Thursday, October 17, 2013

New York World's Fair, July 1964

My collection of photos from the 1964-65 New York World's Fair has mostly been scanned and shared here on GDB - we're getting down to the bottom of the barrel! I really shouldn't store slides in a barrel.

I love this view of Sinclair Dinoland; Trixie Triceratops and Tommy T-Rex are having a discussion about asteroids. Tommy doesn't believe in them, but Trixie has been reading some pamphlets and she's concerned.


I am always happy to see the whimsical Tower of the Four Winds (North, South, East, and Purple), from Pepsi Cola's "It's a Small World". It would be kind of cool if they would recreate this at Disneyland - it doesn't have to be quite a huge (it was 120 feet tall). And maybe, using modern materials, they could make make it thinner and airier, the way Rolly Crump intended. Sure, that'll happen any day now! 


A dutiful boy pushes his kid brother around in wagon modified to look like a sports car (sponsored by Hertz Rent-a-Car). Hardly embarrassing at all! Based on what little I can see, it looks like they are turning from the Eisenhower Promenade onto the Avenue of Commerce. Or maybe not.


10 comments:

K. Martinez said...

The Tower of the Four Winds looks like it would've been right at home in the Tomorrowland of the 1950s and 60s.

Parts of it remind me of the old Skyway/Space Bar sign structure from the 1950s, while other parts remind me of the colors and shapes found in the Mary Blair murals of Tomorrowland from the 1960s.

Nice set today. Thanks!

bigbrian-nc.com said...

Todays Disney company does seem to have an affinity for homages to the past, with a new iasw (presumably) going into a Shanghai park that seems that it is willing to take a boldly different form from previous "Magic kingdom" style parks (for instance there is no Main Street), perhaps this new incarnation of iasw could go with an entrance that plays off the towers of the four winds.

Major Pepperidge said...

K. Martinez, wouldn't it be amazing to inaugurate a NEW Tower of the Four Winds while we still have Rolly Crump with us?

bigbrian, I suppose a version in Shanghai would be better than nothing, but the odds of me ever seeing it in person would be pretty slim!

Melissa said...

May your barrels be bottomless and free of film weevils!

It was smart of the Sinclair people to put their fire hydrant at the top of a pole like that. Only dogs in hot air balloons could piddle on it, and you only got a couple of those a day at the Fair.

There's nothing aesthetically about the shape and line of the Tower of the Four Winds that doesn't fit with the "toy rocket" theme of the '90's Tomorrowland we have now, if it was painted in the right cotton-candy colors*. The only objection anyone could possibly raise is ze vun zat makes ze vorld go rround - money.

"Hardly embarrassing at all!"

Of course it's embarrassing - why do you think the company is called "Hertz?"
Love how Dad's shirt matches Older Brother's shorts. I bet Little Brother has the same ones. That is, if he has anything at all on below the waist. We'll never know. He could be rocking the full Donald Duck. All that matters is the sweet, sweet Ice Cream Frosticks, which I totally believe have an Our Lady of Guadalupe aura, just like in the picture on the cart.


*When I was in high school, I was in a Sweet Adeline’s group called the Candy Shop Girls. We didn't get cool red-and-white striped shirts like the boys' barbershop group; we had these hideous, short-sleeved sweaters in dark aqua, fuchsia, or light purple. They somehow managed to make us all look hugely endowed and potato-sack dumpy at the same time. I loved the music**, but hated putting that costume on. I JUST made the connection that they were the exact colors of the 1994 Tomorrowland remodel, and maybe that's why my dislike of the color scheme is so visceral.

**Remind me to tell you about the time I stalked the Dapper Dans. Well, "stalked" is a strong word, but it makes a punchy lede.



dennis said...

Supposedly the Tower of the Four Winds was considered to be too big to move to California, so it was cut up and dumped in Flushing Bay, right next to the Fairgrounds. And those Hertz strollers were cool! They were designed to look like Corvettes. I was jealous that I was too big to ride in one!
Dennis , Levittown NY

K. Martinez said...

Major - That would be absolutely cool if they did that. Rolly Crump's designs and creations were part of my favorite era at Disneyland.

Major Pepperidge said...

Melissa, oh if only I had a limitless supply of slides! The fire hydrant is for dinosaurs, of course. I think the Tower of the Four Winds is very 1960's, but there''s nothing wrong with that at all. It would almost certainly be painted in the most candy-like colors possible (when I read that the new Club 33 would be painted in a "brighter palette", was I surprised?). And yes, the money is probably the number one issue. "Candy Shop Girls"? I think I saw the movie on the internet!

Dennis, I have heard that story too; seems hard to believe, but I think even Rolly confirms it. As for the wagons, I think I've seen others that resemble a vintage Jaguar, but I might be mistaken.

K. Martinez, after that they can build the Museum of the Weird somewhere!

PsySocDisney said...

Rolly also was not satisfied with the way the Tower turned out and it was his decision to not bring it back to Disneyland. Walt complied with his request. If he wanted to make an improved version for today's DL that would be sweet, but if they just replicated the Tower it would just be more of Disney taking advantage of his stuff like they have been lately :/

Major Pepperidge said...

PsySocDisney, that's why I suggested that newer building materials might result in a thinner, airier finished product, like Rolly wanted in the first place. I know it will never happen!

Nancy said...

As much as I love seeing the Tower of the Four Winds, it always makes me sad when I remember it is not here anymore :(