Looking Back at the Future: Photographing Vintage Leftovers of New York’s World’s Fairs

Walk back in time to New York’s World’s Fairs to ride the Parachute Jump or eat a Bel-Gem Waffle. In 2024 two popular World’s Fairs celebrate the 60th and 85th Anniversaries of when elite 20th century architects and artists designed larger than life displays promising a future of joy and peace. Both fairs were failures to organizers, but 96 million visitors remember them as unforgettable triumphs. Ten-year-old Gloria frequently visited the 1964-1965 Fair but had not returned to Flushing Meadows Corona Park until fifty years later when she was inspired to photograph and write this pictorial book. Pavilions were demolished the day the fair closed but the subject of this book are the few that were leftover in the park and others that were relocated around the country. This book celebrates the sixty remnants that survived. Photographed in glorious color, accompanied by historic text and personal remembrances. Addresses of all remnants both inside the park as well as throughout many states in America are listed. There is also a map showing two suggested routes through the park to view leftover remnants from the 1939-1940 Fair, and another tour to view leftover remnants from the 1964-1965 Fair. For World’s Fair mastermind Robert Moses, the park was the prize, yet it’s the fairs that live on in millions of hearts and minds. World’s Fairs are no longer necessary in America, but the need is great for preservation of their history and the joyful memories of 96 million visitors to Queens.