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!
1 comment:
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.
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