NEWS for release IMMEDIATELY

FUTURAMA ATTENDANCE TO DATE (10/17/65)

 

Total attendance	29,002,186 Visitors
Total 1965	13,293,695 Visitors
Total 1964	15,680,923 Visitors
Total 1964-65 preopening previews	27,568 Visitors
Largest day	October 16, 1965- 143,326 Visitors
Largest week	10/10 - 10/17, 1965- 758,034 Visitors
Largest month	August, 1965- 2,847,816 Visitors
Daily average	80,000 Visitors
Per cent of fair paid admissions	60%

(Futurama has recorded largest attendance for an industrial exhibit at any world fair. Previous record - 24,230,000 - was set by GM "Highways and Horizons" exhibit at 1939-40 New York World's Fair.) (Futurama attendance is recorded on electronic turnstiles)  * * *

Picture Source: Pontiac Safari Magazine Vol 5 No 1 Jan-Feb 1964 Artist:Bob Swanson   Did you know? For safety's sake, twenty-three guards ride the conveyorized lounge-chair train on its trips into the future. Ten more guards are stationed at strategic points around the three-quarter mile route. Each of the 1,389 individual seats on the Futurama Ride traveled 3,305 miles during the 1964 season and , in all, carried more than 12,000,000 passengers. The time and temperature indicator atop the Futurama building weighs 15 tons and is 40 feet in diameter. It reports the time and temperature every five seconds for a grand total of 17,280 times a day. In the jungle section of the Ride are more than 433 make-believe trees bearing a total of three million leaves. It took twelve men three months to hand-wire all those leaves into place. For the convenience and comfort of the passengers, each of the 1,389 Ride seats is dusted and vacuumed (below) after every third trip -- all without the Ride ever so much as slowing down for an instant. A closed circuit TV system enables Futurama officials in a control room to scan five different areas in and around the Futurama building (above) and keep the foot traffic moving smoothly. One of the neater tricks was moving the 122-ton locomotive in the Outdoor Product Plaza into a new location just before the 1965 reopening. It required two heavy-duty cranes to pick up this monster and reposition it. No one knows for sure what individual holds the Futurama attendance record, but a survey of 500 people attending Futurama revealed two people who claimed to be on their 28th visit. Just about half of the people interviewed said they were there on a repeat visit. The more than 15,000,000 Futurama visitors during the 1964 season mislaid a sizable array of items, everything from a pedometer to a music stand. Listing all the lost articles filled 45 closely-written pages in a ledger book. Speaking of attendance, the number of people visiting Futurama during its first season was 15,680,923. Of these, 12,193,859 took the Ride. The discrepancy between the two figures is largely accounted for by the fact that many visitors were making a repeat appearance and did not take the Ride again when they returned. Highest single-day attendance in 1964 was 121,077 on July 6.  Source: GM Futurama Souvenir Book   Picture Source: Pontiac Safari Magazine Vol 5 No 1 Jan-Feb 1964 Artist:not listed