Craig Bavaro

It's a aircraft hazard beacon. There is also another one at the top of the New York State Pavilion towers.

I'm so glad your posting again. Many times your website is my go to reference tool and just plain fascinating. Thanks Bill

Bill, I'm glad you didn't pass this one up. It truly is a great find. Congratulations!

Very nice Bill. What a find! I can add that the last one I saw on eBay received 28 bids and sold for $898.88 on 11/24/13.

Yes, I remember someone saying on here it was true. I also seem to recall that a low three sided railing was added in 1965 for this very reason. Maybe someone else on the board can confirm my recollections.

I knew I had seen this somewhere recently! It was on the Facebook group titled "The New York World's Fair (1964/1965)" from a post by Dorothy Condon on 5/16/18. Dorothy posted that it's called a "Salute to the World's Fair Flower Arrangement" according to the box. Her post has three photos of this same piece.

The barriers are no longer there. You actually were standing more to the right and a little farther out.

I've seen one before, I think maybe on eBay.

The following bits of information were gleaned from the Fair Corporations records at the New York Public Library during one of my many fact finding missions over the years: Robert Moses entire Yale graduating class of 1909 was invited. Robert Moses lamented the passing of his fellow classmates. One assistant to Roberts Moses said remove a name from the list because "He's dead." Fair officials were very concerned that President Lyndon Baines Johnson wouldn't come to the opening ceremonies. Former President Eisenhower wouldn't come from Palm Springs because it was "Too much of an effort to travel across the country". Fair officials asked him to write a statement, which he did. Former President Hoover was too frail to come. He was also asked to send a statement. Former President Truman was in attendance and did speak. President Johnson's assistant (possibly Kenny O'Donnell) actually asked fair officials to move the opening date of the fair to 4/20 to accommodate the president’s schedule. Fair officials politely declined by explaining that was just not possible given the complexities involved. Fair officials debated whether or not to invite Grover Whalen's widow. They did and she wrote a very grateful thank you letter to Robert Moses. Many people made personal pleas for tickets to the opening ceremonies and fair officials went out of their way to accommodate most, if not all of the requests. The invited guest list quickly grew from 5 to 10 to 15 thousand people in the last 2 months leading up to opening day. Fair officials were very concerned about how it would "appear" if the former or current presidents didn't all accept their invites. Fair officials worked with presidential intermediaries to get a feel if The White House would accept if an "official" invite was sent. The letter sent to President John F. Kennedy on 11/21/63 about attending the fairs opening had a note attached to it dated 11/22/63 saying that it was retrieved from the mail room before it could be sent. A two thousand guest official party was planned for the Top of the Fair restaurant, but it was canceled once fair officials found out that President Johnson wouldn't be attending. Robert Moses table at the official party would have been 11 people instead of 10 at all the others. The centerpiece on Robert Moses table at the official party was to have been a certain kind of flowers in a round black basket. Fair official (possibly Ernestine Haig) pointed out that the fair is the star of the show, not any politician that the public can see on TV at any event or holiday.

If I recall correctly, Jackie Kennedy personally arranged for the Mona Lisa to be exhibited here in the U.S. (on loan from the Louvre) because the French people were very taken with her after she visited France with her husband in 1961. But allowing the Mona Lisa to actually leave France also caused quite a stir back home, such that I think the French government later passed a law that said the painting could never leave France again. Obviously the Vatican didn't feel the same way, since they did allow the Pieta to be exhibited at the Fair over some Italian objections.

Interesting little tidbit of info. All of the flagpoles along the fair boulevards and avenues were actually rented by the Fair Corporation and returned to the vendor after the fair was over.

The food stand concession that Brass Rail ultimately won was bid on by a number of companies and was one of the most sought after concessions at the Fair.

Did someone ask for attendance figures? Well here are the daily counts for both seasons with running totals for each season and both seasons. The yellow and green highlighted counts for each year indicate the lowest and highest attendance days respectively. This information was copied verbatim from an official Fair Corporation document. NYWF 64-65 Attendance Totals.pdf

Well said Jim. Thank you for sharing your memories of that tragic day.

Sorry guys for the late responses, but sometimes life has a way of intervening in ones hobbies when you have a full time job. Ok, here goes. 1. My pleasure Jim. 2. Your welcome Irv. To answer your first question, the Fair Corporations engineering staff kept a pretty close eye on things during the demolition phase as evidenced by the extensive records they maintained. There are at least 16 boxes of engineering demolition files in the Fair Corporations records at the New York Public Library that document that the engineering staff was very busy during this period issuing permits and performing inspections at each site before releasing the demolition contractors and exhibitors from any future liability. While it is true that money was tight, it’s also a well-known fact that Robert Moses was very focused on restoring and completing the park. So much so, that he diverted millions of dollars from the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (which he ran at the time) to ensure completion of the park. You also have to bear in mind that Moses executives and their key staff members had worked for him in other capacities for many years prior to the fair. As such, they were well versed in these types of large scale projects and knew very well what the boss expected if they wanted to work for him on future projects. In the case of the large industrial and transportation exhibitors, they were fully on the hook for removal of their pavilions and it appears from the records that for the most part all of them performed according to their contracts. To answer your second question, everything above four feet had to be completely removed. Anything below four feet had to be broken up as specified in the rules. That’s not to say that some exceptions may have been made. The only way to know for sure in the case of the monorail tower footings would be to review the demolition file and permits for that exhibitor. Randy is correct. If they didn’t strictly enforce the rules and regulations as it pertained to the demolition below ground, the park would have become a flooded mess in later years. 3. Sorry to have kept you waiting icedstitch. Do you really think a troll would have written such a long and detailed response….lol. Hopefully the above response will rekindle your enthusiasm for this topic. 4. Sorry Steve. I got busy and I forgot all about this post for a while. The good news is that I’m really a creature of habit. For the last 17 plus years since I joined PTU, I never hit the notify me button because I always come back when time permits and read all of the new items about the 64-65 NYWF, the 62 Seattle Fair and 67 Montreal Expo. I think I’m all caught up now. Please do let me know if I missed anyone or you have any additional questions.