Today is the 50th Anniversary of the opening of the 1964 New York World's Fair...
...and tomorrow is the 75th Anniversary of the opening of the 1939 New York World's Fair.
Several of my personal artifacts (dealing with transportation features) will be on exhibit at the Queens Historical Society starting in July.
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1904 St. Louis and the 1893 Chicago Worlds Fairs. I love the history. One of my favorite pieces, though not the most valuable, is a report from the salvage company which was awarded the contract to restore the site of the 1904 fair. The volume of steel, bronze, copper, etc. salvaged from the site is astounding. The manufacturers and companies who exhibited went all out in the early days of the fair.
It was Simmons Hardwares display that first sparked my interest. I have a booklet about this exhibit with a full list of the materials used to build it. The display was made entirely of items sold by Simmons. Designed and directed by James Carroll it won several awards for its movement. A few pieces if the display survived and are in collections of some of my friends.
The windmill turned, on either side of the archway were blacksmiths pounding on knife blades, the pinwheels turned, the nature scene under the archway had running water simulated by Jack chain, the knife and scissors on either side opened and closed....
The first day I was there I discovered the Polynesian exhibit. Being a drummer, I hung around the drummers and dancers and finally got to 'sit in.' After that, I spent every extra minute there, playing on an old biscuit tin. Heaven.
Then in 1989 I had a chance to go to Tahiti..Papeete, Moorea, Bora Bora, Huahine, Raiatea... on the way back from NZ. First for 7 days, couldn't leave, 10 days, 2 weeks, 3 weeks.. you can guess what I did most of the time..
