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The — New York World’s Fair was a world’s fair that held over pavilions and restaurants, representing 80 nations hosted by 37 , 24 US states , and over 45 corporations with the goal and the final result of building exhibits or attractions at Flushing Meadows—Corona Park in Queens , New York City.
Hailing itself as a “universal and international” exposition, the fair’s theme was “Peace Through Understanding”, dedicated to “Man’s Achievement on a Shrinking Globe in an Expanding Universe”. American companies dominated the exposition as exhibitors. The theme was symbolized by a story-high, stainless-steel model of the Earth called the Unisphere , built on the foundation of the Perisphere from the World’s Fair. The fair is noted as a showcase of mid-twentieth-century American culture and technology.
The nascent Space Age , with its vista of promise, was well represented. More than 51 million people attended the fair, though fewer than the hoped-for 70 million. It remains a touchstone for many American Baby Boomers who visited the optimistic exposition as children, before the turbulent years of the Vietnam War and many to be forthcoming cultural changes.
In many ways the fair symbolized a grand consumer show, covering many products then-produced in America for transportation, living, and consumer electronic needs in a way that would never be repeated at future world’s fairs in North America. American manufacturers of pens, chemicals, computers, and automobiles had a major presence.
Corporations demonstrated the use of mainframe computers , computer terminals with keyboards and CRT displays , teletype machines, punch cards , and telephone modems in an era when computer equipment was kept in back offices away from the public, decades before the Internet and home computers were at everyone’s disposal.
The selected site, Flushing Meadows—Corona Park in the borough of Queens , was originally a natural wetland straddling the Flushing River. The — Fair was conceived by a group of New York businessmen who remembered their childhood experiences at the New York World’s Fair.
Thoughts of an economic boon to the city as the result of increased tourism was a major reason for holding another fair 25 years after the — extravaganza. Wagner, Jr. He was joined by Austrian architect Victor Gruen creator of the shopping mall in studies that eventually led the Eisenhower Commission [12] to award the world’s fair to New York City in competition with a number of American cities.
The year was nominally selected for the event to commemorate the th anniversary of the naming of New York, [11] after King Charles II sent an English fleet to seize it from the Dutch in Organizers turned to private financing and the sale of bonds to pay the huge costs to stage the event.
The organizers hired New York’s “Master Builder” Robert Moses , to head the corporation established to run the fair because he was experienced in raising money for vast public projects. Moses had been a formidable figure in the city since coming to power in the s.
He was responsible for the construction of much of the city’s highway infrastructure and, as parks commissioner for decades, the creation of much of the city’s park system.
In the mids, Moses oversaw the conversion of a vast Queens tidal marsh garbage dump into the fairgrounds that hosted the — World’s Fair. He envisioned this vast park, comprising some 1, acres 5. When the — World’s Fair ended in financial failure, Moses did not have the available funds to complete work on his project. He saw the — Fair as a means to finish what the earlier fair had begun.
To ensure profits to complete the park, fair organizers knew they would have to maximize receipts. An estimated attendance of 70 million people would be needed to turn a profit and, for attendance that large, the fair would need to be held for two years. The World’s Fair Corporation also decided to charge site-rental fees to all exhibitors who wished to construct pavilions on the grounds. This decision caused the fair to come into conflict with the Bureau of International Expositions BIE , as the international body headquartered in Paris that sanctions world’s fairs: BIE rules stated that an international exposition could run for one six-month period only, and no rent could be charged to exhibitors.
In addition, the rules allowed only one exposition in any given country within a year period, and the Seattle World’s Fair had already been sanctioned for , as two years prior. The United States was not a member of the BIE at the time, but fair organizers understood that approval by the BIE would ensure that its nearly 40 member nations would participate in the fair. Moses, undaunted by the rules, journeyed to Paris to seek official approval for the New York fair. Many of the pavilions were built in a Mid-century modern style that was heavily influenced by ” Googie architecture “.
This was a futurist architectural style influenced by car culture , jet aircraft , the Space Age , and the Atomic Age , which were all on display at the fair. Some pavilions were explicitly shaped like the product they were promoting, such as the US Royal tire-shaped Ferris wheel , or even the corporate logo , such as the Johnson Wax pavilion.
Other pavilions were more abstract representations, such as the oblate spheroid -shaped IBM pavilion, or the General Electric circular dome shaped ” Carousel of Progress “.
The pavilion architectures expressed a new-found freedom of form enabled by modern building materials, such as reinforced concrete , fiberglass , plastic , tempered glass , and stainless steel. The facade or the entire structure of a pavilion served as a giant billboard advertising the country or organization housed inside, flamboyantly competing for the attention of busy and distracted fairgoers. By contrast, some of the smaller international, US state, and organizational pavilions were built in more traditional styles, such as a Chinese temple or a Swiss chalet.
Countries took this opportunity to showcase culinary aspects of their culture as well, with fondue being promoted at the Swiss Pavilion’s Alpine restaurant thanks to the Swiss Cheese Union. Other pavilions were “decorated sheds”, a building method later described by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown , using plain structural shells embellished with applied decorations.
This allowed designers to simulate a traditional style while bypassing expensive and time-consuming methods of traditional construction. The expedient was considered acceptable for temporary buildings planned to be used for only two years, and then to be demolished.
Fairgoers could tour the home for the price of one dollar. It featured air conditioning and backlit murals to create the illusion of the outdoor lighting. Glenn Smith. The BIE withholding official recognition was a serious handicap for fair promoters.
The promoters turned to trade and tourism organizations within many countries to sponsor national exhibits in lieu of official government sponsorship of pavilions. New York City, in the middle of the twentieth century, was at a zenith of economic power and world prestige. Unconcerned by BIE rules, nations with smaller economies as well as private groups in or relevant to some BIE members [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] saw it as an honor to host an exhibit at the Fair.
Indonesia sponsored a pavilion, but relations deteriorated rapidly between that nation and the US during , fueled by anti-Western and anti-American rhetoric and policies by Indonesian president Sukarno , which angered US President Lyndon Johnson. The Fair Corporation then seized and shut down the Indonesian pavilion, and it remained closed and barricaded for the season. People waited in line for hours to view the Michelangelo sculpture; a novel conveyor belt system was used to move them through the viewing in an orderly fashion.
A modern replica of the artwork had been transported beforehand to ensure that the statue could be installed without being damaged. A recreation of a medieval Belgian village proved very popular.
Fairgoers were treated to the “Bel-Gem Brussels Waffle”—a combination of waffle , strawberries and whipped cream, sold by a Brussels couple, Maurice Vermersch and his wife. Fairgoers could also enjoy sampling sandwiches from around the world at the popular 7-Up International Sandwich Garden Pavilion which featured the innovative fiberglass Seven Up Tower. While dining, visitors enjoyed live performances on four circular stages from various instrumentalists which included a five piece musical ensemble, the 7-Up Continental Band.
The musical programs included popular show tunes from the Broadway stage in America, as well as musical favorites from both Europe and Latin America.
The soloist John Serry Sr. Emerging African nations displayed their wares in the Africa Pavilion. Controversy broke out when the Jordanian pavilion displayed a mural emphasizing the plight of the Palestinian people. The Jordanians also donated an ancient column which still remains at the former fair site. The city of West Berlin , a Cold War hot-spot, hosted a popular exhibit in a pavilion that was designed by Hans Wehrhahn.
On April 21, , as part of the opening ceremonies for the second season of the — New York World’s Fair, Ethiopian long-distance runners Abebe Bikila and Mamo Wolde participated in an exclusive ceremonial half marathon. Johnson ‘s ” Great Society ” proposals. The main show in the multimillion-dollar pavilion was a minute ride through a filmed presentation of American history. Visitors seated in moving grandstands rode past movie screens that slid in, out, and above the path of the traveling audience.
Elsewhere, there were tributes to the late President John F. Kennedy , who had broken ground for the pavilion in December but had been assassinated in November before the fair opened.
It is a semi-religious presentation of three young men challenging flames. A 2-acre 0. Exhibits included a full-scale model of the aft skirt and five F-1 engines of the first stage of a Saturn V , a Titan II booster with a Gemini capsule, an Atlas with a Mercury capsule and a Thor-Delta rocket.
New York played host to the fair at its six-million-dollar open-air pavilion called the “Tent of Tomorrow”. Complementing the pavilion were the fair’s three observation towers , two of which had cafeterias in their in-the-round observation-deck crowns.
Lawrence hydroelectric plant, comprised a 9,square-foot m 2 terrazzo replica of the official Texaco highway map of New York State, displaying the map’s cities, towns, routes and Texaco gas stations in mosaic panels.
Wisconsin exhibited the “World’s Largest Cheese”. Florida brought a dolphin show , flamingos , a talented cockatoo from Miami ‘s Parrot Jungle , and water skiers to New York. Oklahoma gave weary fairgoers a restful park to relax in. Missouri displayed the state’s space-related industries. Visitors could dine at Hawaii ‘s “Five Volcanoes” restaurant. At the New York City pavilion, the Panorama of the City of New York a huge scale model of the city was on display, complete with a simulated helicopter ride around the metropolis for easy viewing.
It started off with financial trouble, not being able to complete its construction and subsequently filing for bankruptcy. A private company, called Pavilion Property, bought up the assets and assumed its debts.
This prompted Louisiana Governor John McKeithen to sever all ties and withdraw state’s sanction, leaving the pavilion completely to private enterprise. Special media attention was given to a racially integrated minstrel show that was intended to be a satirical anti-bigotry review, [ citation needed ] called “America, Be Seated”, and produced by Mike Todd Jr.
During the opening of the fair, several civil rights protests were staged by members of the NAACP , who believed that the “minstrel-style” show was demeaning to African-Americans.
The pavilion included ten theater restaurants, which served a variety of Creole food , a Jazz club called “Jazzland” which hosted live jazz artists, miniature Mardi Gras parades , a teenage dancing venue, a voodoo shop, and a doll museum. Due to the presence of the various bars, the pavilion was especially popular at night. Near the closure of the fair, the pavilion was reported to have achieved the highest gross income of any single commercial pavilion at the fair.
About protestors participated; of those, were arrested. More radically, Louis Lomax , of the Brooklyn chapter of CORE, had proposed a “stall-in”; drivers would go to the fair and stop or deliberately run out of gas on the way there, creating a traffic jam. The former merely ties up the traffic of a single city.
But the latter seeks to tie up the traffic of history, and endanger the psychological lives of twenty million people”. Many of the large US corporations built pavilions to demonstrate their wares, vision, and corporate cultures.
These included:. Industries played a major role at the New York World’s Fair of — by hosting huge, elaborate exhibits. Many of them returned to the New York World’s Fair of — with even more elaborate versions of the shows that they had presented 25 years earlier. The most notable of these was General Motors Corporation whose Futurama proved to be the fair’s most popular exhibit, in which visitors seated in moving chairs glided past elaborately detailed miniature 3D model scenery showing what life might be like in the “near-future”.
World’s Fair Pavilions: Where Are They Now? – 1. “It’s A Small World”
The midth Century hosted a bonanza of Expos. In addition to New York, Brussels, Seattle, Montreal, San Antonio and Osaka staged International Expositions between and . The New York World’s Fair of was held at Flushing Meadows in the Borough of Queens on a site leased from the City of New York. It was conceived in by a group of . The New York World’s Fair was a world’s fair that held over pavilions and restaurants, representing 80 nations (hosted by 37), 24 US states, and over 45 corporations with the goal and the final result of building exhibits or attractions at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City. See more.
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