A Century of Progress 1

 

I've written before about my fascination with World's Fairs and my disappointment that I've never had the chance to visit one.  This is one of four postcards I own from this series from The Chicago Word's Fair that ran from 1933- 1934.  This one is numbered 223, the lowest number of the four I have in my collection.  The highest, 235.  The caption, "Official post card of A CENTURY OF PROGRESS, 223. Northerly Isle from the Lagoon."  Published by the Ruben H. Donnely Corporation, Chicago.  I won't be posting the four cards I have in a row, so click on The Century of Progress Collection in labels at the bottom of the post.  I don't know why, but it's fairly common for Blogger to slice just a hair off the right side of horizontal images, so just click on the postcard to bring it up into a window. 

More From the 1939 New York World's Fair

It must have been an interesting time at the fair.  Even though all the countries of Europe were invited to submit a pavilion, Germany declined.  All things considered, not a bad idea.  In 1938, the Munich Agreement was negotiated by England and Germany, giving part of Czechoslovakia to the Nazis.  In 1939, the first year of the fair, Germany would take the rest of the country, and Germany and the Soviet Union would invade and dismember Poland.   The Czech and Polish pavilions would close for the 1940 season.  The Soviets dismantled their building and left a vacant lot in the middle of the fairgrounds.

 Of course, the Polish invasion led to declarations of war by France and Great Britain, with German invasions of Denmark and Norway soon to follow.  And then the big push, Germany moving through Belgium, the Netherlands, and France, pushing what was left of the British military into the channel at Dunkirk.  I can't imagine that smiling German greeters would have been welcome in New York City.  In any case, many of the employees of the European pavilions were stranded in New York for the duration.

I don't know whether these photos are all by the same photographer.  All I do know is that I found them all stuffed in the same envelope.  The picture of the statue and the night shot were both trimmed, so they may, in fact, be the same format as the others, but they were also printed on a different paper, so, different photographer or printed at another time?  Who knows.  Take a close look at the next to last photo in the column.  It's flopped.  For those who wish to print for themselves, camera original film reads right through the base, the shinny side.  That is, unless, someone deliberately loaded the film backwards.  Some people do.  Color film, shot through the base, saturates the red dyes on the film.  Black & white changes the contrast.  

The 1939 New York World's Fair

I just picked up an envelope of photos of New York from 1939.  It reminded me that I already had some photos from the 1939 New York World's Fair, so I've decided to put them up over the next few days.  This one, found in the quarter box at the antique mall, shows the Trylon and Perisphere.

World's fairs are, essentially, massive trade shows, allowing countries and large corporations to sell themselves to the paying public.  The 1939 fair was the first to be built around a theme, The World of Tomorrow.  The Perisphere and Trylon were designed as the theme center.  The buildings were  by architects Wallace Harrison and J. Andre Fouilhoux.  The Perisphere contained a massive diorama, Democracity a depiction of an ideal city of the future, by industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss.

At The World's Fair

I  went over 80,000 page views a couple of days ago and thought it was a good time to revisit some images from the early days of The New Found Photography.  Nothing was written on any of these, but I was able to date them from the midget show visible in the background of the second photo.   A bit of digging and I was able to place it at the 1939 New York World's Fair.  Click on Worlds Fair in the labels section to bring up the original post if curious.  And yes, I bought these photos because the lady is good looking.  Hey, I've bought things for worse reasons.

Trains and Trainmen

Written on the back of the train picture, "1939 engine that went to worlds fair." On the border of the photo of the man on the box car, "Hanging on." I got these photos from the same source, so I'm betting that the three men in the final photo are either fellow trainmen, or friends of the man on the box car.

A Beautiful Couple, 1939

One of the problems of being a collector of old photos is in the dating of images. Sometimes, the photographer writes something down or the lab stamps a date on the back, but more often than not it's a matter of guessing about clothes and hair styles. In the second image from this series, the lady is leaning against a wall, visible in the background is Morris Gest's Midget Town. Also known as Morris Gest's Little Miracle Town. Gest was a theatrical producer who had a distinguished career in New York presenting plays by the Moscow Art Theater, Max Reinhardt, and Elenore Duse. Things slowed down for him during the great depression, and for the 1939-40 New York World's Fair, he ended up putting on a midget show.

In looking at old photos, I often find myself thinking about historical proximity. In 1939, Japan had invaded China, and Germany was about to invade Poland. The gentleman in the first picture may or may not have ended up in combat. He may or may not have been wounded or died. His wife may have ended up building airplanes, or may have stayed at home. Of course, I can't tell what happened to them from these pictures, but I also can't help speculating. Whatever happened, it all changed.