The 1964/1965 New York World's Fair hosted over 140 pavilions, 110 restaurants for 80 nations
(hosted by 37), 24 US states, and over 45 corporations. Every country, state, or company built an exhibit or attraction at
Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, New York. The immense fair covered 646 acres (261 ha), or half the
park, with numerous pools or fountains, and an amusement park with rides near the lake. However,
the fair did not receive official sanctioning 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 New York World's Fair of 1939-40. The fair ran for two six-month seasons, April 22 – October 18, 1964, and April 21 – October 17, 1965.
The fair is noted as a showcase of mid-20th-century American culture and technology. The nascent Space Age, with its promise of new frontiers, 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 fair as children before the turbulent years of the Vietnam War and the increasing domestic upheavals associated with the Civil Rights Movement.
The fair was mismanaged financially and spent a lot of prepaid ticket revenue for the second season in the first year. Consequently, it ran out of cash in 1965 and flirted with bankruptcy. Show business legend Billy Rose was asked to step in as manager and famously replied:
"I'd rather be hit by a baseball bat. Cancer in its last stages never attracted me very much."
Bond holders ended up recouping only 19.2 cents on every invested dollar.
Artistically, the fair was much poorer than its predecessors. Instead of dozens of famous artists creating fountains, buildings, and sculpture, there were only a handful of truly outstanding pieces of art commissioned for the fair. Don de Lue created one of the them, the massive "Rocket Thrower" sculpture.
The picture of the Perisphere and Trylon at the top was taken by Sam Gottscho and is available in the public domain from Wikipedia.
