Italian VersionWelcome to Tomorrow!
The 1939-40 New York World's Fair was considered a major cultural event even before the first truckload of steel was delivered to Flushing Meadows. Since the fair contains so many deeply embedded ideas and narratives, a true tour of The World of Tomorrow begins with the story of its design and planning, the virtual place in which those ideas were formed. No event exists completely in a vacuum; the history of the fair's development contextualizes the exposition, and the fair itself illuminates the times and people who created it. The virtual tour offered by the movies of the Collection is also an occasion to watch the reactions of the American public to the fair, and a key to understand its legacy.
In April of 1939 the New York World's Fair, "Building The World of Tomorrow," opened on what was once a marshy wasteland in Flushing Meadows, just east of the great metropolis. From its inception to its closing ceremonies, the Fair promoted one of the last great metanarratives of the Machine Age: the unqualified belief in science and technology as a means to economic prosperity and personal freedom. Wedged between the greatest economic disaster in America and the growing international tension that would result in World War II, The World of Tomorrow was a much-needed antidote to the depression and confusion of the times. It provided the one saving grace which all of America needed: it provided hope.
Of course that hope was not to come without some cost, and counted among the limitations of The World of Tomorrow were its emphasis on product consumption and a hegemonic notion of the ideal American citizen. The Fair's established theme was one of international cooperation, but its true emphasis was on the "new-ness" of ideas, forms, and especially consumer products. Like all things new, it was immensely exciting and at times naive. However, in the words of Nathaniel Hawthorne, the "moonlight of romance" which surrounded the Fair inevitably gave way, and in two summers it ran its course, closing in 1940. Nevertheless, its cultural legacy has lasted well into the late twentieth century and has helped shape and define the commercial, cultural, and political climate of post-World War II America and the world. In a sense, we have lived through The World of Tomorrow, and the Fair has kept many of its promises, for better or for worse.
Part ideological construct, part trade show, part League of Nations, part amusement park, and part Utopian community, the Fair promoted its message of hope and prosperity with icons, symbols, exhibitions, and demonstrations. It was a literal laboratory for a group of industrial designers who considered themselves both artists and social theorists, and from the plan of the Fair's site to many of its prominent buildings, the Fair's primary stylistic vocabulary was that of the streamlined and Modern design which they helped establish. Nowhere was that design more apparent than in the Trylon and Perisphere, a 700-foot spire and an orb as wide as a city block, created to be the exposition's focal point. The Trylon and Perisphere remain forever linked with The World of Tomorrow; both loom as profound and problematic icons on the landscape of American culture.
The World of Tomorrow was a search for a useable Future (with a capital "F"), and while it added fuel to the fire of the American cultures of consumption and exclusion, it also provided a tangible vision of hope and prosperity in the face of uncertainty and confusion.
Welcome to the 1939 New York World's Fair! Welcome to Tomorrow!
We created a small video with a low-res compilation of sequences from the movies belonging to this Collection.
Click HERE to watch this video on YouTube
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Welcome to Tomorrow!
A Collection of amateur movies, industrial documentaries and newsreels filmed at the 1939-40 New York World's Fair.
We do provide duplicates of the multimedial files of the Collection on a customized DVD-ROM on a (1) cost-recovery basis.
Almost all the digital copies of the films are good quality Hi-Res editable videos.
All the videos in this Collection are available in different format, size and definition. We can suggest you the right one for the use you have in mind.
PRIVATE USE: home TV vision (DVD-Divx player), PC, iPod.
WE LICENSE FOOTAGE from our Collections for: multimedial creations on CD or DVD, TV commercials, film or TV programs, documentary Productions, web sites, marketing/ad campaigns, video email, electronic kiosks, trade shows, business seminars, cultural events, museums, expositions... and more.
Hi-Res videos from our Collections are available on DVD, CD or directly in your inbox. Clips and movies can also be downloaded from our servers using a PW or uploaded by us to your FTP.
WE ARE JUST WAITING FOR YOUR INQUIRES!!!
(1) It is possible to obtain digital duplicates of the multimedial files from this collection for research, teaching, general interest user information, and private study purposes. The fees charged for these files are on a cost-recovery basis. The size, run-time, quality, and detailed informations regarding any multimedial file are indicated in the following list.
The files are available on a customized DVD-ROM.
Billing is done when the order is fulfilled. Payment instructions will follow. Normal turn around time for requests is 3 weeks. Rush (2-3 business days) is available for an additional fee of 40 Euros.
To know the fees applied for these files please contact Vincent Romano.
The multimedial files of the Collections are compatible with the free version of the most common players: Quicktime Player, Real Player, Windows Media Player.
Mac users can easily view MPEG 1, MPEG 2, MPEG 4, and Divx movies in MacOSX with the free version of this program: VLC Media Player.
All the material in the Romano-Archives Collections is in the public domain and has no copyright attached to it. Only exception are original articles or texts published on this Website and the Romano-Archives' original compilations on CDs or DVDs that are subject to copyright.
Material of the Romano-Archives Collections is made available solely for historical research and educational purposes only. Any trademarks appearing on the material are the sole property of the registered owners. No endorsement by the trademark owners is to be construed, nor was any sought. The products, brand names, characters, related slogans and indicia are or may be claimed as trademarks of their respective owners.
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Page 4
1939NYWFAmateurfilm09.mpg
Available on DVD Only
Run time: 00:17:34 Audio/Visual: silent, color Quality # # # # #
Filetype: MPEG 2 Filesize: 470,9 MB
Amateur movie. The 1939-40 New York World Fair.
Shotlist
Plastics Pavilion
Man: His Clothes, His Sports (murals)
Kodak
Posing beside (and ON!) miniature Trylon and Perisphere
Schaefer Center, Footprints in cement (Babe Ruth, etc.)
Pretzel Shop
Crowd outside Swift's Premium Bacon
Fiddle, guitar and bass trio
Wonder Bakery, animated marquee with 2D walking figures
Wonder Wheat Field (Penelope Shoo, Scarecrow of Tomorrow)
Glass Pavilion
Funhouse Mirrors (shots of the cameraman)
Interior of Glass Pavilion
Large crowd watches glass blowing demonstration
"Sweden Speaks"
Dairy cows, prize bulls
Heinz 57
Kraft Foods
Distillers Pavilion
Chase & Sandborn's Marionette Show (includes marionettes of Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy)
1939NYWFAmateurfilm10.mpg
Available on DVD Only
Run time: 00:17:10 Audio/Visual: silent, color Quality # # # # #
Filetype: MPEG 2 Filesize: 551,3 MB
Amateur movie. Tne 1939-40 New York World Fair.
Shotlist
Chase and Sandborn Marionette show, continued (lion tamer, bicycle built for two)
Court of States
Pennsylvania Building (Independence Hall)
Globe Sculpture
Lagoon of State
Replica, Old Barracks Trenton New Jersey
Missouri Buiding
State of Washington
New England Clipper Ship
Maine Lobster Dock
Florida
United States Army
United States Navy
Volleyball game
Barracks
Marching band
Prestone Singing Color Fountain
City of Light, presented by Consolidated Edison
General Electric Pavilion at night
Fountain in front of US Steel
Night scenes
1939NYWFAmateurfilm11.mpg
Available on DVD Only
Run time: 00:20:26 Audio/Visual: silent, color Quality # # # # #
Filetype: MPEG 2 Filesize: 568,4 MB
Amateur movie. The 1939-40 New York World Fair.
Shotlist
Belgium
Flags
Lagoon of Nations
Fountain in front of Perisphere
Statues
More International Flags
Various Pavilions, exterior shots.
Russian Pavilion, with statue of worker holding star, red flag
4:25 TOURING CHAIR
"Everybody Smiles in Russia, as you can see from the picture." Shots of Mural
Interior, model of proposed monument
Soviet Arctic Pavilion, large prop plane out front.
Czecho-Slovakia, parabolic mirror
"Stained glass window depict Czech progress"
Japan
Japanese garden
Ireland (though you can't see it in this film, the building was shaped like a shamrock)
Norway
Argentina
Pan American Union
The Federal Building
Busts of Lincoln and Franklin
View of Trylon and Perisphere from Federal Building
Boy Scouts encampment
"Scout Modeling" (Model of bridge)
More flags
Peru
Switzerland
"The Swiss Gardens" (restaurant, band)
"Netherlands Impressive Building"
Poland
Venezuela (very pretty grounds, outdoor tables, boxy sculptures)
"Venezuelan displays were most interesting."
Portugal
League of Nations
Chile
Italy, large building with waterfall down the front.
1939NYWFAmateurfilm12.mpg
Available on DVD Only
Run time: 00:20:40 Audio/Visual: silent, color Quality # # # # #
Filetype: MPEG 2 Filesize: 564,5 MB
Amateur movie. The 1939-40 New York World Fair.
Shotlist
This reel has footage of the General Motors Futurama ride.
00:00:00 EXT Italy pavilion
00:01:04 TITLE "Brazils (sic) Contribution."
00:01:41 TITLE "View from the Brazilian Site."
(British Pavilion)
00:03:43 TITLE "The Coldstream Guards entertain."
(French Pavilion)
00:04:47 TITLE "Views from the French Pavilion."
00:06:05 TITLE "French Surrealism in furs."
00:06:45 TITLE "Stained glass Francaise."
00:07:14 TITLE "French Perfume Section."
00:08:05 TITLE "A day in the Transportation Area."
(Chrysler, aeronautics, Firestone, farm, Ford, Ferde Grofe, tractor)
00:14:47 EXT Futurama exterior, line
00:15:42 TITLE "The Highspot of the Fair; The Futurama."
(interior of ride, miniature landscapes camera travels to right)
00:16:35 Miniature highway and cloverleaf
00:18:05 Miniature highway with moving cars
00:19:02 Miniature city with skyscrapers
Jump on page 5
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Last update: June-07-2009
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