50 Anniversary of the 1964 New York World's Fair: any fun memories?

[ARTc3]

Posted: 4/24/14 at 11:50pm

I just read that it was the 50 Anniversary of the 1964 New York World's Fair. The fair played a huge part of my childhood, with my parents taking me 12 times over the two years it ran. And, although I was a young boy, I remember it with great fondness.

Anyone else wish to give away their age and recall some of their favorite fair memories? Pavilions?

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 4/25/14 at 3:38am

A friend of mine who died a number of years ago was a World's Fair enthusiast. No idea where he got it but before he died he gave me a cassette recording of the narration of the ride that was in the GM Pavillion. Brings back a lot of memories (transferred it to cd).

A shame the Federal Pavillion was demolished but that was due to an anti preservationist Queens Borough President who I would lock horns with years later on preservation projects. Amazing that even though the buildings were alledgedly temporary, many of them were over built and could have lasted indefinitely. Case in point the Port Authority heliport which became Terrace On The Park.

I remember riding in the cars at Ford plus the Carousel Of Progress @ GE.I was too young to appreciate a lot of it but marvel looking @ videos on You Tube today.

Only in NY do we let remainders of events like the fair rot away. Case in point The Tent Of Tomorrow. I understand the NYS state map that graced the floor was rotting away and is now in storage somewhere. Many of the buildings could have remained but they went down. There was a rumor that Walt Disney wanted to take over the fair at the end and preserve it as a permanent attraction but the idea died.

The fair was not a sanctioned World's Fair and as a result there were not many countries that participated. It was mainly corporations . It was, like most fair, a financial flop mainly due to mismanagement and cost overruns.

It was still fun and brings back many fond memories.

Updated On: 4/25/14 at 03:38 AM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/25/14 at 4:47am

As a Disney park obsessed kid in the very early 90s, I wrote to the Imagineering Department and whoever I was lucky enough to read my letter sent me back a ****load of stuff they had extra copies of--which included a lot of stuff from a 25th anniversary series they did only for members of the company about the four Disney pavilions--including a book, and audio cassettes of narration.

A lot of that material came out 5 years back for a 5 CD and booklet collection--it's a bit pricey (though the CDs can be easily found for download if anyone wants to relive memories...) http://www.amazon.com/Walt-Disney-1964-Worlds-Fair/dp/B001EQUESC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398415146&sr=8-1&keywords=disney+world%27s+fair

The great theme park designer ROlly Crump talks a lot about the Fair in his book It's Kinda a Cute Story which is also on Amazon (notably he designed Small World's Tower of the Four Winds which was NOT brought to Disneyland back with him.)

Apparently the rumours of Disney opening a Disneyland East on the property were never more than vague rumours--though the company certainly took advantage of sponsorship money from the fair to build new technology--ie the very advanced for its time Mr Lincoln animatronic (which they actually built a second one of to show at Disneyland while the first was still in New York--the current version at DL, however, is several generations more advanced.)

I always wondered why the full Magic Skyway ride was not brought back to Disneyland--essentially all the other exhibits were, but maybe it was too big, or Ford didn't want to continue to sponsor it and pay for the move (they did put the dinosaurs and some cavemen in a tunnel for the train, and those exact same animatronics are still there--though the current version of Carousel of Progress in WDW has been rebuilt.)

Anyway, sorry to hijack the thread since I obviously wasn't there (I wish I had been!) and only really know about the Disney contributions.

[WOSQ]

Posted: 4/25/14 at 2:16pm

Like any 14 year old show queen-in-training who went to the Fair, I hotfooted over and saw the extremely lavish revue "To Broadway With Love" which was playing to 20% capacity houses 2-3 times per day with 2 separate rotating companies in a 2000+ seat auditorium called the Texas Pavilion, but it had no more to do with Texas than Bock and Harnick (who wrote a title song for the show). I had a swell time, thank you.

[N.B.: there is a cast recording that was finally released on cd a few years back.]

I also saw the Pieta in a very stark, somber setting. Later when I saw the same piece at St. Peter's it was just sort of out along the wall with a bunch of other masterpieces.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 5/18/14 at 3:03pm

It is a shame how the relics left behind have been left to deteriorate


The fountains should be restored (think of them on a summer night) & make some decision on the Tent Of Tomorrow one way or the other. Saving it makes more sense but who knows what will happen or when. If the powers that be wait long enough it will simply collapse. The towers are not secure and one day someone will take a header off one of them.

Updated On: 5/18/14 at 03:03 PM

[SNAFU]

Posted: 5/18/14 at 4:31pm

"It is a shame how the relics left behind have been left to deteriorate"

Yes Roxy, we've all noticed your deteriortion of late. Glad you won't see this!