Meet Me on Lake Erie, Dearie!

Magnet #1117 - Cleveland, OH World's Fair

Never been to Cleveland. At least, not when I was old enough to remember it. Which is probably why, until the National Building Museum's Designing Tomorrow world's fair exhibit, I never even knew that they had even had a World's Fair there back in the 1930s.

And yet, here it is, the 135-acre Great Lakes Exhibition of 1936. All that's left is Cleveland's Great Lakes Science Center, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and Burke Lakefront Airport. Pretty cool aerial shot, no? At the time Cleveland was the sixth largest city in America (another fact I hadn't a clue about), and the world's fair - like most of the 30s, was an attempt to revitalize cities hard-hit by the Depression.

Wanted to use a Midwest magnet, because I had my first culture clash with the kid from the Midwest a couple of days ago. We were setting up our pavilion for all of our partners, and needed some cleaning supplies. Kansas City dude went out to Target, armed with a list that included paper towels, with a note that said, lots and lots - the big kind.

I've grown to used to New York. To me, that means a three-, maybe four-pack of paper towels. When he came back? He was struggling to carry the fifteen, extra large roll bulk pack! I'm like, dude!

And he goes, you said get the big one! This is big!

Well, can't argue with that, I suppose.

Designing tomorrow

Magnet #1046 - Chicago World's Fair

Three. That's how many times I went through the Designing Tomorrow: America's World's Fairs of the 1930s exhibit at the National Building Museum in DC.

The first time I went through in just over an hour, a tiny bit rushed, only because I was in rush to get to through the gift shop to buy this magnet and then join the hour-long docent tour through the exhibit. A week later, I ended up spending two hours wandering through the eight halls or so, reading the fine print.

I swear, if I didn't start recognizing the volunteers manning the exhibit and the security guards and the guys behind the store register, I probably would have gone a couple more times.

There's some sort of magic surrounding World's Fairs that I've never been able to figure out - most likely, it's a sense of nostalgia, having been to the Knoxville '82 fair twice and then New Orleans fair in '84. But nostalgia's not the only reason, because ya'll know how I love heading out to Queens to see the old structures, buildings, and markers of the 39/40 and 64/65 fairs held there. So much fun.

What I didn't realize was that the 39/40 New York fair was just one of six World's Fairs held across the nation in the 30s, the others being Chicago's A Century of Progress International Exposition (1933–34), San Diego's California Pacific International Exposition (1935-36), Dallas' Texas Centennial Exposition (1936), Cleveland's Great Lakes Exposition (1936-37), and San Francisco's Golden Gate International Exposition (1939-40).

And the Designing Tomorrow exhibit (and accompanying blog) was just amazing, delving into each fair, the exhibitors, but mostly the design components - architecture and building materials, lighting and landscape, transportation and innovation, etc. The breadth and depth of the exhibit is truly remarkable.

My only complaint is that most of the oldies (and me) were bending down too far (indeed, on my haunches a lot, I was) to read the incredibly fine-print captions in like 8-point type (for some of them). But I didn't want to miss an inch of what they had to teach me!

Besides those captions, the exhibit itself is fabulously art deco-ily designed, coupled with giant sweeping images of each fair, gorgeous posters and wall hangings, great artifacts, displays, and videos.

I totally got lost in the wonder of all the fairs, and the 1930s walking through the halls. I loved it. But, I'm sad there's not a Designing Tomorrow catalog, because I would have totally bought one, or two.

When you go see the exhibit for yourself (as you must), definitely spend as much time as you can roaming through it - by yourself, and then take the really good docent tour. For example, without that tour, I never would have known that the first year of the Chicago fair, all the buildings were multicolored, as this magnet suggests. People didn't take to the garish technicolor(y) approach, and so the next year, they painted everything white...which is why Erik Larson's book is not called The Devil in the Multicolored City. Neat, huh.

Anyway, when you're done with the World's Fair exhibit (and the Palladio one and the Lego one and the others), go spend as much time as you can at the museum gift shop...it's one of my faves in DC, and just in general. Fantastic book section, incredibly dangerous for me and my wallet, so I have to avoid it.

They do have a good World's Fair tchotcke section, where I bought a few stickers to turn into magnets...at $10 for two, I couldn't justify (or pick between) all three sets. Hence the stickers, annnnnd maybe one additional one.

So yeah. In all, I'll eventually have seven magnets for one exhibit. Huh.

That New Year's Resolution to take it easy on the magnets is working out so far, I guess. Oops.

Surveys and renderings

Magnet #987 - Museum of Science and Industry

The magnet is from the supercool Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. So much fun to be had there! And epiphanies, as well.

The museum building was originally built for the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, otherwise known as the World's Columbian Exposition, as the Palace of Fine Arts. The 140-room building housed 8,000 exhibits, and was one of the great buildings of the fair. (Ya'll know I love my world's fairs. STWsis emailed me about the National Building Museum's world's fairs exhibition that I'm totally gonna see between Christmas and New Year's. I can't wait!)

I won't lie - I love this magnet because it's pretty and blue, and it reads like architectural renderings for the building. Don't worry - even on the real magnet, you can't read the type on the magnet. I tried. With a magnifying glass. (Sheesh, between being deaf last night and not being able to read this puppy, I'm decrepit, I tell you!)

I picked this guy for today, because it's part of what I've learned recently. Art comes in three forms: pictures, sculptures and architecture, which is what I've raved about for the last couple years on this blog.

That's part of why I decided to start a little independent study class for myself, running out and buying an incredibly heavy art history textbook (thank you Barnes & Noble Textbooks!). Each day I'm doing a little bit of reading and notetaking, to at least have some basic knowledge of art history.

Yes, yes, you can't learn everything from books, but I feel like I visit enough museums and galleries, and lectures to count as a well-rounded survey course. Plus, I have an in with the professor!

Past, present and future

Magnet #695 - 1939 World's Fair

I love World's Fairs - I've been to one or two, but mostly I love seeing what the other ones have done in the past.

The 1939 World's Fair first piqued my interest because it played host during the 5-day royal visit of King George and Queen Elizabeth, the same visit that included hot dogs up at FDR's place in Hyde Park.

The fair was held out in Queens, so it was at the Queens Museum of Art (one of the few original fair buildings) where I bought this magnet. It's a fair poster that features the theme center - Trylon and Perisphere, what some reports called the ball and bat. Heh.

It housed the "Democracity" exhibit, a utopian world view of the future. People would walk up the long, giant ramp around the globe, through the 610-ft tower, and into the 18-story giant globe, which was reportedly something like twice the size of Radio City's interior.

What I can't believe is how these two giant structures were dismantled at the end of the fair! Actually, most of venues were demolished after the fair, leaving various supercool books and random supercool footage and documentaries to tell their stories of long ago.

I picked this magnet for today, because after being totally sucked into Being Erica on Hulu, I'm totally watching this Being Erica Do-Over Marathon on SoapNet today.

I completely and totally disagree with the major plot-point of the show. Our heroine Erica has had a life of bad choices. In fact, she has so many regrets in her 32-year-old lifetime that the fates have granted her a way to go back in time to fix and/or course correct her life.

Don't get me wrong, there are probably one or two events in my life I wouldn't mind revisiting or course correcting, but I can't see a sadder outcome than a life of bad choices and regrets.

Still, I'm thoroughly charmed by Erica, played by Erin Karpluk. She's a cute character, and watching this Erin chick play her, is like watching the best of Lauren Graham and Joanna Garcia. Even though she's that cute chick that boys fall over themselves for, she's still kinda everyday normal, and you just want to be her pal. If only to borrow from her superdupercute (though not everyday-sized, but whatever) wardrobe.

Plus, she's somewhat close in age to me, so when she goes back in time, it's always fun to see the clothes and music I grew up with. And, I'm sure it's that same music that will make a DVD boxset cost-prohibitive to produce, so I'm dropping the show to DVD.

Truth be told, though, if I had the chance to go back in time to visit for a bit, it likely wouldn't be the famous places or people and not necessarily even my own timeline. It'd probably be these World's Fairs and Expositions dotted through history - each fair a snapshot of a time period, with a dreamy focus on the future that they were all expecting, based on a past they didn't want to forget.

Sailing, sailing

Magnet #457 - OpSail 2000

Here's a magnet from a long while ago...I was originally just using it for Fleet Week, but in doing a bit of research on it, it has naught to do with it. (See what I did there? Naught? Nautical? Hahahaah. Shut it, it's an early Sunday morning, give me a break.)

OpSail is a maritime event that they've put on five times - celebrating maritime history, and promoting goodwill between participating countries.

It was something that Kennedy helped developed, and it was finally realized for the 1964 World's Fair. It's basically a bunch of tall ships and other vessels that travel together from port to port, and then everyone can visit the ships.

I didn't actually go to OpSail 2000, but we did see them sail down the Hudson - super supercool.

Though, I will say that I'm not a sailor. There's something scary about being out there on the open sea, miles away from the nearest medical care. Plus, have ya'll not seen all those movies where the captain (or someone, usually hot) goes crazy and offs people in the middle of the ocean? Nu. Uh.

Stepping into the map

Magnet #414 - Queens Museum of Art NYC Panorama

Looks weird, right? It's the borough of Manhattan, as seen in the NYC Panorama over at the Queens Museum of Art.

I freakin' love this place. I've mentioned it before, but Robert Moses had it created for the 1964 World's Fair. It amazed people back then, and it's doing the same thing now.

I love looking at maps - so when I see this thing, I just kinda want to sit for hours, trying to look at different neighborhoods, figuring out where my buildings are, watching the plane fly in and out of La Guardia. Endless entertainment.

I've done one guided tour walking around the little skyway veranda thing, but Jeremiah's Vanishing New York got to go behind the scenes and actually walk in it.

Supercool blog entries for for his entire visit:

Panorama Part 1: New York Paleotectonic, in which we learn where all vanished buildings go to die, and also how to adopt a NY building. $10k is a bit steep for me, but I'd love to buy the Sony Tower. Or the Fred F. French building. Or 30 Rock. Or the Ford Foundation building. Or...yeah, it'd be hard to decide.

Panorama Part 2: Brooklyn in a Book, in which we learn a bit about Brooklyn.

Panorama Part 3: A Walk Up the East River, in which we step. Into. The. Map. Yep, Joey Tribbiani would have been proud.

Freakin' awesome.

On a wing and a prayer

Magnet #404 - Joy in New Orleans

I was planning to use this magnet a friend gave me for my really long rant I've prepared about LifetimeTV's Nora Roberts' collection of cracktastic tv movies and even more cracktastic (and quite cross-purposes) cover art for their ad campaign.

However. We'll get to that later, because dudes, I've just been validated. By Wikipedia.

So, I've been to New Orleans, but it was for the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition - the last World's Fair held in the U.S. What, you know I love them!

We tacked it on to the tail end of the rather disastrous cross-country family roadtrip that I've mentioned a couple of different times. We were all tired from this like lonnnng trip, but we decided to drop by Louisiana on our way back from Houston.

True to form (for my family), I remember driving through the French Quarter, not actually walking through it. Plus, I have a dim recollection of going to see a lot of the exhibits, including a shuttle and space capsules, and seeing all the fun buildings, etc.

But, here's my most shining memory of the Louisiana World's Fair:

You'll see in that Wikipedia link this:

One of the fair's more famous attractions was the Mississippi Aerial River Transit (MART). This was a gondola lift that took visitors across the Mississippi River from the fair site in the Warehouse District to Algiers on the West Bank.

Ummm. yeah. So then if you click on the MART wiki, you see this:

In forshadowing the future problems the gondola would face, on its maiden crossing, after being blessed by Archbishop Philip Hannan, the ride would temporarily stall.

Ummm. yeah. My most shiningest memory?

Being in the gondola with my family. During a thunderstorm. The whole family, including my parents, my grandmother, 11-year-old me, the six-year-old sister, plus the three-year-old sister. Oh, and Uncle Father Oscar (the priest uncle).

Stuck. Over water. Swaying. With my mother praying, on the verge of panic.

Longest few minutes of my life. I wasn't even scared of the fact that we were over Big River. It was waiting for my mom to calm down...and us having to be very, very quiet during the crisis.

Oddly, anytime I tell that story, no one ever believes or remembers that there was an actual tram over the Mississippi River!

But, there's proof now! The gondola system was built for that World's Fair! Sadly, by 1993, they had to demolish it, due to no one wanting to ride the darn thing in real life.

And, no wonder. It had been blessed by the Archbishop, we rode with a priest, and still we were stuck in the air.

Whoa.

Hot dogs! Get yer dogs right here!

Magnet #233 - Hyde Park, NY

Let's make it a Roosevelt weekend...

Springwood was the home of FDR up at Hyde Park. As you can see, it wasn't a tiny home, either. It used to be a farmhouse at one point, but then the Roosevelt family made it into a stately home.

When you visit, they take you through several of the rooms, where you see FDR's stuffed bird collection, the room where he was born, the rooms where he grew up, where he did his work, and the elevator he had created to get up and down from floor to floor.

What's always fascinated me more though, is visiting Top Cottage, his little rustic getaway a couple of miles away. You can only visit via the shuttle bus, but I just love going to Top Cottage because a lot of history happened up on that hill. And yet, FDR never spent the night there. You can tell that the cottage was designed (by FDR) for entertaining, because the living room is a massive open area, opening out to a terrific little front porch that overlooks a little valley, while all of the other rooms are small and fairly spartan.

A few events happened out on that wooden porch. There's an infamous story about how King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited the US in 1939. They did a little tour around the States, visiting the World's Fair out in Queens; Trenton, NJ; Washington, D.C.; Niagara Falls, etc. And it was a very big deal - never before had a British monarch ever set foot on U.S. soil. FDR needed to build up relations with the UK, and after the King accepted the invite, FDR meticulously planned every moment of their itinerary. Crazy. But all of that is not what made that visit infamous.

Nope. It's that FDR invited them out to Top Cottage for a good old-fashioned American picnic. And fed them hot dogs! By all accounts, their Majesties loved the hot dogs, and Americans were torn between being totally appalled or proud to be an American. Even his FDR's own mother was a little freaked out over it.

There's just something funny about the thought of FDR explaining how to eat a hot dog to a prim and proper King and Queen.

It's a great, big beautiful tomorrow!

Magnet #226 - Unisphere, Symbol of the 64-65 World's Fair, Queens

So, this weekend is Open House New York, where several buildings and attractions in all five boroughs of NYC open their doors for the public.

I freakin' love this weekend - where else can you get more than a hundred tours around town - all free! They have several different types of tours, geared toward kids, architecture, sustainability, the arts, etc.

The only problem I have with OHNY (besides that it's sponsored by Target who hasn't built a damn Manhattan location yet, thus taunting the crap out of me), is that it's only for a weekend, and it's virtually impossible to do more than a few tours in that amount of time. And, then, you have to localize your tours, so that you're not running around all five boroughs like a madwoman.

For example, this is the first year that I'm doing Queens. Yesterday, we did the Trolley tour around Flushing Meadows/Corona Park, where we had a young tour guide tell us about the different areas inside the park. And later today, we're hopefully going to be able to make it on to the Architectural tour.

Another obsession of mine are the two World's Fairs (1939, 1964) that NYC has hosted, both in this park. The Unisphere on this magnet was built by US Steel for the 64 World's Fair, and was meant to symbolize peace through understanding. Corporate sponsorships were the order of the day, and it allowed them to unveil several supercool things to the world, such as:

• Disney launched the Carousel of Progress and It's a Small World.
  
• Ford debuted their Mustang, in this weird automated carousel of cars thing, where people could get in line and ride the car of their choice. Some of the guys that used to climb through the fences to avoid the entry fees say that they used to just come for the day, and ride the Mustang, timing their places in line to "get" the Mustang. And then once it was over, queue up again for it.
  
• The Vatican brought Michelangelo's Pieta all the way from home!
  
• The Belgian Village featured Belgium Waffles - which stands out for fairgoers as one of the most memorable foods of the fair.
  
• Clairol launched some sort of hair product there (hairspray?), and they hired several local girls to be hair models.
• New York State's Tent of Tomorrow Pavilion was a highlight (/pun intended) of the fair. I've heard from a coworker that it was just the coolest thing ever because of the glass ceiling. But also on the floor of the pavilion, Texaco sponsored a to-scale roadmap that you could walk all over, and see all of the Texaco locations in NY. Pretty nifty. Nowadays, the steel infrastructure is definitely falling by the wayside, its last bit of notoriety being used as spaceships for Men in Black.
• Robert Moses (one of the city's most renowned planners/builders/all around city-shaper) had built an almost 10,000-square-foot panorama of the city - with almost 900,000 buildings! You can still visit it today at the Queens Museum of Art - and it's superfabulous. I could literally spend hours looking at it. It's basically in this giant room, with a veranda kind of thing along the wall, and you look down on it trying to pick out certain buildings and stuff.

Oh, I do tend to go on about this stuff, this is probably my longest post ever. Sorry - it's just fascinating the amount of money that people poured into this fair that ended up pretty much a financial disaster.

Anyway, so most of this fun stuff you can find out online, or at the terrific Queens Museum in Flushing, there's actually a superdupercool documentary about the fair that PBS did. They show actual footage of the fair, and interview several attendees. So freakin' neat.

Anyway, off to the fair...grounds!

eta:
So, I wrote all of the above before the 2-hour walking tour with an architecture professor and his PPT with superneat personal pictures of the fair. All of that, plus reading a postcard book on the way home, might qualify me to be able to give that tour all on my own now. Heh. Anyone want to go to Queens? I'll totally FB my staycation in Queens sometime tonight. Odd. I had wanted this year to be my Get-to-know-Brooklyn year, but it's turning out to be my Get-to-know-Queens year, instead. Heh.

eta2:
Those that know me, know that I love eta'ing my own posts. But, here's the FB pic album of the weekend.