1939 New York World's Fair
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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1939 New York World's Fair (1939-1940) In New York 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 phenomenon 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 million less than anticipated and the Fair's corporation subsequently declared bankruptcy.
David Gelernter has written a fictionalized account of the fair—1939: The Lost World of the Fair (ISBN 0-380-72748-X).
