What Remains of New York's 1964 World's Fair?

The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair was a world's fair that held over 140 pavilions and 110 restaurants, representing 80 nations (hosted by 37), 24 US states, and over 45 corporations with the goal and the final result of building exhibits or attractions at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, New York City.[1][2][3] The immense fair covered 646 acres (2.61 km2) on half the park, with numerous pools or fountains, and an amusement park with rides near the lake. However, the fair did not receive official support or approval from the Bureau of International Expositions (BIE). Hailing itself as a "universal and international" exposition, the fair's theme was "Peace Through Understanding", dedicated to "Man's Achievement on a Shrinking Globe in an Expanding Universe". American companies dominated the exposition as exhibitors. The theme was symbolized by a 12-story-high, stainless-steel model of the Earth called the Unisphere, built on the foundation of the Perisphere from the 1939 World's Fair.[4] The fair ran for two six-month seasons, April 22 - October 18, 1964, and April 21 - October 17, 1965. Admission price for adults (13 and older) was $2.00 in 1964 (equivalent to $17.47 in 2021 after calculating for inflation). Admission in 1965 increased to $2.50 (equivalent to $21.5 in 2021 after calculating for inflation). In both years, children (2-12) admission cost $1.00 (equivalent to $8.74 in 2021 after calculating for inflation).[5] The fair is noted as a showcase of mid-twentieth-century American culture and technology. The nascent Space Age, with its vista of promise, was well represented. More than 51 million people attended the fair, though fewer than the hoped-for 70 million. It remains a touchstone for many American Baby Boomers who visited the optimistic exposition as children, before the turbulent years of the Vietnam War and many to be forthcoming cultural changes. In many ways the fair symbolized a grand consumer show, covering many products then-produced in America for transportation, living, and consumer electronic needs in a way that would never be repeated at future world's fairs in North America. American manufacturers of pens, chemicals, computers, and automobiles had a major presence.[2][1] This fair gave many attendees their first interaction with computer equipment. Corporations demonstrated the use of mainframe computers, computer terminals with keyboards and CRT displays, teletype machines, punch cards, and telephone modems in an era when computer equipment was kept in back offices away from the public, decades before the Internet and home computers were at everyone's disposal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices