New York World's Fair Panorama
Way back on August 23, 2006, I shared a panorama of the New York World's Fair, created by merging four separate photos that were taken atop the Better Living Center. I don't know if the photographer was using a tripod or not, but happily, the slides knit together beautifully, creating a fairly amazing panoramic view of the Fair as it looked in September of 1964.
In this first photo, we can see such things as the Tower of the Four Winds to the extreme left, along with the Eastman Kodak pavilion, the New York State pavilion in the distance, the Schaefer Center in the lower right, and the green dome from the Travel and Transportation pavilion above that.
Moving right (or northward), there's the T-shaped Port Authority building, where helicopters would land (and take off). And of course there's the Unisphere, and the Ford "crown roast" pavilion to the right of that. The red tile roof of the Republic of China pavilion can be seen, as well as the wooden A-frames of the Austria pavilion, and the Johnson's Wax pavilion - the "gold disk" with the white-columned covering to the extreme right.
The "600 aluminum prisms" of the Tower of Light pavilion are notable, with the United States pavilion just visible above it. In the stance to the right is Shea Stadium, and in the right foreground is the General Electric "Progressland" done. Notice the line for the GE pavilion snaking through that empty lot, eventually they installed shades to protect visitors from the blistering sun as they waited for hours to get in.
Above the GE pavilion we can see the tower of the Mormon pavilion, with the IBM "egg" next to that. Just to its right is the Equitable Life pavilion (right on the edge of the water). The "Pool of Industry" is where a spectacular show of fireworks and music would take place nightly. And right in front of us is the Clairol pavilion.
Here's the photo-merged panorama, with a bit of additional color correction. It's pretty spectacular! I made it nice and big for you.
Using this nice aerial view of the Fair, I thought I'd show the amount area encompassed by the previous photo. Our photographer would have been standing atop the Better Living Center, where the pink star is, and as you can see, he got a 100-degree (or so) angle. There is actually a fifth photo that would have made the view nearly 180 degrees, but the stuff in the foreground didn't quite merge, so I didn't include it.
29 comments:
Major-
Wowie Zowie-! That's some fine 'stitching work'. I'll be studying that panorama for some time.
Thanks ever so, Major.
#1: Wow, this is a beautiful shot of the fair! I'm keepin' it! (Plus all the others today). Lots of interesting shapes.
#2: I think we've seen that egg-shaped thing in the lower right quadrant before in at least one of your other photos, Major. We saw it from the other side, and from ground level, I think. Seems like it was a photo booth? Or maybe a restroom. Anybody remember?
#3: In addition to the other sights you mentioned, Major, there's also a helicopter on the left edge. Probably on its way to the Port Authority building. And wonder of wonders! There's also a rare sighting of the elusive Giant Flying Earthworm (Wrigglius Volareus Magnus) just to the left of the 7up tower. Giant Flying Earthworms have been known to reach up to 125 feet in length. They are timid creatures, rarely photographed.
#4: That's quite a spectacular, and artistically pleasing, island they used for the fireworks and fountains. Looks like there's more than one train going by in the background.
Wow! The panorama looks great! The only signs of stitching I can see are slight discolorations in the sky where the photos are joined together. Thanks for including that aerial view showing the angle of the panorama.
Lots of 'keepers' today, Major. Thanks!
Wow....what a spectacular panorama! There are so many details. If you don't look at the line for the Carousel of Progress, and just look at the rest of the fairgrounds, it doesn't look like it was a very busy day.
Major, thank you you for the work you did on this, and for sharing it with us!
Holy cats! This is amazing! And wonderful! It’s - dare I say it? - supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!!!. (Boy, that does sound quite atrocious, doesn’t it?)
Almost every corporate logo on view was also featured in 1967 Tomorrowland, 1982 EPCOT Center, or both. The only pavilion housing a Disney attraction that isn’t visible is the Illinois Pavilion, which is hidden behind the United States Pavilion.
Other fun details (among many) are the Uniroyal Tire, the Sky Ride, and a Sikorsky S-61L on the roof of the Transportation Authority. It’s too bad we lose the airborne S-61N in the panorama, but I understand its disappearance if the sky doesn’t match up quite right in the panorama. Bummer about the last available frame not matching up, but yowza! What you gave us for Christmas in July is marvelous. I’m sorry I didn’t get you anything. I am so embarrassed…
Awesome photos today and really like the panorama, it truly shows the scale of the place. I'm always amazed that many of the buildings were demolished after the event. I realize many were purpose built but still.
Great job on the panorama. I remember when you posted it the first time. Cant believe it was !6 years ago already! But then again, I look at pictures of the Worlds Fair that are 58 years old and I remember them like they were taken last week! Dennis
Levittown, Long Island, NY
MRaymond—I hope you didn’t miss the GDB 7/11 post!
—Sue
My goodness, this is comprehensive.
Major, I’m impressed by your photoshop skills and your knowledge of the Fair buildings.
Corporate Sponsors, beware! If your pavilion wasn’t round, oval or at least curved in plan view, you just weren’t with the times.
Thanks the orientation plan at the end, this helps a lot. I have always been confused by the layout, which I see now is somewhat radial. I’ve always been in the shallow end of the Pool of Industry, I guess.
Thank you so much for this. You've no idea how much I wish I could have been there (and I wasn't even born yet).
@Sue - I did see all the Birthday wishes back on the 11th. I could have sworn I left a Thank You to everyone. I just went back to the post and reread everything, I guess I didn't hit the "I'm not a robot" button.
Thank You, again, everyone.
Nanook, I somehow neglected to mention that today’s scans are new, and the panorama is new as well. D’oh. A friend asked to use the original pano for a presentation, but it was lost long ago on a dead hard drive, so I located the slides and made a new improved version!
JB, I think that egg-shaped thing is a “bus stop” for the Greyhound tour trams. But I could be wrong. Yes, that helicopter is heading to the Port Authority building, and you can see another ‘copter on top of that same building in photo #1. I had to look to see what you were talking about re: the “earthworm”. I was originally only going to share the merged panorama, and then thought that I should share each individual photo to begin with - but I didn’t take the time to clean each of those up. I thought about trying to address the gradient issues in the sky, before I decided that life is too short!
TokyoMagic!, yes, for the most part that looks like it would have been a great day to be at the Fair!
Chuck, now that I think about it, I wish I’d done a version of the pano with callouts for all of the major pavilions and features. But… it’s too late now! It is interesting how many of the sponsors from the Fair were also involved in Disney park sponsorships, but then again, they did tend to be the biggest, richest companies at the time. Another thing that I should have done is move that “in-flight” helicopter down so that it wouldn’t be cropped out - but that felt a little dishonest. Not that anybody would care!
MRaymond, just looking at that panorama makes my feet sore! What an event that was - arguably the last great American World’s Fair.
dennis, I’m glad you checked in, and amazed that you remember the first version of that pano! I’ve spoken to a few people who went to the Fair, and it was a life-changing experience for them.
Sue, YEAH!
JG, in this case, Photoshop has improved the “photomerge” function to the point where I actually do very little. It’s pretty nice. Yes I had to do several versions to see which one merged the best, but that just involved a few clicks. I still like round/oval corporate logos. And I had fun figuring out the parameters of the panorama, I sure wish that fifth photo had enabled me to do the full 180.
Anonymous, I’m like you, this is definitely one of those time machine destinations!
MRaymond, I’m glad you saw all of the good wishes for your birthday!
MRaymond, I thought I saw you at the party...am glad you made it, especially since Ken M. made a special appearance.
Major, that panorama shot is fantastic!
Wow, that's a nice panorama. I'm going to save it in case I ever get one of those massive curved widescreen monitors.
I always get confused when someone mentions compass directions at the NYWF. You mentioned the pan turned north, but I was thinking it was west. Because I'm so used to the main axis of DL and MK going south-north, the NYWF is the same in my mind.
JB, that egg thing is one of the Bell System's Family Phone Booths, an early speakerphone demonstration. If I remember correctly, there was also one a Disneyland at the same time.
Major, believe it or not, some people do care. I applaud your integrity at not moving that helicopter, even though it would have looked really cool.
Early in the era of digital imagery, the Department of Defense became concerned about the potential for misuse of the technology and the impact that might have on public and Congressional trust in imagery produced by military photographers. In an effort to stave off potential issues and “draw a line in the sand,” the DoD and the individual military Services implemented directives, instructions, and regulations prohibiting digital photograph alteration with the exception of color and contrast correction, cropping, and other digital equivalents of traditional darkroom techniques such as “dodging and burning.” I had to go to the mat several times in defense of my photographers and graphic artists against senior people who wanted them to add a few airplanes to a photo or move a uniform item that looked out of place in a portrait due to the camera angle.
There is a difference between a photograph, which is an historical record of light reflected off of a collection of objects’ surfaces at a particular place at a particular moment in time, and a digital illustration, which can combine portions of multiple photographs and other drawn or rendered objects to depict a scene that never really happened exactly the way the picture illustrates. There’s nothing inherently wrong with or evil about a digital illustration - they are used all the time in advertising, architectural renderings, artist’s concepts, and fine art. The problem comes when someone tries to portray that illustration as a photographic record of reality.
You obviously have to make a judgement call about whether to convert a photograph into an illustration, and the judgement can change depending on the intended use. For example, you presented us with a magnificent image of a Tomorrowland garbage can several years ago that looks like a single photograph but is actually a combination of segments of several photographs. It doesn’t present a real event, and the moment that it purports to illustrate is so ludicrous that no reasonable viewer would interpret it as anything other than a visual practical joke.
On the other hand, today’s image isn’t presented as a joke but as a record of a specific moment in time at the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair. There really was a helicopter in flight in the original image, but it was too high in the sky to be visible when you cropped it to make the panorama more pleasing to look at. You didn’t manipulate a portion of the image to move it into the new frame because you were trying to be authentic to the reality of the historical record you are presenting. The irony here, of course, is that by stitching several photographs taken in succession into one panoramic image, it actually slightly distorts the historical reality of the scene across several seconds of time, and I’ll bet if we look closely we may be able to find people or objects appearing in more than one location simultaneously. The “historical image” we are all so impressed with is actually a digital illustration of an unreal moment in time that never really happened exactly as shown here.
Not intended as a criticism at all. It just brought back to mind some of the ethical issues created by digital imagery.
That is some rootin'-tootin' hifalutin' pitcher-stitchin'!
Just the other day I was watching the first episode of the 1966 Batman series, there footage of the NYWF doubles as the Gotham City World's Fair, and it set me to hankering for some more pictures like this. But the quality of these images is even more than I was hoping for!
Chuck, "Holy cats!" Hmm, I'm trying to recall any cats that were holy... I guess they were holy in ancient Egypt.
Thanks for pointing out the Uniroyal Tire; I somehow missed it. I wonder if Sinclair Dinoland is in view somewhere in these photos?
Major, I probably should have mentioned that Giant Flying Earthworms are often mistaken for dirt or lint on 35mm slides.
I agree, the '64 NYWF was the last great (U.S.) World's Fair. Even though it wasn't a sanctioned Fair.
Sue, "especially since Ken M. made a special appearance". And so did J. Nartubez!
Dean, Thanks for the explanation of the 'egg thing'. It does seem to ring a bell now. (haha)
Major, so which is it? Bus stop or phone booth? I gotta know! (not really)
Those multi-ball stacked like pavilions are office New York World’s Fair Information kiosks …. And if you look you will see them all over the fair.
Before the Carousel of Progress was actually finalized for the fair Walt , John Hench and others began coming up with concepts for a new Tomorrowland…. They were seeing the fair update publications and could tell from other architect’s pavilion designs coming in that Walt was going need to make his Tomorrowland more sophisticated.
Office - OFFICIAL.
I may have been confused as to which egg looking things we were wondering about. The fair info kiosks are stacked spheres …. Made to be easily visible throughout the fair grounds .
Lou and Sue, I have to admit that I am pretty happy with it! It’s an improvement over the old example in almost every way.
Dean Finder, I like the idea of one of those curved monitors, though I don’t really know why I would need one. As it is, I really only use part of my current monitor’s “real estate”. I guess I should have said that the photographer panned to the west (from south), but they were on their way north! And oh man, I was wrong about the egg thing. Big surprise.
Chuck, one time, very early on (and at the suggestion of a friend), I replaced a featureless white sky with a pretty blue sky with white fluffy clouds. At the time I was still learning Photoshop and it seemed like a fun exercise, but I always felt a little guilty about it! I think that we are heading for a world of fake videos and photos, and it’s going to cause a lot of chaos, which is probably the point (from the people who are making them). Whenever I see those “deep fake” videos with Keanu Reeves replaced with Tom Cruise (or whatever), I mostly think about how sinister this technology could (and will) be. Nobody will believe anything anymore. I agree that digital equivalents of traditional darkroom techniques (such as dodging and burning) don’t concern me. But we’ve all seen the famous photo of Stalin with some of his cohorts, and one by one they “vanished” from the photo as those people fell out of favor. Yikes. And I agree with you re: the difference between a digital illustration and a photo. I was acquainted with an illustrator who got into a lot of hot water for altering a photo of O.J. Simpson on a cover of “Time” magazine. It looked like a photo, but by the time he’d made it darker and more “evil”, he had editorialized it into an illustration. Not that the general public could tell. As for my photo of the garbage can, I had a ton of fun making it, but as you said, the whole point was that it was ludicrous. Anyway, now I feel better about not moving the helicopter! Thanks for your thoughtful comment.
Melissa, wow, I had no idea that the ’66 Batman show portrayed a “Gotham World’s Fair”, I love it! My brother has the whole show on Blu-Ray, I wish I knew which episode to look for. BTW, my favorite scenes from the movie “Tomorrowland” are the ones that take place at the World’s Fair, some of them are astonishing.
JB, sometimes I can’t sleep at night, wondering when the flying earthworms will return. You’ll know it when you hear their slimy scrunching! For most people, it’s the last thing they hear. I think that Sinclair Dinoland is blocked by other stuff, since it was way in the distance. I’m sure that Dean Finder is right about the phone booth!
Mike Cozart, I believe that the “moonberries” (my name for the multi-ball stacked things) are “Brass Rail” eateries, though some may have been souvenir stands too. I’m not aware of any of them being used for information booths, but I am always ready to be corrected! I have some of those Fair update publications, they are fascinating to look at; it’s cool that the Imagineers knew that they’d better “up their game” for a New Tomorrowland!
Mike Cozart, yeah, they discussion of the egg thing is referring to the object to the right of the Schaefer Center and the General Foods arch in photo #2.
Chuck, I'm not sure I understand your post, are you saying that the pic of the Tomorrowland trash can wasn't photoshopped? 'Cause I totally believed that post. (humor)
Seriously, your story reminds me of some missile launch imagery that was published a few years back from a certain Middle Eastern nation, that was conclusively proved to be modified to show multiple instances of a single launch. Not that the government cared about their reputation with their population, but still a worthwhile gauge of their credibility overall.
JG
That photo stitch is so beautiful.
Can someone direct me to the famous "garbage can" photo? I've been here for years and I don't remember it! Is it as good as the classic rocket taking off in Tomorrowland April Fools pic?
Anonymous, check out https://gorillasdontblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/tomorrowland-entrance-november-1961.html. I think you’ll find it every bit as good as the classic rocket taking off in Tomorrowland April Fools pic. Be sure to read the accompanying commentary for maximum enjoyment.
JG, I had forgotten about that incident. Thank you for the reminder.
Looking at the not-unattractive structures in the Pool of Industry for the nightly fountain and fireworks show, I'm even more bothered by the ugly behemoths they added to the lagoon at Epcot for their new show - not that I wasn't already annoyed that they cancelled the outstanding Illuminations - Reflections of Earth show.
Major, it’s season one, episode one of Batman.
When I used to have to put a white flea collar on my black cat Tommy, he looked so much like a little priest that I called him “Father Tommy.” I guess that’s a “holy cat.”
Major; I like the term “moon berries” for those kiosks. I did mean to type “snack bars” but typed information booths …. I did not know however they were operated by Brass Rail . What were they made from? Fiberglass? Were they inflated?
Melissa, close enough. :-)
Dean Finder, "ugly behemoths"...you are soooo right! They are creepy-looking, too. Do you remember how pretty that "lagoon" used to be, in the beginning, with boats going back and forth, in the open water? I hear that the current night-time show is a huge disappointment, sadly.
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