see the grounds today, along with the few remnants that are still standing. The Unisphere was restored in the 90's...it would be nice to see it in person.

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  4. Who doesn't care about World's Fair photos, and why are they reading your blog?? I'm always happy to see photos of the Unisphere (just as I was happy to see the "poor man's Unisphere" outside Leisure World).

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  5. My grandparents lived in nearby Astoria and our family drove across country in our station wagon to visit the fair in 1965. My memories of the place have faded with age, but I do recall the spectacle of the Unisphere(and especially it's fountains) lit up after dark. Thanks for posting these and keep the NYWF images coming!

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  6. Are you kidding, I will never ger tired of pics from the worlds fair. Beauties!

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  7. Anonymous12:47 PM

    Add another fan for your World's Fair photos from one who was there and keeps a framed map from the fair on his wall.

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  8. I never get tired of seeing photos from the 64-65 NYWF or really from any fair for that matter!

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  9. I LOVE THEM, TOO!! (as you know ;)

    one of my favorite things is the day moon, as seen here in photo #1


    what are the buildings in the foreground of photo #3? one has a mosaic looking facade and the ones across the street have those interesting pointed witch-hat looking tops...

    i always enjoy a visit to the fair!

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  10. Nancy, the building on the right with the mosaic facade is the Greek pavilion. The "witch hats" are part of the African pavilion (representing 26 nations).

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  11. Anonymous9:08 PM

    Who says we don't care about the World's Fair photos! Keep them coming. BTW; did you know that Disney's own Harper Goff designed the Unisphere? I beleive you mentioned this in one of your earlier blogs but I thought it might be worth mentioning it again here. Thanks for the pics.

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  12. Cyberdillo, at some point I had heard that Harper Goff designed the Unisphere, but I have since read that it was designed by an architect named Gilmore D. Clarke.

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  13. Thanks for showing the image with all the pipples!

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  14. Anonymous8:00 PM

    Thanks, Major, I'll file this bit of information into memory and delete the previous.

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  15. Anonymous10:03 PM

    I may be mistaken, but I think I read somewhere that the Unisphere is about the same size (exactly the same size??) as the Perisphere, and Spaceship Earth is approximately the same size as the Perisphere.

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