New York World's Fair 1964/65

December 27, 2003 1:15 AM

New York World's Fair 1964/65. The future as they saw it then.
posted by plep (19 comments total)

This makes it 200 threads from me - happy New Year!
posted by plep at 1:18 AM on December 27, 2003

Plep is my hero.
posted by briank at 5:19 AM on December 27, 2003

One of the Charles and Ray Eames film compilations has a short film that time lapses the IBM "People Wall" exhibit. It's really remarkable to watch and available through netflix.
posted by machaus at 8:34 AM on December 27, 2003

Ah yes. The People Wall. IBM was King back then. Great exhibit. So was Thailand. I"ve only been to the '64 and the'70 in Montreal, big on the Tech/Cinema thing.

I wish they'd hold a World's Fair in my home town. I'm stuck with the Renaissance Faire. Ughh.
posted by kozad at 9:22 AM on December 27, 2003

Montreal was actually 1967 - Osaka was 1970. Here's an excellent retrospective of Expo 67 (flash needed).
posted by zadcat at 9:39 AM on December 27, 2003

A great collection of stuff there ... Inspired, I found the University of Maryland's collection of World Fair ephemera. I visited the site of the Osaka Fair a couple of years ago. Rode the monorail out, and looked at the giant sunbird sculpture. The Japanese Ethnographic Museum is housed in a large building there now. A lot of the grounds now have an abandoned air.

Happy 200th, plep! [This is good!]
posted by carter at 10:59 AM on December 27, 2003

Thanks zadcat. Yeah, '67: last time I went to a World's Fair. Although the corporate hardsell was a headache (more in NYC than in Montreal), just sitting on a bench watching all the differrent people was a great thing for me as a kid.
posted by kozad at 3:49 PM on December 27, 2003

How I saw it:


posted by victors at 4:16 PM on December 27, 2003

On that train all graphite and glitter
Undersea by rail
Ninety minutes from New York to Paris
Well by seventy-six we'll be A.O.K.

Perhaps because I grew up in the late 60s/early 70s, sharing sentiments like Donald Fagen's above, I find this kind of retro-futurist post almost unbearably poignant.

He was of course celebrating the International Geophysical Year in 1957-8. I had always liked that rarely-played Fagen track, knowing neither the author nor the title, on account of its chorus:


What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free


but it was only in 2002 that I happened to hear it again on the radio, and fed the lyrics I could remember into Google. That was when I learnt about the IGY in 1957.
posted by gdav at 5:59 PM on December 27, 2003

Congratulations on 200 fantastic posts, plep! And many thanks.

And this post is a winner. I went to this Fair - I was a little girl, I don't really remember much about it. The main thing I remember is that there was big excitement about the Beatles playing at Shea Stadium on the day I went to the Fair. At one time I had a photo just like the one you posted, victors. I will have to hunt for it next time I am at my mom's.
posted by madamjujujive at 8:06 PM on December 27, 2003

All alone at the '64 World's Fair
Eighty dolls yelling "small girl after all"
Who was at the DuPont Pavilion?
Why was the bench still warm? Who had been there?

(Had to be said)

I actually went to the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville, TN. I don't remember much about it though. But I do remember the Sunsphere!
posted by SisterHavana at 9:37 PM on December 27, 2003

On that train all graphite and glitter
Undersea by rail
Ninety minutes from New York to Paris
Well by seventy-six we'll be A.O.K.

Perhaps because I grew up in the late 60s/early 70s, sharing sentiments like Donald Fagen's above, I find this kind of retro-futurist post almost unbearably poignant.

I dunno - I grew up in the 80s, and I find the sentiment pretty poignant, too. Browsing this site was odd... there was so much hopefulness there, and so many promises we still have yet to make good on. Moon colonies and self-guiding (never mind flying) cars and the Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow. Made possible, of course, by gigantic corporations we now believe to be evil. Case in point: the bit in the GM Futurama ride about cutting roads through the jungle. That'd never fly nowadays.
posted by wanderingmind at 11:31 PM on December 27, 2003

..see what Space Age marvels Ma Bell has in store for your future!
posted by stbalbach at 11:59 PM on December 27, 2003

Still have my glow-in-the-dark Ford exhibit badge.
posted by HTuttle at 5:00 AM on December 28, 2003

(Made of Space-Age plastic!)
posted by HTuttle at 5:04 AM on December 28, 2003

Sounds of the 1964 Worlds Fair.
posted by stbalbach at 7:53 AM on December 28, 2003

Where are the flying cars??

I was promised flying cars!
posted by baylink at 12:26 PM on December 28, 2003

I love you Plep!!

This rules! Happy 200 & Happy New Year!
posted by anastasiav at 10:49 PM on December 28, 2003

I was brought to the New York fair as a very small girl, by a religious auntie who wanted to see the Pietà - I think this was the only time the Vatican has ever allowed the statue to be brought to another country. I remember the powered walkway that brought us past it, but I was a little too young to be overwhelmed by the work. In fact, my most vivid memory of the fair is watching a man flying around wearing a jetpack, then landing neatly on a target on the ground. I think that image fits with the undelivered future so many of us remember.
posted by zadcat at 3:56 PM on December 29, 2003