Scenery from 1939 worlds fair

HEY LEE,

I halfheartedly agree!

Rip Track

http://www.1939nyworldsfair.co...6/general_motors.htm

I wonder when these two images were taken? Differing side panels on the A unit and also a flag pole behind it?

How wonderful we have these color images to view. It must have been a magical place to visit in '39.

There seems to have been many modifications to the GM pavilion between it's two seasons. For example, the queue in the first season was open air, it was fitted with long red awnings for the second. Many other items had been added such as the flagpole you mentioned. Color photos of the period suggest that the locomotive underwent alterations as well.

According the "E Units" issue of Classic Trains, the original unit posed in front of the pavilion was indeed a Seaboard unit as seen being built around it and opening in 1939, but in 1940, Seaboard wanted the unit for their trains, so a second unit was brought in and this is the unit with the transparent sides and says "GM Diesel" on the nose.

Changes include going from no nose herald, to the "low" nose herald on the 1939 locomotive, and then the "high" nose herald on the red-painted 1940 locomotive with both clear sides.

I hope this helps...

Thanks,

- Mario

Thanks for posting the photos, Mario.

Look at all the visiting spectators at the Fair.

They were all so tastefully dressed!

The men wore Fedora hats, coats, and ties, and the women wore hats, coats and and dress shoes.

No T-shirts, shorts, sneakers, weird hair, tattoos, etc...they all dressed like mature men and women.

How I wish this country's citizens would dress up again and become more mature and decent in the process!

When I was a kid in the 1940's, whenever my sister and I went somewhere with our parents, whether to a Movie Theatre, Restaurant, Circus, Baseball Game, Zoo, Amusement Park, etc, my Dad always wore a suit and tie, as did all adults of the time. 

Throughout the early 1940's, Dad worked at the dirty job of a Fireman on PRR steam locomotives, hauling coal and steel for the War effort, but when it came to going to public places, he dressed up as we all did...it was a matter of self-respect!

People in those days were simply more civilized than the people of today, at least in appearance.

I'm glad I was a part of it!   (And I wear this Fedora every chance I get!)

We've lost something, gentlemen.....

Rip Track

I totally agree... I have a fedora, and my wife makes fun of me when I wear it.  I also try to "dress" for travel, bit shorts and tee shirts (usually ironic or obscene) are the fare of the day!

One day I was on a flight from Tulsa to Dallas, and the woman next to me was a little older and afro-american, but dressed perfectly in a skirt suit in a pink herringbone and nothing out of place.  I was in a shirt and tie (too hot for a sport coat), and I complimented her on her fantastic suit and we had this same conversation.

Another time I was flying home from Chicago to Syracuse, and the Flight Attendant had on the most perfect pair of black wingtips, and they were shined to the hilt!  I also complemented him on his shoes, and we had the same conversation, again...

If there is any doubt to those of us that dress for success, Frank and Dean said it best, when they said... "You've either got or you haven't got... style!..."

Thanks.

- Mario

HEY MARIO,

I applaud your views on the subject...but it seems rather incongruous that a man  involved with Trains would choose to travel in Aeroplanes!

You're from New York, where once the mighty NYC 4-6-4 Hudsons moved passengers in luxury at a guaranteed 90 MPH!

RIP TRACK

How popular were beards in the 40s? 

Hey Silver Lake,

Beards were very rare, except on elderly men. Part of being neatly dressed was being closely shaven.  Celebrities and film stars were never seen with even a stubble.  Close shaven was the rule.

Rip Track

My wife and I both loved the book we got earlier this year, due to another thread here: Ric Morgan's The Train of Tomorrow.  It had wonderful photos of the train and the crowds waiting to see it in all its venues.  One thing that struck us was that all the both women and men were well dressed, men always clean shaven, usually wearing a coat and tie even to go see an outdoor exhibit on the weekend, and wearing a hat - usually a fedora.  

I usually wear a hat - it keeps the top of my head from sunburn - but not a fedora.  Deerstalker in fall and winter and a panama type in spring and summer.

Personally, I hated wearing a suit, tie and the occasional hat when I was a kid and I'm still not fond of it.

Rusty

Mr. Willis,

I recall in 1948, the US Navy was having an open house in San Diego, with visitors being permitted to board various Warships at the Pier.

We had a Navy friend who was a CPO on the Heavy Cruiser USS Helena, and when we boarded her, my Dad was wearing a fine Suit and my Mom was dressed in Furs! (My sister and I were also appropriately attired...I was 12 and she was 6.)

What a sight it was for the sailors on duty in the Boiler and Engine Rooms, to see a well-dressed family carefully descending the ladders into that world below the waterline!

After our private tour with the Chief, were were treated to a Porterhouse Steak dinner in the CPO's Wardroom! 

Great memories of a bright, clean postwar America! 

Rip Track

(Here's an offshore shot of CA75, the USS Helena) 

Rip Track - Nice hat.  Nice guns, too.  And speak of the Helena, here is a scratch built model of it I made of that class of cruiser last winter.  1:350 scale.  The hull is a piece of popular and the supersctructure, turrets, guns, etc. Plastruk and Evergreen sheet plastic, etc. This cruiser is among my favorite classes ever - and the entire Navy - it was all a class act.

---------------------------------

It is a pain when you are a kid, particularly the tie, even if your parents get you a clip on. You had to take it so easy in that suit, and not get dirty, which meant you couldn't have any fun!

And it takes extra time and patience with small buttons and all anymore.  But I always wear a long sleeve shirt and tie to work now, and a hat when outside.  We are an engineering company and most people including my business partners in founding the company come to work in casual shirts - there is no need for a dress code -  but I just don't bend to the trend: shirt and tie every day and a hat on when I am outdoors.  I realize that makes me an old f*rt as far as the younger people are concerned (and almost all of them are) - but too bad.  It's just what I do: forty years of wearing suit and tie to work and all, I figure why change now?

Great work, Lee!

I built a lot of warship models years ago, but they were all well-detailed plastic kits from Revell and other scale model suppliers.  I even built a model of the USS Oregon, the flagship of the American battleship squadron during the Spanish-American War.

What I would like to find someday is a plastic model kit of the RMS Titanic or the USS Missouri in 1/192 scale (1/16" to the foot), which would make the Mighty Mo 55-1/2" long and the Titanic 55-1/8" long.

I see you also have an Iowa Class battlewagon and a Carrier in your WW2 fleet.

I retired 16 years ago after 36 years in the Aerospace business as an engineering lab  technician, working mostly developing and testing communication, navigation, and weapons control systems. 

Cheers,

RIP TRACK 

Wonderful short produced by General Motors circa 1940. "To New Horizons" features excellent color footage (7.5 minutes in of 23 total) of "Futurama" along with general shots of the pavilion itself. Enjoy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAz4R6F0aaY