View Full Version : 50th Anniversary of the New York World's Fair
Interesting how many events occurred from the time of the Kennedy assassination. The Beatles in February, the Alaskan earthquake, the NY World's Fair. The doors opened on April 22, 1964 and its motto was "Peace Through Understanding". It was an unsanctioned World's Fair from the governing body who regulated these things. Still, there were a lot of attractions. AMF (American Machine and Foundary) had a Monorail, General Motors built an updated version of their Futurama exhibit from the '39 NY World's Fair, Ford had an exhibit where you could drive on a skyway in a full sized Ford car. Sinclair Oil had full sized dinosaurs, The Vatican sent over Michaelangelo's marble masterpiece, La Pieta, all 25 tons of it. IBM had an exhibit where the theatre was on the ground level and lifted the audience into the theatre. The Centerpiece and Logo was the Unisphere, designed and built by United States Steel. There were also amphibious cars that went into a large lake that you could ride in and Go Karts with Ford Mustang bodies that were a ball to drive.
Wikipedia: 1964/65 New York World's Fair (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_New_York_World%27s_Fair)
NYWF64 Site (http://www.nywf64.com/index.html)
http://i59.tinypic.com/15i9mxc.jpg
GM's Futurama 1964
http://youtu.be/2-5aK0H05jk
It's a small world...
...did you know that It's A Small World actually debuted here during the 1964-65 World's Fair? And while Disney is celebrating the 50 year anniversary by trying to sell you stuff, we're celebrating by looking back at some old photos from the ride's debut in Queens.
The fair is said to be where Walt Disney perfected his system of "Audio-Animatronics," and this ride was "a Salute to UNICEF and the World's Children at the Pepsi pavilion [where] animated dolls and animals frolicked in a spirit of international unity accompanying a boat ride around the world." And it's not just the ride that's a native New Yorker, "each of the animated dolls had an identical face, originally designed by New York (Valley Stream) artist Gregory S. Marinello in partnership with Walt Disney himself." By the end of the fair, ten million 60¢ and 95¢ tickets were sold, benefiting UNICEF. Some more on the ride's journey to becoming a reality in Queens can be found here, and a couple more photos here.
Story here. (http://gothamist.com/2014/03/21/50_years_ago_disneys_its_a_small_wo.php?utm_source =Gothamist+Daily&utm_campaign=21955db558-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_73240544d8-21955db558-823301#photo-1)
It's a small world... (http://www.smallworld50.com/en/home)
http://youtu.be/N6Y7RX8rVzQ
This is also the 110th anniversary of World's Fair AND the Summer Olympics, both held in St. Louis in 1904!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Purchase_Exposition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1904_Olympic_Games
This is also the 110th anniversary of World's Fair AND the Summer Olympics, both held in St. Louis in 1904!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Purchase_Exposition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1904_Olympic_Games
Now that's cool. World's Fairs always seem interesting even in hindsight, but coupling it with an Olympics? Win-win.
My favorite part of that from the link:
One of the most remarkable athletes was the American gymnast George Eyser, who won six medals even though his left leg was made of wood. Frank Kugler won four medals in freestyle wrestling, weightlifting and tug of war, making him the only competitor to win a medal in three different sports at the same Olympic Games.
:-D
When I first saw this, all I could think of was The Jetsons...
The first Picturephone test system, built in 1956, was crude - it transmitted an image only once every two seconds. But by 1964 a complete experimental system, the "Mod 1," had been developed. To test it, the public was invited to place calls between special exhibits at Disneyland and the New York World's Fair. In both locations, visitors were carefully interviewed afterward by a market research agency.
People, it turned out, didn't like Picturephone. The equipment was too bulky, the controls too unfriendly, and the picture too small. But the Bell System was convinced that Picturephone was viable. Trials went on for six more years. In 1970, commercial Picturephone service debuted in downtown Pittsburgh and AT&T executives confidently predicted that a million Picturephone sets would be in use by 1980.
Eventually computers would end up doing this. There seems to be a leap somewhere in the last 50 years where we don't feel that this is intrusive on our lives and our privacy the way we did then.
http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/thisdayintech/2012/04/bell-picturephone.jpg
AT&T Introduces the Picturephone, the First Video Conference System, at the New York World's Fair (http://worldhistoryproject.org/1964/4/22/at-t-introduces-the-picturephone-the-first-video-conference-system-at-the-new-york-worlds-fair)
kb2vxa
03-29-2014, 12:44 PM
At the time the Picturephone reminded me of The Jetsons, now with computers on the internet with such features as worldwide video conferencing it reminds me of The Flintstones. That reminds me, one of my teachers saw a promo and told the class all about it so I watched the premier episode.
The fair was the worst two days of my life until worse things came along, mom's cousins from Detroit came visiting so we all got together and I got dragged around to the worst and most boring un-attractions, IMO repulsions. I got dragged away from everything I wanted to see including the Coca Cola pavilion where they had the number one thing I wanted to see, the Amateur Radio station. Picture a 14 year old kid limp as a dish rag from all the walking being dragged across the ground just DIEING to go home, that was me.
Rant mode off.
When I saw the Men In Black guys in Flushing it all came flooding back like the broken sewer main that flooded the LIRR (for real and appropriately in Flushing) and I thought that was the best place ever to hide a flying saucer. It must have been one of those Transformers kind of things, when I got dragged up there by what by the time it happened appeared like that space bug to me it was only an observation platform. UFO technology is just out of this world!
At the time the Picturephone reminded me of The Jetsons, now with computers on the internet with such features as worldwide video conferencing it reminds me of The Flintstones. That reminds me, one of my teachers saw a promo and told the class all about it so I watched the premier episode.
The fair was the worst two days of my life until worse things came along, mom's cousins from Detroit came visiting so we all got together and I got dragged around to the worst and most boring un-attractions, IMO repulsions. I got dragged away from everything I wanted to see including the Coca Cola pavilion where they had the number one thing I wanted to see, the Amateur Radio station...
Funny I never got to see the Coca-Cola pavilion either. We had just gotten into CB radio in '65 and had a CB friend who lived just across the street from the south end of the fair. But never saw the Ham Station at the fair and didn't really know about it until a few years ago...
http://www.westland.net/ny64fair/map-docs/images/cocacola.jpg
http://i59.tinypic.com/izsxlj.jpg
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