The World of Tomorrow

[JonasPlanck]

2:13 SEE! ELECTRO! The amazing mechanical "robbut!" He walks! He speaks! He inflates and then pops a balloon! Is this electric marvel the answer to America's labor struggles? Or a secret weapon in the great arsenal of democracy to fight with us against Germany and Japan?

[PleomaxHD]

Woah, all in color? The 30's must be ahead of their time

[FuckngBastard]

The very things this World's Fair presents as progress are things Obama blames for our current high unemployment rate - machines! Obama is recently on record as blaming ATMs for a lack of bank tellers. Go to archive.org and find the feature film made during and based on the 1939-40 New York World's Fair, The Middleton Family at the New York World's Fair. The college professor boyfriend is a socialist just like Obama, and blames machines for turning people out of work.

[Andycoolio337]

Whats the music, anyone know ?

[middletech]

I liked how every one dressed up back then. There were a lot of things I am glad we do not do from back then, but that is not one of them.

[orayole]

@middletech Why the fuck would you want everyone to dress up? I think its the most ridiculous thing ever. People still dress up too much. T-shirt and jeans forever

[middletech]

@orayole Thats what they wear in prison. I can see you think alike.

[orayole]

@middletech I don't think you've seen prison

[irish89055]

@orayole no class, anything goes culture, now in decline, you're prob one of those people that never use a turn signal these days, too busy chatting on a cell... why would anyone use a profanity here?

[erikals2]

@middletech back then going out somewhere was a big deal.

[kiyyik]

Actually, I just got back from a lecture about world's fairs. They're still around. Called "Expos" nowadays, and we haven't had one in the states since the mid 80's, but San Francisco is apparently planning on one for 2020. I got my calendar marked.

[mutanTV131]

its soo ironic this never happend...except a few

[XtraPimp]

My grandfather went to this as a kid. I bet people crapped their pants seeing a robot!

[DonCorleone87]

yeah, we seriously do need another World's Fair. My grandparents went to this one in 1939 New York... it literally brings the world's brightest minds together, which in turn brings the world together.

[awsometastic12]

I love the music

[DeathBringer9000]

'play with electricity'

[gds312]

It's a shame my children will never be able to see a worlds fair. What happened to our great country.When it comes to spending money to better educate our children the government never has enough.

[DeathBringer9000]

@gds312 its got plenty, it just doesnt use it like it should

[Lordmij]

No one is fat!!!!!!! Damn High Fructose corn syrup, damn it to hell

[avcomth]

Not much to boast about back then without the transistors...

[toby099]

all the people in this video have been pwned by the grim reaper

[DragonFlyback256]

@toby099

Just my thoughts. These people on the film are now extinct 99%. Even most of the children.

[2008dada]

so in other words, progress stopped in 1939....we really haven't come very far now have we. oh yeah, the ipod.....whopeee

[DuggabbooDC]

@2008dada 

[DuggabbooDC]

@2008dada Are you joking?

Terrafugia, Apollo 11, Boeing 747, Internet, X-1, stopping Small Pox, Asimo, Hubble, International Space Station, the microchip, the wind turbine, all of the vaccines we have now, etc.

[2008dada]

@DuggabbooDC Gone With The Wind was transferred, in technicolor, by wire, from Hollywood to the Library of Congress in 1939. The technology to build the 747 was available in 1939, they simply foresaw no need for it. do we have cities with no ghettos, children that do not go to bed hungry at night, or have we corporations built on greed,profit & parasitically pilfering the world's resources, strip mining, forest clearing Amazon, mercury in fish, pollution in the air, addiction to fossil fuels?

[DuggabbooDC]

@2008dada You're comparing technicolor to the internet. Plainly put, no they didn't and they would have saw a need for a metal basically-invincible 100+ person carrying plane.

Yes, but that was not the point.

[2008dada]

@DuggabbooDC True, we have less disease, but man has conquered or become immune to diseases on his own since time began, I grant you that Hubble and the space stuff is phenomenal, but it was forseen in 1939, it was a case of waiting for technology to meet demand. Galileo knew what he needed, but the technology wasn't there for him yet. I am just saying, we "people" haven't reaped the treasure of the "golden" future forseen in 1939 and that is the shame

[DuggabbooDC]

@2008dada Show me one case where people have become immune to diseases pre-1939. In 1939, people still believed that this was the only galaxy, they didn't have an idea of string theory, antimatter besides a creative idea, how stars worked, how gravity works, the big bang, etc. and Galileo only knew about heliocentrism.

We have more than reaped that treasure, it is only that it hass not spread.

[MrHongKongBuffet]

Very cool. Thanks for posting!

[fardoche1991]

what is the song of the video is so good

[drfate234]

If it was up to Robert Moses there would be highways through Central Park, rapid transit was never in his plans.

[sloanjr]

Yeah, I read "The Power Broker."

Fascinating biography of Moses. Wiped out entire neighborhoods to make room for cars, but never drove one himself.

[BenAustria]

Would be awesome to live in such euphoria and optimism nowadays...

Thanks for posting. Made my day.

[mellowlanternquartet]

Now if he could sing "Robot Rock"

[Bipbip24]

wow, thank you so much! This is the most beautiful thing i've seen today!

[bigkellyr]

Very nice video. Most people don't realize that television was in it's early stages around this time and only got put on the back burner due to the advent of WW2.

[miguelmouta]

Ingenuous dreams. But I preffer this utopia than the sick one that grew in Europe at that exact time.

[nzflyingmattress]

Those freeways are exactly what LA has, and boy how the automobile has ruined that city, and it had such potential.

[nzflyingmattress]

look, no one's fat!

[herrsatz33]

hahaha, that's the best remark!

[WattSekunde]

@nzflyingmattress Yes, good point! And no one's extrem thin.

[pipinki]

kinda sad

[pipinki]

I wondered what those towers were every time I drive past them

[Boxspot]

Really nice footage and works so well with the music.

[eddiereddie]

Wonderful Video.

[mrbeautiful999]

Awesome footage.What is the music?

[sloanjr]

The song is called "Perpetuum Mobile" by the Penguin Cafe Orchestra.

[SgtToadstool]

Thanks!

[tvtower]

Ah yes the world of tommorrow. Technology has already exceded most of the ideas of this age.

The only thing that never changes and that we can't improve is human behaviour.

[Draw4You]

Hauntingly heartbreking to watch that from the perspective of today. The future is so clear and optimistic after the depression, yet it is now the distant past, changed forever by the frigtening spectacle of war. Auschwitz, Pearl harbor, Hiroshima... How timeless it all is, how ephemeral we all are....

[FLCLFREAK1]

man that is so beautiful i bet they though that the future was ganna be the best thing ever

[sloanjr]

I was born some 35 years after the fair ended - but I'm sure for more than a few, it was a nice, brief retreat from imminent war.

After all, most of the world was already on fire.

And most, if not all, of what was promised in the World's Fair was put on hold for six years - or more.

That's what makes looking at these films eerie for me. A brief look of the good humanity was capable of, before a long study of how evil it was equally capable of.

[debaucheryBotched]

Ironically, much real & practical technology was developed because the war effort itself. Many of the promises made at the fair were idealistic & optimistic fantasy at the wanning of the Great Depression. It took the war to propel these same ideas into reality. I would argue, had it not been for the war, the radical advance in technology, witnessed throughout the 50s & 60s, may had been delayed as much as 20 years.

[sloanjr]

I would agree with your proposal. The war spawned numerous technologies which we are still benefiting from - radar, FM broadcasting, celluar phones, even the computer as we know it.

But scientists worked for the war; not for consumers. There were no new TV's, no new cars, no new refrigerators or dishwashers. Americans made due with what they had before the fair. They were luckier than their European & Asian counterparts. Many were killed wholesale.

That's why the film is eerie to me.

[roskildahphreak]

@debaucheryBotched I'd agree if it wasn't for Nikla Tesla

[lars3939]

Incredible, thank you so much for this footage. Strange to see the past in the present, so similar.

[Diamonddavej]

Did anyone hear about the Home help Robot at the World's Fair, it was supposed to take a bottle of milk from a fridge and hand it to a "house wife". But the door closed and it handed the bloody fridge to her. The audience fled in terror.

[Damasteri]

Diamonddavej: Have you any video of that?

[Adam19822000]

holy crap

[Diamonddavej]

I heard that in documentary about robots, the incident explains why in the US, robots are feared but the Japanese love them. Clearly, in modern US culture Robocop does not vacuum!

[tvtower]

The robot appeared to reply to questions, it was just an record though, selecting different pre recorded tracks though.

[Organgrinder010]

Very beautiful footage.

[delorean60]

I really enjoyed this video, the music is perfect.

[pahoboye]

wonderful, thanks for sharing this, music is good with it..PAUL:)

[matyohimzes]

cool and awesome videó

do you know the music?

[sloanjr]

Thanks. The piece is called "Perpetuum Mobile" by Penguin Cafe Orchestra.