We haven't visited the New York World's Fair since the middle of June. It's time to go back! All of today's examples are from October of 1964; the 1964 season ran from April 22nd to October 18th, so it wouldn't be long until the Fair closed for six months, to reopen in April of '65. It looks like it was a beautiful Autumn day, with blue skies and bright sunshine, but everyone's bundled up to some degree.
First up is this look across the Pool of Industry toward the red "umbrella" of the Traveler's Insurance pavilion. The boxy building nearer to us is the Hall of Education. Education?? You mean like school? No thank you. I don't recall talking about the Traveler's Insurance pavilion in detail before (though perhaps I have): In this pavilion, which seems to float on jets of water, the two-and-a-half-billion-year story of life on earth is portrayed, beginning with the earliest cell and culminating in modern man's leap into space. Under the red dome that symbolizes the Travelers umbrella of protection, 13 dioramas use life-sized models, stage sets and sound and lighting effects to re-create the most crucial eras and events of the exhibit's theme, "The Triumph of Man."
A group of children (on a class field trip?) sit on a bench next to the Du Pont pavilion, perhaps they'd just watched the "Wonderful World of Chemistry" musical revue inside (which was performed in two theaters with two casts). After the show, to demonstrate the extraordinary properties of man-made materials, a performer holds a piece of red-hot metal wrapped in a thin chemical film, dips a piece of plain cloth into dye and pulls it out striped, and throws paint on a synthetic fabric without staining it. The giant egg-shaped IBM pavilion is in the background.
Guests are suitably impressed by the ornate Thailand pavilion: The main building, patterned after an ancient Buddhist shrine, has a gilded, tiered and spired roof rising nearly 80 feet. The building was inspired by a shrine north of Bangkok where a sacred footprint of the Buddha is preserved. The ornate roof was built in Thailand, shipped to the U.S. piece by piece and assembled on the fairgrounds. In this building and an adjoining wing, exhibits reflect the arts, crafts and traditions of ancient Siam and modern-day Thailand. The blue banner in the upper left is from the Oklahoma pavilion. OK!
And finally, here's a familiar building, the New York State pavilion, though it's nice to see it as the sun sets and some of the lights have come on. It must have looked pretty stunning at night! Let us revisit some information: Looming over the New York State pavilion are three observation towers, one of which is the tallest structure at the Fair (226 feet). Beneath the towers is the Tent of Tomorrow, the world's biggest suspension roof (it is larger than a football field), supported by sixteen 100-foot concrete columns. Translucent colored panels in the roof flood the interior of the tent with colors. On the main floor, Texaco Oil Company has made a mammoth map of the state in terrazzo.
I have a bunch of additional slides from this Fair, including construction and destruction views, but I need to get scanning!
8 comments:
Hmm, Blogger has messed up the full-sized images again. The top two are showing the New York State pavilion image.
The Hall of Education looks kind of dull compared to the other fanciful structures; a "boxy building". Maybe the inside was more exciting. The Traveler's pavilion contents sounds interesting, like another Disney presentation.
The Wonderful World of Chemistry sounds like something I would've enjoyed as a 'tween'. Things like that have always fascinated me. In junior high we had a school assembly, put on my some corporation, that featured those kinds of fun science 'experiments'.
Seems like our photographer could have gotten a better view of the Thailand pavilion. The ornate roof is mostly obscured by the trees, which are the same color as the roof. It looks like other people got unobstructed views. I have half a mind to write a scathing letter to the photographer and give him a piece of my half-a-mind! Other than that, it's a pretty good picture. ;-)
I like those starry lampposts; very World's Fair-like. But I wonder why they didn't use those multi-colored Lego-like lampposts here? I don't remember seeing that glider(?) airplane before. Wonder how that tied in with the New York theme?
Thanks, Major.
Every post about the Fair reveals new wonders of architectural excess. It’s amazing that any buildings were built for a decade afterwards, all the architects must have been exhausted from this display of surging creativity. I’m envisioning them draped over their drafting boards after the deadline, gasping for air.
That Chemistry show sounds like a humdinger. I’d watch that on late-night TV.
I agree, the Thailand pavilion deserves a clearer look, but I’ll take what’s available.
Thanks Major!
JG
Disneyland was often touted...probably by Marty Sklar...in the early days as a "Permanent World's Fair".....and I wish this World's Fair would have been more permanent so I would have been able to see it. Amazing architecture...and the last pavilion still stands. They have been restoring a lot of things at Flushing Meadows so I have read. I'm sure the view from those towers of Manhattan is amazing. For those who want to see a really good view: go over to the New Jersey side....perhaps in Weehawken or Hoboken...or to the top level of the new LaGuardia airport: strangely enough...and really a stones throw from the the World's Fair site. The one thing that they needed back then is crowd control....in most photos, there are snakes of people meandering in no particular order...without stanchions, etc. etc. I get that they may have got more people than they expected...but did they? I think in every photo of a "good" attraction there are untethered lines of human kind. I need to do some research on who the operations people were in charge of the entire shebang. I'm also interested to see parking, ticket booths, etc. It's unfortunate that these things may never be created in the US again due to expense...it looks Osaka Expo 25 is pretty amazing...and these things in Japan are always kind of amazing anyway. "Let's take a place where nothing really fits due to size and make it HUGE!"....seems like landfills are the way to go, as in Tokyo Disneyland: also full of cool things, and for a admirable entry fee. I did the math and figured that flying to Japan with hotel/park/etc. etc. is less expensive than either of the two US parks....it's on the bucket list. Thanks Major for the trip to Queens, and I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the slides!
JB, yes, Blogger really messed these up. I’m trying to figure out if there’s a pattern as to why the thumbnails don’t link to the full-sized images. Maybe it’s when I attach more than one image at a time (which I do sometimes)? I’m not sure what was inside the Hall of Education, but as a kid I loved museums, especially with interactive exhibits, so I might have loved that one. The Wonderful World of Chemistry… I had a cheap little chemistry set when I was a kid, and thought it was super cool, I often wish I’d gotten more into chemistry! I agree that the view of the Thailand pavilion isn’t the best, but it’s not bad either. I really like those starry lampposts… I assume some of them still survive somewhere, just like some of the Luminaires do.
JG, it seems as if architects loved the challenge of building a structure that would be unlike anything they would be asked to design in the “real world”. And I guess companies decided that, in spite of the cost, there was a net benefit to all of the work that went into these pavilions. The fact that people are still talking about their work 60 years later seems to support that!
Bu, I thought it was EPCOT that was a “permanent World’s Fair”, though I see parts of Tomorrowland as being World’s Fair-ish. At the slow pace that they have been restoring the New York State pavilion, I will be long-gone by the time (and IF) they ever get it back to something resembling its original state. Crowd control was a real issue, in early photos you can see the lines for the Progressland pavilion literally snaking for hundreds of yards. Eventually they built covered areas that wound back and forth to at least contain the people and provide some shade. I believe that the Fair was considered a slight disappointment, attendance-wise; in spite of some of the crowds, I guess they had hoped for millions more by the time the event ended. It’s nice that the Fairgrounds are now the site of a nice park for the people of New York, instead of the nasty “ash dump” that it was back in the 1930s.
Oops, that was me, I didn't notice that Blogger signed me out (for some reason)
Los Angeles was planning a Worlds Fair for 1967 …. The LAX theme building and gas station ( the gas station was relocated to Beverly Hills) was all that was constructed in hopes of pre-advertising and building excitement for THE 1967 LOS ANGELES WORLDS FAIR … but after the dreadful financials came in for the 1965 NYWF , LA quickly canceled. The first discussions of Walt Disney World’s 1974 Circle Vision Film “ Magic Carpet ‘Round The World” were mentioned in a possible LA 1967 Circle Vision attraction for McDonnell Douglas .
Thanks for the Worlds Fair pictures. I haven't been to the fairgrounds in a few years, except for going to a couple of Mets games each year. I have to get over there one of these days and see how the NY State Pavilion is coming along. Dennis, Levittown, NY
A day late, but...
I think the Triumph of Man exhibit was the one that was relocated to the COSI science museum in Columbus. (but not the building that looks like the headquarters for supervillains) It's not there any more, but still a rally good science museum when I visited a few years ago.
I think the Thailand building was taken up to Montreal for Expo 67.
The New York State towers are under refurbishment now. The plan is to reopen them as an observation tower like in the fair and an event space on one of the levels. I think the elevators will be the big hurdle though. I'd guess rebuilding those and making them compliant to current codes will be tough.
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