'64-65 NY World's Fair FUTURAMA Ride Video

[itrooper]

If only I could built a Time Machine, make a fortune before the 64-65 worlds fair, then build the "Tru-Future Pavilion" and scare the crap out people for years to come with what's actually coming. While at the same time, show things from the future like LED TVs, Computers, Mobile/Cell Phones, Microwaves, iPads/Droid Tablets, XBox/PS3s, Internet (Archived on a portable Zetabyte hard drive from the year 2100), all the things we take for granted.

Would they walk out amazed, or frightened, or both?

[soapbxprod]

Alexander Scourby narrating...

[JimmysFinest]

Yes, the future is here, we have innovated a lot, each decade is helping us improve our lives. However, I blame the economy and politics for not helping us innovate as much. During the 1950's-1960's our economy grew 6%-8% every year, and we had practically no unemployment. Our government saw the need to improve our infrastructure, and our quality of life. It was accountable. Now the economy is much slower and companies are turning their backs and leaving for china, to cheat us from innovation.

[silvernail6]

Futurama 3 shows The popular, car of the year Volt catching fire in Barry's garage right next to a Vega........and piles and piles of crushed EV-1's.........lookie there GM exec's removing taxpayer money from willingly ignorant tax payers.....Hoo-Ray for the future!!!!!

[mike54101527]

@silvernail6 Sad, but true.

[aapskarel12]

industrial fairy tales.

very beautiful, very dangerous.

And more out of touch every year.

[Zamboro]

@aapskarel12

Fairy tales? An undersea lab exists, the Aquarius, along with an undersea hotel in Fiji and two restaurants in Florida and Israel respectively. Antarctica is home to an enormous, town sized science colony called the Amundsen Scott South Pole Station (And that's just America's base, many other nations have polar bases also) and overhead right now the ISS, largest space station so far, orbits the Earth. Just waiting on a moonbase, which SpaceX's CEO has announced plans to build.

[Zamboro]

@Zamboro

That's not to mention the undersea resorts being built in Fiji and the Phillipines, undersea mining in Papau New Guinea, undersea spa in the Maldives, undersea visitor observatories in Israel and China, the Atlantica civilian undersea colony in the works, Virgin Galactic's consumer space tourism, Space Adventures offering trips around the moon, the two inflatable Bigelow space habitats orbiting Earth (unmanned) as we speak, and the X-Prize 'Race to Inner Space". 

[Zamboro]

@Zamboro

So don't tell me the future didn't happen. It happened, you were just too focused on Call of Duty and Jersey Shore to notice.

[RedOcktober]

i remember this quite well... one of my favorite "rides" at "The Fair"...

definitely this was the stuff of what dreams are made of...

that why the world we live in today is so pale and hopeless... there's no NY Worlds Fairs anymore...

to those who've missed it... to those of you who dismiss it... i really feel sorry for you... you'll never know what it was like... for a brief span of time, there was magic in the city...

thx for the memories Larry...

--Mike

[Brianbellew]

I remember this was my favorite World's Fair attraction. Saw it several times. Yet there was an underlying,inexplicable fear I felt about it. Watching this video I now realize why. Gigantic machines cutting down trees,paving the way for roads...thru the RAINFOREST?!!! Thus goes that. Is GM still in business? I hope not. Cool attraction though.

[njbrucetx]

Another thing.....Anyone who attended this World's Fair owes it to themselves to at least listen to if not purchase Firesign Theater's "We're All Bozos On This Bus". Hilarious.Hope you enjoy.

[njbrucetx]

I remember this being my favorite ride back in 1965 at the fair. Just wish I could have heard the narration as well as now. I was just about as tall as the boy pictured and the speakers were embedded in the earflaps on the seats.. Immovable about 3 inches above my ears..Proving the future is frustrating at best.

[njbrucetx]

I remember this being my favorite ride back in 1965 at the fair. Just wish I could have heard the narration as well as now. I was just about as tall as the boy pictured and the speakers were embedded in the earflaps on the seats.. Immovable about 3 inches above my ears..

[medholm54]

Please remember that hindsight is (usually) 20/20. Thank you for the post. It is nice to recall the 1964 World's Fair. While we haven't been able to live up to our potential as a species, at least the intent was there. We've turned our attentions from helping the world to helping ourself. Less about progress, more about iPods.

[CrackerLance]

I hate to be cynical, but this was a bunch of cock. They really had no idea what the future held at Futurama 2.

[OlegKostoglatov]

Of course this being the G.M of the 1960s their aim was to sell more cars, so they thought it a good idea to build more highways and freeways.

In terms of the city of tomorrow that vision fits in with the urban renewal ideas that were popular during the 1950s and 60s. One of the problems behind urban renewal is that the primary proponents were academics, public officials, and connected developers (crony capitalists) using government power to impose their vision, which always ends in disaster.

[OlegKostoglatov]

I find things like this nostalgic in a happy way but sad at the same time. While I don't agree that there was any need to build freeways everywhere there was at least the idea that we should be moving forward, progressing, and getting things done. Now nobody wants to do anything anymore, where I am they file court cases over a lousy gas station, NIMBYism. The only place where are actually doing big things anymore is Asia, everywhere else is at a standstill or going backward

[1lubiano]

Walt Disney was a wonderful creative person, but looking back at all of this and knowing that mankind is not as advanced yet with technology, causes me to think what a waist of money...but on the other hand and not being double minded they are inspiring to watch...I wish the human spirit was strong enough to harvest technology in a greater copacity...

[gopconservative78]

I wonder if they were stoned during this ride

[momzy3]

Thanks for posting this!

[d3monicferret]

It's the Venture Compound!

[avedic]

It's pretty funny how just 50 years ago people assumed we'd merely colonize every single patch of the earth with boxy buildings and highways. In many ways we've gone way way beyond this. Imagine going back in time and showing these riders the iPad or a photo of Dubai or Tokyo. It would probably floor them.

[SHAUNERDANIEL]

Where's Futurama 3

[srita764]

Remarkably safe swift and efficient. Have you ever been to New York?

[srita764]

This is a pretty nice ride

[redyulan86]

who compose the music for this???

[DarthAzmul]

3:42 Good News Evreyone!

[TheGnolla]

WELCOME TO THE WOOORLD OF TOMORROW!!!

[LSweet2007]

08:09 - Is when you first see Bender!!!

[jeremyschnaible]

Hotel Atlantis, a vacationers dream get-a-way...

[Badwsky]

The manifest destiny screw the oceans and rape the land mentality was in full bloom here. Thank goodness for Nixon's EPA. I was on that ride. It was not for comfort. Its function was to keep people from lingering and jamming up the place: For presentation/timing rather than people having to stop to read anything. I only remember the little moving city cars among skyscrapers in the GM exhibit and this underwater hotels that would be crushed as flat as sheet rock at 100ft.

[omg122448]

I sure hope there is a Futurama 3 coming on 2014. After that I hope they move it to Epcot.

[Ghost0fFire]

What's with those hats with the big feather at the end?

[Badwsky]

@Ghost0fFire - Perhaps worn in homage to '39 when she gave it up?

[Guinnie]

future ain't what it used to be...

[Badwsky]

@Guinnie - Isn't that a Yogism?

[Guinnie]

@Badwsky yes it is

[bondll]

All:

Boy does this bring back memories. I worked at the GM Futurama exhibit in the summer of '64. I (along with young men from GM Parade of Progress) escorted celebrities and business big shots to the secret entrance to the ride (thus avoiding the long lines).

L Bond

[idiotglee]

aquacopter

[clemsonbloke]

@idiotglee Yeah for real, that just sounds like some last minute made up shit. "Oh just call it the aquacopter and be done with it"

[Tsubahi]

This must be a great inspiration for Epcot Center almost 20 years later!:)

[omg122448]

@Tsubahi Horizons is the perfected version of this ride. 

[pannoni1]

The closest thing to a world's fair nowadays in the US (a somewhat smaller, semi-permament version) is Epcot at Disney World.

[cell9song]

"and a laser beam cuts through those annoying trees that are the lungs of our planet!"

oh, and those harvesting of oil riches off the continental shelf....might wanna be careful there.

[kosmicwizard]

I want to eat sea weed everyday, so that everyone in the world can eat enough to live on and starvation on a global level will be eliminated. Why aren't they growing seaweed so I can have this as an option?

[anharmyenone]

We humans are explorers and builders.  If we ever start feeling guilty for that, we are done for as a species.

[vv55sst]

I was 5 years old, but I remember this ride.

[Firefox9895]

Were those visions dioramas with moving parts, kinda like miniature railways? What an impressive show! 

[Firefox9895]

3:15-3:30 Recycling old fighter jets!

[3piper]

It was disturbing to see the futuristic machines going through and paving the forests.We are destroying well enough with what we have.Would have liked to see more planet exploring and colonizing on the moon.That moon rover caterpiller was awesome, would have been a fun ride

[brainsareus]

much more of a nightmare corporate facist "brave new world" vision of the future. futurama my a............... this is a world for souless techno geeks,and people who think that technology can only bring good, my my the foolishness of it all.

[chrstman]

@brainsareus Yeah I'm sure living in caves and wiping our asses with our hands is a much more pleasing future for cro magnons such as yourself.

[edwardsams]

Yeah -- Great. I guess I will have to settle for my 52 inch flat screen and ipad until they finnaly deliver that flying car and maching moonpack I asked Santa for back in 1968.

[iscrapman]

amazing !

[themamagoatshow]

i do thingk the 1962 worlds fair is better but this is good to

[jimspy1001]

Oh, and one question: If this was Futurama 2, what was Futurama 1? I'm guessing it was the GM exhibit at the '39 Fair, maybe?

[captainlarrydart]

@jimspy1001 That is correct!

[jimspy1001]

"...extracting the vast oil riches of the continental shelves..." Amazing to watch and see how absolutely ignorant we were of the dangers our own technology posed to us. No blame, no finger-pointing...we were all enthralled with the future and technology back then. But when he spoke that line...I felt my heart sink. A moment of silence, please, for the Gulf of Mexico...

[sideim]

@jimspy1001 ...Fuck the gulf of mexico!

[jimspy1001]

@sideim - Sorry, you're too late. 

[noxure]

@jimspy1001 We sure were ignorant. Combustion, plastics, pharmaceuticals and nuclear fission have all left their marks. We can only learn from our mistakes and hope we'll be able to... but wait:

"It's 2010 with our powerful computers and advances in nano-technology we're finally able to unravel the mysteries and control life itself, thus we are entering the new era of bio-engineering!"

Oh well, never mind...

[FredFelon]

I was there and LOVED IT!!!

[bicho3200]

Well guys i have to catch the next rocket to the moon, seeya XD..

[670Kiester]

The fair would probably have been great to see, but the reasons behind it and Ed Bernays' involvement etc are depressing.

[thesixtiesguy]

How prophetic this exhibit was. It's just like the video here. Technology is wonderful. They finally tore down all those unsightly forrests in Brazil and now it one big city from Beunos Aries to Caracas.

Everyone is rich and hunger is a word almost forgotten.

[jtaforJesus]

@thesixtiesguy ummm...yeah, and they don't ever stop,,,can you imagine in the sixties, being able to take a tour trip to antartica? i disagree about everyone being rich, and hunger a word forgotten tho. the poor and hungry are still here, but the rich choose to not notice. when all the rich people go to the olympics in africa in three years, they aren't going to see the poverty there....

[matrox]

I really like that City of Tommorrow" anyone know how to get there?

[matrox]

A laser beam of light cuts through the trees....yeh right. A giant machine picks up minerals...and exactly what is this giant machine called?

[TomsFriendKake]

While I love this planet, and would like to see more done such as recycling and cleaning up the oceans, we would not have such a good life without technology and companies like GM. Even the hippy vegans have it good because of technology. Furthermore, technology is also allowing us to see the problems that came from technology inovation from 50 years ago, but technology will also allow us to find better solutions while at the same time keep our living standars up.

[barrania2]

This exhibit was sponsored by GM so, naturally, the vision for the city of the future was of cars and highways. Had they actually tried to build a city like that it would have been a Le Corbusier-inspired nightmare. They had the right attitude back then but the wrong idea.

[barrania2]

They should have invested heavily in mass transit and traditional town planning models, the kind that have existed for hundreds of years and don't require any special engineering feats. The truth is, a city is not a complex organism at all. Its construction is an art not a science.

[barrania2]

I was speaking strictly from a design standpoint. Cities designed for the automobile are unsustainable. Yet, cities that were built 1000 years ago are still usable today and actually meet the needs of people better.

[SaintLiam78]

If only the green movement had not stolen this futer from us, what would the world be like today?

maybe oneday we will regain this stolen future.

[tgold1968]

The green movement lost. You basically got what you asked for, and at huge taxpayer expense.

[theyoda55]

We used to be so confident about the future...

[TatevossianA]

1964: GM world-class leader in industrial and manufacturing technology. 2009: GM bankrupt and de-listed from the NYSE.

[zazose]

when I was a kid that about 7 I went on that ride I believe at the hall of science was good times and I never thought I would recall the good old days when people were human beings thanks for posting

[Jagdtoq]

Intead we got the iPod

[crixxxxxxxxx]

Golly! The 80's are gonna be groovy!

[Corshmell]

lmfao

[eXAKR]

I have a "Disney's Wonderful World of Knowledge" encyclopedia that contains photographs of the models shown in that video; remember being awed and inspired by them as a child, and they still do inspire me.

It's quite great to be able to see some of those models in motion and from another visual perspective here.

[itsaguinness]

They copied dr No's underwater house

[hotdawger]

The old man they keep showing is thinking, "Dang! Why if only I could live to see it! Why...oh why was I born in 1880?" The boy is about 10 which makes him about the same age as the old man now. Do you think he feels cheated because there are no freeways sans accidents or traffic and that we don't all live in super chick highrises?

[bze2nlz1]

@hotdawger I realize I'm replying to an old comment, but this boy would be nowhere near the age of that old man. Assuming this kid is 10...about my age when I went on this ride...he'd be 56 now. If that man was born in 1880, he'd be 84 in the video (and he looks pretty close to that!). I'd hate to think that I look that old....!

[lawlers69]

@bze2nlz1 Yep then he walked out, got drafted and went to Vietnam

[MrJm323]

@lawlers69 Wonder what MOS he would have had over there. 'Drummer Boy'?

[deathnutz]

Return to the tribe.

[TwinkleSpaceGirl]

eeek

[BakeliteArmy]

I can see the wires.....

There were to be no wires in the future. Maybe that's why I'm so bitter.

[simplythemediocre]

I just found it a disturbing vision of the future, it whitewashes over anything bad by saying that "technology will fix everything!" without acknowledging that it's technology that made those problems in the first place. The thing about the rainforests being demolished and paved over? That's just going to fuck with our ability to live on the planet.

[eXAKR]

True that. Luckily, we still don't have factories on wheels to build roads, though I could say that the current technology we have is somewhat more destructive than the one depicted in the video.

[f252863]

@simplythemediocre

People like you who crush the human spirit and condemn us all to live in gray, drab buildings in collective misery. Most of us are alive thanks to technology, take your attitude back to the middle ages, you belong with the religious tyrants.

[simplythemediocre]

I'm not saying technology is abad thing at all, it just needs to be used a little more responsibly, the people who are promoting the vision of the future as seen in the video are roughly the same types of people who thought radiation was a great thing and put it in everything from wrist watches to toilet seats. As a result of that kind of attitude people die. When technology is correctly applied it can be wonderful. Otherwise I wouldn't be studying science.

[barrania2]

Actually it was Le Corbusier (the architect who inspired GM's city model) who wanted to demolish half of Paris to build Soviet style apartment blocks. He also inspired the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago, and we all know what a great success that turned out to be. And BTW, the middle ages produced some of the most beautiful cities in the world (Prague, Bruges, Budapest, etc.)

[MrJm323]

@barrania2 Yes, the LATE Middle Ages. The "Middle Ages" (or "Medieval Period"), this thousand year period, is an unfortunate historical concept because it combines two historical periods that really should be sharply distinguished: the Early Middle Ages which really was a period of darkness and stagnation, and the period following it which was a period of recovery, called the High Middle Ages, centering especially on the Renaissance of the Twelfth Century.

[piffpete420]

@f252863 You wouldn't know what a tyrant was if it smacked you in the face.

[lemonrind]

@simplythemediocre Technology didn't make these proplems; people did.

[simplythemediocre]

@lemonrind If trawling through stale, month-old comments is how you like to spend your time then I think I would do well to avoid any and all further interaction with you. Good day sir, and get a life.

[simplythemediocre]

This is horrific.

[miguelmouta]

Indeed, its science lie.

[l11432]

GM was king then, Then, they fucked us over

[NickB1967]

GM fucked us over? Not the Unions and Government officials? Really?

[l11432]

Them too. -and us too for taking it

[mikemantel]

Remember, this was the future envisioned by corporate America, not the social/environmental future. Back then, environmental impact was not realized yet.

[loboguara1]

As horrific as this is, the anti-human movement of the green cults horrifies me just as much. They're so sick they actually want humans to be extinct.

[websuspect]

@loboguara1 The working class of ueseless eaters is blissfully ignorant of how much the global elite wealth class want to kill us.

[GrayBlood1331]

I couldn't help but hear Mike and the bots while watching this :D

[XxSTICH666xX]

hahahah did they ever make fun of something like this?

[simplythemediocre]

They did. It's a show called Futurama. They take the piss out of this kind of stuff all the time.

[XxSTICH666xX]

I was talking about Opie and Anthony.

[simplythemediocre]

What is this Opie & Anthony you speak of? I live in Europe, a land where no such people have trod. ^o^

[XxSTICH666xX]

It's a very famous radio show.

[simplythemediocre]

Like I said, Europe, very famous to you could be a total nonentity to me. But thanks for explainin'

[edwardstheconfessor]

I love these old visions of the future. So innocent they were. They all fail to take one rather important thing into consideration: man's insatiable greed. All this might have been possible, had mankind entertained some restraint. I love the line near the end where the narrator says "Man must chart his own course into the future". Yup. We did. And it seems we turned onto a dead-end road.

[LuvIzAhl]

I still remember this (and other visions of Earthly Utopia) that were based in much delusion. We've lost our way, due to the afformentioned greed. Compassion is the answer. Love Is All!

[farbot]

so,we failed on everything but malls and messing up the rainforest's and the oceans,but without the benefit???i have the feeling we did something wrong there...

[LuMagazine]

Funny how back then there was absolutely no concern for LIFE in the rainforest. These machines just plowed through, like mindless killers. Sad to see how disconnected man was from his environment in the 60's. This was the epitomy of global destruction. We're paying for it now, and GM should pay for it also!

[MisterDaskLives]

What the hell happened to the future?

[tgold1968]

The future arrived. It is version based on reality, not fantasy.

[justme632]

A product of someone's great imagination.Maybe if GM had spent more time on their cars,instead of this junk,they wouldn't need a bailout today

[consect]

you are truly a fool. Creativity and the desire for progress in industry ha always been what has made us successful. GM failed because it loss this desire for innovation. Of course they may have wanted to be a bit more environmentally aware.

[Ryantravisaol]

rather than all these bailouts, why didn't we just spend all that money out improving our infrastructure? Imagine how great those highways would be for us in America. Give the people jobs and that gives them money, give them money, and they spend, they spends and commerce picks up. Whats the deal with our president?

[loboguara1]

So you're okay with losing your job and going to sling asphalt for your new career? Or did you mean "other people?

[Ryantravisaol]

The people that do those types of jobs make over $30 an hour, if I lost my job and had no income I would jump at the opportunity. What point are you trying to get to, if you don't mind me asking?

[MerleOberon]

I remember waiting like an hour and a half to go in this exhibit...I wanted to live in those cantilevered apartments, everything was so modern in the 60s, this was probably the peak of technological optimism....

[harleysmurf666]

Yay, a special machine that can grub up trees and lay roads at the same time. Isn't technology marvelous? Thanks for posting, great vid :)

[rod1148]

I was there will my family for a full day in summer of 1964 and again in 65. 16-17 yrs old at the time. Thanks for the memories! Will have to dig out the slides my dad made...

[garyokee]

...and then....in the year 2009, after we cut down the jungle forests in the storybook tropical areas.....and we build our roads.....all throughout the city of tomorrow......

GM will declare bankruptcy is an obsolete dinosaur intent on destroying the world.

Too bad they didn't predict this back in 1964.

[MacraStraba]

Don't think they saw the '73 oil crisis coming for that matter. Before that their cars were the size of friggin' whales to be rendered obsolete within a few years.

Brilliant business plan. No wonder they're begging for monies from the government.

[tapyenreit]

Killjoy!

[Cooleemee43]

Slightly off track, 1966 Star Trek and the gadgets. We have all of them now. They had communicators we have cell phones, they had desk top computers and we have em now, they little little square data storage units, we have cds and floppy discs, they could transport, we had drugs. So its just like Futurama

[originalfunkyfry]

They promised the same garbage that they said would happen by 1960 in the 1939 Futurama. Moving sidewalks, electronic controlled freeways... didn't they think people might say "Futurama 2" just promised us the same things Futurama promised 25 years ago?

[35sixer]

thanks for the post.. is this on dvd?

[bradericdriver]

cool

[rackas321]

Almost exactly. Epcot is like a permanet one.

[musicteacher8]

Thanks for this. Climate changes at the polar caps? Food enough for seven times the people on earth? Well, the little factor they forgot is capitalism has a Greed component, and when consumption becomes conspicuous consumption, there's less for everyone. It's a great big beautiful tomorrow...

[wiedep]

end of the road for gm ?

[davidatheist]

Hello future

[sickpervertnumber2]

the wierd thing is they did get the way the moons surface is and we do have mines in the artic circle now.

[QnOfWshfulThnkng]

WOW! I remember this outstanding exhibit vividly! This is what I recall the most about the '64-'65 World's Fair! Thanks to whomever put this up! I just time-traveled to my youth! I'm still POed that we didn't get these "Jetson's-like" predictions in our lifetime. This country needs new vision, new direction and most of all, optimism.

[soadtoxicity316]

IT DOES, AND IT INVOLVES RON PAUL!!!!!!! HAHA, give me a -1 too i dare you

[QnOfWshfulThnkng]

This exhibit might be considered ecologically insensitive in today's world, but I don't care! When I saw this at the age of 12, I was floored! This was supposed to show us 2024... I don't think we're going to get there at this rate and that's a shame. Thanks for the great experience again!

[TomAlton]

I made a bad typo on this video; I meant to give it a 5 STAR rating. This film is a vivid reminder of my trip to the NY World's Fair as a young child. I went to GM as a 6 year old and this was one of the great thrills of my visits ( I also visited the Fair in 1965). Thank you for sharing this memory!

[mahmooa1]

Great video Tom, thanks for showing us it. I like this vision of the future pity it didnt come true