Fifty Years Ago: Opening of the New York World's Fair, 1964

I remember how exciting the World's Fair sounded, and wanting to go - but didn't get to. My family never took any trips like that.  But I've read that other people who did attend found it disappointing: lots of boring educational exhibits but no carnival midway, and nothing much fun to do. Did any of you guys go to the Fair, and did you enjoy it, I wonder?

First, a Universal newsreel of President Johnson opening the Fair on April 23, 1964:




Next, part 1 of a 1964 NBC special report by Edwin Newman, in living color, of course:




Here's a remarkably crisp and vivid color report from the British Pathé News:




And finally, Shirley MacLaine and other Hollywood luminaries lend a bit of glamour to the Fair - Shirley was then starring in the comedy film What a Way to Go!

General Motors' Futurama, 1939

Go back to the future at the 1939 World's Fair.

Out of This World

The Kitchen of Tomorrow from Frigidaire at the time of the New York World's Fair, 1964. I swear to God, this had to be produced by some big ol' stoner.  Gets trippier and trippier as you go along.

Century 21 Calling

Oh me, oh my, fellas.  Sometimes your Head Trucker gets totally tired of all the bad news coming over the intertubes, and all the wretched, nasty, bitchy people - famous or not - mouthing off about everything.  There's an ugly, vicious spirit in the world today that grates on my nerves big time.  Of course, I have my rant-and-rave moments too, but I'm not sure they contribute much to the world.  Some days, it's really hard to find something nice to blog about.

But here's a jolly short film from the 1962 Seattle World's Fair (the clip is mistitled) made for the Bell System, showing such wonders as pocket pagers, call forwarding, and call waiting - all of which didn't show up at your Head Trucker's house for another thirty years.  Still, it's a quaint little trip back to a moment when there was still a lot of optimism about the future.

Not to mention, a nice visit back to a day and time when people dressed a lot nicer, and talked and behaved nicer, too.  It wasn't sweetness and light back then all day, everywhere - your Head Trucker was there, and he remembers - but there was a different tone, a different vibration in the atmosphere that is lost now.  Anyway, here's a pleasant few minutes of 1962, see what you think:



PS - I remember reading about the Seattle fair and wanting to go see that awesome Space Needle and the futuristic monorail. But we never took long trips like that in my family - hell, we only ever went on one "family vacation" in the ordinary sense of the term, the summer I was 8: which was not much to speak of, a few days at a beach motel on the Gulf, and then a visit to the relatives in East Texas. But I remember reading about the Seattle fair, and then the New York fair in 1964-65, and about Disneyland and lots of other exciting places that I never got to see. Maybe of some of you readers were more fortunate than I was.