Description: WF-74 DT-87417-B GENERAL MOTORS FUTURAMA BUILDING - New York World's Fair 1964-1965. “Peace through Understanding" This building, the largest ever constructed for a Fair exhibit, is keynoted by an enormous slanting canopy 110 feet high over the entrance to the exhibit area. The exhibit projects its visitors into the life of the future as predicted by GM's technicians. UNISPHERE® Presented by USS United States Steel © 1961, 1962, 1964 NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR 1964-1965 CORPORATION OFFICIAL World's Fair Post Cards by Dexter, West Nyack, New York Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, Grand Central Parkway and Van Wyck Expressway, Queens, Queens County, New York 11354 "Futurama was originally an exhibit and ride at the 1939 New York World's Fair designed by Norman Bel Geddes, which presented a possible model of the world 20 years into the future (1959–1960). The installation was sponsored by the General Motors Corporation and was characterized by automated highways and vast suburbs. Background Geddes had built a model city for a Shell Oil advertising campaign in 1937 that was described as the Shell Oil City of Tomorrow and was effectively a prototype for the much larger and more ambitious Futurama. Overview Geddes' "vision of the future" was rather achievable; the most advanced technology posited was the automated highway system of which General Motors built a working prototype by 1960. Futurama is widely held to have first introduced the general American public to the concept of a network of expressways connecting the nation. It provided a direct connection between the streamlined style which was popular in America at the time, and the concept of steady-flow which appeared in street and highway design in the same period. Geddes expounds upon his design in his book Magic Motorways: Futurama is a large-scale model representing almost every type of terrain in America and illustrating how a motorway system may be laid down over the entire country—across mountains, over rivers and lakes, through cities and past towns—never deviating from a direct course and always adhering to the four basic principles of highway design: safety, comfort, speed, and economy. The modeled highway construction emphasized hope for the future as it served as a proposed solution to traffic congestion of the day, and demonstrated the probable development of traffic in proportion to the automotive growth of the next 20 years. Bel Geddes assumed that the automobile would be the same type of carrier and still the most common means of transportation in 1960, albeit with increased vehicle use and traffic lanes also capable of much higher speeds. Four general ideas for improvement were incorporated into the exhibition showcase to meet these assumptions. First, each section of road was designed to receive greater capacity of traffic. Second, traffic moving in one direction could be isolated from traffic moving in any other. Third, segregating traffic by subdividing towns and cities into certain units restricted traffic and allowed pedestrians to predominate. And fourth, traffic control included maximum and minimum speeds. Through this, the exhibition was designed to inspire greater public enthusiasm and support for the constructive work and planning of streets and highways. The popularity of the Futurama exhibit fit closely with the fair's overall theme of "The World of Tomorrow" in its emphasis on the future and its redesign of the American landscape. The highway system was supported within a 1 acre (0.40 ha) animated model of a projected America containing more than 500,000 individually designed buildings, a million trees of 13 different species, and approximately 50,000 cars, 10,000 of which traveled along a 14-lane multi-speed interstate highway. It prophesied an American utopia regulated by an assortment of cutting-edge technologies: multi-lane highways with remote-controlled semi-automated vehicles (according to Geddes' Magic Motorways, these vehicles are supposed to be equipped with lane centering and lane change/blind spot assist systems), power plants, farms for artificially produced crops, rooftop platforms for individual flying machines, and various gadgets, all intended to make an ideal built environment and ultimately to reform society. Geddes' "future" was synonymous with technological progress in its simulated low-flying airplane journey through the exhibit. The aerial journey was simulated by an 18-minute ride on a conveyor system, carrying 552 seated spectators at a time, covering a ⅓-mile winding path through the model, along with light, sound, and color effects. The ride moved at a rate of approximately 120 ft (37 m) per minute or 1.36 mph (2.19 km/h), allowing spectators to look down through a continuous curved pane of glass towards the model. The virtue of this elevated position allowed spectators to see multiple scales simultaneously, viewing city blocks in proportion to a highway system, as well as artificially controlled trees in glass domes. This scale was modeled off 408 topographical sections based on aerial photographs of different regions of the U.S. provided by Fairchild Aircraft Ltd. Reception Before General Motors invited Bel Geddes to submit a proposal for the exhibit, they had planned to put in another production line as was featured at their exhibit in the Century of Progress Exposition of 1933 in Chicago. However, after they heard Bel Geddes outline his project all other plans were scrapped as they favored his design for its appeal to a broader audience.[12][14] The Futurama exhibition was subsequently presented as one of the 1939 New York World Fair's main attractions, as it was the "number-one hit show". It was considered highly interesting by the public and critics alike, with journalists competing to find adequate words to convey Bel Geddes' "ingenuity", "daring", "showmanship" and "genius". One neutral survey of 1000 departing fairgoers awarded the General Motors exhibit 39.4 points to only 8.5 points for second place Ford as the most interesting exhibit. Business Week described the scene: More than 30,000 persons daily, the show's capacity, inch along the sizzling pavement in long queues until they reach the chairs which transport them to a tourist's paradise. It unfolds a prophecy of cities, towns, and countrysides served by a comprehensive road system. His ideas of the future were considered to have a remarkable degree of realism and immediacy, especially for an American audience slowly recovering from the Great Depression and that was longing for prosperity. Futurama's imaginary landscape of 1960 was, at the time, seen not just as a novel physical space, but as a glimpse of the future. Legacy The General Motors pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair included a ride, Futurama II, that was also known as "The New Futurama". The 1964 version had a 110 foot tall front facade which was tilted toward the viewer as they approached the front of the building. Inside, moving theater seats took visitors on a multi-media ride into the future around the world, narrated by a description of all the future scenarios. After the 15 minute ride, visitors exited into a showroom of futuristic models and current General Motors products. The October 1965 attendance statistics beat the old record from 1939 for the two-year period by about five million visitors, the largest ever attendance of any exhibit at any fair in the world. It is the namesake of the TV show Futurama." - Wikipedia "General Motors A detailed, knowledgeable look at the technological developments awaiting mankind is provided by this exhibitor, who performed the same service at the New York World's Fair of 1939. The predictions are all solidly based on fact; they picture, among other things, a visit to the moon, a year-round commercial harbor in the Antarctic, a vacation resort located underwater and some surprising aspects of the city of the future. The GM pavilion, one of the most eye-catching at the Fair, is keynoted by an enormous slanting canopy 110 feet high, balanced, by some architectural legerdemain, over the entrance to the exhibit area. In addition to the Futurama, displays show the range of research conducted by GM as well as the variety of products made by the company (automobiles through home appliances). There are three experimental cars and five dream kitchens. General Motors was probably the biggest hit of the 1939-40 New York World's Fair, with crowds lining up for hours for visions of the future in the "Futurama" show. This meant there were big expectations when the automotive giant announced they would host "Futurama II" at the new Fair. As soon as the crowds saw the beautiful pavilion they knew they would not be disappointed. Indeed, General Motors would once again prove to be the hit of the Fair. Lunar surface The New Futurama. In this updated version of GM's classic ride into the future, visitors sit in individual plastic contour seats equipped with speakers that supply a narration. The seats move along a track that alternately dips and climbs though the two floors of the exhibition hall. A trip to the moon starts the ride taking the visitor past a scale model whose craters and canyons are dotted with manned "lunar-crawlers" and commuter space ships. " - https://www.worldsfairphotos.com/nywf64/general-motors.htm Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, a former ash dump in the New York City borough of Queens, was used for the 1939/1940 New York World's Fair. At the conclusion of the fair, it was used as a park. The Flushing Meadows site was selected in 1959 for the 1964 New York World's Fair. Gilmore David Clarke and Michael Rapuano, designers of the original World's Fair layout, were retained to tailor the original 1939 park layout for the new fair. New York City parks commissioner Robert Moses was president of the World's Fair Corporation, which leased the park from the city until 1967, after the fair's completion. Planning After the 1964 fair was announced, Moses wished to make a symbol that represented the fair's theme of "Peace Through Understanding", which would also have some "significance or meaning for the average person". The symbol would also celebrate the beginning of the space age Moses first asked designer Walter Dorwin Teague to make a "Theme Center". Teague designed the center as a 170-foot-tall (52 m) inverted cone surrounded by a spiral, rising from a reflecting pool. Moses declined the proposal, calling it a "cross between a part of a brake engine and a bed spring, or should I say between a Malayan Tapir and a window shutter". Another proposal was devised by Paul Rudolph on behalf of the Portland Cement Association. This plan called for a saucer measuring 300 feet (91 m) in diameter and tilted 18 degrees from the ground, with a restaurant, exhibits, educational and recreational facilities, and "planetary viewing stations". Moses also rejected Rudolph's proposal. The idea for the Unisphere occurred in September 1960 as Clarke was doodling on an airplane from Ohio to New York. Clarke had sketched a metal armillary on the rear of an envelope. By the time he got to his office, Clarke had refined his plan into a revolving globe with rings of latitude and longitude. Clarke asked another architect working under his office, William S. Boice, to sketch the structure. Since the method of the sculpture's revolution had not yet been determined, Boice drew fountains to conceal the base. The Unisphere was conceptually designed in aluminum with metallic mesh continents.The globe would be tilted 23.5 degrees and would measure 160 feet (49 m) across. Capital cities would be represented on the globe by three sizes of lights, with larger lights for capitals deemed more important. Clarke showed the plan to Moses, who approved of it. Moses announced plans for the Unisphere in February 1961. The Unisphere would be erected at the site of the Perisphere of the 1939 World's Fair which was dismantled after the Fair, Moses commented that he "never understood" the Perisphere and its Trylon. According to Moses, the Unisphere "illustrates, symbolizes and embodies man's achievements on a shrinking globe in an expanding universe". The structure was to be constructed by American Bridge Company, a division of U.S. Steel. Further refinements were made by another of Clarke's architects, Peter Martecchini, who decided to place three columns at the globe's pedestal after playing with a rubber ball belonging to one of his sons. Martecchini developed a working model for a moving platform, composed of three pegs, each topped by a pair of metal disks and a toothed disk with a bolt, supporting a plywood platform. A model of the proposed work was unveiled in 1962. Clarke's idea underwent a further refined industrial design in stainless steel by industrial designers at Peter Muller-Munk Associates. Some of the original design details were controversial. Several landmasses such as Cyprus and Crete had been left out of the original design, and the lights representing capital cities were criticized on the grounds that the process of selecting "important" capitals was subjective. U.S. Steel rejected the idea of a spinning globe due to high costs, though it did retain Martecchini's idea of a three-pointed pedestal. In addition, the globe was reduced from 150 to 120 feet (46 to 37 m) after Clarke talked with U.S. Steel's board chairman Roger Blough, who said the globe would only be as high as a ten-story brick building outside his office. The final design was similar to the original, but the fountains were arranged differently. The 1964–1965 New York World's Fair was an international exposition at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City, United States. The fair included exhibitions, activities, performances, films, art, and food presented by 80 nations, 24 U.S. states, and nearly 350 American companies. The 646-acre (261 ha) fairground consisted of five sections: the Federal and State, International, Transportation, Lake Amusement, and Industrial areas. The fair was themed to "peace through understanding" and was centered on the Unisphere, a stainless-steel model of the Earth. Initially, the fair had 139 pavilions, in addition to 34 concessions and shows. The site had previously hosted the 1939 New York World's Fair. Several businessmen devised plans for a 1964 fair in the 1950s, and the New York World's Fair 1964 Corporation (WFC) was formed in 1959. Although U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower approved the fair, the Bureau International des Expositions never recognized it. Construction began in late 1960, and over a hundred exhibitors signed up for the fair over the next three years. The fair ran for two six-month seasons: April 22 to October 18, 1964, and April 21 to October 17, 1965. Despite initial projections of 70 million visitors, the fair had just over 51.6 million guests. After the fair, some pavilions were preserved or relocated, but most structures were demolished. The fair showcased mid-20th-century American culture and technology. The different sections were designed in various architectural styles, though anyone could host an exhibit if they could afford to rent the land and pay for a pavilion. The fairground had several amusement and transport rides, as well as various plazas and fountains. The fair had 198 restaurants at its peak, and dishes served at these restaurants, such as Belgian waffles, were popularized through the fair. There were more than 30 entertainment events at the fair, in addition to 40 theaters and various music performances. Exhibitors also displayed sculptures, visual art, and artifacts, along with consumer products such as electronics and cars. The contemporary press criticized the event as a financial failure. Nonetheless, the fair helped influence 21st-century technologies and popularized consumer products such as Belgian waffles and the Ford Mustang. Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, Queens, Queens County, New York (often referred to as Flushing Meadows Park or simply Flushing Meadows) is a public park in the northern part of Queens in New York City, New York, U.S. It is bounded by I-678 (Van Wyck Expressway) on the east, Grand Central Parkway on the west, Flushing Bay on the north, and Union Turnpike on the south. Flushing Meadows–Corona Park is the fourth-largest public park in New York City, with a total area of 897 acres (363 ha). Until the 19th century, the site consisted of wetlands straddling the Flushing River, which traverses the region from north to south. Starting in the first decade of the 20th century, it was used as a dumping ground for ashes, since at the time, the land was so far away from the developed parts of New York City as to be considered almost worthless. New York City Parks Commissioner Robert Moses first conceived the idea of developing a large park in Flushing Meadow in the 1920s as part of a system of parks across eastern Queens. Flushing Meadows–Corona Park was created as the site of the 1939 New York World's Fair and also hosted the 1964 New York World's Fair. Following the 1964 fair, the park fell into disrepair, although some improvements have taken place since the 1990s and 2000s. Flushing Meadows–Corona Park retains much of the layout from the 1939 World's Fair. Its attractions include the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, the current venue for the US Open tennis tournament; Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets baseball team; the New York Hall of Science; the Queens Museum; the Queens Theatre in the Park; the Queens Zoo; the Unisphere; and the New York State Pavilion. It formerly contained Shea Stadium, demolished in 2009. The Flushing River continues to run through the park, and two large lakes called Meadow and Willow Lakes take up much of the park's area south of the Long Island Expressway.1964–1965 New York CityUnisphere viewed from observation towers of the New York State PavilionOverviewBIE-classUnrecognized expositionName1964–1965 New York World's FairMottoPeace through Understanding[1]Building(s)Unisphere,[1] 139 pavilions, 34 concessions[2]Area646 acres (2.61 km2)[3]Visitors51,607,448[4][5]Organized byRobert MosesParticipant(s)Countries66[6][7] (80 including nations without full exhibits[1])BusinessNearly 350 companiesLocationCountryUnited StatesCityNew York CityVenueFlushing Meadows–Corona ParkTimelineBidding1959[8]AwardedN/A[6]OpeningApril 22, 1964 (first season)[9]April 21, 1965 (second season)[10]ClosureOctober 18, 1964 (first season)[11]October 17, 1965 (second season)[12]UniversalPreviousCentury 21 Exposition in SeattleNextExpo 67 in MontrealInternetWebsitewww.nywf64.com
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Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
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Item Specifics
Return shipping will be paid by: Seller
All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 30 Days
Refund will be given as: Money Back
Unit of Sale: Single Unit
Number of Items in Set: 1
Size: Standard (5.5 x 3.5 in)
Material: Cardboard, Paper
Year Manufactured: 1964
City: Queens
Brand/Publisher: PUBLISHED BY NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR 1964-1965 CORPORATION
Subject: General Motors Futurama Bldg, 1964/5 World's Fair Flushing Queens
Continent: North America
Type: Printed (Lithograph)
Unit Type: Unit
Era: Photochrome (1939-Now)
Country: United States
Region: New York
Theme: Architecture, Cities & Towns, Events, Exhibitions, Exposition, Famous Places, Patriotic, People, Roadside America, Social History, Technology, Tourism, Travel, Grand Central Parkway and Van Wyck Expressway, Queens, General Motors Futurama Building, "Peace through Understanding"
Features: Chrome, Divided Back
Time Period Manufactured: 1960-1969
Unit Quantity: 1
Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
Postage Condition: Unposted
