Tuesday, December 20, 2011

New York World's Fair, 1964

Off to the Fair, jiggety-jig...


Here's a lovely panorama, taken from the roof of the Better Living Center. To our left is Pepsi Cola & Unicef's "It's a Small World" (with the Tower of the Four Winds); Beyond that is the Eastman Kodak pavilion. In the middle, with a wavy roof (a bit hard to discern) is the "Sermons From Science" building, and above that is the T-shaped Port Authority building, complete with a helicopter on the roof. On the horizone, the Empire State Building's silhouette is clearly visible!


We've seen it before, but can you ever get tired of the incredible façade of GM's "Futurama"?


Inside the Futurama ride is this scene depicting a series of undersea resort. It looks like (had structures like this been realized) visitors would get to them via some sort of elevator... imagine that experience, descending deeper and deeper into the icy water until you are surrounded by absolute darkness (except, perhaps, for some bioluminescent organisms flitting around). Maybe they could attract the many strange deep-water critters with bright lights; imagine if a giant squid went scooting by, staring at you with eyes the size of dinner plates!

9 comments:

Chiana_Chat said...

"Sermons From Science"? Wow would that be trouble now.

"Maybe they could attract the many strange deep-water critters with bright lights; imagine if a giant squid went scooting by, staring at you with eyes the size of dinner plates!"

Why, I'd be whippin' out the dinner plates for some giant squid, that's what!

Major Pepperidge said...

Chiana, yes, apparently the Sermons From Science shows sneakily communicated "... Biblical concepts to younger audiences". If anything I think Americans would be MORE inclined to accept something like that these days.

And here's a fun fact about giant squid... they have ammonia that naturally occurs in their bodies to make them neutrally buoyant, so they taste awful! People who caught them (or found them washed up on the beach) in the old days often threw them to the dogs or cut them up as fish bait.

TokyoMagic! said...

I see a helicopter on the roof of the Port Authority building!

TokyoMagic! said...

Duh, you already pointed that out! I read your post late last night and was just taking another look at the pics and didn't remember you mentioning it.....sorry!

Chiana_Chat said...

"And here's a fun fact about giant squid... they have ammonia that naturally occurs in their bodies to make them neutrally buoyant, so they taste awful!"

Cool! We'll be able to clean the smudges we make gawking out our deep sea observatory windows with a ready supply of window cleaner! *squeak* "Oop! Darn I just smeared vaseline on the winder. Ned, round up another giant squid!"

Major Pepperidge said...

TM!, I miss enough stuff that I don't blame you for pointing out the whirlybird.

Chiana, I'd like to meet the guy who has the job of rounding up giant squid!

Anonymous said...

more worlds fair pictures, please! Dennis Levittown NY

Nancy said...

a feast for the eyes as they say....LOVE IT!!

i want to live in that house of the future under the sea and see giant squids shooting by.

Chiana_Chat said...

I wanna be under the sea in an octopus' garden with Ringo.

Provided he's paying and remembered the scuba gear.