BACK TO PUBLICATIONS
World Fair Attendance Is 600,000
May 01, 1939
Detroit News Quilt History Project; Michigan State University Museum; Susan Salser
Detroit, Michigan, United States
An article about the New York World's Fair
World Fair Attendance Is 600,000
Roosevelt Heads First Day Notables
By L. L. Stevenson
From the New York Bureau of The Detroit News
New York, May 1. - Out on the Flushing meadows - once a dump, now almost two square miles of landscaping and buildings - the world of tomorrow meets the world of today. That is, it almost does. Though work was started three and a half years ago, and though 50,000 artisans, laborers and administrators toiled night and day for the last week, New York's World Fair 1939 was not finished when the gates opened Sunday.
According to official estimates, the exhibits were practically complete and the amusement area bout 55 percent ready. Hours of walking here and there, in and out of buildings and along various winding paths, together with more time spent on one of those little sight-seeing trains with horns which play an unmistakeable phrase from "The Sidewalks of New York," brought the conviction that the estimate was high.
The great lag seems to be in the building of the 60 foreign nations. Japan's dainty structure, with its pretty girls in kimonos and many examples of arts and sciences, was open. Little Albania, recently taken overy by Italy, was also ready. Russia, with its 49-foot worker on a 250-foot tower, the second highest on the ground, was almost ready. But in the French building, there was still scaffolding. Various state buildings were also not open.
Play Zone Lags
The amusement area, known as the Play Zone, was in operation but nowise in full strength. The leaders were Dufour and Rogers, with their seven shows; the Savoy ballroom with colored entertainers, and several others. There were previews of Billy Rose's Aquacade, but it will not be in operation for a week or more. Then, too there are unpaved stretches.
Nevertheless, the opening got away in grand fashion, despite the fact that sunny morning skies gave way to spits of rain in the evening. Six hundred thousand persons passed through the turnstiles by nightfall and 100,000 tried to jam into the court of peace, where 50,000 can be accommodated and where President Roosevelt spoke.
By no means was the President of the United States the only dignitary present. There was royalty in the persons of Crown Prince Olav and Crown Princess Martha, of Norway, and Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Ingrid, of Denmark, together with ambassadors from a number of foreign countries.
Others There
Members of President Roosevelt's Cabinet were present, including Secretary of War Harry H. Woodring, Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins and Postmaster-General James A. Farley, as well as Frank Murphy, Attorney-General. Then there were 32 United States senators, possibly 350 congressmen, the governors of seven or more states and mayors from hundreds of cities. There were admirals, heavy in gold lace and dignified in fore-and-afters; generals, with gleaming medals; Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., Edsel Ford and many others well known in the world of industry and finance.
Society was represented also in numbers, and top hats, in the Court of Peace, were as common as on Fifth avenue on Easter Sunday morning.
It was a colorful spectacle indeed, made even more so by nationals of various foreign countries who went to the fair in native costumes, some of the Dutch boys and girls even wearing wooden shoes.
John Q. Public was there also, dressed in his and her best and getting blistered feet despite the abundance of transportation.
Mrs. Roosevelt must not be omitted. She was present wearing a new dress made especially for the fair and one she had not seen before. It was delivered to her ready to be worn. It was luggage tan silk with white decorations of trylons....
See FAIR - Page 4
Fair
(Concluded From Page One)
and perispheres. The designer was her niece, Miss Eleanor Roosevelt, daughter of G. Hall Roosevelt, former controller of Detroit.
A Laughing Throng
It was a laughing, good-natured first-day throng. Incidents, such as the breaking down of a sight-seeing bus causing a general traffic jam, brought only smiles. One of the picture machines, used in making photos for certain forms of tickets and passes, broke down with a line about a block long waiting. Instead of grousing, the waiters merely sought other machines. Now and then a guide gave a wrong direction but no one seemed to care much.
The first lost child was reported at 1:25 p. m. He was taken to police station No. 2, the haven of lost children, and became something of a hero among the policemen. Incidentally, that station is next door to the place where children can be parked all day if desired under the care of nurses, dieticians, amusement experts, etc.
The first birth occurred at 5 p. m. in the Borden exhibit. A cow brought a son into the world.
One-eyed Connolly succeeded in crashing the gangbuster's show despite police on guard outside. The first hamburger was sold something like 10 seconds after the gates opened.
The remark heard most frequently during the day was, "My feet!"
There is plenty of transportation ranging in cost from a dime to a quarter, but some of the buildings are so immense that they entail much hoofing.
Wheel Chair Prices
Speaking of transportation, a wheel chair, if pushed, costs $2.25 an hour. If it is a motor chair, the cost is $3.25 an hour and $3 an hour thereafter.
In one of the restaurants a ham sandwich costs 60 cents and coffee 20 cents while a roast beef sandwich is $1.25. Around the corner there is a stand where a sandwich is a dime. There are foreign restaurants where old world viands may be obtained.
As for the exhibits, they are so numerous and so vast that to see them all would take days. The three huge Detroit motor exhibits, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, attracted continous throngs all through the day.
In the General Motors exhibit, the country, as it may be 20 years from now, is shown, while in the Chrysler exhibit there is a rocket inter-planetary trip.
In the Ford exhibit, the various processes that go into the making of an automobile and the industries involved are shown.
In all, there are 1,500 exhibitors.
A Curious World
The world of tomorrow as reflected in the buildings, is a curious place, some of the structures resembling birds in flight. There are strange curves and angles and striking colors as well, while one building has a powder puff as a dome.
Night brings the fair to its very best. There are lights everywhere shining on trees, buildings, fountains, stretches of green. And shortly after 9 p. m. Sunday, the fair became flame for the first time. First there was a series of 10 flashes, created through cosmic rays captured at the Hayden planetarium with 10 units of sweet sound from the perisphere that could be heard for 20 miles.
Twenty-four bulbs in the perisphere, each emitting illumination equal to 18,000 hundred-watt lamps, burst into light. And that was only the beginning. Followed, flame, water and sound shooting high into the air, with colors continually changing, that left at least one beholder speechless.
Opens Exposition
President Roosevelt opened the exposition by hitching the $157,000,000 world's fair wagon to a star - the star of peace.
"Our wagon is hitched to a star," Mr. Roosevelt said in his first address since Adolph Hitler rejected his peace message. "But it is a star of good will, a star of progress for mankind, a star of greater happiness and less hardship, a star of international good will, and above all, a star of peace."
He made no reference to Hitler's rejection.
The President's only mention of European conditions came when he expressed the hope that barriers now standing between many countries would be broken down. In this connection he said:
"Often I think we Americans offer up the silent prayer that on the Continent of Europe, from which the American hemisphere was principally colonized, the years to come will break down many barriers of intercourse between nations - barriers which may be historic, but which so greatly, through the centuries, have led to strife and hindered friendship and normal intercourse.
"The United States stands today as a completely homogeneous nation, similar in its civilization from coast to coast and from North to South, united in a common purpose to work for the greatest good of the greatest number, united in the desire to move forward to better things in the use of its great resources of intelligent, educated manhood and womanhood - and united in its desire to encourage peace and good will among all the nations of the world."
Courtesy of The Detroit News Archives.
Roosevelt Heads First Day Notables
By L. L. Stevenson
From the New York Bureau of The Detroit News
New York, May 1. - Out on the Flushing meadows - once a dump, now almost two square miles of landscaping and buildings - the world of tomorrow meets the world of today. That is, it almost does. Though work was started three and a half years ago, and though 50,000 artisans, laborers and administrators toiled night and day for the last week, New York's World Fair 1939 was not finished when the gates opened Sunday.
According to official estimates, the exhibits were practically complete and the amusement area bout 55 percent ready. Hours of walking here and there, in and out of buildings and along various winding paths, together with more time spent on one of those little sight-seeing trains with horns which play an unmistakeable phrase from "The Sidewalks of New York," brought the conviction that the estimate was high.
The great lag seems to be in the building of the 60 foreign nations. Japan's dainty structure, with its pretty girls in kimonos and many examples of arts and sciences, was open. Little Albania, recently taken overy by Italy, was also ready. Russia, with its 49-foot worker on a 250-foot tower, the second highest on the ground, was almost ready. But in the French building, there was still scaffolding. Various state buildings were also not open.
Play Zone Lags
The amusement area, known as the Play Zone, was in operation but nowise in full strength. The leaders were Dufour and Rogers, with their seven shows; the Savoy ballroom with colored entertainers, and several others. There were previews of Billy Rose's Aquacade, but it will not be in operation for a week or more. Then, too there are unpaved stretches.
Nevertheless, the opening got away in grand fashion, despite the fact that sunny morning skies gave way to spits of rain in the evening. Six hundred thousand persons passed through the turnstiles by nightfall and 100,000 tried to jam into the court of peace, where 50,000 can be accommodated and where President Roosevelt spoke.
By no means was the President of the United States the only dignitary present. There was royalty in the persons of Crown Prince Olav and Crown Princess Martha, of Norway, and Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Ingrid, of Denmark, together with ambassadors from a number of foreign countries.
Others There
Members of President Roosevelt's Cabinet were present, including Secretary of War Harry H. Woodring, Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins and Postmaster-General James A. Farley, as well as Frank Murphy, Attorney-General. Then there were 32 United States senators, possibly 350 congressmen, the governors of seven or more states and mayors from hundreds of cities. There were admirals, heavy in gold lace and dignified in fore-and-afters; generals, with gleaming medals; Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., Edsel Ford and many others well known in the world of industry and finance.
Society was represented also in numbers, and top hats, in the Court of Peace, were as common as on Fifth avenue on Easter Sunday morning.
It was a colorful spectacle indeed, made even more so by nationals of various foreign countries who went to the fair in native costumes, some of the Dutch boys and girls even wearing wooden shoes.
John Q. Public was there also, dressed in his and her best and getting blistered feet despite the abundance of transportation.
Mrs. Roosevelt must not be omitted. She was present wearing a new dress made especially for the fair and one she had not seen before. It was delivered to her ready to be worn. It was luggage tan silk with white decorations of trylons....
See FAIR - Page 4
Fair
(Concluded From Page One)
and perispheres. The designer was her niece, Miss Eleanor Roosevelt, daughter of G. Hall Roosevelt, former controller of Detroit.
A Laughing Throng
It was a laughing, good-natured first-day throng. Incidents, such as the breaking down of a sight-seeing bus causing a general traffic jam, brought only smiles. One of the picture machines, used in making photos for certain forms of tickets and passes, broke down with a line about a block long waiting. Instead of grousing, the waiters merely sought other machines. Now and then a guide gave a wrong direction but no one seemed to care much.
The first lost child was reported at 1:25 p. m. He was taken to police station No. 2, the haven of lost children, and became something of a hero among the policemen. Incidentally, that station is next door to the place where children can be parked all day if desired under the care of nurses, dieticians, amusement experts, etc.
The first birth occurred at 5 p. m. in the Borden exhibit. A cow brought a son into the world.
One-eyed Connolly succeeded in crashing the gangbuster's show despite police on guard outside. The first hamburger was sold something like 10 seconds after the gates opened.
The remark heard most frequently during the day was, "My feet!"
There is plenty of transportation ranging in cost from a dime to a quarter, but some of the buildings are so immense that they entail much hoofing.
Wheel Chair Prices
Speaking of transportation, a wheel chair, if pushed, costs $2.25 an hour. If it is a motor chair, the cost is $3.25 an hour and $3 an hour thereafter.
In one of the restaurants a ham sandwich costs 60 cents and coffee 20 cents while a roast beef sandwich is $1.25. Around the corner there is a stand where a sandwich is a dime. There are foreign restaurants where old world viands may be obtained.
As for the exhibits, they are so numerous and so vast that to see them all would take days. The three huge Detroit motor exhibits, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, attracted continous throngs all through the day.
In the General Motors exhibit, the country, as it may be 20 years from now, is shown, while in the Chrysler exhibit there is a rocket inter-planetary trip.
In the Ford exhibit, the various processes that go into the making of an automobile and the industries involved are shown.
In all, there are 1,500 exhibitors.
A Curious World
The world of tomorrow as reflected in the buildings, is a curious place, some of the structures resembling birds in flight. There are strange curves and angles and striking colors as well, while one building has a powder puff as a dome.
Night brings the fair to its very best. There are lights everywhere shining on trees, buildings, fountains, stretches of green. And shortly after 9 p. m. Sunday, the fair became flame for the first time. First there was a series of 10 flashes, created through cosmic rays captured at the Hayden planetarium with 10 units of sweet sound from the perisphere that could be heard for 20 miles.
Twenty-four bulbs in the perisphere, each emitting illumination equal to 18,000 hundred-watt lamps, burst into light. And that was only the beginning. Followed, flame, water and sound shooting high into the air, with colors continually changing, that left at least one beholder speechless.
Opens Exposition
President Roosevelt opened the exposition by hitching the $157,000,000 world's fair wagon to a star - the star of peace.
"Our wagon is hitched to a star," Mr. Roosevelt said in his first address since Adolph Hitler rejected his peace message. "But it is a star of good will, a star of progress for mankind, a star of greater happiness and less hardship, a star of international good will, and above all, a star of peace."
He made no reference to Hitler's rejection.
The President's only mention of European conditions came when he expressed the hope that barriers now standing between many countries would be broken down. In this connection he said:
"Often I think we Americans offer up the silent prayer that on the Continent of Europe, from which the American hemisphere was principally colonized, the years to come will break down many barriers of intercourse between nations - barriers which may be historic, but which so greatly, through the centuries, have led to strife and hindered friendship and normal intercourse.
"The United States stands today as a completely homogeneous nation, similar in its civilization from coast to coast and from North to South, united in a common purpose to work for the greatest good of the greatest number, united in the desire to move forward to better things in the use of its great resources of intelligent, educated manhood and womanhood - and united in its desire to encourage peace and good will among all the nations of the world."
Courtesy of The Detroit News Archives.
-
Legacy
Gasperik Legacy Project, Mary -
Quiltmaker
Gasperik, Mary Mary Gasperik Legacy Project
-
Museum
Michigan State University Museum Michigan Quilt Project
-
Collection
Detroit News Quilt History Project
Salser, Susan
-
Essay
Mary Gasperik and the Detroit...
Salser, Susan
Load More
