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Show latte) WONDERSofthe ‘WORLD'S FAIR Thebiggest, smallest, oldest, newest, oddest, strangest—you'll see them all at New York’s 1964 extravaganza By JACK RYAN HE OPENING-DAY fanfare has subsided, and the New York World’s Fair is now greeting thefirst of its estimated 70 million visitors in earnest. What will they see? Almost anything that captures human interest from the time of the Pharaohs in ancient Egypt to the world of generations yet unborn. Bob Hope took FAMILY WEEKLY visitors on a laugh-filled preview tour of the major exhibits last month. Now here’s a gee-whiz tour of the superlatives, rarities, and facts which stranger-than-fiction make the Fair an eye-popping show for everybody in the family. Experts estimate it would take eight hours a day for 18 days to see the Fair thoroughly . . . Three to five doctors will be on constant duty g(ailments expected to occur most often: sprains, fractures, and digestive upsets). Automotive exhibitors will show the past (Henry Ford’s 1896 Quadricycle) ; present (Buick’s and Oldsmobile’s new station-wagon development, the vistadome roof); and future (Chrysler’s gas turbine engine) Newautos: Olds’ vistadomed wagon. ... Brass Rail restaurants have ordered 5,500 miles of hot dogs (they'd stretch from New York to Cairo) and 81% million gallons of drinks for fairgoers ... The American Indian Village will have Indians dancing on hot coals with live snakes . . . The 2,000 animated lights on the dome of General Electric’s Progressland can be watched for 15 minutes without seeing the sameeffect twice. The Fair has the largest private security force in the world—3,000 Pinkerton policemen, firemen, and guards ... At the House of Good Taste, a home designed by Edward Durrell Stone moves the back yard inside: it forms a center court for the homebuilt out to the edges of the lot . . . Ornithologists were consulted about possible harmful ef- fects to birds from the Tower of Light’s 12-billion candlepower beam; their decision: it would attract thousands of birds but not harm them. Warning: watch out below! ... Bird men also were required to approve General Cigar’s smoke-ring blower (rings are 20 feet across and rise 200 feet); report: harmless. Coca-Cola’s 12-storycarillon, which can be heard 12 miles away, will play concerts of Bach and bebop... Real pearl divers at the Polynesian Pavilion will swim for, pearls cultured on the spot .. . Real Hawaiian beach boys will offer you rides in outrigger canoes from the lagoon adjoining the Hawaiian center . . . In the Sermons from Science exhibit, one million volts of electricity will be shot through a man’s body .. . New York City will present a football-field-sized model of its five boroughs, showing every oneof its 800,000 buildings in detail. The International Inventions display at the Belgian village will show a patent granted Abraham Lincoln for a method of buoying boats over shoals . . . It will also feature such odd-ball inventions asa fireman’s helmet which gushes water at high temperatures and a gadget that reportedly tells whether an unborn babeis 2 i ab ks Inventions: a gushing fire helmet. a boy or girl. . . The entire King James Bible has been reduced to a photo slide at the National Cash Register exhibit. One thousand musicians will play “The Stars and Stripes Forever” on a recording at the GE display . . . You can take a family souvenir photograph before the Fair’s master clock (Swiss Pavilion), which records the year, date, day, hour, minute, second, and tenth of a second ... Guests at an undersea hotel, The Atlantis (General Motor’s Futurama exhibit) have rooms with a view— of submerged mountain ranges, giant fish, and Aquacopters (just the opposite of helicopters). Statistics: Estimated attendance from 250,000 to 750,000 daily; total for first year, 70 million; parking for 20,000 cars and 483 buses; employment for 100,000 per season (including turnover) ... A first: the public demonstration of nuclear fusion at GE, a technique which, using i Nuclear: fusion: fuel of tomorrow? E 18 Family Weekly, April 26, 1964 |