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IBM PAVILION New York Worlds
Fair 1964-65 Colorful
exhibits, in a garden atmosphere, present interesting and entertaining
explanations of computers and other modern information-handling
devices. The main attraction is where 400 spectators at a time
will be lifted by hydraulic machine into the "Information
Machine".
Source: Official Postcard
by Dexter Press, West Nyack, NY
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Courtesy: Gary Holmes Collection
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NEW YORK, September 30[, 1963] ... Viewed from the southeast
corner, the IBM Pavilion at the New York World's Fair site begins
to take form. The exterior scaffolding is erected in preparation
for the application of a sprayed-concrete shell which will enclose
the 90-foot high Information Machine -- the main attraction of
the pavilion. |
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Source: online Auction
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THINK about it ... one could sum up a visit to the New
York World's Fair this way: Stand in line to take a ride.
Fairgoers glided silently on contoured
chairs, revolved on giant turntables and rotated in theaters,
slid past in moving grandstands, shot down water tubes in logs
and drifted overhead in buckets. Over at the IBM Pavilion visitors
got a ride like no other at the Fair. It was called the People
Wall.
The IBM Pavilion was designed by noted
architect Eero Saarinen and was meant to suggest a garden of
trees -- "a cool shaded garden where new sights, new sounds
and new ideas are scattered among a grove of steel trees."
Those steel trees held aloft a canopy of "leaves" made
of undulating bubbles of green fiberglass.
The most unusual aspect of this pavilion
wasn't the garden; it was the object that rested 50 feet atop
the garden -- the ovoid shaped structure covered with thousands
of I-B-M letters (some say it resembled the rapidly rotating
ball that was the heart of IBM's then new Selectric typewriters!)
that contained IBM's feature presentation at the Fair; a film
produced by Charles and Ray Eames.
Picture a grandstand. A steep, 12-tier
grandstand that holds an audience of about 500 people and you've
pictured the People Wall. Every 15 minutes, or so, bomb
bay-like doors at the base of the ovoid swung open and the entire
People Wall was hydraulically lifted on a 45 degree angle,
50 feet into the Information Machine, IBM's name for the
ovoid theater and the 15-screen movie about computers that was
presented inside. An amazing "ride" at a ride-through
World's Fair!
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A close-up view of the Information
Machine, IBM's
ovoid-shaped theater resting atop their pavilion. Note the undulating
canopy of fiberglass "leaves" that made up the roof
of the pavilion.
This picture is actually a
Post Card that one could send from the "Typewriter Bar"
inside the pavilion using new IBM Selectric typewriters.
The message typed on this card? "Dear Daddy, i am enjoying the trip at the World's
Fair. love debbie"
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IBM chose a most unusual way
of announcing/narrating their presentation. A host dressed
in white tie and tails descends from the steel trees on a crow's
nest platform and addresses the audience while suspended before
them! After his introduction, he ascends back into the Information
Machine and appears on a balcony to narrate the show.
Look closely at the picture
on the left. The host can be seen ascending or descending from
an exterior portal in the ovoid in open air on the crow's
nest - some 60+ feet up! Now that's a ride! No doubt
"just another day at the office" on a beautiful sunny
day, but a most unpleasant experience in a driving April rain?
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Pictures Source:
"From / IBM" Press Release newsletter from IBM
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Garden-like
groves have always had a special magic. Between brown tree trunks
the ancients gathered to speak of the mysteries of the world
around them ... young people met to sit at the feet of the great
teachers of the Athenian Academy ... Americans spend long summer
Sundays in the joys of the park or picnic.
Perhaps there's
something of all these in IBM's garden at the New York World's
Fair. We hope you found here both pleasure and learning -- and
a renewed wonder at man's ingenuity in building mighty tools
to ease him of drudgery, to help him master the physical world,
to stretch his mind with new ideas and insights.
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Source: "IBM
Fair" Souvenir Booklet
IBM & Equitable Pavilions
at twilight from the Pool of Industry
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Source: Commercial
Transparency by Photo Lab, Inc., Washington, DC
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Source:
Courtesy Larry Hubble
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Rows of thrilled
fairgoers ride the People
Wall that carries them way up into IBM's unique Information Machine
for a lively show.
Source: News
Colorfoto by Daniel Jacino, New York Sunday News, September
20, 1964
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The Information Machine catches
the afternoon sunshine
Source: Presented
courtesy Bill Cotter Collection © Copyright 2007 Bill Cotter,
All Rights Reserved
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