The 1964-65 New York World's Fair

This is episode 5 of Remembrances Back in the Day: The 1964–65 New York World’s Fair. The New York World’s Fair ran from April thru October in 1964 and April thru October in 1965. This was at a time when everything seemed possible, we had just sent a man into space, the Beatles had just hit our shores, the Vietnam War was still in the background and the 1967 and 68 riots were still in th future. If you watch the AMC show Mad Man, this is around the time period it was based on. The fair was boycotted by most European and all communist bloc countries, so it was dominated by American industry and technology. It celebrated the US entrance into space and had an actual stage 1 rocket you could explore. There was a pavilions that showed people living on the moon and under the sea. There was a pavilion showing dinosaurs that moved and roared. 

One of the most popular pavilions was the one that celebrated computers. At this time computers were large enough they had to be housed in large rooms, so this was the first time most people got anywhere near a computer. Most of the expositions in this pavilion simply showed computers taking large amount of data and producing a list, like historic events for a certain year. The IBM exposition was different it actually attempted to show how computers worked. I do remember the PictaPhone which was a phone where you could see the person you were talking too, and in 1964 that was magical. I also remember getting a chocolate icecream cone on the way home. The NY World’s Fair was exciting and tiring for a 6 year old. It was a celebration of where we had been and where we might be going. To learn more about the 1964–1965 World’s Fair go to New York 1964 World’s Fair, which includes several good articles about the fair and a map of the fairground. Thank you for listening and have a good week.