Commemorating the 85th Anniversary of the 1939 World’s Fair Showcasing American Meets International History. Postcards Keep World’s Fair Icons Alive

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By Michael Perlman

“The World of Tomorrow” was a dominant theme of the 1939 – 1940 World’s Fair, which attracted millions of New York residents and tourists to Flushing Meadow for a celebration of technological innovations and cultural history like no other in Queens. It spanned the period of April 30, 1939 to October 27, 1940. Over 44 million visitors attended during both summers. A few years earlier, an ash dump existed.   

Since most brilliantly developed pavilions and monuments were planned as temporary structures, today it is unfortunate that very few physical remembrances exist, despite the lack of official landmark designations. Residents who have first-hand memories are diminishing, but linen-era hand-colored postcards among World’s Fair memorabilia in every form is on the rise, whether through postcard shows, eBay, or as a result of cleaning out basements and attics. These valuable keepsakes tell a unique educational story, with hopes that urban planners and individuals spanning every trade and interest, can coordinate a future World’s Fair on site, building upon the success of the more recent 1964 – 1965 World’s Fair. 

A foldout linen postcard, designed for the Exposition Souvenir Corporation by the Grinnell Litho. Co. read, “On the theory that the best commemoration is a re-dedication, the New York World’s Fair 1939 celebrates the 150^th anniversary of the inauguration of George Washington as the first President of the United States, by dedicating itself to the task of building a ‘Better World of Tomorrow.’ 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.”

It predicted that to its visitors, the Fair will say, “Here are the materials, ideas, and forces at work in our world. These are the tools which the World of Tomorrow must be made. They are all interesting and much effort has been expended to lay them before you in an interesting way. Familiarity with today is the best preparation for the future.” 

On October 21, 1935, the initial steps toward the Fair’s definitive plans were made at a special committee meeting at the Chamber of Commerce Building. Creative visionaries included Chamber of Commerce Secretary Jere D. Tamblyn, Dr. Thomas Darlington, Dr. Herman B. Baruch, Lawrence B. Ellman, and Joseph P. Day. 

The Fair’s centerpiece was the symbolic Trylon and Perisphere monuments, which were a 700-foot spire and a 200-foot in diameter sphere, respectively, designed by Wallace K. Harrison and J. Andre Fouilhoux. In March 1937, Fair President Grover Whalen said, “Entering the sphere, the visitor will emerge on the moving platform. The effect will be that of suddenly stepping out into space. Far beneath he will see cities and towns and farmland, and all the interdependent activity that links them. The scene will stretch off to the horizon on all sides, blending into the clouds and light patterns of the dome. The visitor will feel that he is part of the exhibit rather than a spectator.” He continued, “The Voice of the Fair will come from high up on the Trylon. Long range sound projectors will be mounted there. They will carry announcements to all parts of the grounds. This method of broadcasting will be an improvement, it is expected, on the older idea of a network of loudspeakers.”  

Fairgoers would exit the Perisphere across a bridge to the ground by steps inside the obelisk or by an exterior 900-foot Helicline, a sweeping ramp around the fountain, which offered a commanding view of the 1939 World’s Fair. The Trylon’s monumentality was evident structurally and atop through a beacon of light. It was estimated to be the equivalent of five to ten million candlepower, which would be evident for 30 miles at sea and approximately 200 miles by plane. 

“Early Sunday morning, there were throngs of people at each of the 11 gates leading to the 1,216 acres of the fairgrounds, and when finally the gates were opened, the crush was so dense that the advance was a tidal wave of humanity,” read Buffalo Evening News on May 1, 1939. Opening day ushered in over 600,000 attendees. “A parade of more than 20,000 workers and representatives of the nations cooperating; the military of many lands preceded the formal dedication, and following the dedication with special services at noon, of the Temple of Religion.” 

The agenda also featured a ceremonial reenactment in honor of President George Washington’s inauguration. “The great exposition became an official reality at 3:11 Sunday afternoon when President (Franklin Delano) Roosevelt, standing before thousands of men and women in the Court of Peace, declared the fair open to all mankind,” the publication continued. The time coincided with George Washington’s inauguration’s 150^th anniversary.

Mayor La Guardia dedicated Leo Friedlander’s Four Freedoms, 33-foot heroic sculptures representing the freedoms of speech, religion, assembly, and press at Constitution Mall, adjacent to the Trylon and Perisphere. The statuary also featured a 65-foot George Washington sculpture in an inaugural robe by James Earle Fraser. It was situated in front of the United States Government Building at the Court of Peace. Also on the agenda was an official lighting of the Fair at 9 PM, which featured flashing lights in the Trylon and bell-like notes of the Perisphere, which was granted impulse by cosmic rays and Albert Einstein’s titled address.

Performances of Billy Rose’s Aquacade at the Art Deco-style 11,000-seat New York State Marine Amphitheatre by architects Sloan & Robertson on Fountain Lake were among the most memorable for Fairgoers. Billy Rose was a showman, impresario, and lyricist, whose Aquacade production originated at Ohio’s Great Lakes Exposition in 1937. This swimming, music, and dance attraction delighted several million attendees at the 1939 – 1940 World’s Fair. “More than 5,000,000 persons saw the show, notable for its splendid specimens of youth and beauty, and its precision formation swimming,” read a postcard. Some Olympians included Eleanor Holm Jarret, Flushing resident Gertrude Ederle, who was the first woman to swim across the English Channel, and Johnny Weissmuller, Forest Hills’ New Hampshire Apartments resident who also portrayed Tarzan.   

“Some eight or nine thousand people sat back in their topcoats while the girls took a ducking at the premiere last evening. It is a large and handsome water carnival staged out-of-doors in a long swimming lagoon with an orchestra blaring into the night from a diving tower at one end a male chorus roaring into the loudspeakers at the other,” read The New York Times on May 5, 1939. This engineering, architectural, and entertainment marvel was converted into a public pool and entertainment venue after the Fair, but the Landmarks Preservation Commission failed to designate it, leading to demolition in 1996.  

The National Cash Register (100 model) Building, with its Art Moderne glory, featured the world’s largest active cash register at over 40 feet high with six-foot figures, and it stood 74 feet above the base. It revolved, enabling Fairgoers to see tallies of daily Fair attendance from every exposure. Stepping inside, a 7,857-part cash register was exhibited under glass. This was the product of famed industrial designer and illustrator Walter Dorwin Teague of 83 Beechknoll Road in Forest Hills Gardens. As a member of the Board of Design of the World Fair Corporation, his achievements also consisted of the U.S. Steel and Ford pavilions. 

The international use of cash registers was explored within six life-sized scenes. They consisted of a Burma shop, a Reykjavik rustic trading post, a Buenos Aires shop, and scenes in Paris and Tokyo among other destinations. Cairo featured an antique shop with an American tourist making a purchase.  

The Wonder Bakery pavilion’s façade, reminiscent of the bread wrapping’s colorful circles, offered spectators a close eye on each process in the art of baking Wonder Bread and Hostess Cake. The scene was enhanced by animated characters from Alice in Wonderland, Happy Wonder Bakers, and bright balloons. A wheat field outside of the pavilion was record-breaking as the only field of its kind within New York City in 68 years. When wheat was ready to harvest, it was ground into flour and baked on the premises.

Visitors uncovered the secrets of baking Wonder Bread. “For here is truly a miracle of modern industrial engineering – a giant, moving oven that literally takes Wonder Bread for a ride through scientifically controlled temperatures,” read an ad in the Tarrytown Daily News in September 1939. “This slow oven-baking is the key step in the famous Slo-Baking Method which we believe brings women of America the world’s finest bread.”

Stepping into the General Motors Building, consistent with the “Building the World of Tomorrow” theme, Fairgoers were presented with a concept of future motor traffic regulations and super-highways. It was the product of building designer Norman Bel Geddes and architect Albert Kahn. A continuous escalator enabled spectators in moving sound chairs to travel over super-highways into the “City of Tomorrow.” A full street intersection was replete with futuristic architecture, motor traffic, and pedestrian facilities. Also present was the countryside, picturesque cities and towns, snow-capped mountains, rivers, and lakes. The panorama extended for a third of a mile and granted an illusion of several miles.   

The General Electric Building, designed by architects Voorhees, Gmelin and Walker, and Harrison and Fouilhoux, stood within a 68,319-square foot parcel. Its brilliantly engineered three sections offered product displays, a 400-seat “House of Magic” auditorium, and Steinmetz Hall, where ten million volts of manmade lightning was generated and discharged, wowing Fairgoers. The steel lightning bolt in front weighed 12 tons. “The lightning strokes which dance around in General Electric’s building at the New York World’s Fair individually represent values equal to the combined output of a large part of the nation’s power stations, according to K.B. McEachron, G.E. research engineer,” read the Schenectady Gazette on June 2, 1939.   

The exhibition part of the pavilion featured Rockwell Kent’s huge mural, a portrayal of man’s progress and liberation through electricity. The modern marvels television studio was another novelty. Also featured was an x-ray exhibit, a classic laboratory where a glass-blower assembled replicas of Edison’s first lamp, presses that produce a World’s Fair souvenir, plastics, an appliance display, and a magic kitchen that sings, talks, and presents its own rendition of a dance. In the House of Magic, the audience became participants in the research lab developments, such as where colors of the theater and in one’s clothes were modified based on incandescent, mercury, neon, sodium, and UV lamps.

The “Manhattan” sculpture by Sidney Waugh was in front of The Hall of Marine Transportation pavilion, which was designed to resemble a pier with majestic prows of two superliners. This was the first building at a Fair to highlight maritime activities and accommodate marine exhibits. Exhibitors included domestic and foreign trans-Atlantic lines, coastal and inland waterway shipping interests, small boat manufacturers, shipyards, engines and marine equipment, and tourist bureaus and travel agencies.  

“A striking feature of the building will be the use of water as an integral part of the design. Not only will the twin prows rise sheer from a moat of water, suggesting liners in berth, but a semi-circular wing of the structure will partially enclose a basin in which full size yachts, cruisers, speedboats and other small craft will be displayed,” stated the North Shore Daily Journal on January 24, 1938. 

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