New York:
"Building The World of Tomorrow"
April 30, 1939 to October 31, 1940
"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. To its visitors the Fair will say: “Here are the materials, ideas, and forces at work in our world. These are the tools with 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." (Official New York World's Fair Pamphlet)
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60 nations, 33 states and U.S. territories, and over 1,000 exhibitors participated in the fair. The fair also launched a new type of world's fair where Corporate America played a large part in the development of the fair. Powerful corporations such as automobile giant General Motors and the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) constructed buildings devoted to the theme of the fair. The General Motors Building contained Futurama, a 36,000 square foot scale model of the United States in 1960 encompassing futuristic homes, urban complexes, landscape, and an advanced highway system similar to the structure crossing the nation today. |
First RCA televisions (Early Television Museum)
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The opening ceremony of the fair was broadcast live, and President Roosevelt became the first televised president (Early Television Museum)
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The RCA building housed the most avant-garde invention of the fair, the television. Public television broadcasting began the same day as the fair's inauguration with the presentation being the first event aired on public television.
Interactive Map- Hover over a point to view the caption
Note: All images and captions from above are from the University of Virginia - http://xroads.virginia.edu
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excerpt from Time Magazine's "What happened to the World’s Fair?"
