FORGOTTENTOUR #76: WORLD’S FAIR REMNANTS

by Kevin Walsh

It’s not often that I repeat a tour just a few months after giving it originally, but there was a good chance repeating the World’s Fair Remnants tour from July 2013 would be a good idea. In July, it was so hot and humid the day of the tour, we got tired about 3/4 of the way through and cut it a little short. Nonetheless it was one of FNY’s best-attended tours and, given that 2014 is the 75th anniversary of the 1939 Fair and the 50th anniversary of the 1964 Fair, it was a good bet that there would be a nice crowd again. Was there ever!

65 ForgottenFans attended, breaking the record of 62 that was set at ForgottenTour #14 in DUMBO, Brooklyn, in October 2002.

Just about every relic from both Fairs was visited and explicated in detail on a cloudless April 12, 2014 with the thermometer settling at around 75 degrees. Clear weather has been the norm in 2012 and 2013, so the streak is off to a decent start.

4/14/14

8 comments

Steve April 14, 2014 - 12:18 pm

The roads and paths in the park, up until about ten years ago, all had granite markers indicating the name of the street or the area– Fountain of the Planets, Court of the 1939 World’s Fair, Avenue of Progress, etc.etc. City Parks started removing them. No reason why.

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johnpressman April 16, 2014 - 1:57 pm

Kevin, you still didn’t go INTO the Queens Museum to see The Panorama of the City of New York, built for the 1964 World’s Fair to showcase Robert Moses’ accomplishments!

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joseph bruno August 15, 2014 - 12:06 am

Robert Moses accomplishments He is the one reason that the dodgers left Brooklyn !!!!! that alone is enough to cast a pallor on anything he might have done or created

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peter tumminello June 24, 2014 - 12:20 pm

i was there in 64-65 have lots of memrobilia

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Brian July 20, 2014 - 2:53 pm

As a teenager back in the Sixties, my friends and I climbed to the top of the New York State pavillion.

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april September 7, 2014 - 4:09 am

Did you realize that at the bottom (center) of page 2 of your Flickr link, a near dead-ringer for David McCallum appears, perhaps, lost? Funny for the other Man From U.N.C.L.E. to be brushing up on his map skills or folding of same! And speaking of Ducky, this page brings back vivid memories (matching well-preserved Kodak pics) of nine-year-old me visting the 1965 fair’s small zoo with pony-driven hayrides. And of a sorry day that summer with my day camp, having left my money at home by accident with temps in the high 90s. A counselor loaned me a buck at day’s end and I went to get a much-needed drink from a kiosk. Just then someone opened a small window in same and dumped gallons of used cooking grease on me, really cooling me off! I bought a blue-and-white ceramic Unisphere instead. Years later I’d bike ride both sides of the LIE, visiting the remnants of both world’s fairs, heat and a flat tire notwithstanding. How I miss it all.

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John V. August 10, 2022 - 11:41 am

Why not choose a cooler day ? There are many health risks when the weather is too warm.

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Kevin Walsh August 10, 2022 - 3:37 pm

?

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