Remembering the Space Age. - Black Vault Radio Network (BVRN)

180 reMeMBerINg the SpaCe age
New theme parks, especially disneyland, popularized the look of Space
age modernism as belonging to the future. popular entertainment (and
education) in america had long been structured around a trajectory from past
to future: the Bufalo Bill Wild West Shows replayed the popular clichés about
the transition from barbarism to civilization; the 20th century World’s Fairs
displayed visions of progress extending from the drudgery of the unenlightened
past into the pleasures of the technologically driven future. reprising, but
always improving upon, these culturally embedded narratives, disneyland
ofered two of its Kingdoms as “Frontierland” and “tomorrowland.” true to
cultural archetypes, an imagined future derived defnition from an imaged
past: tomorrowland enacted the new comforts and ease ofered in the Space
age, yet it also extended the individual heroism of the legendary frontiersman
into the new era. at disneyland, as in so much of the era’s political rhetoric, the
“new frontier” of space and the “endless frontier” of science could confrm the
national and personal virtues that popular culture of the 1950s and early 1960s
still associated with the winning of the West.
the two international exhibitions held in america during the Space
age—in Seattle and New York—also emphasized space themes expressed in the
look of Mid-century Modernism. the Seattle Century 21 exposition’s Space
Needle set the tone for an exhibition that claimed to represent the summit
of human (well, really American) accomplishment. the Seattle World’s Fair
Commission sought some kind of restaurant in space as a central symbol and
engaged an architect, John graham, Jr., who had created a revolving restaurant
in honolulu. graham joined with other partners to design a slim steel tower
anchored to earth by 74 32-foot-long bolts topped by a large rounded structure
containing a revolving restaurant, which stood eight hundred thirty-two
steps away from the base. Built in a year and opening slightly before the Fair
began in april of 1962, the Space Needle’s color scheme included “Orbital
Olive,” “reentry red,” and “galaxy gold.” NaSa had its own exhibit at
the exposition, including John glenn’s space capsule that was then touring the
world rather than soaring above it. 56
the 1964 New York World’s Fair centered around a Unisphere, a large
sculpture of earth circled by orbiting bands. the Space park displayed america’s
aerospace superiority, and corporate pavilions had futuristic themes. general
Motors’s “Futurama” featured an extraterrestrial-looking building holding
models of futuristic cities built on land, under the sea, and in space. Monsanto
showcased a Space age home. at the end of the World’s Fair, some of the
exhibits migrated to become features at disney’s tomorrowland.
these international exhibitions helped promote an architectural style that
has become popularly known as “googie.” Space evocations predominated in
56. “history of the Space Needle,” http://www.spaceneedle.com/about/history.asp (accessed September
15, 2007); McCurdy, Space, p. 93.