80 dolls yelling "Small girl after all"

[spatch]

New photoset time!

FLUSHING MEADOWS, QUEENS The site of the 1939-1940 and 1964 World's Fairs. Lots of neat artifacts to find.

Here are but three of my favorites:

Comments

[cheezdanish.livejournal.com]

Didn't they film the video to Don't Let's Start there? Or am I nuts?

[spatch]

They most certainly did! Check the pictures of the New York Pavilion and the "Tent of Tomorrow."

[ron_newman]

About time for another one, no? Haven't had one anywhere near here since Vancouver in 1986.

[eclecticavatar.livejournal.com]

I am all for that idea. If they could afford one in the Depression, they could afford one, now.

[spatch]

Neither New York World's Fair ended up making money, even with all their financial sponsors. The 1939-40 World's Fair corporation declared bankruptcy after the close of the 1940 season, over $20 million in the red.

The 1964 fair nearly had to declare bankruptcy itself in between the '64 and '65 seasons. Unable to pay off many of its creditors after closing, the fair was tangled up in lawsuits until the 1970s.

It was certainly no fault of the crowds, that's for sure, even though attendance was never up to initial projections. It was all financial mismanagement and poor planning (for instance, Robert Moses decreed "no nudie shows and no thrill rides" in the amusement area of the '64 Fair, which lost out on a major source of revenue) and this kind of problem wasn't just isolated to New York. Of the more recent fairs, Montreal's Expo '67 and the 1986 Vancouver Expo lost money and the 1984 New Orleans fair, the last World's Fair to be held in the United States, actually had to declare bankruptcy in the middle of their season.

On a brighter note, both Seattle's "Century 21" exposition in 1962 and the 1982 Knoxville World's Fair managed to eke out profits.

The closest thing we've got to a modern-day World's Fair is EPCOT in Walt Disney World. EPCOT was designed in the spirit of the fairs, with the "Future World" area highlighting humanity's achievements in technology and whatnot, and the "World Showcase" group of international pavilions. However, even EPCOT has difficulty courting and keeping corporate sponsors.

Given these records, I think it would be highly unfeasible for any American group in this day and age to find enough funds and convince enough corporate sponsors to help make a giant, shiny, new wonderful fair. And that's a shame, because these fairs have captured a special spot in our 20th century culture, finances be damned.

[ron_newman]

Spokane and Knoxville aren't exactly the kind of places that come to mind when you think of a World's Fair.

New Orleans may be, but only until you realize the problems invovled with attracting people to visit there in midsummer.

[jicama]

Who was at the DuPont pavilion?

[reveritas.livejournal.com]

Why was the bench still warm?

Keith in Minnesota

[(Anonymous)]

Who had been there?

[eclecticavatar.livejournal.com]

We should have brought a videocamera and taken film of the four of us just running around like nuts. Unfortunately, at least two of us were too tired, I think. It would have been four of us kind of ambling along like... um... lumps.

[spatch]

We coulda made an awesome music video! For... some kind of song!

[infinitehotel.livejournal.com]

That bench picture is brilliant. You should do prints.

[giantfightbot.livejournal.com]

I keep expecting to see the Joker and the Phantasm duking it out along with the Batman.

Particularly in that globe photo.