Tomorrow-Land
Page 43
Photograph courtesy of Bill Cotter
The General Electric Pavilion housed Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress, one of the World Fair’s most popular exhibits. The show featured an Audio-Animatronic family throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, whose lives were made progressively easier through the wonder of household gadgets (much like GE’s own).
Photograph courtesy of Bill Cotter
The Electric Power & Light’s Tower of Light was a series of aluminum-covered rectangular panels that illuminated in a rainbow of pastel hues equaling some 12-billion-candlepower, reportedly the world’s largest (and presumably, most expensive) searchlight.
Photograph courtesy of Bill Cotter
The heated controversy surrounding the mural in the Jordan Pavilion quickly became one of Robert Moses’ biggest headaches, and for a time, put Middle Eastern politics at the center of a World’s Fair devoted to “peace through understanding.”
Photograph courtesy of Bill Cotter
Andy Warhol’s mural Thirteen Wanted Men (silkscreen ink on masonite; 1964), commissioned by Philip Johnson for the World’s Fair, briefly hung on the architect’s New York State Pavilion along with several other Pop Art murals. But the controversial work was quickly painted over before being removed at Governor Rockefeller’s request.
Photograph: Eric Pollitzer © 2013 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Although Moses preferred the easy listening sounds of Guy Lombardo and disdained the amateur rock bands that played at the World’s Fair, Beatlemania was an unstoppable cultural phenomenon. The immensely popular Johnson & Johnson Wax Museum exhibit featured a replica Fab Four before the real band played Shea Stadium in August 1965, solidifying their dominance over the worlds of pop and rock.
Photograph courtesy of Bill Cotter
While the World’s Fair was a financial failure, it was—and remains—a seminal event in the lives of millions, occurring at a crucial moment in the history of New York and the nation, when the tectonic plates of American society were shifting rapidly.
Photograph courtesy of Bill Cotter