The 1964 World’s Fair was held in New York’s Flushing Meadow Park (next to the now defunct Shea Stadium, which opened right before the World’s Fair and was home of the New York Mets until 2008).
The fair was a very forward-looking and optimistic view of technology, the space age, and consumer capitalism. Exhibits included the IBM Pavilion where early versions of computers were on display. Other companies, including RCA and AT&T, also displayed the latest gadgets.
Looking back at the 1964 World’s Fair evokes a kind of sad nostalgia. Sad because this period in some ways represented the end, rather than the beginning, of a new era. Of course, American capitalism came through when it came to appliances and technology. However, the naive optimism of that period was short-lived.
In many ways, period from right after World War 2 until the mid-sixties was the zenith of American power and prosperity. Soon the Vietnam War, inflation, Watergate, environmental crises, and other issues would bring about a more cynical and pessimistic view of the nation’s future.
Below is a video, Out of This World, that sort of encapsulates the blind enthusiasm for consumer culture and technology that was in the air in the early 60s and that the World’s Fair represented. It’s basically a long commercial for Frigidaire, at the time owned by General Motors. After a pep talk about industry, technology, and progress, we see a stereotypical housewife from that period dreaming about a utopian future where life is made ideal by devices such as dishwashers, stoves, microwaves, and, naturally, refrigerators.
The dreamy look in here eyes has a Stepford Wives kind of look, one you still see today in many commercials for pharmaceuticals. I think Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, which was written a few years earlier, was depicting this kind of mentality.
Note also how glamorized the interior design is depicted compared to the drab uniformity of most suburban homes today (or for the past few decades really).