General Motors was a pioneer exhibitor back in the mid-century often with the technical assistance of Walt Disney's Imagineers. Futarama was a ride at the New York World's Fair in 1939 and was updated for the 1964 fair which offered its riders a glimpse into what life in the year 2024 would be like. This promotional film by General Motors follows a young boy as he explores a lunar base of operation, an Antarctic weather forecasting center, undersea exploration and the typical positive 1960s thinking about the future of American design and living. The ride itself was one of the most popular attractions at the fair with over 25 million passengers during the 6 months it was open and the building which housed it was one of the largest buildings ever built for a World's Fair. You can ride Futarama too, complete with astonishing music after the jump. (Via)

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Comments for this post

  • http://milliedeel.blogspot.com/ Jennifer

    Wouldn't it be nice to live in a time when both that kind of positive thinking and looking forward to the future were so abundant? There's so much negativity and disappointment now.

  • http://topsy.com/tb/bit.ly/10lF2e Tweets that mention Event: 1964 New York World’s Fair Futurama Ride | Ultra Swank — Topsy.com

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Bender Rodriguez. Bender Rodriguez said: RT: New blog post: 1964 New York World’s Fair Futurama Ride http://bit.ly/10lF2e- New blog post: 1964 New Yo... http://bit.ly/4y59Qi [...]

  • http://www.ultraswank.net Chris

    @Jennifer I totally agree with you.

  • http://www.SnokieStories.com/ buzz

    I visited this exhibition when I went to the fair in 1965 (it ran two years instead of just one). This was one of my favorite exhibits -- thanx for the video link!

  • http://curatedmatter.org/dreams-of-progress/ Christophe Bruchansky

    Here is a video of GM's Futurama from 1940. It is quite interesting to see how their vision evolved in 20 years: http://curatedmatter.org/2009/07/19/dreams-of-p...

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