Return to Tomorrow, part III

Fifty years ago, Fordham alumni had a hand in making the 1964–1965 New York World’s Fair one of the most memorable spectacles of commerce, culture, and innovation in the city’s history.

Below is the final segment of "Return to Tomorrow," our feature on the fair for the Spring 2014 issue of FORDHAM magazine. Last week we published part I--the account of Fordham alumnus John Murray gingerly packing Michelangelo's Pietà for its journey to Flushing, and part II, which highlighted the role of fair organizer Thomas Deegan, FCRH '34. 

When the fair opened on April 22, 1964, flags of dozens of nations waved high in the air, lining a dramatic path to the the stainless-steel Unisphere, a 12-story symbol of the event’s Peace Through Understanding theme and a still-standing Queens landmark. Much has been written about the fair's failures--financial and otherwise. But for visitors who were lucky enough to visit the fairgrounds, those troubles were eclipsed by the spectacular attractions. No fewer than 140 pavilions showcased bold innovations and cultural treasures: Giant color television screens flashed footage of the crowds. Ford debuted its Mustang convertible. Model homes displayed sleek and convenient appliances.

Ford debuted its iconic Mustang at the fair.
(photo courtesy of Ford)

The BIE boycott allowed less well-known nations to receive more attention: There were dancers from Thailand, waffles from Belgium, and Dead Sea scrolls from Jordan. And fairgoers got around via the Swiss Sky Ride, whose red, blue, and yellow cars traveled on cables high above the revelry. 

“We focused on what was there rather than what wasn’t there,” said Robert Intelisano, FCRH ’64, a senior at Fordham when the fair opened. He landed a job at the Ford Pavilion and recruited some Fordham classmates to work with him. His work there and later at the General Motors Pavilion launched a 20-plus-year career in the automotive industry.

“What intrigued me a lot were how many non-Americans were there,” he said. For a young New Yorker with Italian-immigrant parents, seeing so many foreigners, coupled with displays from Asia and other far-off lands, changed his worldview.

The Thailand Pavilion
(photo: Bill Cotter)

Rosemary Wakeman, Ph.D., director of Fordham’s urban studies program and an expert on world’s fairs, said that despite much being written about the fair’s failures, people who lived through the event look back on it fondly.

“The ’64 World’s Fair was one of the last great fairs. It was the end of an era after a very, very long run,” she said, beginning with the 1851 First World Exposition in London. “I think that’s why there’s such a nostalgic feel for it.”

In the competitive Cold War era, Wakeman said, “It was all about conquering the Earth, the moon, the jungle, the seas.”

Though the Soviets had agreed to participate in the New York fair, they withdrew before it opened. Still, the Space Race loomed large. The Hall of Science, which still exists as a science museum, and its adjacent U.S. Space Park, showcased several large-scale model rockets as well as the Mercury capsule from the second American-manned orbit flight.

Communications technology was also a big hit at the fair. RCA’s color television studio broadcast live on sets and screens set up throughout the fairgrounds, on which visitors could see themselves. Bell debuted the very futuristic picture phone, along with sleek new push-button telephones. IBM offered a look at future computers.

Bell's picture phone was a popular attraction at the fair.
(photo: Bill Cotter)

Wakeman, who teaches a popular class at Fordham on world’s fairs, said this technology is one of the reasons her students are so drawn to the 1964–1965 fair.

“That’s the world they exist in,” she said.

While displaying America’s latest advances was a priority for the fair organizers, they also hoped to project a certain image.

“It was hard to compete with the 1939 fair,” said Wakeman. “It had a far-larger influence (in terms of art and architecture), and was very avant-garde.”

The 1964 fair was, by contrast, more wholesome. Organizers recruited the master of family entertainment, Walt Disney. His new Audio-Animatronics technology dominated all the major pavilions, including Ford’s Magic Skyway, General Electric’s Carousel of Progress, and Pepsi’s It’s a Small World ride, with the latter two eventually making their way to Walt Disney World in Florida.

But for all his showmanship, Disney may have been upstaged by Michelangelo.

Visitors flocked to the Vatican Pavilion to see the Pietà, which glowed before a dark blue background surrounded by hundreds of flickering votive lights. It sat behind bulletproof Plexiglas, and spectators viewed it from a moving sidewalk so none could linger too long.

For many fairgoers, including Wakeman, it was the highlight of their visit. A Queens native, she and her family had moved to California, but drove across the country in their Ford to visit the fair.

“When I saw the Pietà,” she said, “I was so knocked out. It was breathtaking.”

David Smith, GBA ’80, went to the fair both years. “My mother worked as a waitress and threw all her tips into a shoebox so we could go,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “The Vatican exhibit was most impressive.”

Robert P. Lynch, UGE ’70, visited the fair 16 times. “I was the oldest child (with a twin) of an Irish family of seven from Bayside. We would take the bus to Kissena Boulevard and walk from there to save an extra fare on the subway, 15 cents,” he said. “They were magic times. Even at that age I found it overly ‘corporate’ but educational. I was also captivated by the Pietà.”

With John Murray back from Rome, he and Eileen also brought their family to the fair several times. “John was practically in tears,” Eileen said, “because he could no longer reach out and touch the statue.”

In the fair’s second season, Pope Paul VI made a visit to the fairgrounds during the first-ever papal visit to the United States. He spoke to the captivated crowds from the Vatican Pavilion. 

“I had my 11-year-old disabled brother on my shoulders so he could see him,” said Intelisano.

Today, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, the largest in Queens, is widely used by the ethnically diverse borough’s families—many Latino Catholics—who play soccer and barbecue on its expansive grounds. A stone memorial marks the spot where Pope Paul once stood.

A stone memorial marks the former site of the
Vatican Pavilion (photo: Nicole LaRosa)

By the end of 1965, more than 51 million people had visited the fair, and more than half of those visitors saw the Pietà.

After it was all over, John and Eileen Murray received an invitation to visit St. Peter’s Basilica. When their guided tour ran long, Eileen was afraid they might miss the general audience with Pope Paul that the couple had planned to attend. All of a sudden, she said, she and John were in a private room with the pontiff.

“He told John, ‘You were the first one to ever take the Pietà from the Vatican, and you’ll be the last one,’” Eileen said. “When we were leaving, he grabbed my arm, and I thought, what did I do wrong? But he said, ‘You must come back to Rome.’”

As for Deegan, he would continue to advise the Vatican on matters of popular opinion for another 12 years, until his death in November 1977. The year the fair opened, Fordham awarded him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. And in 1965, based on his prior credits, professional achievements, and papers submitted, the University granted him the bachelor’s degree he would have earned in 1934 had he not dropped out and embarked on a career that inspired him to help plan and pull off one of the greatest events in New York City history.

--Nicole LaRosa 

Return to Tomorrow, Part II

photo: Bill Cotter

Fifty years ago, Fordham alumni brought Michelangelo’s first masterpiece to Flushing Meadows and helped make the 1964–1965 New York World’s Fair one of the most memorable spectacles of commerce, culture, and innovation in the city’s history.

This week and next, as New York celebrates the fair's anniversary, Fordham Notes will publish excerpts from "Return to Tomorrow," our feature on the fair for the Spring 2014 issue of FORDHAM magazine. Earlier this week we published part I--the account of  Fordham alumnus John Murray gingerly packing the Pietà  for its journey to Flushing. The story continues below. 

The Pietà was ready for the first leg of its journey: an 18-mile-an-hour rainy ride from Vatican City to Naples in an open yellow truck.  Once it reached the port in Naples, the entire package, encapsulated in an outer steel case, was lifted by crane onto the deck of the SS Cristoforo Colombo, the pride of the Italian fleet. Cables fitted with hydrostatic releases lashed the bright orange-topped case to the ship’s deck. If the boat sank below 15 feet, the case—also equipped with a flashing light and a radio transmitter—would detach and float freely. John Murray, FCRH '57, was on board to accompany the precious cargo back to the States.

“I told him if anything happens to that ship, you jump on top of that box,” said Murray’s wife, Eileen, “because it would be visible to any rescuer.”

La Pieta at the 1964-1965 World's Fair
(photo courtesy of the Queens Museum)

The Pietà finally arrived in Flushing Bay, along with another Vatican treasure—The Good Shepherd—a fourth-century statue of Christ. A McNally Brothers truck drove them both to the fairgrounds, and they were installed in the Vatican Pavilion on April 16—six days before the fair opened. 

For fair organizer Thomas J. Deegan, FCRH ’34, the Vatican’s participation was an early coup. In 1962, Deegan and the fair’s president, New York’s “Master Builder” Robert Moses, traveled with Cardinal Spellman to Rome for a special ceremony confirming the Vatican’s role. But the Pietà was more than they ever could have hoped for. At once spectacular and pious, the beloved sculpture lent a sense of culture to the fair, a rebuttal, the organizers felt, to critics who feared the event would descend into crass commercialism and kitsch.

A well-connected public relations executive, Deegan had dropped out of Fordham during the Depression to find work. He wrote for The New York Times before forming his own publicity company in 1957. By 1960, he would advise Lyndon Johnson on his run for president. When Deegan and his associates approached New York City Mayor Robert Wagner with the idea of a fair—one that would recapture the magic of the 1939 fair held in the same spot in Flushing—the mayor tapped him to helm the process.

Deegan chaired the fair’s executive committee, which faced its share of challenges. The Bureau of International Exhibitions (BIE), which had sanctioned all World’s Fairs since 1928, would not bestow its blessing on New York. Moses insisted the fair run for two six-month sessions to recoup expenses—longer than the BIE allowed. Without the bureau’s backing, many nations refused to participate, which left corporate pavilions to play a larger role—leading some to accuse the fair of being too commercial. And mounting costs and below-projected attendance meant that fair organizers couldn’t pay back their debts.

But for visitors who crossed the wooden ramp from the No. 7 subway stop into the Flushing Meadows fairgrounds, the spectacular sight eclipsed any behind-the-scenes troubles.

Flags of dozens of nations waved high in the air, lining a dramatic path to the fair’s stainless-steel Unisphere, a 12-story symbol of the event’s Peace Through Understanding theme and a still-standing Queens landmark. No fewer than 140 pavilions showcased bold innovations and cultural treasures: Giant color television screens flashed footage of the crowds. Ford debuted its Mustang. Model homes displayed sleek and convenient appliances. The BIE boycott allowed less well-known nations to receive more attention: There were dancers from Thailand, waffles from Belgium, and Dead Sea scrolls from Jordan. And fairgoers got around via the Swiss Sky Ride, whose red, blue, and yellow cars traveled on cables high above the revelry.

Learn more about the fair's attractions—including first-hand alumni memories—in part III of "Return to Tomorrow" on Fordham Notes next week. 

The Swiss Sky Ride
(photo: Bill Cotter)

—Nicole LaRosa

Return to Tomorrow

Fifty years ago, Fordham alumni brought Michelangelo’s first masterpiece to Flushing Meadows and helped make the 1964–1965 New York World’s Fair one of the most memorable spectacles of commerce, culture, and innovation in the city’s history.

This week and next, as New York celebrates the fair's anniversary, Fordham Notes will publish excerpts from "Return to Tomorrow," a feature published in the Spring 2014 issue of FORDHAM magazine. 

For centuries Michelangelo’s Pietà has inspired awe in the hearts of the faithful. Carved from a single block of Carrara marble, it depicts the Virgin Mary cradling the crucified Jesus in her lap, her ever-youthful face and sorrowful eyes looking down at his slain body. But in March 1964, as John Murray, FCRH ’57, and two fellow shipping executives stared at the priceless sculpture in St. Peter’s Basilica, their sense of wonder gave way to fear.

John Murray, FCRH '57 (in dark suit), supervises the
packing of Michelangelo's priceless masterpiece
(photo courtesy of John Murray Jr.)

Two years earlier, Pope John XXIII promised New York’s Francis Cardinal Spellman, FCRH ’11, that he would send the Pietà—perhaps the world’s most famous religious sculpture—to the 1964–1965 New York World’s Fair in Flushing, Queens. The pontiff had just opened the Second Vatican Council, and the decision to display the Renaissance masterpiece to throngs of fairgoers reflected the church’s new commitment to accessibility in a modern, increasingly secular world.

Now this trio of expert transporters was charged not only with removing the Pietà from the Vatican for the first time since 1499, but also with shipping it to New York and back in one very well-preserved piece.

Murray, who died last September at the age of 83, had joined his Fordham classmate’s family trucking firm, McNally Brothers, just after college. By 1964 he was vice president.

“When the idea [of bringing the Pietà to the fair] came to life, my father took advantage of the opportunity,” said John Murray Jr., GSB ’85. “He got involved with the committee and offered to do the moving for free.”

After Pope John died in 1963, his successor, Pope Paul VI, reluctantly honored the papal promise to send the sculpture to New York. Italians and art lovers fretted, however, about the safety risks as well as the perceived lack of reverence it would be shown by the American masses. But in March 1964, Cardinal Spellman told the Associated Press that critics may “have the money to go to St. Peter’s to see it for themselves. But I want 70 million people to see it for free.”

Populism won out, and the Pietà would soon set sail for the U.S. But before Murray and his colleagues could ship the 3-ton marble treasure, they had to pack it and protect it.

Italians had traditionally used wood shavings to cushion fragile items. But the Americans suggested a new material—expanded polystyrene, later trademarked as Dylite. According to one newspaper’s account, the Roman contractor quit in protest.

Save for Mary’s hand, which had been broken and repaired, X-rays revealed that the sculpture’s marble was perfect, just as Michelangelo had once proclaimed. Still, the packers assumed that minute fissures were present and could be worsened by the slightest impact. They gingerly removed the statue from its pedestal, placed it on cushioned scaffolding, and built a wooden case around it. Then they poured in the Dylite, thousands of tiny snow-like white foam beads, which had the added effect of making the crate and its contents buoyant despite a combined weight of 5 tons. 

 
The Pietà was ready for the first leg of its journey.

Read part II and part III of "Return to Tomorrow," including the Pietà's voyage to Flushing, the role of Thomas Deegan, FCRH '34, and alumni memories of the fair.

—Nicole LaRosa