WORLD’S FAIR LAMPS

by Kevin Walsh

There are a number of lamps that were produced especially for the 1964-1965 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows at the Orange County fairgrounds in Middletown, NY. The lamps looked like Rubik’s cubes about 15 years before they became popular.

18 comments

chris October 27, 2012 - 6:29 am

Amazin’
Good thing they were removed from the old fairgrounds.Theyd a been vandalized out of existance years ago

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Allan Rosen October 27, 2012 - 7:37 am

There used to be a coupl of these at Astroland

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r185 October 27, 2012 - 9:23 am

I assume none of them remain in NY. Do you have any pictures of them at the NY World’s Fair? (Never noticed them.)

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Kevin Walsh October 28, 2012 - 11:24 pm

I do have a few

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jerry October 27, 2012 - 5:34 pm

Thanks for the photo! For some reason I have always been fascinated by those lamps, probably because they were one of the last vestiges of the WF that hung on for a while (I seem to recall some being visible from the Grand Central Parkway in a junk yard near the LIE interchange up to the early ’80s.

I believe the color of the lenses actually “meant” something in terms of finding ones way around the Fair. I think the various pathways and roadways were color-coded on maps, and the colored cubes on the lights were supposed to correspond. I have a feeling not many visitors actually “got it”!

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Ozzie Nelson's Chin October 27, 2012 - 9:14 pm

Fantastic. That’s near me. I hope to get pictures if I go down there. Thanks for noticing all the great and often overlooked parts of NYC.

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Sergey Kadinsky October 29, 2012 - 10:33 am

Isn’t there a resort in the Poconos that also has these lights?

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Lawrence Lambert August 26, 2014 - 2:25 pm

I saw some of these lamps at an abandoned resort in the Poconos while on a road trip to Ithaca last summer.

We were driving on (I think) route 9W – or it may have been 9D – and after going through a tiny, rundown town we came across a long-closed resort hotel by the side of the road that, based on the style of architecture, appeared to have been built in the late 60’s or early 70’s. I noticed some of these lamps, and while I recognized them from this website it didn’t occur to me to photograph them until we were miles away (even though we did stop and take pictures of the hotel itself).

The resort was called Penn Hills and the roadside signs are still intact.

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Gary Farkash October 31, 2012 - 3:29 pm

A friend of mine in North Woodmere happens to not only own one of these lamps buthad it installed in his backyard and it survived hurricane Sandy as did his home and family.

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Jeff November 1, 2012 - 12:12 am

This may help you determine how the lights were colored and configured, their placement, what the colors (there are more than a dozen!) are. Look at pages 16 thru 20, make sure you look at both versions of the pages that have them. 1964-65 World’s Fair Fans might find the whole book interesting.

I live fairly close to the Orange County Fair Grounds and have been on the property for events a few times and many of the lights are faded after almost 50 years. I want to go back and explore, but unless there’s something going on there, it appears to be closed, locked and very desolate.

Here’s the link: http://www.worldsfairphotos.com/nywf64/operations-drawings-manual/index.htm

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Matthew Restivo November 1, 2012 - 7:34 am

One of them made it’s way to Lake Anne Country Club on Clove Road in Blooming Grove, NY. It’s been there for as long as I can remember (1980’s).

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Teve November 7, 2012 - 7:58 am

Great they survived; I too remember them piled in a lot just off the LIE in the 70s. I knew where they were from although young when I went to the fair.

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Bill Leahy November 11, 2012 - 7:35 am

I was at the Hunter Irish festival this year and stayed at the Villa Vosillo which had these lights. Check this out: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chico0100/sets/72157631981024320/

Why I stayed there is a different story…but it definitely is a time warp back to 1964-1965.

Cheers!

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Kevin Walsh November 11, 2012 - 6:03 pm

Where was it?

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Bill Leahy November 12, 2012 - 3:53 pm

Kevin,

This is in Hunter, NY…it’s actually called Villa Vosilla…trust me…the website makes it look like a palace…which it certainly wasn’t. Website is http://www.villavosilla.com/…I see some of the lights are pictured on their website as well.

Bill

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steve dabrowski February 8, 2015 - 4:09 pm

There are some at Skylanes bowling alley in East Stroudsburg, PA. Also, they are or were at the Fernwood Resort in the Poconos as well.

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brian quigley February 15, 2015 - 2:51 pm

I noticed the ones at Villa Visillo decades ago, but every time I point them out to someone I just get “huh?” .

Some survived into the 70’s at Seaside Heights where the giant Ferris Wheel used to be, in the center of the boardwalk. I live in that area, and I’m certain they weren’t ‘repurposed’ locally when the ferris wheel was taken down.

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Doug Drexler April 29, 2016 - 10:40 am

I practically lived at the Fair as a kid. I wanted one of those lights SO bad. I finally got one. Shipped to LA, where I now live, restored it, along with a bench from the Chrysler Pavilion. It now lights my backyard : )

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153005006261104.1073742160.570346103&type=1&l=302b0944ab

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