The World Comes to Queens: Films from the 1939 and 1964 World’s Fairs

Nearly 100 million people came to Queens for two World’s Fairs that opened 25 years apart, in 1939 and 1964. On the eve of World War II, the 1939–1940 fair looked to the future, with the optimistic slogan “the Dawn of a New Day.” The 1964–1965 fair, organized by Robert Moses, was largely a celebration of mid-century American industry, symbolized by the twelve-story-high stainless steel Unisphere built by U.S. Steel. Sponsored films made for the fairs capture the excitement and ingenuity behind the fairs while also revealing the goals of the companies behind them. Films to be shown continuously in the Video Screening Amphitheater, in excerpts or their entirety, include The Middleton Family at the New York World’s Fair and To New Horizons from 1939, and Sinclair at the World’s Fair, World’s Fair Report with Lowell Thomas, To The Fair, and Unisphere: The Biggest World on Earth from 1964.