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O.T.- 1964 World's Fair

colbert17

colbert17

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Aug 30, 2014
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Putting this on the football board since there was no game this week and the O.T. board hs been taken over by politics. I wanted people to see this and it doesn't get lost in the Clinton/Trump nonsense.

I was 7 when the Fair opened. It was the spring right after my dad died and my uncle use to take me there about once a month to probably get my mind off things. He didn't have a car either so we would catch the #11 bus down the Port in Elizabeth to Newark. From there we got the NY bus in front of Military Park and go into Port Authority. Then it was #7 train (Follow the Blue Arrows) to Flushing. For a little kid it really was an amazing experience. I remember all of these things except the WTC model and the Spanish paintings. Kind of disappointed that they didn't include the Coca-Cola Pavilion which was my favorite.

Hope this brings back some memories for some of you and shows some of you young guys what you missed. Zap I'm sure you were there a few times.Make sure you watch the included videos.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/56322/20-awesome-things-people-saw-1964-worlds-fair
 
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Cool stuff. I was born n 1963 but in my hotel room here a couple of connections to my late uncle. I bELieve: 1) There are a few pictures of the fair here in my hotel room. In fact my extended family may have gone to earlier versions (the ones from Wisconsin may have gone to Chicago); 2) My Uncle worked for RCA and then NJ Bell in NB and 3) coincidentally a few years later owned a hot looking ford mustang he'd drive me in (mostly fishing).

I guess the Disney exhibits were moved or duplicated as "It's a Small World" (my mother's favorite) was and I assume still is a staple attraction of the Orlando Park. I remember riding in the boat with my family at the park back in 1976. I remember my Mom crying she was so happy to be there (she lost her Mom at age 7 I think and her Grandmom her frosh year at Rutgers Pharma. Father killed himself in 1969). Mom said this was likely one of one or two times we'd be together at Disney as a family. She was right-she went with my Dad again and passed at age 56

I remember the steel structure of the globe is still there-it's occasionally shown on the news.
 
Last edited:
colbert17 said:
Putting this on the football board since there was no game this week and the O.T. board hs been taken over by politics. I wanted people to see this and it doesn't get lost in the Clinton/Trump nonsense.

I was 7 when the Fair opened. It was the spring right after my dad died and my uncle use to take me there about once a month to probably get my mind off things. He didn't have a car either so we would catch the #11 bus down the Port in Elizabeth to Newark. From there we got the NY bus in front of Military Park and go into Port Authority. Then it was #7 train (Follow the Blue Arrows) to Flushing. For a little kid it really was an amazing experience. I remember all of these things except the WTC model and the Spanish paintings. Kind of disappointed that they didn't include the Coca-Cola Pavilion which was my favorite.

Hope this brings back some memories for some of you and shows some of you young guys what you missed. Zap I'm sure you were there a few times.Make sure you watch the included videos.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/56322/20-awesome-things-people-saw-1964-worlds-fair
Click to expand...

Do you receive "mental floss"? Looks like a fun mag but never specifically relevant to me. Knowing I was going to likely lose all I subscribed to about 20-25 magazines (when highly discounted-also tend to use as a reference library) and one of two I actually read "NASCAR Illustrated" just stopped publishing!
 
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AshSaturday said:
Do you receive "mental floss". Looks like a fun mag but never specifically relevant to me. Knowing I was going to likely lose all I subscribed to about 20-25 magazines (when highly discounted-also tend to use as a reference library) and one of two I actually read "NASCAR Illustrated" just stopped publishing!
Click to expand...
No. I was looking around, bored, and found this article
 
colbert17 said:
Putting this on the football board since there was no game this week and the O.T. board hs been taken over by politics. I wanted people to see this and it doesn't get lost in the Clinton/Trump nonsense.

I was 7 when the Fair opened. It was the spring right after my dad died and my uncle use to take me there about once a month to probably get my mind off things. He didn't have a car either so we would catch the #11 bus down the Port in Elizabeth to Newark. From there we got the NY bus in front of Military Park and go into Port Authority. Then it was #7 train (Follow the Blue Arrows) to Flushing. For a little kid it really was an amazing experience. I remember all of these things except the WTC model and the Spanish paintings. Kind of disappointed that they didn't include the Coca-Cola Pavilion which was my favorite.

Hope this brings back some memories for some of you and shows some of you young guys what you missed. Zap I'm sure you were there a few times.Make sure you watch the included videos.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/56322/20-awesome-things-people-saw-1964-worlds-fair
Click to expand...

Thank you for this, many great memories from my childhood, still have that song stuck in my head
 
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I was once while in 5th grade and once in 6th grade. Made a big impression on me. I still remember the Ford Pavillion w the ride featuring their new Mustang cars.

Freedomland nearby was also great.
 
Went to Freedomland. Remember my uncle bought me a Civil War hat. Even had a Confedrate flag on it. Ah the blatant racism of the early '60's! The wind blew it off my head into the seal pool.
Wasn't Freedomland in the Bronx though?
 
colbert17 said:
Went to Freedomland. Remember my uncle bought me a Civil War hat. Even had a Confedrate flag on it. Ah the blatant racism of the early '60's! The wind blew it off my head into the seal pool.
Wasn't Freedomland in the Bronx though?
Click to expand...

You are right, it was in the Bronx. I remember that Civil War reenactment ride, The San Francisco Earthquak, the Chicago fire too. I think if they had waited until after the Worlds Fair closed it might have made it. Too much competition too close by.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedomland_U.S.A.
 
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Thanks to the OP for posting this thread. By coincidence, I was just thinking about the fair a couple of days ago. I was in high school (Steinert) at the time and we went up 6 times. To a kid who had never really gone anywhere at that point, it was like having the world at your feet. The Pieta in the Vatican Pavilion was one of the highlights along with several others mentioned above.

But my thoughts the other day focused on trying to recall which African country had a pavilion there. It was Sierra Leone, which had just recently gained its independence from the UK. I recall it's modest pavilion at the fair serving as an expression of the country's hopes for the future and I remember how we all rather simplistically assumed back then that the end of colonialism would allow Africa to develop and prosper. But that was before the reality of neocolonialism set in and Africans came to realize that political independence was not necessarily followed by economic independence. So that memory of the fair was a rather sobering one.

There have been few if any fairs since then that come anywhere near to the 1964-5 fair and I never hear anything about "world's fairs" any longer. Nowadays, they're probably too expensive to be economically viable ventures for cities/regions to undertake. But perhaps the "need" for them is diminished in a world where we can welcome the world into our homes through the internet and have instant access to just about anything that might interest us.
 
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My high school band went to the Fair twice to play. Aunt and cousins came down from MA and stayed with us to go in.

A few years later, we went to concert in the old NY pavilion - Led Zepp and Crosby Stills Nash.
 
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The last week before the Worlds Fair closed, my 6th grade teacher asked who hadn't been to the Worlds Fair. I was one of maybe 8-10 kids who hadn't gone. She was a nun and wanted us to see Michelangelo's The Pieta. So she took the group of us on the last Saturday the Worlds Fair was open. We took the bus to the Port Authority Bus Terminal and the subway. I don't recall much supervision while there as we wandered around on our own but the day made quite an impression especially the Futurama exhibit.
 
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I was 8 years old. Great memories. Thanks for posting it.

Best of Luck,
Groz
 
I went to the original Worlds Fair in 1939.Group from High School with a teacher as monitor/guide.Enjoyed it immensely because of the remarkable products promised in the future.Dropped my Mom and her Husband off at JFK,in 1964. My wife,2 and 4 year old Daughters and I went to the Fair. It didn't have the same feeling for me as the first time. I was an adult and possessed many of the things that the First Fair had promised.Best part of the time spent there was eating Tempura outside the Japanese Exhibit.
 
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colbert17 said:
Putting this on the football board since there was no game this week and the O.T. board hs been taken over by politics. I wanted people to see this and it doesn't get lost in the Clinton/Trump nonsense.

I was 7 when the Fair opened. It was the spring right after my dad died and my uncle use to take me there about once a month to probably get my mind off things. He didn't have a car either so we would catch the #11 bus down the Port in Elizabeth to Newark. From there we got the NY bus in front of Military Park and go into Port Authority. Then it was #7 train (Follow the Blue Arrows) to Flushing. For a little kid it really was an amazing experience. I remember all of these things except the WTC model and the Spanish paintings. Kind of disappointed that they didn't include the Coca-Cola Pavilion which was my favorite.

Hope this brings back some memories for some of you and shows some of you young guys what you missed. Zap I'm sure you were there a few times.Make sure you watch the included videos.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/56322/20-awesome-things-people-saw-1964-worlds-fair
Click to expand...

thank you very much for posting this....... sorry there is no like very much icon
 
I was 10 and we took a bus trip with the local rec center in Highland Park. I have friends who still have chachkis from the Fair. I didn't sleep for a week after .Amazing.
 
I wasn't 5 or 6 years old when when went. I remember quite a few of the attractions. I definitely remember seeing Michaelangelo's Pieta. I saw it at the Vatican in 1986 and again this summer. I told our guide that I had seen it in NYC and he was shocked that it had left the country. Different times then.
 
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I was 19 at the time and a bunch of us went together. I remember the Shaefer beer pavilion and we stole one of the plastic signs attached to the umbrella pole at our table. Have no idea what it said or who kept it. One of our crowd (now a lawyer) stole a bottle of wine right out of a display (Egypt Pavillion) alongside the escalator as we were going down it. Security chased us but he got away.
Looking back on it, we were lucky to not get arrested. Ah, stupid teenagers doing stupid things.
 
Rich, If we could get you back there you would do the same things...:sunglasses: And you would enjoy it...
 
colbert17 said:
I had some souvenir booklets from the different exhibits and a batch of View Finder slides that I sold on line a couple of years ago. People will pay a lot.
Click to expand...

Ah view finder slides. I think I still had some from Disney World and my Great Aunt (Poland and else) before I lost pretty much all in storage. I remember they used to sell packs of those things in Sears in Watchung as a kid. Re travel it was like having someone take pics for you.

BTW Colbert re eBay I once got $150+ for a McDonaldland playset on ebay and $15-$20 for a Hamburgler figure. Heavy bidding.
 
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Saw a video on Youtube for The Zombies "Time of the Season" with scenes where they're walking around the World's Fair. I recognize the main entrance, NY state pavilion, the Sinclair pavilion and the Maryland pavilion (one one with the little ship in the water).

 
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AshSaturday said:
There's actually a world's fair version of the singer? sewing machine from one of the fairs.
Click to expand...
Singer definitely had a pavilion. Louis Armstrong Stadium I believe was originally called the Singer Bowl.
One of my favorites was National Cash Registers building. You could go in and play with all the "modern" cash registers.

c9f1c165910916fea038267615e82546.jpg
 
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colbert17 said:
Putting this on the football board since there was no game this week and the O.T. board hs been taken over by politics. I wanted people to see this and it doesn't get lost in the Clinton/Trump nonsense.

I was 7 when the Fair opened. It was the spring right after my dad died and my uncle use to take me there about once a month to probably get my mind off things. He didn't have a car either so we would catch the #11 bus down the Port in Elizabeth to Newark. From there we got the NY bus in front of Military Park and go into Port Authority. Then it was #7 train (Follow the Blue Arrows) to Flushing. For a little kid it really was an amazing experience. I remember all of these things except the WTC model and the Spanish paintings. Kind of disappointed that they didn't include the Coca-Cola Pavilion which was my favorite.

Hope this brings back some memories for some of you and shows some of you young guys what you missed. Zap I'm sure you were there a few times.Make sure you watch the included videos.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/56322/20-awesome-things-people-saw-1964-worlds-fair
Click to expand...


In 1964 I entered Rutgers- Newark - for my first two years before transferring down to the New Brunswick Campus (staying at Hardenberg)/ then living off campus my senior year on the Douglass side.

After attending a mixer in early 1965 I met a girl from NY and started dating her. She lived in Queens near St. John's.
So every Friday or Saturday for about 4 month's I would borrow my dad's Rambler American (with no carpeting, rubber flooring....we learned a lesson- never buy the bottom of the line). From Bloomfield through the route's to the tunnel and then at 18 y.o. I was driving through Manhattan to a throughway that took me past the World's Fair / out to her house.

We visited the Fair several times: loved the German Beer Gardens. Several of my best friends (the reason I transferred) and I attended games at Shea Stadium and it seemed like you were entering the future.

I believe James Bond's car (from Goldfinger) was exhibited at the fair (but I'm not googling it...so it might be a senior moment). The atmosphere made it seem like ANYTHING was possible...

And I wish the fair would come back to NY / NJ....so that anything could be possible again.

MO
 
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Well I was 7 & 8 during the Fair so no doobies for me. Got my fix from Pixie Stix and Candy Cigarettes.
Two of my older brothers went over but not until 66 and 68. I don't think the country got involved big time until the spring of 1965 when LBJ sent the Marines over.
 
AshSaturday said:
Cool stuff. I was born n 1963 but in my hotel room here a couple of connections to my late uncle. I bELieve: 1) There are a few pictures of the fair here in my hotel room. In fact my extended family may have gone to earlier versions (the ones from Wisconsin may have gone to Chicago); 2) My Uncle worked for RCA and then NJ Bell in NB and 3) coincidentally a few years later owned a hot looking ford mustang he'd drive me in (mostly fishing).

I guess the Disney exhibits were moved or duplicated as "It's a Small World" (my mother's favorite) was and I assume still is a staple attraction of the Orlando Park. I remember riding in the boat with my family at the park back in 1976. I remember my Mom crying she was so happy to be there (she lost her Mom at age 7 I think and her Grandmom her frosh year at Rutgers Pharma. Father killed himself in 1969). Mom said this was likely one of one or two times we'd be together at Disney as a family. She was right-she went with my Dad again and passed at age 56

I remember the steel structure of the globe is still there-it's occasionally shown on the news.
Click to expand...

I think the "It's a Small World" ride from the Fair was shipped out west to Disneyland. The one in Orlando is a re-creation.
 
colbert17 said:
Well I was 7 & 8 during the Fair so no doobies for me. Got my fix from Pixie Stix and Candy Cigarettes.
Two of my older brothers went over but not until 66 and 68. I don't think the country got involved big time until the spring of 1965 when LBJ sent the Marines over.
Click to expand...

Hey it's Halloween and were talking pixie sticks and candy cigarettes. Is there another holiday that died over the years? When I was a kid I took a nice sized plastic pumpkin and half filled it with candy. At my old house in the 70's and early 80's we'd get 80-105 trick or treaters. In late years 0 to maybe 3-6 (and that was years ago-I wasn't home for the most of the final 10 years or so.
 
Between the SJW and all the fears around tainted candy trick or treating is practically dead. Remember the good old days when all you had to worry about were razor blades and straight pins in apples?

hqdefault.jpg
 
I was there. Remember something like Dinosaur Land or Land of Yesterday, where you glided through landscapes with moving dinosaurs. At the end of it, there were machines where you selected your dino, and the machine made it for you on the spot. Had to have one, of course. A stegosaurus.
 
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