1964 New York World's Fair Opening Day (HD and Color)

The 1964/1965 New York World's Fair was a world's fair that held over 140 pavilions, 110 restaurants, for 80 nations (hosted by 37), 24 US states, and over 45 corporations to build exhibits or attractions at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City. The immense fair covered 646 acres (2.61 km2) on half the park, with numerous pools or fountains, and an amusement park with rides near the lake. However, the fair did not receive official support or approval 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 1939 World's Fair. The fair ran for two six-month seasons, April 22 – October 18, 1964, and April 21 – October 17, 1965. Admission price for adults (13 and older) was $2 in 1964 (equivalent to $16.49 in 2019) but $2.50 (equivalent to $20.28 in 2019) in 1965, and $1 for children (2–12) both years (equivalent to $8.24 in 2019).

The fair is noted as a showcase of mid-20th-century American culture and technology. The nascent Space Age, with its vista of promise, 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 exposition as children, before the turbulent years of the Vietnam War and many cultural changes.

In many ways the fair symbolized a grand consumer show covering many products produced in America at the time for transportation, living, and consumer electronic needs in a way that would never be repeated at future world's fairs in North America. American manufacturers of pens, chemicals, computers, and automobiles had a major presence. This fair gave many attendees their first interaction with computer equipment. Corporations demonstrated the use of mainframe computers, computer terminals with keyboards and CRT displays, teletype machines, punch cards, and telephone modems in an era when computer equipment was kept in back offices away from the public, decades before the Internet and home computers were at everyone's disposal.

The BIE withholding official recognition was a serious handicap for fair promoters. The absence of Canada, Australia, most of the major European nations, and the Soviet Union, all members of the BIE, tarnished the image of the fair. Additionally, New York was forced to compete with both Seattle and Montreal for international participants, with many nations choosing the officially-sanctioned world's fairs of those other North American cities over the New York Fair. The promoters turned to trade and tourism organizations within many countries to sponsor national exhibits in lieu of official government sponsorship of pavilions.

New York City, in the middle of the 20th century, was at a zenith of economic power and world prestige. Unconcerned by BIE rules, nations with smaller economies (as well as private groups in (or relevant to) some BIE members) saw it as an honor to host an exhibit at the Fair. Therefore, smaller nations made up the majority of the international participation. Spain, Vatican City, Japan, Mexico, Sweden, Austria, Denmark, Thailand, Philippines, Greece, and Pakistan, and Ireland to name some, hosted national presences at the Fair. Indonesia sponsored a pavilion, but relations deteriorated rapidly between that nation and the USA during 1964, fueled by anti-Western and anti-American rhetoric and policies by Indonesian president Sukarno, which angered US President Lyndon Johnson. Indonesia withdrew from the United Nations in January 1965, and officially from the Fair in March. The Fair Corporation then seized and shut down the Indonesian pavilion, and it remained closed and barricaded for the 1965 season.

One of the fair's most popular exhibits was the Vatican Pavilion, where Michelangelo's Pietà, brought in from St Peter's Basilica with the permission of Pope John XXIII, was displayed; a small plaza, exedra monument, marking the spot (and Pope Paul VI's visit in October 1965) remains there today. A modern replica had been transported beforehand to ensure that the statue could be conveyed without being damaged. This copy is now on view in the Immaculate Conception Seminary in Douglaston, NY. The exedra monument is now used with permits since 1975 for prayer Vigils by Our Lady of the Roses relocated from Bayside, New York.

The film in this video has been digitally enhanced and colorized.

Original: https://youtu.be/Jco2dNYKNbU