Souvenirs from the Fair

While taking pictures of the Unisphere, New York State pavilion, and the Hall of Science, I came upon the Queens Musuem which is located in the 1939-40 New York State building. This unique museum contains the Panorama, which is a scale model of the New York City metro area. This exhibit, first shown at the 64 Fair, has been updated over the years as new buildings were added.

The museum shop, however, sold actual souvenirs from both fairs. These items had been donated by various collectors, with proceeds from each sale benefiting the museum. Over time, I purchased a number of items, including the original blue (and pink and tan) fair poster. Another souvenir offered for sale (one I wish I could afford to buy at the time) was a toy model of the giant tire Ferris wheel.

In addition to the posters, I bought a set of NYWF flash cards. Each card had an artist conception picture of major pavilions. A short description of each scene (in multiple languages) was printed on the backside.



There is a neat sculpture that still can be found today in the same place as depicted in this scene.





The Ford exhibit I remember fondly...especially the ride in those brand new cars! Another Disney masterpiece.

Modern Ruins

Of all the remaining structures left over from the NY Worlds Fair, the one that is in the poorest condition is the New York State exhibit. When it opened, the pavilion looked like something out of the Jetsons'. The twin observation towers (predominately featured in the Men In Black movie) gave visitors commanding views of the fair grounds, and the New York City skyline. Nearby exhibits included Unisphere, the old New York State building from the 1939-40 fair, and the Federal pavilion.

Today, the elevators on the observation towers are frozen in place. The multicolored roof is long gone. Giant portions of Texaco map of New York on the ground floor are missing. The structure is in a bad state of neglect. I hope that the city will someday restore this wonderful "ruin" to it's former glory.

The Triumph of Man

Although I don't specifically remember going to this pavilion, Travelers Insurance presented a Disneyesque history of man from ancient times to present day (i.e. 1964). To commemorate your visit, Travelers presented each guest with a 7" red vinyl record. The pictures shown in the two videos below are from the fold-out record sleeve. This audio recording is in the typical wide-eyed wonder, early-60's style.

Poster Day II

Walt Disney saw an excellent opportunity to showcase his company's talents by participating in the '64-'65 New York Worlds Fair. An excellent documentary, first shown on the weekly Disney show, and later available in a boxed DVD set, detailed his involvement in four key exhibits.

While viewing this documentary, entitled Disneyland Goes to the World's Fair, I noticed two large Worlds Fair posters displayed behind Walt as he did the introduction to the segment. Several years ago, I had purchased the blue NYWF poster at the Queens Museum shop located at the former fairground. The other poster, however, I had never seen before. Since I had a keen interest in this stuff (and could not find an original poster for sale), I created a copy of it using Adobe Illustrator. For your viewing pleasure, here is a still from the Disney show, along with the two posters that were displayed in Walt's office.

64-65 NYWF: A Retrospective

The Bill Moyers' series A Walk Through the 20th Century featured a good epsiode devoted to various world fairs, and in particular the 64-65 New York fair. This short-lived series lasted only one season (1984-85), but like Our World, was well written and produced. The segment presented here is limited to the 64 show with classic archival footage, along with the fair aftermath. Some of the sites shown at the end have been cleaned up, with the exception, sadly, being the New York State Pavillion.

Come to the Fair!

It's time to shift gears (and topics) a bit. This year celebrates the 45th anniversary of season #1 of the 1964-65 New York Worlds Fair. As in previous World Fairs, an architectural icon was chosen as the official symbol. Peace through Understanding was it's theme. United States Steel constructed a huge model of the Earth, calling it Unisphere. Each land mass was represented, along with three concentric rings that appeared to float in air. This well-designed structure was placed atop a unique pedestal, and is located near to what is now known as the Queens Museum. Here is a stylized version that was used as the fair logo.

A few years ago, I visited the Flushing Meadows park in Queens to take some photos of the remaining fair structures. The Unisphere was refurbished in 1996 and looked very good. The New York State pavillion (the one with the Texaco map on the floor) was in a poor state of repair. I'll post more pictures of that on a later blog.
Here in its restored glory is Unisphere as it stands today.

In Their Memory...