The famous needle at Seattle's World Fair 1962, guest post by Packy

The Seattle Needle, 1962

Seattle locals had been talking about creating a civic centre not seen since the first Fair, the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909. And they look­ed at the last U.S Fairs held in 1939–40, in San Francisco and New York. But as the post-war world had changed (eg television, atomic energy, jet airplanes), were Fairs still relevant anywhere?

In 1950, talk of a World Fair continued in Seattle’s Chamber of Com­merce. In 1955, the City Council backed the idea, and soon the State Legis­l­ature in Olympia set up an exploratory commiss­ion. Later Seat­tle voters passed a bond issue to fund a civic centre, and a management committee.

That a modern world’s Fair would be held in Seattle in 1962 sounded risky. Seattle’s Fair would have to leave the city with a cultural heart, major infrastruct­ure, refurbished waterfront and new University facilities. The Fair would have to help boost major projects eg the completion of Interstate 5 via down­town and the bridge. It would have to bequeath Seat­­tle Centre, permanent complex of theatres, pavilions, Pacific Science Centre, Coliseum, Cen­tre House, Opera House, Monorail and open urban space. The famous Space Needle would be second only to the Eiffel Tower as a world’s Fair souvenir.

Monorail

 

To create an important Fair, Seattle supporters channelled mill­ions of investment dollars in­to the city’s future! The space race with the Soviet Union gave Cent­ury 21 its theme, but locals took the responsibility of 1] making the nation’s response to Comm­unism and of 2] demonstrating America’s comm­it­ment to, and exp­ert­ise in scien­ce and technology.

Seattle Fair heads hired consultants, got seed money from wealthy donors and recruited community leaders. Once Seattle got the nod, the Federal Govern­ment funded a science pavilion, and prop­erty was acquired where urban amen­it­ies al­ready existed: old arm­oury, Memorial Stad­ium & Civic Aud­it­orium. Alas most of a working-class Edwardian neigh­bourhood was bulldozed in a slum clear­ance.

While visiting Stuttgart, Germany in 1959, CEO Edward Carlson saw the potent­ial of a Space Age tower as a symbol for the 1962 Fair. Seattle investors organised a Corporation, and Carlson played a major part in the transformation of the Federal Science Pav­il­ion into the permanent Science Centre. Pres­id­ent of the Fair was Joe Gandy, a Ford dealer who trav­elled the world to recruit exhibitors and was res­p­ons­ible for obt­ain­ing approval for the Fair from the Bur­eau of Internat­ional Expos­it­ions in Paris, essential for getting foreign govern­ments to take part.

Fair organisers wanted an architectural showcase. So they turned to NW modernist archit­ect Paul Thiry, well schooled in World’s Fairs, who design­ed the site and the Col­iseum. Running the fair daily was field commander Ew­en Ding­wall, assisted by a skilled PR person, Jay Rockey, who got good coverage across the globe eg Life magazine!

The Fair also had the support of Washington’s energetic Senators War­r­en G Magnuson and Henry Scoop Jackson, who ultimately got $10 million Federal funding for the Science Pavilion. Clearly the push for more scien­ce app­arently motivated the funders; Washington was a great place to invest in a high-tech future!

The public’s em­b­race of the Fair was slow and scept­ic­al, given the huge invest­ment in a risky prop­osition. The turning point came when the Needle went up in 1961, a year before the Fair’s open­ing. As a cost of $4.5 million, the Needle energised everyone! Just as East Berlin was put­ting up its defensive wall, the Needle was looking up to a new frontier!

Restaurant at the top of the Needle

The Space Needle’s rotating glass floor was located just below the open-air observation deck and replaced the original non-glass revol­v­ing floor that was a feature of the Space Needle’s Restaurant. Visit­ors can now look down on the Space Needle’s architecture. They also recognised that it could be a kind of global magnet for cosmopolitan cuis­ine. Fair vis­it­ors from ov­ers­eas eg British Prince Philip, The Shah and Empress of Iran and the King Olaf of Norway loved the Need­le’s menu eg fresh Dungeness crab, Pug­et Sound salmon, Alas­kan shrimp. The Needle became a magnet for ‘60s celeb­rit­ies including Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson and Bobby Kennedy etc

The Fair boosted the arts as well, including a showcase of modern art. Erna Gunther’s NW Coast Indian art exhibit impressed critics and Paul Horiuchi’s landmark mural shined. There was the new Opera House and a symphony orchestra led by Igor Stravinsky.

Locals saw John Glenn’s space cap­sule and believed they’d soon be tak­ing Pan Am flights to Mars. Atomic cars, video teleph­ones, computers and rapid transit would be possible. In 1962, the Space Needle inst­alled some of the first cordless phones in the US, as were some of the first sat­el­l­ite transmissions of tel­ep­h­one calls and tv broadcasts. Seattle was at the centre of a dynamic future!

The Seattle Fair was a success, attracting mil­l­ions. The pro­fits paid off the pri­v­ate inv­estors within only 3 months, giving the city an altering confidence. Note the Needle was not designated an official Seattle landmark until 1999.

The organisers of Century 21 succeeded in a way that is worth celebrating and analysing. South Lake Union was transformed into a technology and research cen­tre, and they are planning a radically new waterfront, and a regional rail system. Seat­tle still aspires to be on the cutting ed­ge of green tech­nology and values, and still draws millions of loc­als and tourists, to see the Needle and the International Fountain etc.