In 1964 and 1965, the World's Fair was held in New York City with a theme of "Peace Through Understanding" and "Man's achievements on a shrinking globe in an expanding universe". The fair was an international exposition which featured exhibitions from the world's leading technology experts of the time, a variety of countries showcases their cultures, art exhibits, and much more. Covering nearly a square mile of land in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, the 1964-1965 fair was one of the largest ever in the United States even though the 51 million people to attend fell short of the projected 70 million. The fair was intentionally held 300 years after the city officially became New York.

Building 1964 World's Fair

Building the 1964 World’s Fair required a huge amount of planning and vision. A group of businessmen from New York who remembered the 1939/1940 World's Fair (the only fair in the United States that was larger than the 1964-65 fair) decided they wanted their children and grandchildren to be given the opportunity to experience what they had. In order to raise the money needed to stage the fair, organizes used the sale of bonds and private financing to gather some of the funds needed. The park had to be built for the fair on land that was at that time a "valley of ashes" according to F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Much of the garbage found in the location at the time was used as landfill for the Long Island Expressway and the Jackie Robinson Parkway.

Representing global interdependence, the Unisphere was commissioned as the symbol of the fair. It was designed by Gilmore D. Clarke, a landscape architect and American civil engineer from New York. The Unisphere is a 140 foot high, 700,000 pound steel globe with three steel rings circling it. Each ring symbolizes one of the first three man made satellites.

In order to turn a profit, the fair organizers decided to run the fair for two years, instead of one, and to charge exhibitors a rental fee if they wished to build their own pavilions. This decision angered the Bureau of International Expositions (BIE), the group that sanctions all the world's fairs. According to their rules a fair could only be held for a total of 6 months and exhibitors are not charged rent. The rules also stated that only one world's fair be held in any country within a 10 year time frame. The Seattle World's Fair was already set to be held in 1962. Robert Moses, who was the head of the corporation organizing the fairs, went before the BIE in order to plead his case. When the BIE didn't agree, Moses was extremely angry and publicly made his distaste of the BIE known. Even more angry the BIE sent a formal request to all BIE nations asking them not to participate. Most of the major European nations, Canada, Australia and the Soviet Union all remained absent from the fair. In the end there were 140 pavilions total, 21 state pavilions, 36 foreign pavilions, and the rest comprised of mostly American corporations.

Part of the reason the fair may not have made the expected profit it expected was the lack of thrill rides and racy shows that the 1939 fair had, opting instead for more culturally oriented shows. When some of the shows closed only partway through the first fair it became apparent that something needed to be done in order to bring in more money. For the 1965 fair 69 bars were added and nine discos, complete with go-go dancers.

Memorable Attractions of the World's Fair

Multi-Media Experiences - The fair was a venue for some stunning filmography. Three eighteen-foot wide screens were used in the presentation "To Be Alive" by Francis Thompson and Alexander Hamid. It showcased scenes of life from around the world featuring people of all ages. This film was shown in the Johnson Wax pavilion. In the United States pavilion moving grandstands transported visitors throughout American history and eventually all the way to the moon and the Milky Way in "Past as Prologue". There were 135 screens used during this presentation. Some moved and some were shaped like tunnels.

Foreign Pavilions - Due to the BIE's objection to the fair, many foreign nations were not represented, however, many were. Some of the nations with fair representation included Austria, Spain, Vatican City, Japan, Denmark, Mexico, the Philippines, Pakistan, Greece, Thailand, and Sweden, among others. Each pavilion had something unique to provide guests. The Vatican City pavilion for instance was exhibiting Michelangelo's Pieta, a work of art well known and loved by people around the world. Another popular pavilion was the Belgium pavilion. This privately sponsored pavilion was a accurate copy of a Belgian village of the 19th century. It had a city hall, a Rathskeller (beer hall), a church replica, houses, a canal and a bridge. The pavilion's attractions included a carousel from 1898, small shops that sold hand made crafts, folk dancers, and clowns with wooden shoes.

The World’s fair was home to as many as 112 restaurants showcasing international cuisine native to different parts of the world. This was exciting for many as restuarants of this type were at the time very rarely found within the United States.

Another popular pavilion was the Spanish pavilion, which cost about $7 million dollars to build. The pavilion provided fine dining, artwork by Goya, Velasquez, El Greco, Picasso, and Miro, and flamenco music with a dance troop which performed multiple times a day. The Republic of China pavilion was also considered spectacular by many, with singularly handsome objects of art from ancient and modern China on display.

State Pavilions - The 1964-1965 World's Fair featured 21 state pavilions. Among them were the Louisiana pavilion, which was a recreations of Bourbon Street in New Orleans. It had jazz musicians and restaurants lining the street. Also featured was the New York state pavilion which included two tall observation towers with restaurants inside and exhibits and shipping below. Another pavilion worth note was the Illinois pavilion. In this pavilion an animatronic Abraham Lincoln stood from his chair and made one of his memorable speeches. The animatronic Lincoln was created by Walt Disney for the fair and can now be found at Disneyland in California.

Corporate Pavilions - The majority of the pavilions at the fair were sponsored by American corporations. Included among them was Chrysler who had the largest pavilion in the fair. The Chrysler Pop Art pavilion was designed to look like a giant engine and featured many unusual exhibits. Another unique pavilion was the Pepsi Cola pavilion where once again Walt Disney was called upon to develop a ride through attraction for visitors to the fair. The attraction was called "It's a Small World - A Salute to UNICEF" and featured animatronic figures singing the theme song "It's a Small World" in languages that correspond with the colorful scenes from around the world within the ride. 

Technology at the Fair

Computers and Communication - In the mid 20^th century most Americans had very little experience with computers. Computers at the time were large and kept in cool rooms operated only by computer technicians. The pavilions at the World's Fair made it possible for people who had previously had no computer experience to learn and experience computers for the first time. The National Cash Register pavilion was a location where guests could choose a date and be provided a list of famous occurrences that took place. Another pavilion provided a chance for guests to enter a list of hobbies into a computer and be matched up with a foreign pen pal.

IBM Corporation came up with its own pavilion in the World’s Fair and through its different exhibits, explained the way computer circuits and memory cores worked. The goal of the pavilion was to show visitors that computers should not be pictured as a threat and were mostly just shuffling data before providing it back to the user. They attempted to explain this through the use of a puppet show.

The world also saw the debut of new communications technologies at the Fair. The Bell Telephone System pavilion launched the Picturephone. This communication technology made it possible for visitors to make a telephone call to a close by stand and hear others talk to them through the wires as well as see them on a screen. Other new technologies included touch tone phones, the Vocoder, masers, lasers and underseas cables.

The Space Age - By 1964, the Space Age was an infatuation of many Americans and this was apparent at the fair. Rockets were on exhibit in the United States Space Park, which was sponsored by the Defense Department, NASA, and the fair. The exhibits included a full-scale model of the gigantic Saturn V “moon rocket,” an Atlas and a Titan II booster, the Mercury capsule on the second manned orbital flight from America, models of the three-man Apollo Command and the Lunar Excursion were also there for the visitors to inspect. Even the Unisphere, with its satellite orbit rings, signified the advent of Space Age.

Electricity and Atomic Energy -  In 1964 and 1965, atomic energy was the same as nuclear power. The world at that time had little understanding of the dangers of radiation exposure and atomic weapons. Visitors to the fair were told about how fission and fusion reactors would soon mean energy would be cheap and limitless. The General Electric pavilion of the fair included Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress where fair visitors were seated in a small room facing a stage and watched an animatronic presentation about the history of electricity. The attraction was unique in that the seats guests occupied moved from one "moment in time" to the next. This attraction currently resides in the Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

Cities of the Future - At the fair, there were numerous exhibits that predicted a macro-engineered future with the help of technological developments. “A journey into Space,” sponsored by the Hall of Science, “Space City” by Ford, and General Motors “Futurama” were all models of the future world. They demonstrated the cities of the future. Towering skyscrapers, large underground parking spaces and tunneled highways were the characteristic features of these future towns and cities.

 More Information:

• Origins: The ’64 Fair: All about the foundation of the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair, including the Unisphere, Flushing Bay, the pavilions and more.
• The 1964 World's Fair Gallery: A comprehensive insight into the various facets of the World’s Fair, through a set of expressive pictures.
• Integrating Engineering and Electronics: A look at how Walt Disney influenced the World’s Fair.
• The Chrysler Pavilion: A prologue to one of the biggest pavilions in the 1964 World’s Fair, most remembered for its innovative Engineering and Production Islands.
• Flushing Meadows Corona Park: A glimpse at the venue of the World’s Fair in the borough of Queens, New York.
• The Unisphere: The 12 storied tall and spectacular replica of the Earth, symbolizing the theme of the 1964 World’s Fair.