The Internet provides one-stop shopping for those interested in this particular exposition. Intriguing facts and figures pertaining to it are available in an Earth Station Nine entry (
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January 2011
The 1939 World’s Fair was a showcase for modern-age marvels ranging from nylon to television. Displayed in settings devised by top architects and designers, they provided walloping doses of wish fulfillment for people just emerging from a deep economic depression. Hitler may have been reaching for the light switch in Europe, but Albert Einstein flipped the one that illuminated the Flushing Meadows fairgrounds in the New York City borough of Queens as the exposition opened. In an atmosphere heady with optimism, visitors lined up for the leading attraction, General Motors’ Futurama, which carried them through a planned urban landscape in moving chairs and sent them away with buttons that read, “I have seen the future.” Tens of millions of fair goers took home other mementos as well.
Nearly as impressive as the meticulous detail work in Andrew Wyeth’s painting is the balancing act he maintains between opposing schools of art: modern without being modernist, classical without being stuffy, and realistic without being either ironic or pretty. It must be admitted, however, that he shows a marked fondness for grays and beiges. For anyone who has spent time among Wyeth’s austere canvases, then, the farm of his Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, neighbors Karl and Anna Kuerner—where Wyeth has made more than 1,000 paintings, starting in 1932—will be a revelation in its very ordinariness: green grass, bright sunshine, and wide-open spaces.
Regarding “The Marx Brothers” (“History Now: Screenings,” August/September 2004) by Alien Barra: He writes no one has “dared, or ever will dare to re-create Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Zeppo.” Not so! says this retired FDNY fire marshal (he who finds the obvious which somehow has been made obscure). They have been re-created and turned into one of the most successful and watched television shows ever. Which one? “Seinfeld.” Consider the leader, Jerry, with his insults and even the Groucho whine in his voice. George Costanza, the disingenuous and conniving Chico. Kramer with Harpo’s googly eyes and that through-the-door shtick. Elaine? Of course, the good-looking one. Zeppo! Like the Marx Brothers too, ever funny for, likely, the ages. Reruns here in New York City are currently two per day!
I enjoyed Joseph Ellis’s article “Inventing the Presidency” (October 2004). It came at an opportune time for me, as I have been reading Ron Chernow’s new biography of Alexander Hamilton. It is interesting to compare Chernow’s and Ellis’s views of Washington’s first term. Between the two I now have a far better knowledge of those years than I ever got in school. I think very few people appreciate what a touch-and-go situation we had, and how fortunate it was to have had such men as Washington and Hamilton to set the country on the right course. It is a small point, but there is a minor discrepancy in the descriptions of Washington’s inaugural. Mr. Ellis says Washington wore a “simple suit of black velvet.” Mr. Chernow has a more detailed description, including “he also wore a plain brown suit of American broadcloth woven at a mill in Hartford.” He notes that this carried a special message: “that America should encourage manufactures, especially textiles.” Chernow adds that “Washington hoped it would soon ‘be unfashionable for a gentleman to appear’ in any dress not of American origin.”
The World Trade Center’s architect, Minoru Yamasaki, considered about 100 scale models before settling on the design that is now etched in our national consciousness. Between 1969 and 1971, after construction had begun on the World Trade Center and before the first tenants went to work there, Alex Tunstall, the director of Minoru Yamasaki & Associates’ in-house model shop, built a final model for presentation to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Tunstall and Yamasaki intended the presentation model, an exact rendering of the site, to reflect the significance and grandeur of the structures it anticipated. Its surface was coated with glistening automotive paint to produce an enlivening sheen. To emphasize the buildings’ unprecedented scale, Tunstall’s team glued 175 miniature cars to asphalt-colored paper streets and placed approximately 300 tiny people throughout the plaza. Most remarkably, the towers themselves rose 7 feet above the 8-by-10-foot base.
25 Years Ago
February 3, 1980 At the Winter Olympics, in Lake Placid, New York, the U.S. hockey team defeats Finland to win the gold medal. This game follows the Americans’ stunning upset of the Soviet Union.
February 3, 1980 Press outlets report that 31 elected officials will be charged with corruption as part of the Abscam investigation, in which FBI agents posing as wealthy Arabs offered bribes to legislators.
75 Years Ago
March 13, 1930 Astronomers at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, finally locate the planet that will be called Pluto, which they and others have been seeking for several decades.
150 Years Ago
March 30, 1855 Settlers in the new territory of Kansas, their numbers swelled by visitors from neighboring states, vote to install a pro-slavery territorial legislature.
225 Years Ago