At the 1964 World’s Fair

Welcome to the past: The fiftieth anniversary of the World’s Fair is the background for memories that I will share in a subsequent post. I was a High School student at the time, and the 1964 World’s Fair, housed in Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, was the thrill of every visitor.

The fair’s theme was “Peace Through Understanding,” its icon was a 12-story steel model of the Earth called the “Unisphere,” and it ran for two six-month seasons, April 22 – October 18, 1964 and April 21 – October 17, 1965. Admission price for adults (13 and older) was $2 in 1964 (about $15 in 2013 dollars) but $2.50 in 1965, and $1 for children (2–12) both years (about $7 in 2013 dollars). (Wiki)

The photographs are not mine, they were gleaned from the internet, except for the souvenir drinking glass which was recently purchased at the Queens Museum on the site of the old fair grounds, which looks out on the Unisphere that still stands. Here’s a link to a previous blog on the Queens Museum.

Ephemera and Zeitgeist

The recent purchase:

The World’s Fair influenced our food, entertainment, commemoration. Looking back, it was pure kitsch. Being there was magic.

You could ride on a monorail, see animated manikins talk about how life would be in the future, take a rail car around the Panorama– an incredible model of the city (it lives on and is constantly updated in the Queens Museum). It was exciting: Dinosaur models, Belgian waffles with whipped cream, it was part state fair and part Disneyland. And such a reflection of our innocence.

The New York State Pavillion still exists

The Panorama, south view of Manhattan in miniature

It brought the world to us.

The buried capsule

Remnants of the Fair, fifty years later. Landmark status and restoration may be in the future.

Terrace on the Park, currently a fancy a catering Hall, was erected by the Port of Authority as a heliport for the fair.

Now for the movies.

The 1964 World’s Fair served as a backdrop for an America on the brink of change.