New York Today: The World’s Fair, a World Away

I was only 13 but my very-permissive mom let me travel there from Manhattan with my friend, just us two, and it was so much fun! I still remember the fried chicken dinners from some state-- Kentucky? And the World of Tomorrow which had us in gales of laughter. And smoking cigarettes. Taking the rides which I believe were free, laughing at the Abe Lincoln "animatronic" intoning the Gettysburg address. It was a blast!

Dad, a '39 fair-goer, brought us when I was 9. Family of 6, Finnish immigrant Mom. Got new sneakers and "clamdigger'' pants at Spag's. Stayed in Teaneck with a Finnish couple who came over on the boat with my Mom. I remember the Sinclair dinosaur, the Belgian waffles, the turquoise bracelet from the India Pavilion, the rides up the IBM Egg and the GM escalator, the Pieta, the Clairol hair color change, that phone that showed you. During the memorable, colorful "It's a Small World" ride in water, my 4-year-old brother (who, it turned out, is color-blind), pointed out a lightbulb floating in the water. Still have a ceramic-type ashtray from the '39 fair that Dad's family made for the Mom, who didn't go and didn't smoke: Many men chew but FuManChu

The caption is incorrect in that it implies the Unisphere and the IBM exhibit were the same thing. The Unisphere is on the right side of the photo. The IBM Pavillion is on the left side of the photo. Separate.

There was a gentleman ( he said he lived in sunnyside queens) I spoke to before our movie started at film forum and he was talking about his job during this world fair at flushing meadow park . He was a teenager he said and it was the best day of his life . “Good old time good old time “ ...I still could hear him saying this! Thank you for the information about the free tour ... I’m planning to attend .

I was in grade school when the World’s Fair was in Queens. I can remember being very tired walking around with my dad and brother. The GE rotating progress exhibit is one of the few things that remain in my fading memory. When one thinks about that progress, not much has really changed since that time. Phones and TVs and such may be more advanced and computers faster and smaller, but the basic science and engineering was all there already to a large extent. Apollo was designed with slide rules…and some computer programing. One would wish that the web has made us smarter, but is really hasn’t…just makes bad information flow more quickly at times. Have to say, we owe a debt of gratitude to the engineers and scientists of that era…they made our lives comfortable. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcZX3TCGBeo

Wasn't it held on the same site as the 1939 world's fair?

(Of course, I really meant to say that if a religion isn't 500 years old or a thousand years old, it's fishy. But I wanted to sound flexible.)

Re public money going to the restoring of historic churches: If a church is really "historic," i.e., a good 150 years old, then I don't mind helping its roof last another 150 years. But I heartily object to giving public money to churches in general -- and to letting them skip taxes. Too many suddenly religious people pretending they're ministers, when they're either crazy or crazy like foxes. Too many megachurches fleecing their flocks. Too many churches expanding into, and building enormous parking lots in, residential neighborhoods. Too many exclusive riding and boating clubs pretending it's all part of the ministry. If a religion isn't over 150 years old, it's fishy.

I went to the last one held in America when it was in New Orleans in 1984, good times.

It would have been nice if NYC had a World's Fair more recently especially after I was born. If that was the case, then I wouldn't have to go far to see one. However, I did see some World's Fairs over in places such as Lisbon in 1998 and Hannover in 2000 even though those were in Europe. Unfortunately, I wasn't alive for either World's Fair here be it 1939 or 1964 because I wasn't born until 1983. One thing I do like about these places is that they are designed to be futuristic even though much of what they show will probably never happen in the near future.

There was a bus that too us directly from my neighborhood in Brooklyn to the World's Fair in Flushing . I was 13 in 1964 when it opened and it became the date/group destination of the next two summers. In 1965 as an aspiring singer representing my theater group of a local "Y" I sang solo and with others at the top of the NYS Pavillion overlooking huge crowds of people and pavillions, not knowing it would turn out to be my biggest audience, and though certainly far from the top of my lfe experiences, definately a highlight of my teens. The "fair" as we called it, was a magical place that showed us the future, made us feel grown up,but still allowed us to be kidsI I never tired of it, missed it as soon as it was gone and thnking of it still makes me smile.

After the World's Fair I thought jet packs, video phones, washing machines that cleaned with sound rather than soap and water, hover craft and flying cars would all be in my family's home and driveway by the mid-70s. But the only one of these things I have even today is a video phone, and I don't even like it. The great virtue of the telephone is that you can talk to someone without being in presentable condition!

For this girl of 8 from Queens the Worlds Fair was a thrilling place! I remember the optimism and seemingly unlimited future which I think I absorbed and used as an adult. Years later I’m traveling and playing music throughout the world!

Visiting the NY World’s Fair of 64-65 made a large impact on my future life. When it opened I had rarely ventured outside the NY-NJ metro area. The fair was simply a mind blowing event to this then 12 year old with all the science, technology, and foreign culture pavilions. The fair painted an incredibly optimistic future of the human world—with lasers cutting down rainforests for super highways, future vast human colonies on the moon, and us living and working beneath the seas and on Antarctica. And all those 60 plus pavilions of far away lands with their sights, sounds, and smells — I vowed that one day I would be a scientist and also travel the world to visit foreign cultures and places. Now, of course, our future doesn’t seem to be that optimistic anymore especially with an ever expanding human population, the loss of biodiversity and natural habitats, and the increasing impacts of human-caused climate change that threatens our future on earth. However, among the fair’s optimistic future outlook, there was at least some concern about our future environment back then. I remember a display of Totem poles of dolls in the U.S. Pavilion representing the human population explosion. One pole correctly predicated our population size in 2000 of nearly 7 billion dwelling on earth. And I did become a scientist — an environmental biologist, and I was fortunate enough to have visited more than 25 countries around the world during the course of my lifetime.

Grew up in Forest Hills. Used to ride my bike over the GCP to the World's Fair after it was done. Rode around the Unisphere. Great memories.

For a young New Yorker, the World’s Fair was simply perfect. Especially so for it to happen in my home borough of Queens. I still get sweet thrills of memories when I drive by the park. The companion “recollections” article reminded me that I had one of the plastic Sinclair dinosaurs (is it possible to fall in love with a gas station? Yep!) and brought a tear to my eye as I wonder whatever happened to it. In my opinion, ‘twas EPCOT, the virtual, eternal, all year round world’s fair, what killed the World’s Fairs. A pity. Our 1964 fair left a wonderful cultural impression of “the possible”, especially on the verge of the darker days that followed. And this Jamacia High grad (class of 74) continued to use the park (especially the roller rink at the N.Y. State pavilion) for years to come. Yep, it was perfect!

Went to the fair numerous times either with family or as a class field trip. To a nine year old it was a blast.

I can't imagine what it must be like to be a foster child aging out of the system. It's good to hear there are some programs. May there be many more. The story about the furniture fortune heir freezing to death in his townhouse was bewildering. But there were other incidents. It must be easier to die accidentally from hypothermia than I thought.

It always seems to me, looking back at the 64/65 World's Fair, that it was a celebration of one of the last eras when we still had courage to dream about the future. Since then, we may have abandoned that dream under the weight of the present and the past. But we still have animatronic dinosaurs -- successors to the ones the Sinclair Oil Company pioneered at their exhibit -- so I suppose all is not lost :)

The World's Fair was so exciting to six-year-old me. The Belgian waffles were delicious, and given their high price, a real treat, and I remember the Disney exhibit, which had puppets (?) singing "It's a Small World." Google it. A few years later, young people would start backpacking all over Europe on the Eurail Pass.

At the age of 14, several visits to the worlds fair from Brooklyn were quite exciting events. Still have old photos of my family standing beneath the Unisphere. Was like a visit to both the future and the past to a kid who had only been as far as Coney Island! Was so sad when the fair ended.

For most New Yorkers in 1964 visiting a foreign country was an impossible dream. Instead the Fair brought the world to us! (we thought).

Ah, the aroma of the Belgian waffles,it wafted all over the Fair. What I remember most is that people dressed up to go. I remember going w/ my girlfriend,meeting our unapproved boyfriends and wearing hat,gloves,heels and matching bag.

MAD MENU The cashier eyed me With suspicion-- I wasn't the customer He'd been wishin'. Plus the diner sign Was inelastic: "We accept cold cash But not hot plastic."

About "fixing" the buses: IMO, the MTA seems to persistently ignore the existence of older people and people with disabilities. Will the new double-decker buses be ADA compliant? While they're fixing the buses, might they do something about placing bus shelters WHERE the bus actually stops? For instance, heading eastbound on 14th Street at 7th Avenue, the bus shelter is in one location, and about 15 feet east of that is the stanchion where the bus ACTUALLY stops and opens its doors. Someone from Byford's office should try to run the obstacle course that one encounters between the bus shelter and the stanchion as well! And while it's nice that buses will be manipulating traffic lights for their own benefit (I wonder what "traffic signal priority" for buses will do to overall traffic congestion?), I've been told by many bus drivers that they're severely penalized if they arrive too soon at a given stop - so speeding up the buses may never actually happen. Even in the midst of an August weekend, with virtually no traffic on the road ahead, an MTA bus plods along at some predetermined speed that seems to predicated on rush-hour traffic. BTW, as to "all door boarding," there's no need to wait until 2020 - it's already here! PLENTY of people already use ALL doors of local buses to board - and most of those who enter via the back door don't pay their fare. I see it happen just about every time I'm on a bus.

my dad went and brought me a boxed picture set of all the exhibits ... I took it to the park across the street and lost it ... still regret it over 50 years later!

I know I was there because my parents had the photos. Thanks for this description! It reminds me of “Millennium Village” when we went to at Epcot in 2000 soon after we all survived Y2K. The Village was specially built for the turn of the century, and Disney warned that the Village was only temporary. There were so many countries not already in Epcot. It even had an Israel ride called “Journey to Jerusalem,” so much in conception like Universal’s Back to the Future or Hanna-Barbera rides, where we sat in our vehicle and felt transported like a piece of the Torah parchment flying all through old Israel and across time. I couldn’t believe they’d really allow all this work, all this well-executed magic in the whole Millennium Village, to disappear. It seems Disney knew it had to stay to its word when it said things are temporary (that trains consumers to act now, it won’t always be there), or people just wouldn't believe them in other cases when they said something was short-term. But what’s left are the videos, photos and memories.

Even at 51 million people, the world’s fair was considered a failure, and was. It was losing tons of money and by the end of its second year, the crowds were gone. The New York City and the world of the late 60s was coming. Being a resident of queens, the saddest thing was how they let the park go in subsequent years. The park was abandoned and there was garbage everywhere. Barbecue and picnic Litter, as well as the danger of being mugged made it an ugly place. It’s never been a very pretty Park, but it is in much better condition than it was in the 70s and 80s, especially near the tennis center. Right now, is really the high point of its history.

Great memories of the fair, and glad it's finally being celebrated. As the decades have gone by, more and more of the remains (to include those of the 1939 fair) have been removed from the park. There was still quite a lot to discover well into the 1990s. Wish they would finally fix up the NY State Pavilion.

As 5 year old, I sat on my father's shoulders as we walked among the amazing World's Fair displays. I was picked from the visitors to talk on a video phone display at the Bell Telephone exhibit with a visitor at Disney Land. I remember watching the flickering black and white image on a 4 inch screen on the videophone and being dazzled. I asked my parents if we could buy one for our home.

I remember visiting the Museum of Natural History as a child in the late 1960s, accompanied by my mother. The older sperm whale still hung from the ceiling, but the new blue whale was planned. There was a donation box for this new exhibit, and I believe we contributed a quarter - though perhaps it was as much as a dollar!

My father worked on picturephone at Bell Laboratories. While he did live to see the rise of early cell phones, he would plotz to see things like Facetime and Skype accessible in full clarity on a phone in your pocket.

The world's fair remains quite a vivid memory. It was here for two years, and as a boy of 15 and 16 it was the place to be. We of course scaled the fences every day instead of paying. The Belgium waffles mentioned by Sue Mae were the hit of the fair. If you wished to go to a Met game in brand new Shea Stadium, your hand was stamped so that you could return--you walked a wooden bridge from Fair to Shea, and back. I enjoy an pavilion where you sat at a steering wheel and look at a screen, driving the course. Dozens of people participated, and a light indicated which driver had won the safety course. The foreign culture pavilions were great. Gosh, I still sound like an excited kid. In the early 80's I drove down with my family and attended a World's Fair in Nashville---and it was not as novel, but still very enjoyable. IMHO a World's Fair will always beat an amusement park, hands down!

I read the article and watched the video. I cannot agree that it left no lasting mark on the culture. Anyone who went, as I did, was forever impressed by the world of possibilities of new technologies, cultures, travel, and food, of course. The Belgian waffles were the best. I believe the fair was a great inspiration for any later developments.