{"id":7462,"date":"2014-06-23T15:19:50","date_gmt":"2014-06-23T15:19:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=7462"},"modified":"2021-04-21T11:11:43","modified_gmt":"2021-04-21T15:11:43","slug":"1964-worlds-fair-history-photos-memorabilia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/1964-worlds-fair-history-photos-memorabilia.html","title":{"rendered":"1964 World\u2019s Fair: History, Photos & Memorabilia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/strong>: Gena Philibert-Ortega is a genealogist and author of the book \u201cFrom the Family Kitchen.<\/span>\u201d In this guest blog post, Gena uses old newspaper articles\u2014and a friend\u2019s photo collection\u2014to reminisce about the 1964 World\u2019s Fair.<\/em><\/p>\n

Have you been to a World\u2019s Fair? Did you or a family member go to the 1964 World\u2019s Fair in New York? World\u2019s Fairs, also known as World Expos, originated with the first fair held in 1851 in London. That fair, known as \u201cThe Great Exhibition,\u201d was visited by an estimated 6 million people\u2014and it was just the beginning of great events that showcased countries, industries, and cultures.<\/p>\n

The 1964 World\u2019s Fair was the largest one held in New York, which also hosted the World\u2019s Fair in 1853 and 1939. The fair was the brainchild of businessmen who had fond memories of attending the 1939 fair and wanted that same experience for their families.*<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Photo: 1964-65 World’s Fair. Credit: Doug Coldwell, Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tourism<\/strong><\/p>\n

The World\u2019s Fair was not only an event in and of itself, but out-of-state families may have used it as an opportunity to tour other nearby American sights. In this Louisiana newspaper advertisement, bus tours of nearby attractions like Washington D.C., Monticello, and Canada are advertised. For example, a friend of mine who went to the 1964 World\u2019s Fair with his family also visited New York\u2019s Central Park and the newly renovated John F. Kennedy International Airport. The World\u2019s Fair would have been a good excuse for families to drive cross-country and visit several famous attractions to make it a memorable vacation.<\/p>\n

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Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana), 24 May 1964, page 39<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Futurama<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some of this World\u2019s Fair exhibits showed visitors what life would be like in the future. Glimpses they could have witnessed included the IBM building with its technology demonstrations, including a computer quickly translating Russian text to English. General Electric provided a nuclear fusion demonstration, and General Motors provided attendees with a vision of what the future would look like in their Futurama show. And not only could families take a glimpse into the future, they could also experience it firsthand with fair rides such as the monorail.** In some ways the fair was a combination of The Jetsons<\/em> meets Disneyland (three exhibits marked the debut of what would be future Disneyland attractions).<\/p>\n

\"a<\/a>
Photo: monorail ticket from the 1964 World\u2019s Fair. Credit: used with permission of Gary W. Clark.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

World\u2019s Fair TV Special<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not everyone could attend the World\u2019s Fair\u2014but even those who couldn\u2019t travel to New York may have experienced it from the comfort of their homes, by watching it on television. This newspaper article about a World\u2019s Fair TV special remarks that Helovision would be used, a system that allows footage to be filmed from a helicopter, showing the entire fair and its attractions.<\/p>\n

\"article<\/a>
Boston Herald (Boston, Massachusetts), 19 April 1964, page 61<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

1964 World\u2019s Fair Memorabilia<\/strong><\/p>\n

Maybe you\u2019re too young to have experienced the 1964 World\u2019s Fair? Maybe you didn\u2019t have the opportunity to attend? Chances are that you may have had a later (even a very recent) experience with retired exhibits or materials from the fair. Aside from some of the structures still remaining at the site of the fairgrounds in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in New York, some structures, such as the Unisphere, have been immortalized in movies including Men in Black<\/em>, Iron Man 2<\/em> and Captain America<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Photo: 1964 World\u2019s Fair Unisphere. Credit: used with permission of Gary W. Clark.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Other structures and displays from the 1964 World\u2019s Fair can be found throughout the United States today. Been to Disneyland in Southern California? If you have and you\u2019ve ridden on \u201cIt\u2019s a Small World,\u201d you\u2019ve experienced a World\u2019s Fair attraction. \u201cGreat Moments with Mr. Lincoln,\u201d another Disneyland attraction featuring an animatronic Abe, was originally featured in the Illinois State Pavilion at the fair.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Photo: \u201cIt\u2019s a Small World\u201d from the 1964 World\u2019s Fair. Credit: used with permission of Gary W. Clark.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dinosaurs Popular<\/strong><\/p>\n

Judging from the old newspaper articles I\u2019ve read about the fair, and the family photos I\u2019ve seen, it would seem that the Tyrannosaurs Rex found in the Sinclair Dinoland exhibit was the most popular dinosaur to pose by.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Photo: Tyrannosaurs Rex exhibit from the 1964 World\u2019s Fair. Credit: used with permission of Gary W. Clark.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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This pre-fair newspaper article even encourages photographers to take a \u201cwide angle lens for full length shots and a telephoto lens for portraits.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Cameras<\/a>
Richmond Times (Richmond, Virginia), 10 November 1963, page 142<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Those dinosaurs from Dinoland can still be seen today, found in several states: T Rex and Brontosaurus are found at the Dinosaur Valley State Park in Texas; the Cleveland Zoo has Ankylosaurus; and Stegosaurus can be found at Dinosaur National Monument in Utah, just to name a few.<\/p>\n

Another Popular Exhibit<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dinosaurs aren\u2019t the only exhibits that found a permanent home elsewhere. The US Royal Tire Ferris Wheel currently resides in Allen Park, Michigan, as a static display.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Photo: US Royal Tire Ferris Wheel from the 1964 World\u2019s Fair. Credit: used with permission of Gary W. Clark.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Old newspapers, such as GenealogyBank\u2019s online Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a>, are a great place to look for articles that can help enhance your family\u2019s story of going to the World\u2019s Fair.<\/p>\n

Genealogy Tip<\/em><\/strong>:<\/em> When searching GenealogyBank for events your family attended, utilize the keyword search and indicate the words that you want the search to include\u2014and even the words to exclude. Then narrow your search by a date or date range as well as a place. However, in the case of a large event like the World\u2019s Fair, it would be featured in newspapers all over the United States\u2014so don\u2019t limit the location for your initial search.<\/p>\n

To learn more about the 1964-65 fair, also check out the book The 1964-1965 New York World\u2019s Fair<\/em> by Bill Cotter and Bill Young.<\/p>\n

—————–<\/p>\n

* The Story of the 1964\/1965 New York World\u2019s Fair<\/em> by Bill Young on nywf64.com. Accessed 20 May 2014. http:\/\/www.nywf64.com\/fair_story01.shtml<\/a>
\n** You can read more about the fair\u2019s attractions at the nywf64 website: http:\/\/www.nywf64.com\/index.html<\/a><\/p>\n

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Introduction: Gena Philibert-Ortega is a genealogist and author of the book \u201cFrom the Family Kitchen.\u201d In this guest blog post, Gena uses old newspaper articles\u2014and a friend\u2019s photo collection\u2014to reminisce about the 1964 World\u2019s Fair. Have you been to a World\u2019s Fair? Did you or a family member go to the 1964 World\u2019s Fair in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12713],"tags":[7238,7240,7239,7237,7242,7233,7231,7236,7232,7235,455,7241,530,7234,7227,7228,7230,5460],"class_list":["post-7462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-genealogy-research-tips","tag-bill-cotter","tag-bill-young","tag-cotter","tag-dinoland","tag-fairs","tag-flushing-meadows-corona-park","tag-futurama","tag-great-moments-with-mr-lincoln","tag-helovision","tag-its-a-small-world","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-worlds-fair","tag-ny","tag-unisphere","tag-world-expos","tag-worlds-fair","tag-worlds-fairs","tag-young"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7462"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70507,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7462\/revisions\/70507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}