The New York World’s Fair of 1939 opened on this date—a sweltering April day in the Big Apple. Despite the heat, over 200,000 people showed up.
President Franklin Roosevelt gave the opening address—and became the first U.S. President to appear on television—the first day of regularly scheduled TV broadcasting in New York. Never mind that virtually no one had a television back then. Hey, the future has arrived!
Spanning 1,200 acres in Flushing Meadows, the World’s Fair introduced other new technologies, like FM broadcasting, robotics, fluorescent lighting and a crude fax machine! Albert Einstein gave a speech on cosmic rays and major corporations gave their vision of the future while simultaneously introducing new products.
This blog is all about the videos below. The first is a glimpse of what visitors encountered at the various exhibits. The second is a narrated look into the “future”, envisioning the world in…1960!!! Yes, 1960 was surely the future when sitting in New York 71 years ago. The exhibit was put together by General Motors, so there is a definite slant towards transportation. As such, even though it is a two-part segment, I’ve put what I believe is the more interesting second segment here. If you wish to see the first, it is right there as a choice on You Tube.
The most fascinating aspect of GM’s projection of 1960—is just how WRONG it turned out to be. First of all, it seems that total transportation transformation was somehow supposed to take place in a span of twenty years.
Who knows? When this exhibit and film were made, the U.S. had no idea that Pearl Harbor would be attacked two and a half years later—and that America would be drawn into World War II.
Enjoy the following vintage film clips—especially the one that “looks ahead” to the year 1960--the first one is merely a LINK--"Embedding" the player in this blog was disabled---but it is DEFINITELY worth clicking on the link to watch!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZRVtdwzdDI&feature=fvw
Here's Part 2 of the GM exhibit film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU7dT2HId-c&NR=1
If you’d like my blog in your weekday box, just let me know: tim.moore@citcomm.com
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment