Update: Memories of the 1964-1965 World’s Fair
Inspired by the Sinclair film on the 1964-1965 World's Fair forwarded by Anthony Gatta, I recalled my happy memories of this great event. Roz and I even paid a visit and a pandemic hike searching for remnants in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
Update: March 20, 2021:
-Added a very funny slide show
-Added a 1964 NBC Color TV Special "A World's Fair Diary" with a very critical Edwain Newman
Enjoy,
Howard Kroplick
Remnants of the World's Fair
New York State Pavilion
After years of neglect, partial preservation of Philip Johnson striking building is underway.
Texaco funded a giant map of New York State on the pavilion floor. As seen by the signs, the map was still open to the public in the 1980s.
Rocket Thrower
One of the number of statues for the Fair with a space theme.
New York City Building
A holdover form the 1939/1940 World's Fair includes a scale model on New York City (800,000 miniatures.)
Column of Jerash
Inscription: This column was presented to the New York World's Fair and the City of New York by his Majesty King Hussein of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on the occasion of Jordan's participation in the fair. The column was received by the Honorable Robert Moses, President, New York Work's Fair 1964-1965 Corporation. This is one of many columns in a temple erected by the Romans in 120 A.D. that stood in the Roman city of Jerash, Jordan. The columns are known as the Whispering Columns of Jerash.
Unisphere
The symbol for the Fair is still striking!
My last visit to the Unisphere celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Mustang.
A wonderfu; place for a pandemic hike. But, beware of the seagulls in the park!
Update: Submitted by Jay Jarvis
Jay Jarvis: Old Kodachromes I recently found. Not the best quality but considering their age. I was six or seven.
Official Souvenir Map
1964/1965 World's Fair Films
Sinclair at the World's Fair (1965)
-The Chrysler Turbine "Car of the Future" (Mark: 9:05)
After the Fair: The Legacy of the 1964-1965 World's Fair.
-The Mustang Ride (Mark: 43:02)
My Summer of 64 NY World's Fair
-A very funny slide show
1964 NBC Color TV Special: "A World's Fairy Diary" with Edwin Newman
Musicom Productions: Relive an inside look at the 1964/65 New York World's Fair in this NBC TV Special from 1964 "A World's Fair Diary", with Edwin Newman. See Edwin take you on a first hand tour of the inside of many attractions featured in the fair. He tends more towards the off-the-beaten-path attractions more so than the mainstays, but he gets a great glimpse of what was a once-in-a-lifetime event.
Comments
Great blog here, I’m too young to have memories of the fair, but we did take our boys to the Science Museum when they were younger. There’s actually 4 Sinclair Stations on LI. I’ll need to watch the After the Fair video on TV later on.
Two of the best summers of my life. I will always have great memories
of that World’s Fair.
I was 16 y/o when the fair opened in ‘64. I lived in Fresh Meadows and my friends and I would take our bikes to get there; we’d lock them up outside the grounds. The most memorable things to me was the turbine car. It was driven in a depressed roadway that was visible from above. My question to this day is, “Where are the turbine and flying cars?”
I ride my bike to the Fair Grounds all the time, great memories. Thanks
Thank you Howard and Roz! Great memories! - What happened to all the service for ones car shown at the Sinclair Service Station? Now at 84 years I am now pumping my own gas. We sure have come a long way!
The actual Turbine car is up for sale as we speak.
The Chrysler Turbine sold within 24 hours of being listed:
https://www.autoevolution.com/news/incredibly-rare-1963-chrysler-turbine-car-sells-in-under-24-hours-157470.html
Sinclair film says it all. Look at where those corporate dinosaurs have gone today and ask our kids about the fate of Apple, Amazon, FB, Google, Microsoft. Not to mention “lily” white male-focused America at that time.
Howie (& Roz): This is cuzzin’ Steve (Green) from Calif. I have great memories of attending the World’s Fair during my summer long visit to New York in 1965. (I was 20 going on 21). I took Uncle Hesh’s boys, Rob and Jeff, and still have a picture taken of me sitting below one of the Unispheres (in a red sweater). Ironically, one of the Unispheres ended up going to California where it still, to this day, graces the entryway to Leisure World in Laguna Hills, the senior community where my mother (your Aunt Sylvia) lived for almost 40 years. (She sarcastically and irreverently referred to the place as “Seizure World”). I have fond memories of passing beneath the Unisphere every time I paid her a visit over the decades. . . . .
Question for Brian McCarthy: where are the four Sinclair stations on Long Island?
No problem, Elliot. Screenshots below show the locations I found on the web.
2 more, Elliot.
So as long as we are on this sidebar, the home of Harry Sinclair, founder of Sinclair Oil still stands on Sinclair Drive in Kings Point.
Thanks Brian. The only service station I found is in Patchogue. The Hampton Bay location seems a corporate office.
No problem, Frank. I like the Dino Mart name, they kept the tradition. The After the Fair documentary is very interesting. I was born a few years after the Worlds Fair, but been to Disney and Science Museums, where some of the attractions were relocated or maintained.
I was nine years old in ‘64 and have fond memories of the fair. I get a little sad when I see what the fairgrounds look like today.
I think Jay Leno owns one of the Chrysler turbine cars.
There are lots of Jam Handy films in the Prelinger Archives. Most are industrial and training films, and ads. They were based in Detroit, and their biggest client was General Motors.
Added a very funny 1964 World’s Fair slide show.
The Worlds Fair 50 anniversary was the same year as the mustang anniversary
they open the New York Pavilion that day
I got to go in like i did 50 year ago when I was a kid.Very cool to go in again.
Added these photos submitted by Jay Jarvis.
Added the official Souvenir Map
Added the official Souvenir Map
Just fantastic….where do you find these videos and photographs. I remember staying at the Worlds Fair sleeping under the Johnson and Johnson pavilion…what a fabulous newsletter you put together every month…I look forward to ever word,, Thank you.
I was at the fair both in ‘64 and ‘65. my favorite ride was in the new Ford rotunda cars!