New York World's Fair

There have been two World's fairs in New York City:

• 1939 New York World's Fair (1939-1940) at Flushing Meadows in Queens gave us Futurama, the Trylon, and Perisphere.

Seen by its organizers as an antidote to the despair of The Great Depression by projecting a future of hope, the Fair emphasized international cooperation and the impact of technology on the world of the future.

At the time the Fair was a cultural phenomenom which attracted 45 million visitors in its two years of operation. After its first summer, when projected sales were lower than hoped, ticket prices were reduced significantly and the Fair's often heavy handed themes were changed. After the second year, however, total visitors were 5 milion less than anticipated and the Fair's corporation subsequently declared bankruptcy.

David Gelertner has written a fictionalized account of the fair—1939: The Lost World of the Fair (ISBN 038072748X).

• 1964 New York World's Fair (1964–1965), also at Flushing Meadows, Queens. One of its more memorable structures was the Unisphere.

The site became a park and home to New York's Shea Stadium where the New York Mets play.

External links

• New York World's Fair from the University of Virginia's American Studies program