World's Fair at Night!

Let's spend some time at the New York World's Fair - at night! The colors and shapes and shadows cast by the myriad of lights adds a special magic to an already magical place.

If you happened to go to the Fair by train, this is the view you would have seen shortly after exiting the station. There are more of those wonderful "luminaires", those boxy (but beautiful) light fixtures with the colored glass panels. They varied in size, complexity and color depending on where you were in the fairgrounds. In the distance the egg-shaped IBM pavilion can be seen, along with a "moon berry" (lit from within) and the RCA pavilion. (Photo is from May 1964)

The giant (30' X 36') photo prints at the Eastman Kodak pavilion were a memorable feature at the Fair. Lit with incredibly bright xenon lamps (providing 15 million candles), they looked like backlit transparencies, but they were in fact prints. In fact, the lights were on night AND day, so that they looked bright and clear no matter when you saw them. You can just make out the individual vertical strips that were carefully put together to make the image. (Photo is from September 1964)

You know, I'd like to stop and get all serious and religious with you right now (cue the organ music). Just kidding. This lovely twilight shot with the intensely deep-blue sky was taken in front of the Protestant and Orthodox Center. Among the highlights were the "Court of Christian Pioneers", a contemporary black and white chapel, a theater showing a 30-minute film called "Parable", a Children's Center, and a Music Garden that had a cross made from twisted metal from Coventry Cathedral, destroyed in World War II. (Photo is from October 1964)