Vincent Marchese

Recalling a Vision of the Future

Fairgoers share memories of family outings and moments of inspiration at the 1964 New York World’s Fair. Related Article »

By LIZ ROBBINS      APRIL 18, 2014

Photograph of map by James Nieves/The New York Times; map created by Hermann Bollman. Courtesy of Time Inc.

The grounds of the 1964 New York World’s Fair were a blur of perpetual motion: Gondolas dangled above the crowds from the Swiss Sky Ride, a monorail glided in the Lake Amusement area, Greyhound Escorters ferried fatigued visitors, helicopters landed on the Port Authority’s helipad and a giant tire Ferris wheel spun.

On the 50th anniversary of the fair’s opening, we asked readers to share their memories of the event and photographs from their visits. We got more than 1,200 responses, which included many snapshots of visitors with the Unisphere and recollections of eating Belgian waffles, being entranced by new technology (the touch tone phone!) and feeling moved by Michelangelo’s Pietà.

The fair, with pavilions sponsored by car companies and insurance giants and with special effects by Disney, may have been as corporate as a modern Olympics, but it still sparked the imaginations of those who attended.

The grounds sprawled over 646 acres of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, divided geographically into five sections: Industrial, International, Federal and State, Transportation and Lake Amusement. There were more than 100 restaurants. Here is a sampling of readers’ recollections and images from the fair, and a map of the fairgrounds.

Industrial Area

A Showcase for Companies

In the part of the fairgrounds closest to the Van Wyck Expressway, more than 45 pavilions devoted to industry (with some religious organizations sprinkled in) surrounded a pool around which was held a nightly fireworks show. Anchored by the General Electric Pavilion’s Progressland, the Industrial area was a collective advertisement for corporate America, with the Kodak Pavilion’s roof designed like the surface of the moon, and Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen’s egg-shaped IBM Pavilion, where visitors sitting on grandstands were lifted swiftly into a theater. At the Bell System exhibit, visitors previewed phone technology that is now commonplace. Perhaps the biggest hit: The Pepsi-Cola Pavilion’s Unicef-Disney production of “It’s a Small World,” with a song, in rounds of several languages, that became forever lodged in people’s minds.

Yvette Pintar’s parents visited New York as part of their honeymoon in 1964. Here, her mother uses a phone at the fair. Courtesy of Yvette Pintar

Mark Adamsbaum, 61, Manhattan One time, when my mother took me, we went to the Bell Telephone pavilion and used the picture-phone. I didn’t want to at first because so many people would be watching us, but she encouraged me, and we got into our booths. We said “Hi” to each other and then she asked me what I wanted for dinner. I don’t remember what I answered, but I’m sure it included potato chips.

“I have many memories of the fair, but the overriding feeling I got from everything was how great the future was going to be,” said Barbara Ann Rogers, 54, of Brooklyn. Her father and younger brother, above, attended the Pepsi-Cola exhibit’s “It’s a Small World.” Virginia Fermann

Elaine Richards, 60, Brooklyn Our family split into two groups. My sister went with my uncle, and I stayed with my dad. They got to see “It’s a Small World.” I was so incredibly jealous. Even the Belgian waffles or the magnificent Pietà did not quench that rage that I did not see the singing multicultural dolls.
Thomas H. Alton, 56, Philadelphia The G.E. Pavilion had a wonderful program that featured a “family” that benefited from the changes wrought by new electrical appliances through the decades. But the G.E. site also had a demonstration of nuclear fusion, which was held in a special hall and featured a loud report which scared the wits out of me.
International Area

A Global Village

Although the fair’s theme, “Peace Through Understanding,” was supposed to promote international cultures, several leading nations, including Britain and Italy, declined to exhibit because the New York fair was not accredited by the Bureau of International Exhibitions (Seattle’s 1962 fair got the nod instead). But the fair’s builder, Robert Moses, secured the blessing of two popes to allow Michelangelo’s Pietà to leave St. Peter’s Basilica, and the Vatican pavilion became one of the most popular exhibits. Among the other hits: El Greco paintings at the Spanish pavilion, which also featured flamenco dancers and sangria; the African Pavilion’s live giraffes; and the Belgian Village, which opened late in the season. MariePaule Vermersch, who was 17 at the time and worked with her parents in a waffle house, said that because the Belgian Village was not fully constructed at the beginning of the fair, her parents later moved their operation. The waffle treat was named “Bel-Gem,” she said, because of a typographical error.

Michelangelo’s Pietà in the Vatican pavilion. Albert Lamperti

David Prentiss, 81, of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, visited the Belgian Village at the World’s Fair in 1965. David Prentiss

Robert Di Stasio, 58, South Salem, N.Y. I went with my mother and younger brother and sister and a friend of my mom’s with her kids. I was 9. We were on the moving walkway to view Michelangelo’s “Pietà.” The scene was hushed quiet in respect when someone near to us exclaimed in a low, reverent voice, “How beautiful!” Picking up on this cue I immediately let out a loud Bugs Bunny-style wolf whistle and was promptly smacked across the face by my mother.
Claire Hassid, 61, Queens The one thing that has stuck with me all these years is the scent of Belgian waffles. We had never seen them before. Or smelled their overly sweet fragrance. And although my father became bored with the rides, and all the rest, he brought us back again and again just so he could enjoy those waffles. And no Belgian waffle has ever seemed as good to me as the ones at the fair. Maybe because those wondrous events and rides would always precede or follow.
Phyllis Canter, 86, Rye Brook, N.Y. We were invited to a party at the African exhibit. When we sat down to dinner on the second floor, giraffes poked their heads through the windows and we were told we could feed them the bananas that were on the table. We never expected such fun. You could hear our squeals all over the fair.
Federal and State Area

Land of Lincoln

Billed as the home section of the fair, this was where the 12-story Unisphere sat surrounded by state pavilions (New England’s six states were grouped in one exhibit). The United States government had its own pavilion, where President Lyndon B. Johnson spoke to open the fair. Two pavilions defined this region. The Philip Johnson-designed New York State Pavilion was a postmodern open-air oval structure with a circular theater and three spaceship-like towers that brought visitors to an observation area in external elevators. The Illinois Pavilion employed Disney’s animatronic technology to bring President Abraham Lincoln spookily to life as he recited famous speeches and spoke directly to visitors.

Lt. Jonathan Webster with his wife, Melissa, at the fair in 1965. Lieutenant Webster served as a guide at the Space Park. The two have been married for 52 years. Courtesy of Jonathan Webster

Donald Simone, 58, Manhattan We walked on the huge map of New York State at the New York State Pavilion and tried to step on the places we had visited.
Patt Taylor, 61, Evanston, Ill. I remember going to the Illinois exhibit, and in the front was Lincoln sitting in a chair. It was a very lifelike-looking statue, but clearly was not a real person. Suddenly, this inanimate object stood up and started talking to us! I was flabbergasted. Absolutely did not expect that.
Bernice Yahya, 65, Fort Collins, Colo. Northport was chosen to be one of the official New York State marching bands. We did a preopening show with Lorne Greene and made several appearances at the New York State Pavilion during the two years of the fair. Texaco’s map on the floor of the pavilion did not have our incorporated village but did have some unincorporated villages around us. Every time we performed during the first year, we lobbied to have that corrected. When we went back the second year they had inserted Northport into the map.
Transportation Area

Cars, Copters and Rockets

Dinosaurs roamed here, courtesy of Sinclair Oil, but the car was king, with the major American carmakers — Ford, General Motors and Chrysler — on display. Ford introduced the Mustang and allowed visitors to “drive” convertibles on a conveyor belt. General Motors’ Futurama ride, updated from its 1939 fair exhibit, took people to the moon, to an undersea resort and through the city of the future. At the Port Authority Heliport (the Beatles landed on it for their 1965 Shea Stadium concert), staff members gave talks about the design of the coming World Trade Center.

Janice Austin, 58, Southern California The memory that stays with me is the futuristic nature of the exhibits as I was way into anything to do with space and space travel. My parents, children of the Depression, kept saying look at all the wonderful things you’ll see in the future.

The Space Park’s rocket garden. Courtesy of Mike Jones

The Ford exhibit in 1964. Courtesy of Mary Ann Hagan Culler

Dinoland and the U.S. Royal Tires Ferris wheel. Peter Meyers

From left: the Space Park’s rocket garden; the Ford exhibit; and Dinoland and the U.S. Royal Tires Ferris wheel. From left: courtesy of Mike Jones, Mary Ann Hagan Culler and Peter Meyers

Linda Abelson, 59, Los Angeles, Calif. I remember my dad being swept away by the auto and science exhibits, and recall the unveiling of a red convertible Mustang on a rotating stage. There was an audible swoon in the room.
Anne Yeager, 57, Bronxville N.Y. My most visceral memory, and it is very strong, is that of the Sinclair dinosaur machine, where you put coins in — I think it was 50 cents — and the green goop came down the pipes and was pressed between two halves of a dinosaur mold, through the glass, right in front of you. Then it came out the bottom like in any vending machine, still slightly warm. The green plastic smell was fabulous. I kept the dinosaur for years, mostly hoping to recapture that smell, a cross between “new car” and gasoline.
Lake Amusement Area

A Watery Outback

Disconnected from the rest of the fair (it was accessible only by footbridge), the amusements area was also out of touch with 1960s culture. The Texas Pavilion hosted a 90-minute extravaganza, “To Broadway with Love,” that lasted only one year. It had a one-ring circus, and pavilions from Hawaii featuring hula dancers, and from Florida, frolicking porpoises. An adult puppet show, “Les Poupees de Paris,” that included figures of Elvis and Frank Sinatra, became the area’s biggest hit.

Beth Rosen, 62, Manhattan The Hawaiian pavilion had fresh pineapple, and we spent a full half an hour eating their fresh pineapple. To this day, many of our family members serve pineapple at family gatherings and each time we do, someone brings up their memory of the World’s Fair.

A show at the Lake area, the fair’s smallest venue. Chris Denman

Ruri Yampolsky, 55, Seattle There was an aquatic show with dolphins; the dolphins tossed plastic oranges into the audience. My father caught one, which entitled our family to a gift beach bag filled with Coppertone products. The plastic drawstring bag had the iconic Coppertone image of the dog pulling down the little girl’s bathing suit bottom, revealing her white, untanned skin beneath. I remember we had those bottles of Coppertone, and that bag, for years.
Shelley Levine, 61, West Palm Beach, Fla. I was 11 years old, attending the fair with my mom. I vividly recall riding the monorail and telling her that she was supposed to be enjoying the view. She nodded while sitting frozen with her eyes straight ahead looking nowhere. For a brief moment, I saw her blue eyes glance down (without moving her head). She was petrified, and I just laughed. We both exited the ride in the sky safe and sound.