October 21, 1962 was the last day to visit the Seattle World’s Fair. In case you missed it, here is a quick look back.
This TV commercial invites us to the fair with the line, “Welcome to the future and all the wonders of the 21st Century.”
The Seattle Times published a special souvenir edition for the World’s Fair in 1962. Fifty years later the newspaper pulled out an old copy and described the fair once again.
“Yes, Seattle was one swaggering city of Space Age superlatives when it put on the 1962 World’s Fair.
The excitement and hype had been building for years when The Seattle Times on April 8, 1962, published a 152-page, six-section souvenir edition dedicated to the World’s Fair. The sections were packed with stories brimming with civic optimism and statements of superiority.
And why not?
This remote outpost in a rainy corner of the country was booming. Seattle was home to Boeing, and the sky was the limit. So build that Space Needle with the rotating restaurant and the flaming top and let the world revolve around it.
And it did for six glorious months.
….It wasn’t all geeky scientific stuff. Seattle came across as a place to have fun and enjoy the natural beauty of the Northwest. Where you can buy a new home with ‘tomorrow’s pleasures and convenience.’
And all you visitors from out of town, you will ‘enjoy pleasant weather…Seattle is seldom hot. The summer sun feels good in Seattle.’
Soaring above everything at the World’s Fair and on the cover of the ‘Space Age Frontiers’ section was the Space Needle with elevators that moved with ‘rocketlike speed’ and a 40-foot ‘crown of flame’ natural-gas torch at the top.”
Seattle Times Image, 1962
Here is a preview of the 2012 KCTS 9 documentary, “When Seattle Invented the Future: The 1962 World’s Fair.”
“The fair was fun for all and fair for everybody, but all good things must come to an end. On October 21, 1962, 124,479 visitors arrived at the fairgrounds, 13,000 of whom had tickets for the closing ceremonies at Memorial Stadium. President John F. Kennedy was supposed to be there, but aides had called his regrets two days earlier, saying that he had a heavy cold. In actuality, as would be revealed, he was deep into the beginnings of the Cuban Missile Crisis.”
— “Century 21 — The 1962 Seattle World’s Fair”
HistoryLink.org
Comments