I'm always happy to take a detour to the New York World's Fair - this time the photos are all from the second season in 1965.
Sure, these days every other house looks just like that giant egg, but back in 1965, the IBM pavilion was pretty stunning. The "egg" contained a theater with steep grandstands that lifted guests up into place in order to watch an amusing 12-minutes show projected on 15 screens that showed how computers and the human mind solve problems in much the same way. Beep.
The Illinois pavilion is best-remembered for Walt Disney's audio-animatronic triumph, "Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln", but it also had the largest collection of Lincolniana ever assembled for an international exposition, including copies of every known photo of the 16th President, and an original manuscript of the Gettysburg Address.
We're looking west-ish along what I believe was "New York Avenue", with the Maryland pavilion to our left, along with the Singer Bowl, an open-air stadium, which hold 15,000, is scheduled for a variety of events - U.S. Olympic trials, folk festivals, Judo and Karate exhibitions, and so on. It is paved in green macadam, has lights for night use, a movable stage 60 feet long and dressing room facilities for 200 performers. It is now "Louis Armstrong Stadium". Notice the Greyhound "Glide-a-Ride" tram, and the Brass Rail's giant moonberry.
And finally, there are the two familiar towers of the New York State pavilion; at 226 feet high, the tower on the right was the tallest structure at the Fair. You can see one of the capsule-like yellow elevators climbing up the side of the column. I love the color and energy of this photo. And the luminaires!
I hope you have enjoyed your visit to the New York World's Fair.
Major-
ReplyDeleteSeeing images from the NY World's Fair always makes me feel good. These are no exception.
Thanks, Major.
Photo #3 - Nun sighting!
ReplyDeleteMajor, I think it actually says, "Finger Bowl."
Fun day at the Fair. Thanks, Major.
I'm looking forward to stopping back later to read all the comments.
@ Sue-
ReplyDeleteWhen you said 'nun sighting', I got a bit nervous - as I thought you were referring to merely one. Everyone knows there's an unwritten law stating they MUST travel in [at least] pairs-! Re-checking the image revealed a pair. Whew - that was a close one-!
;oD
ReplyDeleteGood morning, Nanook!
In the IBM Egg photo, I wonder what it's made of? Something relatively inexpensive I would think, since it only had to last two years. All those raised IBM logos are impressive. They must have achieved that using some quick and easy process.
ReplyDeleteIn the Illinois Pavilion photo, the family on the right has just seen the wonder of technology that is Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln. The boy in the striped shirt (which closely matches his dad's) was not impressed, "Dang, I could'a had a V8!"
We've seen many of the Luminaires here at GDB, but these might be the first yellow and orange ones. Most of then seem to have had red and/or blue in them.
In the third photo, (EDIT: as Sue also notes) there are a couple of nuns in the tram, and one of them is looking at us. I bet she has a wooden ruler stashed away under the folds of her habit. Be afraid... be very afraid.
And there's more of the yellow and orange Luminaires. They seem to everywhere!... Maybe we HAVE seen them before.
The Two Towers photo is super nice! I kept that one. The original elevators on Seattle's Space Needle looked a lot like these. Same rounded capsule shape; same yellow color.
I wonder if the balloon seller had to wear a Pinocchio costume?
And yes, I always enjoy our visits to the World's Fair. Thanks, Major.
#1 - It was nice of the Fair to put up a BMI pavilion where you could go and have your Body Mass Index calculated. The three ladies at center; I like the cut of their jib. The blonde's red babushka goes with the brunette's red shorts, and the brunette's plaid shirt goes with the redhead's plaid shorts. It's like they got three outfits and then swapped some of the pieces around.
ReplyDelete#2 - The word "Lincoln" always gives me a sense memory of the taste of the Lincoln brand apple juice Mom used to put in our lunchboxes. It came in little cans with a peel-off foil tab, and it had an almost raisiny flavor. I should have written more about it in my Lincoln log.
#3 - The font on the "SINGER" sign is instantly recognizable; I'm looking at it right now on the sewing machine next to my computer on the worktable. I used to work in an I.M. Pei-designed building the locals sometimes called "The Sewing Machine," because, well, it was kinda shaped like one. They should have used a design like that for the entrance of the Singer Bowl. And then a Ferris Wheel shaped like a giant bobbin. Babushka lady to the left, nuns to the right, and here I am, stuck in the middle with a Moonberry.
#4 - Postcardworthy shot of the New York Pavilion. Excelsior! They should have called the elevator the Yellowvater. Why don't people time travel and consult me on these things?
A trip to the Fair is always a treat; thanks for the buggy ride, Major! It's always full of happy people in their colorful 1960's textiles. All the better for Kodachrome.
JB, I noticed those almost-matching shirts, too! Same principle as the almost-matching plaids on the ladies I mentioned in #1.
I'm assuming that door on the backside of the IBM pavilion is an emergency exit. I wonder if the grandstands ever got stuck up inside the theater, forcing an evacuation?
ReplyDeleteSo, the Illinois pavilion had an original manuscript of the Gettysburg Address. But did it have Mary Todd's chamber pot???
One of the nuns on the "Glide-a-Ride" tram, is chewing her fingernails. That's a very bad habit.
That's a great shot of the IBM pavilion – thanks, Major. The building was designed by Eero Saarinen with the exhibitions and films masterminded by Charles and Ray Eames - truly a marriage of mid-century design greats! The Eames' film experiences were always interesting and innovative – akin to art installations before such a thing really existed. There was an Eames exhibition here in London about five years back combining their films and industrial designs and I spent several hours sitting through up to a dozen of their film presentations; they really made you feel excited about the promise of modernity and are a good example of 1960s optimism about the future. A team-up between the Eames office and Disney would have made for a fascinating version of Tomorrowland or, better yet, EPCOT.
ReplyDeleteYay!! Pictures of my favorite unsanctioned World’s Fair!
ReplyDeleteNote the Illinois state flag in the second photo is missing the word “Illinois.” While stationed in Vietnam, Illinois native Chief Petty Officer Bruce McDaniel had noted that many of his fellow sailors were unable to pick out the Illinois flag in a display of state flags in his base’s mess hall. His petition to have the state name added to the flag was approved by the state legislature and the addition became effective in 1970.
Here’s a promotional brochure put out by the State of Illinois about the Illinois Paviliion (courtesy WorldsFairPhotos.com).
In the third image, as I always say, better a giant moonberry than a giant dingleberry (seriously - I think I’ve cracked that joke before). It vaguely reminds me of the Matterhorn hiding in the background of many Disneyland pictures.
Note the Missouri Pavilion at the right of the last photo. The Mercury capsule out front was built by McDonnell Aircraft of St. Louis. In keeping with the futurism of the fair, the staff is flying a pennant celebrating the St. Louis Cardinals’ 1967 World Series title.
Despite its lack of an Audio-Animatronic Harry Truman (wasted opportunity for a cash grab - “The buck stops here!”), the Missouri Pavilion had its own state-produced promotional brochure (also courtesy WorldsFairPhotos.com).
Sue, you beat me to the Finger Bowl. I guess I’ll wash my hands in the sink. Don’t start dinner without me.
Melissa, it actually says “MIB.” I can’t remember what that stands for, though. Hey…anybody ever notice how the observation towers look like flying saucers? And why is there a sign that says “ET” at the base of them? Hold on - Mrs. Chuck is asking me to take a look at this silver tube with a red light on the end…. [bright flash] Um, what were we talking about, anyway?
TM!, snooty grandstands - the bane of the modern world.
Fascinating stuff, I would have loved to visit here.
ReplyDeleteThanks Major.
JG
Nanook, I know what you mean! The ’64 Fair was truly an amazing accomplishment, at least I can “visit” it through photos, since I was not able to go in person.
ReplyDeleteLou and Sue, wow, how could I miss those nuns? They always travel in pairs. I think you’re right, it DOES say “Finger Bowl”. I’m so embarrassed!
Nanook, yep, there are two nuns for sure! One fun detail from the flawed “Tomorrowland” film by Brad Bird is an incredible recreation of a scene out in front of the Eastman Kodak pavilion, and two nuns were among the people walking past.
Lou and Sue, HE NEVER SLEEPS.
JB, I thought for sure I’d be able to got to nywf64.com and find just what those IBM letters were made of, but (unlike most pavilions) there’s not a lot of extra info. Could they be the result of vacuum-forming? That process is fast, once you have the mold and a vacuum-forming machine capable of doing something as large as those (if that’s possible). The letters would be relatively lightweight as well. “I could’a had a V8”… I have never tried V8 juice. The commercials made me want it though. My mom liked something called Snap-E-Tom, a spicy tomato juice. Wonder if that is still made? I absolutely love those Luminaires, and love the variety of shapes and colors. Some nuns had rulers installed in their arms so that they could pop out, Wolverine-style. I went to the Space Needle a few years ago, but I was too distracted by everything else to even notice the shape of the elevator. There was a “host” as our elevator went up, and I swear he was there to help folks who suffered from acrophobia from freaking out.
Melissa, it is always a neighborly thing to help determine a person’s BMI. I’m assuming that those three girls are part of a TV special, and they’re about to break into song. Lincoln brand apple juice? If it’s not Mott’s, I don’t want to know! Cool that you worked at a building designed by I.M. Pei, I’ll have to look that one up. There was already a Ferris Wheel that looked like a giant tire, but a giant bobbin would have been cool too. Or a giant glazed donut! Mmmm, donuts. I love being able to see people up on those two levels of the tallest New York pavilion tower. What a view they had!
TokyoMagic!, I was wondering about that doorway, maybe it really was an emergency exit. Or I was thinking that it might be where the “host” of the show went in, he would eventually hang way above the crowd in a unique device - hard to describe. The Illinois Pavilion did have Mary Todd’s chamber pot, as well as her Chia Pet (shaped like her husband’s head). “A very bad habit”, you oughta be ashamed of yourself.
Pegleg Pete, I knew that Eero Saarinen had designed that building. It’s interesting how some architects always managed to come up with striking designs that were unlike anything else. Imagine fair exhibits designed by the Eameses! The L.A. Museum of Science and Industry used to have their “Mathematica” exhibit, but they got rid of it (it’s at another museum now), I was very disappointed when I learned that. But at least it still exists. I have vague memories of seeing it when I was a child. I’ll bet that exhibition that you mentioned (the one in London) was super interesting.
Chuck, for an unsanctioned Fair, they sure managed to create a fabulous event. Thanks for the interesting info about the Illinois state flag! I actually own a copy of that promotional brochure, which makes me awesome. Thank you for putting the image of a giant dingleberry into my brain, that’s really great! ;-) Why don’t I have a Mercury capsule? Whenever I need some “me time”, it would be the perfect place to chill out. I noticed that St. Louis Cardinals pennant, but did not know that it celebrated the 1967 (?!) World Series win! After tucking my napkin into the neck of my shirt, I took a sip from my finger bowl. How was I to know that it was for washing my hands?? According to nywf64.com, there are over 1000 letters affixed to the IBM egg. That’s a lot of letters!!
That IBM (BMI/MIB) building definitely looks like a giant IBM Selectric Typewriter "element," as seen in THIS COMMERCIAL. After lots and lots of typing, the letters would chip and fall off the elements, in my experience. I hope none of the building letters did the same.
ReplyDeleteIBM had originally planned to build their building in the shape of a giant typewriter, but scraped that idea when they realized that, from the ground, it would just look like a giant Finger Bowl.
Chuck, what time do you want to eat??
We always love world's Fair pics. My fav from this batch is the last one with the Mercury program space capsule, complete with the bright orange emergency ejection tower, right below the Men In Black flying saucers (carefully disguised as observation platforms). I wonder if the hatch was open to see inside?
ReplyDeleteWell, I guess that could be a pennant celebrating their 1964 World Series win, but St Louis was looking ahead to the future, going so far as to buy and relocate the Spanish Pavilion from the 1964 NYWF.
ReplyDeleteMajor, you are awesome. It’s your humility that sets you apart.
Sue, can we go with 5:00? My gaming group is meeting at 6:30 and I’ll need the extra time in order to fly my hypersonic jet back down from Chicagoland. Your neighborhood still permits vertical take-offs, right?
Almost forgot - do you want me to bring a side dish? Or are chips OK?
ReplyDeleteLou and Sue, I took a typing class in high school (one of the most useful classes!) and used an IBM Selectric. I’d never heard that the letters would eventually chip and fall off! You must have been typing like a demon, your hands a blur, pages flying from the typewriter. I am all for any buildings that look like other things, a diner in the shape of a coffee pot, a school that looks like a chicken. We need these!
ReplyDeleteGrant, it must have been so exciting for “space kids” of that time to see a Mercury capsule. There were so many incredible advancements in rocketry and space travel! I think there might have been a clear hatch so that guests could see the interior, but I’m not 100% certain.
Chuck, I’m sure I could look this info up, but (as usual) I am lazy. Was the Spanish Pavilion purchased by St. Louis?? Thank you for acknowledging my humility, I want the whole world to know about it. If you and Sue pick a “halfway” meeting point, you can easily do an early dinner!
Chuck, chips are always OK, and Pringles are especially good for travel. Bring two flavors, and you will be the perfect guest.
Major, I know I may stretch the truth a tad on occasion here, but the Spanish Pavilion really did make the move to St Louis . The headline in the linked article is a bit misleading (see - I’m not the only one who does that!); while a pizza place is a minor tenant, it’s actually now the lobby and rooms surrounding the original tower of what’s now known at “St Louis Hilton at the Ballpark.” I’ve been in the building (complimentary hot dogs and chips before a Cardinals game about 7 years ago), I didn’t know the NYWF connection at the time.
ReplyDeleteMelissa's firing on all cylinders today! And dang, Chuck beat me to the MIB reference!
ReplyDeleteTokyo!, You're an expert at nun jokes... I'm just a novice.
Chuck, interesting to see the model of the pavilion showing the interior. Thanks for that link.
Many folks don't realize that the Matterhorn was built in NYC during the '64 World's Fair (never mind the time discrepancy). It was built inside one of the Moonberries (never mind the size discrepancy). At the end of the Fair, the Matterhorn, inside the Moonberry, was then bounced all the way to Anaheim.
Hmmm, there's more to Mrs. Chuck than we know... or can remember.
Major, I don't drink V8 juice, but it makes an excellent and quick tomato soup to have with a grilled cheese sandwich. Just pour some V8 into a bowl, add a little sugar (tomato soup is sweeter than V8), and heat it in the microwave for a few seconds... wallah! It tastes pretty much the same as Campbell's soup but with a slight green pepper note. It's also runnier.
I remember seeing Snap-E-Tom in the store, back in the day. No idea if it is still a thing. I wish someone would hurry up and invent the internet so we could look up things like this.
Chuck, I am seriously disappointed. All this time, I thought everything you've told us over the years has been the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So sad.
I'm lost with the comments, nuns, moon berries, dingle berries, notes inside of a Lincoln Log...I'm not sure where to start. The IBM Building is epic. Why they made an emergency exit so prominent and front focused...? But the rest is very impressive. It looks like a giant Selectric ball. I learned typing on a manual. Then I went to work at Disneyland and they had the magical and oh so "modern" IBM's. A few years later they had "word processors"...that's when those form letters could be churned out in the hundreds. Mostly fan mail- which if you didn't know there is an entire department for Character Fan Mail...or there was. They would get a cute personalized (thanks word processor) letter on "Mousekestationery" and a few photos that were "signed" by Mickey/Goofy/et.al. It was very sweet to read all of the letters actually. ALL letters were responded to- which is why there needed to be a "team". In any case...great photos of the Worlds Fair. Those big towers are still there, but I'm not so sure the elevator is any more. At some point I need to go to Flushing Meadows. When I fly into LGA the plane sometimes makes a very specific loop very close to the ground above the former World's Fair. It is interesting to see the architecture of the landscape even though the buildings don't exist any more. Along the Marina there are some cool leftover pavilions the "Candela Structures". Check it out, very cool...although they do not house things inside anymore. The other leftover building from the fair at the marina is the "Worlds Fair Marina Restaurant" which I think at the time of the fair was some type of ad-building. It has seen better days, but I suppose it is rented out for weddings and whatnot now. The Candela Structures are cool, the restaurant is not. Check them out. Thanks for the Worlds Fair moment this morning!
ReplyDeleteAww, answering character fan mail sounds like a fun job! It’d probably be too tempting to stray from the form letter, though.
ReplyDeleteThe electric typewriter my Mom has when I was growing up had a couple of different balls you could switch out to type in different fonts.
Nice!
ReplyDeleteDennis— Levittown NY
We two nuns are on the lam.
ReplyDeleteShall we run, or take the tram?
Could we hide at the IBM?
That’s not what I’d do, Sister Clem.
Mister Lincoln’s robot show
Is where I’m thinkin’ we should go.
The cop may say he’s got a gun,
And wants to play Good Nun/Bad Nun,
But if he sticks us into jail,
Pope Paul the Sixth will pay our bail.
We might as well obey the law,
Or we’ll have to sell the Pietà .
Chuck, thank you for that interesting story about the Spanish Pavilion. Hey, at least they didn’t bulldoze it into tiny bite-sized pieces. I guess the story of a pizza place moving in made for a better headline; if only they had a photo of J-Lo walking out with slice in her hand. No such luck. So did you see the article and that’s how you knew the history? Maybe I’ve been in tons of former World’s Fair buildings and I didn’t even know it!
ReplyDeleteJB, TokyoMagic! majored in Nun Jokes in college, so don’t feel bad. While the rest of us were taking classes about useless math and chemistry, he was learning the important stuff. I think I’ve seen footage of the Matterhorn being bounced to Anaheim, it was a grainy 16mm print, but it’s still fascinating. “Hey fellas, as long as you’re bringing that Matterhorn to California, howsabout dumping that Tower of the Four Winds into the East River? I’ll give each of you twenty bucks!”. V8 as soup, interesting. My mom used to use the previously-mentioned Snap-E-Tom to make a drink, mix it with beef consommé, heat it up, pour it in a mug… nice on cold days. Put a celery stick in it for added elegance.
Bu, if you have to escape from a giant typewriter ball, you want to know where the exit is. It just makes sense. My mom had an ancient Underwood typewriter that she’d had since college, it weighed a ton, but it worked great. I liked the way it smelled, believe it or not. Bakelite and machine oil and other mysterious ingredients. I’m sure that letters to the characters would be really cute, just like letters to Santa, or to Ruth Buzzi. Heading in to Manhattan from JFK, I’ve passed the Fair site several times, it’s always a bit of a thrill to see the Port Authority building, right there! I forget if I could see any of the other structures that remain. What are “Candela Structures”? It sounds like most Fair buildings have seen better days, sadly. There’s just not the money or the impetus to restore them to their former glory.
Melissa, yes, even at school they had several different fonts on those Selectric balls, I thought they were the neatest things.
Dennis, I was wondering if we’d hear from you today!
Melissa, I love your poem, but I am wondering if they are custom lyrics to a familiar melody? If so, I can’t figure out which one.
Familiar melody? There is nun. (That bit would have been much funnier if I had gone to an accredited Nun Joke College like TokyoMagic! I applied, but to no a-veil.)
ReplyDeleteI just remembered something more about those typewriter elements (balls): We had to clean them with a cleaning putty - to get the junk out from between the spaces in the letters - like the letter "O" or "A." Otherwise you would end up with sloppy-looking letters on your paper.
ReplyDeleteAnd yep, Major, the element (ball) letters sometimes cracked and pieces would chip off. I recall the elements had some kind of coating on them, and that's what would eventually crack after LOTS of use. Each typewriter had/has its own "signature" and could be identified by the typed letters...remember how some old mystery stories were solved by identifying 'who typed the ransom note?'
Major, you were very wise to take 'typing.' You wouldn't be here on GDB, if you hadn't, I bet. In my high school typing class, there was only one guy and the rest were girls. At the time, I felt sorry for him that he was the only guy in the class, but now that I think back, maybe he enjoyed it. He was very nice, but very quiet and shy, and also very wise [to learn how to type]. I took 'typing' at my mom's urging, and was later glad I listened to her. It wasn't something I wanted to learn, at the time. I type A LOT, now. Just finished a 50+ page document for work.
Bu, I'm impressed you can/could type on a manual typewriter. Now, that's hard to do, in my opinion.
Melissa, LOL!
I love your poem!
Fun day!
Major, I had to look it up because I didn’t remember the exact circumstances, but apparently you posted a photo of the Missouri Pavilion on 5/16/20, While trying to find out what happened to the Missouri Pavilion after the Fair (which turned out to be a fruitless search), I stumbled on an article (not this one) about the Spanish Pavilion moving to St. Louis. Not only do I learn things from the in-class lectures in GDB, I learn things from the homework assignments, too.
ReplyDeleteIt’s been fun (and a little surreal) to discover over the years that things I have seen are actually remnants of other themed spaces in other places that I never saw. Of the top of my head, I can think of a few rides from Freedomland that went to Cedar Point, the Ferris wheel from the 1984 New Orleans WF that ended up at Six Flags Over Mid-America, and Spirit Lodge from the GM Pavilion at the 1986 Vancouver WF that’s now at Knott’s Berry Farm. Aside from the WED-produced attractions that moved to Disneyland, 1964 NYWF remnants I am aware of that have crossed my path are the Spanish Pavilion, some luminaires that went to the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds, and the frame of the Uniroyal Tire Ferris wheel in Detroit, which was the only one whose provenance I was aware of at the time I saw it..
St. Louis invited the Spanish pavilion home because Missouri loves company.
ReplyDeleteNever got to the Fair, but a few points of contact:
ReplyDelete-- Of course there was the World of Color episode where Uncle Walt offered a history of fairs and showed off the various Disney creations (Is there a complete film anywhere of the Ford ride with the cavemen?). Especially fascinated by the early version of what we now call motion capture: An imagineer wired up so the Carousel of Progress figure would duplicate his movements.
-- According to the DVD commentary, the Rankin-Bass movie "The Daydreamer" used the still-standing Belgium exhibit as a village street.
-- At a county fair in Minnesota, a midway consolation prize was somehow a comic book of the Flintstones at the World's Fair. I recall it having gags about specific exhibits (there was a fashion pavilion where Fred pretended to be a famous designer) and cameos by other HB characters. At one point Dino is trotting around with a landmark from It's a Small World and Fred has to sneak into the ride to put it back.
-- There was also a Flintstones TV episode that had them visiting a World's Fair via stone-age time machine. It was not very ambitious, the big gag being Fred trying to buy refreshments with rocks.
-- A few weeks ago I scored a big tin tray like this one for $15. It's on my coffee table now, next to a book of Jules Feiffer cartoons: https://www.ebay.com/itm/403355051316?chn=ps&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&amdata=enc%3A1OcXShWixRPK35K6ZS8nV7g75&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&itemid=403355051316&targetid=1599090335417&device=c&mktype=&googleloc=9032172&poi=&campaignid=15275224983&mkgroupid=131097072938&rlsatarget=pla-1599090335417&abcId=9300697&merchantid=6390094&gclid=CjwKCAjws8yUBhA1EiwAi_tpEYz46EtyPe5WdrtQhsAJ469W6iIv5VYovVNgTaRQJstEqMrg2nftmRoCj6QQAvD_BwE
I’m pretty sure the footage of the “Gotham City World’s Fair” in the first episode of the 1966 Batman series was also stock footage of the NYWF.
ReplyDelete