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The Fair was, of course, intended (originally at least) to be uplifting, educational, and inspirational. According to most authoritative accounts, the Amusement Zone was only admitted to The Fair rather late in the game, when organizers realized that if they wanted to attract the crowds they hoped for, they would have to include something to appeal to the baser instincts. The Amusement Zone (dubbed "The Great White Way") was segregated from the main Fair grounds, and most amusements required additional admission.

But there were other entertainments to be enjoyed that were perfectly in keeping with the vision of The Fair's creators. For a number of years I had heard (read, really) that the documentary films "The City", "The Plow That Broke The Plains", and "The River" were shown at The Fair, but I could never confirm this detail. Well, after a little bit of research at The New York Times, I was able recently to determine that these films, along with a few others, were, in fact, screened as part of The Little Theatre Film Program in the Science and Education Building, located right next to the statue of George Washington at the very center of The Fair.

See Today, 1pm for Showtimes

And guess what? These three films are available on DVD. A fourth, Let My People Live, can be seen and downloaded here. So you can program your own Fair Film Festival! 

The City is available here...

And Plow and River here...

I have to confess, though. As interesting and as important as these films might be as historic documents, as examples of documentary filmmaking, they're pretty dry, pretty tough to sit through. No wonder Fair-goers needed to take a parachute jump, or enjoy some "Living Magazine Covers"!

A still from The Plow that Broke the Plains

Set a Spell

Naturally an area as large as Flushing Meadows-Corona Park would require enough public outdoor seating to accommodate Fair-goers with weary, aching, feet. Two new park bench designs were created for The Fair. Of the 6700 benches that covered the Fair’s 1200+ acres, 1500 were backless, designed so as to not interefere with the view of certain landscaped sections of The Fair.

The benches were manufactured by Kenneth Lynch & Sons in Oxford, CT. Lynch is still in business and still producing the benches today. You can even buy one for your own garden! The 6-foot bench will run you about $700.00.

Benches in storage between seasons;
black-andwhite photos from the New York Public Library

Gloria, cold and camera-shy, on
on of the "Jetson" benches, 2005

A new bench with a much more futuristic look (David Dunlap in The New York Times described it as having “boomerang-shaped, Jetsons-style legs”) was designed for the 1964-65 Fair. You can still see these sleek aluminum beauties at Flushing Meadows. (Also originally manufactured by Lynch, a cast-iron version of this design is available from them as well.)

So what became of all those benches from the first Fair? You can still see the '39 design, including the backless version, all over town. My first thought was that those original 6700 benches were relocated throughout the City sometime between 1940 and 1964. That may well have been the case, but according to Timothy Lynch (Kenneth Lynch's son), none of the benches seen in various City parks today are from The Fair. This only makes sense: a cast iron and wood bench exposed to the elements is simply not going to survive for 70+ years.

BUT...also according to Mr. Lynch, an original '39 bench does, in fact, survive, and is housed in the Olmsted Center in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. Originally constructed as the administration offices of the '64 Fair, the Olmsted Center is today headquarters to the Queens Parks Department.

So today I used a PTO day and rode out to The Fairgrounds. To find The Bench. I was simultaneously delighted and dismayed. The bench is there, sure enough, but it suffers the indignity of being relegated to a thoroughly dreary, drab, and depressing hallway; the pictures speak for themselves. Everyone was really nice, and I even got a lady to agree to take my picture on The Bench. But really, this noble Fair survivor deserves better, is worthy of a setting befitting its heritage, one that will enable it to be seen and appreciated by more people. The Queens Museum across the park would be a much more ideal location, I should think.

I noticed a few things about the bench, however: the right arm (right as you're facing the bench, not as you're sitting on it) is of a heavier casting than the center and right arms; the foot of the left arm end does not have the bolt hole seen on the other two arms and on more recently produced benches; and the decorative detailing on the left arm is also slightly, though obviously, different. I suspect that the left arm is original, and the center and right arms are replacements. From when, I couldn't say. The wood slats are considerably worn, and full of worm holes; these could certainly be original. And of course they wouldn't have been painted bright orange in '39! Still, this is the closest to an original Fair park bench that we have. 

Next time you're in the vicinity of the Olmsted Center, stop in and have a look; the gals at the the front desk will direct you down the correct corridor.

More on that plate glass chair...

A little more research on the plate glass chairs from the Glass Center revealed that another one was sold at auction in 2010 for a little over 9 thousand dollars, nearly twice the going rate in 2003. The auction site cites Arts & Architecture magazine, mentioning that the chair had been sold by J. W. Robinson Co., a high-end Los Angeles home furnishings retailer.

A quick trip to the New York Public Library confirmed this: there was the chair, unmistakably on page 15 of the October, 1947 issue of Arts & Architecture in a Robinson ad. But it's not quite the same chair: the manufacturer is given as Turchin; the glass does not appear to be clear; the cushion appears thicker; and the Robinson chair clearly has additional padding along the inside top back.



I find very little information regarding Turchin on the 'net: they seem to have started out as a much smaller operation, producing, among other things, decorative glass blocks, bookends and aquaria. No mention is made in the Robinson ad of the original chair design, designer, or any Fair connection. Did Turchin simply copy the design? Who knows?

But it would seem that there could certainly be a few chairs out there that date from after The Fair. Assuming, though, that the Brooklyn and Carnegie Museums have done their homework, I am fairly confident that their chairs are Fair originals.

Fantasy in Glass

So today we rode out to The Brooklyn Museum to see...

The glass chair is displayed next to a Kem Webber dressing table and stool from 1934

THIS AMAZING PIECE OF AWESOMENESS. The chair, formed from a single piece of thick plate glass, was designed by (or attributed to) Louis Dierra and produced by the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company for display in the Glass Center Pavilion at The Fair. Due to the impracticality of the medium, however, very few of these chairs were ever manufactured; in fact, it's not certain that any other than the Fair samples were. So few seem to exist today that I think it's likely that the ones you can see, at the Brooklyn and the Carnegie Museum of Art, are actual chairs from the Fair exhibit.

Still others are in private collections. One came up for auction at Phillips, de Pury & Company in 2003, and went for a little under 5 grand!

I would sell my mother to own one of these chairs!

Abe Goes To The Fair

Though not created for The Fair, Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s Abraham Lincoln: The Man (aka Standing Lincoln) was displayed at The Fair as part of the Illinois exhibit. Not surprisingly, the Saint-Gaudens Lincoln was one of a number of sculptures (I know of at least 4) depicting the 16th president, both at the Illinois exhibit and throughout The Fair.

The Fair statue was an artist-authorized reduction (one of only sixteen known to exist, and one of the first two produced) of the original, created for Chicago’s Lincoln Park in 1887. I am quite certain that the cast exhibited at The Fair is now on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

According to the Met's press release, the bronze, acquired from a private collector, was originally owned by Clara Stone Hay, the widow of Lincoln’s onetime private assistant secretary, John M. Hay. The note on the back of the photo of the statue in the New York Public Library's Fair collection (below) indicates that it was lent by the children of John and Clara Hay. So, unless the Hays had several casts of the statue (which is unlikely), the Met statue is the one exhibited at The Fair.

It's Cocktail Time!

Okay, this isn't, strictly speaking, a Fair relic. But it is an interesting and fun little piece of Fair history that you can re-create at home. It's the Zombie, a rum punch popularized at The Fair during its second year. In 1940 Monte Proser opened an establishment at The Fair, named after the potent potion. Which he apparently stole from the drink's creator Donn Beach. Proser also stole the "no more than two to a customer" gimmick from Beach, as well. Which would have pretty much guaranteed that folks would come back for a third.

The original recipe was long believed to be lost, until 2007 or so when mixologist Jeff "Beachbum" Berry cracked the code of what he believes to be Beach's original 1934 recipe.

So...I followed Berry's recipe almost to the letter; I couldn't get some of the brands of rum he suggested, just the Appleton Estate. I learned what FALERNUM is, and bought a bottle. I EVEN made my own grenadine and cinnamon syrup! The result of this costly and time-consuming little lesson in 1930s mixology?

I didn't like it. At all. Heavily redolent of cinnamon, it tasted more of Christmas than voodoo. And, in a personal first, I had no trouble stopping after just one!

Recipes for the libation abound on the internet, including several from the 1930s. I may just steal one of those myself and pass it off as the genuine article.

(Non-copyrighted souvenir photograph found at Tikiroom.com.)

The Open Road Leads to...Bear Mountain

Jo Davidson was one of just a handful of prominent sculptors given he honor and distinction of having more than one work exhibited at The Fair. Davidson's larger-than-lifesize Walt Whitman was moved to Bear Mountain State Park in upstate New York shortly after The Fair. It is unique in that it is one of but a few Fair pieces cast permanently in bronze rather than in temporary, disposable plaster. Visiting the statue today offers a rare opportunity to experience an actual piece of Fair history. (There's another cast of Davidson's Whitman in Philadelphia, but the Bear Mountain statue is the Real Deal.)

Well, this was inevitable: the author and Walt, May, 2010

The Eiffel Tower of Brooklyn

Another Fair relic known to every Fair enthusiast is the parachute jump, which has been a fixture of Coney Island's boardwalk since shortly after The Fair closed. The ride, originally sponsored by Life Savers, was moved to Steeplechase Park in 1941, and continued to thrill (according to wikipedia at least) until 1968. The black and white photo below (from New York Public Library) shows the parachute jump in operation at The Fair.

Above: a really cool view of the parachute jump from the Aquacade. The boat house can be seen to the left at the foot of the jump. (Non-copyrighted photograph from a recent eBay auction.)

Two of Coney's major thrill rides that actually pre-date the parachute jump by more than a decade are still in operation today: The Wonder Wheel and the Cyclone. 

Peg-Leg Pete

Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's Peter Stuyvesant was exhibited at The Fair outside the Netherlands pavilion (Stuyvesant was Dutch, of course). Another Fair original, this statue, which depicts Peter Stuyvesant with his famous peg-leg, now stands--interestingly enough--in Stuyvesant Square (17th Street and 2nd Avenue) in Manhattan. 

The White Mana Myth

It is an assertion repeated all over the internet. Lent credence by no less than The Gray Lady herself, The New York Times, it appears to be almost universally accepted, and wholly unchallenged. I am speaking of the common belief that the White Mana Diner in Jersey City, New Jersey, made its debut at The Fair as "The Diner of the Future".

Like probably dozens before me, I made the pilgrimage. After a ride on the PATH train, and a short walk through some rather dicey areas on a very hot day, we enjoyed some sliders that were certainly tasty, even if they could hardly lay claim to the title "Burger of the Future"!

I wanted it to be true, I really did. I wanted to believe that I was actually sitting and eating in a restaurant that had been at The Fair. That the burgers I was downing were the direct descendants of that first ground beef served up to hungry Fair-goers in 1939!

But, you know what? I don't believe it. In the three years since my visit to Jersey City, I have not been able to find one shred of documentary or corroborative evidence that the White Mana Diner (or any other diner, for that matter) was ever at The Fair.

It does not appear in any guide book. It does not appear in Crosby Gaige's "Food at the Fair". It does not appear in lists of places to eat distributed at The Fair. Surely, something as important as "The Diner of the Future" would have been advertised and promoted.

Where's the BEEF!?



Then there is the question of time. By all (the accepted) accounts the diner was bought and moved to Jersey City in 1946--a full six years after The Fair closed. While it is certainly possible that the diner operated somewhere else between 1940 and 1946, this begs the question: where was it during the War? The "official" account makes no mention of this period, and with all we know about war-time economy and rationing, I find it nearly impossible to believe that such a heap of metal was allowed to lie about undisturbed and untouched for the duration, when even the Oscars were made of plaster because every ounce of metal was needed for the War effort.

So here's the challenge, and remember, I'd really love it if the White Mana myth were proven to be true. I will give $100 to the first person--any person--able to provide documentary and corroborative proof that the White Mana Diner in Jersey City (or its sister in Hackensack, for that matter) was, in fact, at The Fair in 1939.

Now the fine print: documentary and corroborative proof MUST be in the form of a PHOTOGRAPH of the diner in situ at The Fair, and recognizable as such (i.e., another establishing landmark or landmarks such as the Trylon and/or Perisphere must be visible), and/or a LISTING of the diner in an official Fair publication, one that is generally recognized as authentic by the average Fair enthusiast and/or collector. Good luck!

Jagiello: Poland's Ex-Pat King

The equestrian statue of Poland's King Jagiello is one of Central Park's most imposing monuments.

The first Fair relic I became aware of was the statue of Poland's King Jagiello by Stanislaw Kazimierz Ostrowski which now stands in New York's Central Park. Jagiello, along with dozens of his countrymen and women, became a refugee in 1939 after Hitler’s invasion of Poland and the outbreak of World War II. Interesting is the fact that the park pedestal (not original to The Fair) was designed by Aymar Embury II, architect of the Fair's New York City Building.

City of New York III: The Fountains Mystery

Although the wonderfully detailed architect's model of the New York City Building in the collection of The Queens Museum of Art and photographs from 1939 show working fountains on either side of the building's main entrance, I have never seen any pictures from The Fair during operation that show the fountains actually turned on. Why is that?

Two views of the northwest corner of the building.
Photo above from the New York Public Library.

Also missing in 1939 are the flagpoles. Does anyone know when these were added? My guess is '64, though they could be from the building's days as headquarters to the UN.

What's Left of The Aquacade

The New York State Amphitheatre (aka Billy Rose's Aquacade) survived 2 Fairs, only to be demolished in 1995. Though preservationists lost the battle to save the Aquacade, a few relics were salvaged and incorporated into the sad, sorry little snack bar that now squats on its former site.

I believe these gates are original
from the Acquacade.

I have never seen this snack bar open for business!

No comment.

Next Stop, Iceland

The statue of Leif Erikson (or Leifr Eiriksson in the modern, more "authentic" spelling) from the Iceland Exhibit at The Fair now stands at the entrance to the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia. Iceland was one of a number of smaller countries that did not have their own pavilions at The Fair; rather, these were allotted space in The Hall of Nations, which bordered The Court of Peace in front of the (U.S.) Federal Building.

The Fair statue is a larger copy of an original that stands in Reykjavik. Sculpted by Alexander Stirling Calder, the Reykjavik statue was a gift from the U.S. to the people of Iceland in 1930.

Leif Erikson in situ at The Fair

My view of approximately the same angle

We didn't see the inside the museum, because it is closed on Tuesdays. By the way, there's an excellent chronology of Erikson statues, including the Calders, here. (Who'd've thought there'd be so many?)

Signing off from Williamsburg, Virginia.

Meet Me at the Belgian Pavilion

We arrived in Richmond at about noon, right on schedule. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, as you can see from the photos. To finally get to see the Belgium building...what a kick! The building shows its age, for sure; there's noticeable erosion of the brick, and damage and deterioration to the reliefs. But, wow, what a kick!  I even got to go inside!

A view from inside

(There are more to come...)