April 22, 2013 (Monday)
“Sell the cook stove if necessary and come. You must see the fair” – Novelist Hamlin Garland to his parents in 1893
On this date in 1964 the New York World’s Fair opened in Queens, N.Y., in the very same location of the 1939 World’s Fair. The purposes of these fairs are to exhibit advances in manufacturing and technology and to suggest ways in which new ideas are changing our cultures. In their national exhibits, countries have sought to enhance their image in the eyes of the world. Although exhibitions of art date back to 1750, the type of exposition that features scientific changes that began around 1800 and later have been featured through the present day.
The Eiffel Tower in Paris was constructed in 1889 for a World’s Fair. The Seattle Space Needle (1962), the San Antonio Tower of the Americas (1968), the Skyneedle in Australia (1988) were all built for World’s Fairs. Other structures such as the Unisphere (1964) in Queens, N.Y. remain in place as are parks around the country where once they were part of the World’s Fairs.
The 1964 World’s Fair featured many exhibits created by Disney. Several of these were transferred to the Disney theme parks after the 1965 season of the fair.
Comparisons of films from the 1964 Fair and the 1939 Fair reveal some of our cultural changes. In 1939, the footage shows families moving through the exhibits as units, mature and young together. Dress was more formal, and most of the men wore coats and ties. In 1964, dress was casual, and the attendees grouped themselves more by age than by family units.
W.D. Broadway, Gene McCombs and I were pastors in Dallas who attended, with a group from Dallas, the Baptist Jubilee Celebration in Atlantic City and the World’s Fair in New York afterwards. The city of New York was as much or more of an attraction as the fair itself. All of it was interesting.
Read more about World’s Fairs: click here.
Devotional Thought:
We’ve grown accustomed to the spectacular, fantastic and awesome entertainment genre of our time. A city like Las Vegas is almost the same as a World’s Fair and its lights brighten the desert skies for miles around. In fact, every city offers attractions today we only dreamed about as kids of yesteryear. “Pilgrim’s Progress” told of a place called “Vanity Fair,” where the colors were bright and the temptations were strong. In such a world, Christians must maintain their priorities in a way that will honor Christ. Let us remember the Scripture says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust thereof: but he that does the will of God stays for ever” (1 John 2:15-17 KJV).