1964 New York World's Fair - Federal and State Exhibits

Federal and State Exhibits

The US Pavilion was titled "Challenge to Greatness" and focused on President Lyndon B. Johnson's "Great Society" proposals. The main show in the multi-million dollar pavilion was a 15-minute ride through a filmed presentation of American history. Visitors seated in moving grandstands rode past movie screens that slid in, out and over the path of the traveling audience. Elsewhere, there were tributes to President John F. Kennedy, who had broken ground for the pavilion in December 1962 but had been assassinated in November 1963 before the fair opened.

A 2-acre (8,100 m2) United States Space Park was sponsored by NASA, the Department of Defense and the fair. Exhibits included a full-scale model of the aft skirt and five F-1 engines of the first stage of a Saturn V, a Titan II booster with a Gemini capsule, an Atlas with a Mercury capsule and a Thor-Delta rocket. On display at ground level were Aurora 7, the Mercury capsule flown on the second US manned orbital flight; full-scale models of an X-15 aircraft, an Agena upper stage; a Gemini spacecraft; an Apollo command/service module, and a Lunar Excursion Model. Replicas of unmanned spacecraft included lunar probe Ranger VII; Mariner II and Mariner IV; Syncom, Telstar I, and Echo II communications satellites; Explorer I and Explorer XVI; and Tiros and Nimbus weather satellites.

New York State played host to the fair at its six million dollar open-air pavilion called the "Tent of Tomorrow." Designed by famed modernist architect Philip Johnson, the pavilion also boasted the fair's high spot observation towers. The main floor of the pavilion was a large-scale design of a Texaco highway map of New York State. An idea floated after the fair to use the floor for the World Trade Center didn't materialize. Once the red ceiling tiles were removed from the pavilion in the late 1970s, the floor was subject to the elements of weather and was ruined. The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair New York State Pavilion was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.

Wisconsin exhibited the "World's Largest Cheese." Florida brought a dolphin show, flamingos, a talented cockatoo from Miami's Parrot Jungle, and water skiers to New York. Oklahoma gave weary fairgoers a restful park to relax in. Missouri displayed the state's space-related industries. Visitors could dine at Hawaii's "Five Volcanoes" restaurant. At the New York City pavilion, a huge scale model of the City of New York was on display complete with a simulated helicopter ride for easy viewing. Left over from the 1939 Fair, this building had also hosted the United Nations from 1947 to 1952.

Louisiana had a pavilion called "Louisiana's Bourbon Street" (later renamed to just "Bourbon Street"), which was inspired on New Orleans' French Quarter. It started off with financial trouble, not being able to complete its construction and subsequently filing for bankruptcy. A private company, called Pavilion Property, bought up the assets and assumed its debts. This prompted Louisiana Governor John McKeithen to sever all ties and withdraw state's sanction, leaving the pavilion completely to private enterprise.

Special media-attention was given to a racially integrated minstrel show, that was intended satirical anti-bigotry, called "America, Be Seated", produced by Mike Todd Jr.. During the opening of the world fair, several civil rights protests were staged by members of the NAACP. They believed that the "minstrel-style" was demeaning to African Americans.

The pavilion included ten theater restaurants, which served a variety of Creole food, a Jazz club called Jazzland which hosted live Jazz artists, miniature Mardi Gras parades, a teenage dancing venue, a voodoo shop and a doll museum. Due to the presence of the various bars, the pavilion was especially popular at night. Notable go-go dancer Candy Johnson headlined a show at venue called Gay New Orleans Nightclub. Near the closure of the world fair, the pavilion was reported to have achieved the highest gross income of any single commercial pavilion at the fair. The 22-year-old Director of Operations, Gordon Novel, was called an "Entrepreneurial Prodigy & Boy Wonder" in Variety (magazine) for his accomplishments.