The wondrous future was now at the 1939 World Fair | World Fair
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- čas přidán 20. 07. 2016
- The future was now at the 1939 World’s Fair - and it is still awesome.
Director: Amanda Murray
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From the perspective of the 21st century, it’s hard to imagine what a marvel the 1939-1940 New York World’s Fair would have been to its visitors. Still living in the heavy shadow of the stock market crash of 1929, the many people who flocked to the big exhibition found not only bounteous luxuries such as free Coca-Cola, but the unveiling of unthinkable new technologies that promised that a better world lay ahead. Using sparkling, rare, colour film footage - itself a brand-new technology at the time - the US director Amanda Murray mines the memories of several people who attended the New York World’s Fair in 1939.
#worldsfair #nyc #history
My Uncle Seymour is one of the people featured in this film. He is the photography/you tube buff. One of the black & white pictures they show is of me as a baby. 😀 My uncle passed at 92 in May 2019. He was soooo happy to participate in this project. Thank you to the film makers for including him and for giving me happy, lasting memories of my dear, beloved uncle, who I loved very, very much.
Is that you at 17:35 ? Sounds like your uncle was quite a character!
@@BroAnarchy yes, that’s me. 😊With my grandmother and aunt.
Thank you and your Uncle Seymour for making this possible. My mom was born in 1939, my dad was 8 years old at this time.
That is amazing to read thankyou for sharing ❤
You’re welcome. 😀
Very EXCELLENT Video - I am 90 - Grew up in Jackson Heights - went to the fair with my father - Got Stuck on the Parachute - That was an adventure - 16mm was a big deal - 8mm was a deal - I was a Designer in the 64 world fair - Industrial Designer - Did The Tower Of light mechanical figure Displays and Belgian Waffle Display and others - You had a Wonderful Life - God Bless You and Family
I really felt like I was sitting by the fire listening to my Grandfather telling me a story. Just wide-eyed and hoping the story never ended.
In our family archives is a handful of black & white snapshots from the 1939 World's Fair when my parents, then newlyweds, visited it from Colorado. They bought a little souvenir, a metal sculpture of the "Trylon & Perisphere," which still sits on my shelf of treasured heirlooms.
"this is my HP camera...2 megapixels..." :D this video is a multidimensional time-capsule.
I love all of the people interviewed here! They all convey their memories with such fondness. I hope that they’ve all had wonderful lives in the decades since.
There was a life-sized brass bald eagle at the ‘39 Fair that had formerly been on a Nazi swastica. Hitler donated it to the 1939 World Fair. After the Fair it ended up on top of my school’s flagpole. I always used to look up at it and marvel at the history it had seen.
The future sure looked better in the past.
nah bro
LOL 😆 AGREED
The reason neither arguments are wrong but nor are they right. Our present is a quantum leap forward as soon as we realise it.
hahahaha hmmmm what else was happening in 1939 hmmmmmmm
@@tm3m The start of World War ll when Hitler invaded Poland, that September.
This is a beautiful film. I attended the Fair in 1964 and was very surprised to find out that the major exhibits in 1939 had been done by the very same companies. The people I met in my youth who had been at the 1939 fair shared the feeling of exhilaration and astonishment presented in this video.
GREAT!!! film , for posterity.
all that footage that Ephriam has all needs to be uploaded somehow so it dosen't get lost,and we can all enjoy.
The big sphere was the idea of the Hayden Planetarium that was opened in the AMNH 60 years later.
Dude spends the first 2 minutes roasting his grandmother and the founding fathers. Incredible.
The ones who took film of the fair were ahead of their time. There are so many events I wish I had filmed when I was younger.
My grandpa gave me a set with a pickle pin and a ketchup bottle pin from the fair.
This film is a treasure.
My mother was 10 when her uncle took her to the fair. She shared colorful and detailed memories with me, many of which appear in your video. Thank You
In 1967 the World Fair was in Montreal, I lived an hour away and I was 9, it changed my life. There I began learning about the world, and I never lost the appetite.
Beautiful film! So nice seeing them remembering and giving us their perspective from back then.
I attended the fair as a four year old in 1940. In looking at this wonderful remembrance I was startled by the "Hobby Lobby" at 10:45!
Not the Hobby Lobby retail chain most would think of, of course. :)
I hope you are doing well! I’m sure you have wonderful memories
This was masterfully done, and with such regard & respect.
This was absolutely amazing! I'm actually reading and audiobook which is a memoir of a gentleman who fought at Iwo Jima. As a young boy he tells the story (in this case I tell the story which is very awesome) of his trip to the 1939 world's fair with his two brothers and his father. This was a real nice bookend to all the research I've been doing :-)
The guy describing his wife’s hat made me laugh so much
what was that? it sounds good
@@mesofius 3:47 "stupid yellow hat"
To think that these times are the closest we’ve come to having a depression again. Very interesting doc.
Over forty years later when I used to cut class in 5th and 6th grade and get on the 7 train straight to Willet's Point for Flushing Park, I would walk around the whole entire park as if it belonged to me and only me. No one else would be there during the weekday in the day time, except for park workers. I would walk around pretending the entire park was my estate and the park workers were my personal garden attendants of my own grand purlieu outside the city limits of Corona. I would even make gestures to them as if I was keeping my eye on them and snap my fingers ordering them to get back to work. I would then put my walkman headphones back on and continue listening to The Great Adventures of Slick Rick album surveying all of my property.
I know Flushing Park like the back of my hand. And its incredible how none of those 1939 World Fair structures are there any more. The work it must of took to take them all down, is almost unimaginable to me. Today, I welcome everyone and their family and friends to come and sojourn my grandiose estate, Flushing Park. I highly recommend the savory Oaxacan Cheese Empanadas. They are absolutely scrumptious.
The New York City Pavilion is still there...
This will be my first destination when I finally get to visit New York City. I just want to soak in all that once was and in my mind see the ghosts of the past walking all around me. I just want to imagine how people felt and what they said and saw as they walked through this great park. Someday I will get that chance.
As these dear people remenisce, you just know that they are reliving the moment in their heads. Wonderful.
I was 8 years old when my parents took me to the 1939 world's fair. When my father didn't see a German building.
, he predicted World War II.
THATS GREAT HE WAS RIGHT
Deeply moving.
Very beautiful.
The Fair has always entranced me, ever since I was little.
If i had a time machine, this is the first place I'd go.
This video is indescribably wonderful. Thank you for doing this.
I have a big appreciation of people who are willing to share their memories. We really do need our elderly. I wish today's younger generation would be more respectful to the old. Dumb politics has made old people the enemy in their eyes.
SO TURE
This really deserves more attention! Loved it.. thanks
Is there an archival dump of all of that color film? Definitely amazing footage that needs to be accessible assuming all of it was restored for this short video.
I went to the 1964 World's Fair in NYC. It was quite a sight for 13-year old eyes. My mom went to the one in 1934 in Chicago. She told me a lot of stories about that occasion. At the displays by various nations they will show you what they are doing, inventions, all kinds of stuff that are really futuristic. It you get the opportunity to go to a World's Fair you should do it. You won't be disappointed.
The best American world's fairs were: New York 1939, Chicago 1933, Chicago 1893, St. Louis 1904, and San Francisco 1915.
Wonderful. A truly moving and evocative documentary. Thanks to all involved.
I was not around at the time of the 1939-40 fairs...yes FAIRS...as we had one out here in San Francisco..."Treasure Island"! Being born in 1943, I missed these wonderful exhibitions. My mom, dad and grandparents attended our fair...and it was as beautiful as the NYWF. The optimism then...killed off by war and greed...which still rules the world of 2020!
This is amazing. I went to the 1982 world’s fair expecting something like this. I was seriously disappointed.
I was still dead in 1982
@@mesofius I’m sorry to hear that......🤔
@@rebeccav4659 thank you
This was a great Documentary!! Thank you so much!
Priceless, people should watch this, just to study how to be a decent human being
THANKS FOR SHARING THE TREASURE!
3:10 - I'm glad he bought 400 FT. of color film. These videos are neat.
I LOVE THE 1939 NEW YORK WORLD’S FAIR!!!
Even though I’m far more of a 1964 New York World’s Fair fan.
Thank you for this short film.
I'm 74 and a group of us kids in Newark NJ took the trains to the 1964-65 World's Fair . Greatest fun ! Went home at night and never a fear on the trains! When people were still civil ! How far down we as a society have come . I'm embarrassed at the newer generation !
Thanks for making that!
thank you for sharing this footage! Beautiful video esp. in color.
I was born 8 years after, but somehow this puts me THERE much more than anything from the Hollywood film industry of that era. Always imagine that the world before my time was in black & white, and this video helps me correct that. Much like the first time we see the jump into colour in The Wizard of Oz or Pleasantville. And this brain jump is also what the former fairgoers describe so well.
When I hear them speak, with that special accent from the neighborhoods around the fair site, am swept back to the times I first set foot in NYC. I think of the people who worked and travelled through LaGuardia Airport, those who good-naturedly told me that I was the one with the accent. Everyone sharp as a tack and so full of wit.
At the time I knew beans about Jewish American culture and the great impact it has had on North American society. In a way, Flushing Meadow really was a centre of the Melting Pot. That can be seen by the mix of dancers on the outdoor dance floor. Thank you so much to all those who participated in putting this wondrous work together, and thank the Lord I stumbled upon it.
We just finished restoring a 1939 NYC worlds fair Briar Pipe
Such a fantastic video !
What a joy listening to these people reliving their World Fair memories. 🥰
These films are passing the test of time.
Before Disneyland/world (and even before a short time in the 80s Heritage USA) you had the World's Fair. I'll tell ya I rather go to one of the World's Fair any day than that Disney crap! But too many years too late. Pitty. The world we live in now...Cringe!
Lovely film! Enjoyed the reminiscences so much.
thank you.
I love this thank you so much
Less than two minutes in and he dragged his grandmother across the country, Jesus Christ 🤣🤣
New Yorkers are honest and direct, they don't sugarcoat things.
I'm wondering how many people need to work over there to build hundreds of buildings only for the fair and after that destroying them?
beautifully done
simply great. love it
I love this documental, but didn’t show much of the fair
DIDN'T GET THE PICKLE!
nice doc but i wat to see more of the actual fair and not just personal anecdotes.
The fair look like the future but not the future. It weird to think about it
I'm flabbergasted that Ephraim was 99 in this video, he didn't look a day over 80!
Whoa, did you say a class of 50 people. What, not enough teachers ?
That was my uncle. The NYC schools were packed, still are, with huge classes. He went to school with children who’s parents immigrated to NYC from other countries (my grandparents) in the early 1900s and there were a lot. Either that, or he got the number wrong. It was 70 years ago at the time when he said it.
I wasnt even thought of in '39. But listening to these folks, one has to think what went thorough these peoples minds when war broke out. They could've thought "Wow, everybody gets together and has a good time. Now I hear Germans are rounding up Jews in Belgium." "I was in the Belgium exhibit, why is this happening?"
There is a hone in the town I live in from this world's fair. From house plans bought from 1939 fair.
Yes, in the past even the future was better.....
The future is not what it used to be
You mean AM radio? Because FM radio wasn't invented yet in 1939'
I have 8mm film from my great grandfather opening day.
At least Cambridge voted intelligently...
My god, the future, the Gernsback Continuum was right
This looks just like Tijuana mexico , google it , the city
That might be the first GGILF Ive seen in the wild. Me likey
I think the human race is de- evolving instead of evolving. I've been here over 60 years and that's my observation.
ANALOG FILM BaBY !!!
Analogue
Too much interviewing of elderly people, not enough of the fair.
yeah these world Fairs built these billion-dollar opulent buildings while everyone in society was suffering and dying. Something doesn't add up here.....
And here we are complaining about everything. And these people had to give so much due to the depression no candies no toys. And they were happy we should be ashamed of our self.for crying we dont have or that.these people maybe only had a 1 meal.we need to give THE LORD thanks that at least we have a roof meal we dont have to be out there on food lines.So lets all ben our kness and give praise to THE LORD.so tonite as we lay down to sleep kets all give the thanks for what we had today cause tomorrow we dont know what we are going to wake up to.
Design by important architects? C'mon... these buildings were there before you existed. We simply inherited this land from an older civilization.
The area of the two worlds fair in Queens NY today is garbage , You would not want to be there.....