Tour The '39 World's Fair

[Prairie Dog]

The year 1939 saw TWO international exhibitions, one in NY at Flushing Meadows and another in SF on Treasure Island, The Golden Gate International Exposition. Each presented exhibits showcased in dazzling art deco architecture. Unfortunately very few, if any of these pavilions survive today.

Tour The NY Fair
http://www.pmphoto.to/worlds_fair/wf_tour/

A historical look at the NY Fair
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~1930s/display/39wf/taketour.htm

A pictorial look at the SF Fair
http://www.postcard.org/ggie01.htm

 

[dhermann1]

My mother was between her sophomore and junior year in college in the summer of '39, and didn't have a summer job. So she spent the entire summer either at the Fair or at Ebbetts Field. I have a 1939 World's Fair spoon that is one of my most oprized possessions. This is a really neat post. Thanks.
Also, when I was discharged from the service in July of 1969, I was stationed right on Treasure Island for abour a week. The streets and outlines of the buildings were all visible, and I found it fascinating tracing the tiny lines on the ground that formed the silhouettes. But there was nothing higher than about three inches off the ground. Spooky but cool, and of course Treasure Island, being smack in the middle of San Francisco Bay, is a very cool place to be under any circumstances.
Edit: And doing a little math, I realize that when I was at Treasure Island, the fair was thirty years in the past. My visit there is now forty years in the past. Yike.

 

[Diamondback]

Technical note on the Rail exhibits: NYC's streamlined Hudsons were J3's, not J2's (the J2 was a small-drivered version built for Boston & Albany work in the Berkshires), and there were only ten of the version shown, not 15. (About '39-'40, however, J1 #5344 had its Carl Kantola "shovelnose" streamlining removed and replaced with the Dreyfuss "bulletnose"--Lionel junkies know this engine as the "Commodore Vanderbilt"--and two nonstreamlined J3s were retrofitted with a modified Dreyfuss shrouding in black and stainless for the '41 Empire State Express, making an inauspicious debut on Pearl Harbor Day.)

 

[Jack Armstrong]

My father went to the Fair as a high-school kid, on a class trip, so I've been fascinated by the '39 Fair all my life. He also got to see Benny Goodman at the Paramount on the same trip. Some people have all the luck.

 

[Big Man]

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing the link on the '39 worlds fair.

My Dad also attended the fair at the age of 16 with his older cousin. My Dad often tells of his mother sewing his spending money into the lining of his coat to "keep it safe." He has several photographs he took at the fair (all are blurry and really poor photos), along with several other souvenirs he brought back, one being a ticket stub from an exhibition boxing match featuring Joe Lewis.

For a boy from the little back-country community of Nebo, NC to travel to New York City was a BIG deal.