April 30, 1939
The 1939 New York World’s Fair at Flushing-Meadows Corona Park was formally opened. This world’s fair ranks second only to the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis as the largest event of its kind to be held in the United States.
With its opening slogan of “Dawn of a New Day,” the 1939 New York World’s Fair emphasized a future-oriented theme. The official pamphlet for that exposition noted, “The eyes of the Fair are on the future — not in the sense of peering toward the unknown nor attempting to foretell the events of tomorrow and the shape of things to come, but in the sense of presenting a new and clearer view of today in preparation for tomorrow; a view of the forces and ideas that prevail as well as the machines.”
This forward-looking motif was evident within the vast area set aside for the Fair’s Transportation Zone. One of the more ambitious and best-remembered displays in that zone took place at the General Motors pavilion, where visitors could see the Futurama exhibit that was created by industrial designer Norman Bel Geddes. That exhibit featured a large diorama of a fictional American landscape containing a wide array of miniature highways, towns, homes, vehicles, waterways, and trees. All of these elements became increasingly larger and ultimately life-size as the visitors, sitting in chairs overhead, moved above the exhibit. (A portion of this diorama is featured in the accompanying photo.)
Other notable exhibits within the Fair’s Transportation Zone included a figure-eight track — complete with race car drivers speeding along it — on the roof of the Ford Pavilion; and a theater used by Chrysler to show a 3D film of a Plymouth automobile being assembled. The Fair also featured a “Railroads on Parade” live drama that reenacted the origins and history of that transportation mode and included various trains for visitors to view.
Photo Credit: Public Domain
For more information on the 1939 New York World’s Fair, please check out https://archives.nypl.org/mss/2233
Additional information on this fair’s Futurama exhibit is available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurama_(New_York_World%27s_Fair)
Transportation History 