#WorldsFair64: How Walt Disney Resurrected Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln returned to mechanical life for World’s Fair audiences, thanks to one of his biggest fans.

by Rich Watson 

Walt Disney was an integral part of the creation of the 1964 New York World’s Fair. The filmmaker and animator helped design and create pavilions for a number of corporate clients. The song “It’s a Small World,” written by the Sherman Brothers for the Fair, became an iconic theme at Disney’s theme parks.

He also spearheaded a new form of technology used to bring an American president back to life, after a fashion, a century after his death.

#WorldsFair64: Sid & Marty Krofft’s Naughty Puppet Show

Before they conquered Saturday morning TV, the Krofft brothers came to the World’s Fair with a racy puppet show.

by Rich Watson 

During the seventies, puppeteers Sid and Marty Krofft created live-action children’s shows that made them superstars of Saturday morning television. Before that, their puppets entertained adults in prime time. 

Their live theater show played World’s Fairs. A show that featured more risqué material.

#WorldsFair64: Uniroyal’s Giant Tire Ferris Wheel Was a Hit in New York and Later, Detroit

This giant tire was born as a World’s Fair Ferris wheel and became a Motor City icon.

by Rich Watson 

Due to a dispute between the international sanctioning body in charge of world’s fairs and New York Fair Director Robert Moses, corporate sponsorship dominated the 1964 Fair. Lots of major businesses created pavilions for the event.

Among them included the U.S. Rubber Company, known today as Uniroyal. They took a creative approach into making something common to fairs everywhere: a Ferris wheel in the shape of a tire.

#WorldsFair64: “Parable” and “To Be Alive!” Were Unconventional Films That Generated Buzz

Among the films screened at the World’s Fair include these two, which delighted and divided audiences.

by Rich Watson 

During the 1964 World’s Fair, the Protestant and Orthodox Pavilion played Parable, a short film. The Johnson Wax Pavilion showed To Be Alive!, another short.

These two films had different agendas, to say the least, and had different receptions. One bewildered audiences. The other won an Oscar.

#WorldsFair64: The Taste of Belgian Waffles

This delicacy from an unfamiliar part of the world dazzled World’s Fair audiences.

by Rich Watson 

Belgian waffles didn’t debut at the 1964 World’s Fair, but it was where they were popularized. 

A wider variety of exhibiting nations came to the Fair than in previous years. As a result, dishes we take for granted today—falafel, tandoori chicken, hummus, and kimchi, among others—first made a splash with an American audience there. 

The biggest hit may have been this dessert from Brussels.

#WorldsFair64: The New York State Pavilion and Its Second Chance at Life

This architectural oddity from the New York World’s Fair still stands today.

by Rich Watson 

Flushing Meadows-Corona Park hosted two World’s Fairs, in 1939-40 and 1964-65. Evidence of their existence remains, but as a kid growing up in Queens, I didn’t recognize it as such. 

Later in life I learned about the Fairs. I discovered the New York State Pavilion, one of the 1964 Fair’s biggest attractions, was being resuscitated from obscurity.

Five Reasons Why Shea Stadium is Synonymous With the 7 Train

The best way to have gotten to Shea Stadium was via the elevated train that runs through Queens. They had some things in common.

by Rich Watson 

The Shea Stadium site, says Google Maps, is seven minutes by car from the house I grew up in. Because I lived so close, I seldom relied on the 7 train to see my Mets. 

When I did use it, my perspective of the stadium changed. The sight of it, looming through the windows of the train car as it left the 111th Street station, inspired me. It recalled past glories, especially the 1986 championship season. It made me hope for future ones.

CitiField may be the Mets’ home now, but the ghost of Shea and the 7, in my mind at least, remain linked. 

They had a few commonalities.