More from the Belgium Pavilion restaurant

Here's another view of the restaurant at the Belgium Pavilion from the 1939-40 New York World's Fair.



It looks like they had quite a staff on hand, doesn't it? This is actually only part of the crew as I have other shots of different waiters, bartenders, etc. It would be interesting to know how many patrons the restaurant could seat and how large the staff was.

I would love to find a menu from the place as well. I'm willing to bet they served some fine meals there indeed.

1939-40 New York World's Fair - Belgium Pavilion #2

This is the main dining room for the restaurant at the Belgium Pavilion. Many of the foreign pavilions went all out to showcase their cuisine, and Belgium was no exception. I would imagine that dining here would have been quite an experience. I'll be adding more shots of the restaurat and its outdoor dining area soon.

If anyone has any information on who did these beautiful murals, and what became of them after the fair ended, please let me know.

1939-40 New York World's Fair - Belgium Pavilion #1

While most of the 1939-40 New York World's Fair has long been lost to the passage of time, the former Belgium Pavilion is still with us. The building is now part of Virginia Union University. I thought it might be fun to take a look at the pavilion during the fair, especially as it was one of the larger and more elegant foreign pavilions.



The awning on the taller part of the building shades the windows of the pavilion's restaurant. There was also an outdoor seating area on the balcony just below the awning. We'll be visiting both of those sections of the pavilion, and others, in the days to come.

A Disneyland of long, long ago

After all of the pictures of the General Electric Pavilion from the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair I thought it was time for something different. In fact, I thought I would stray outside the realm of world's fairs for a visit to Disneyland. It was my visits to the Fair that led me to work for Disney, so why not follow the link?

I'm restoring a batch of large format slides from around 1958 or so. There are quite a few things shown that are no longer part of the Happiest Place on Earth. Here's one, for example.



This view was taken from the Mark Twain. I bet the stagecoach was a lot of fun given how popular westerns were on TV at the time. Looking at the kids sitting up top sure shows how things have changed in terms of theme park safety. Not a single seat belt anywhere in sight.

About 20 years after this was taken you could still see them remnants of the old stagecoach road in places. Disneyland was closed to the public on Mondays and Tuesdays in the off season, and I used to enjoy walking out there along the river. It was very peaceful, with flocks of ducks and geese stopping by the river. Someone had dragged a chair out there and put it under a tree so it wasn't readily visible when the park was open. It was a great spot to sit and enjoy lunch.

These slides are fun but they are a bit challenging at times. They have some scratches and mildew, but worst of all the color has really shifted. Here's a view of the same slide after cleaning but before color adjustments.



Thanks once again to the wizards behind Photoshop.

GE Brings Good Things to Life

I don't know if General Electric was using that slogan during the days of the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair, but they sure had a lot of different products that were intended to make life easier, or so said the hostesses scattered throughout Medallion City. The huge crowds that came to see the Carousel of Progress all had to pass through this area on their way out of the building, but it looks like most of them weren't sticking around when this picture was taken...

Even more General Electric! - Part 14

Here's a seldom seen portion of the General Electric Pavilion at the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair. This is part of Medallion City, which was what GE called its product display area. Here a pretty hostess, wearing white gloves no less, extols the virtues of GE air conditioning and other products for the home.

General Electric - Part 13

The Nuclear Fusion demonstration basically consisted of a countdown, some indicator lights changing color, then a mighty bang and bright flash. That was it. Oh, there was one thing more. This big display showed the results of the test, counting down how many neutrons were involved, the temperature, etc. I'm still not sure what it all proved, but this was high tech stuff indeed back in the days of the Fair.