Our journey through space travel science fiction has our coordinates locked onto the 1950′s The most Ultra of the Ultra-Swank decades. Receding in our aft view screen is the pulp pre-war period of the 1930′s and 1940′s – the times of cowboys in space. They rode rockets instead of horses and blasted bad guys with ray guns instead of six-shooters.

Our mid-century destination is where the science in science-fiction takes over the controls! We land squarely in the realm of motion pictures- mostly black and white and often projected on the mosquito obscured screens of drive-in theaters. The plots may still be thin, the dialog contrived and the budgets no bigger than a plutonium neutrino but it’s all arc-welded together by the blazing brilliance of the the god in the white lab coat- The Scientist! This is the height of the Cold War and the near vertical climb of American consumerism. Any moment science will end all life on the planet- but in the meantime let’s get that new Hydramatic Futurific Buick with the built-in color TV dishwasher!

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As the technological miracles of the 20th Century exploded- so did our imaginations. Where would all this science take us? Up, out and beyond our normal mundane lives to New Worlds where anything was possible! The vast and limitless horizon of outer space!

In a time before television and jet airplanes the technical label of astronaut had not been invented. The men and women that plied the sea-lanes of the cosmos were “Spacemen!”. Dashing pioneers and adventurers cut in the dime store novel image. Countless books, magazines and comics sang the futuristic folk-tales. Illustrations were as lush and lurid as a twelve year-olds fevered fantasies. It was a Universe filled with monsters clutching space maidens while square jawed heroes blasted away with ray-guns.

As long as you had your secret decoder ring and a spare summer afternoon any kid could strap in and hurtle to the Ice Palaces of Pluto, save the Earth from invasion and be home in time for supper.

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The weekend is around the corner and to inspire you here is artist Robert McCall’s vision of man exploring Mars, scanned from the October 1964 issue of Life Magazine. McCall did many illustrations for NASA in the 1960s as well the movie 2001 by Stanley Kubrick. Have a great weekend! (Via)

Today we are returning to the World’s fair held in Seattle in 1962. Going under the title Century 21, this is one of my favorite expositions next to the one that was held in New York two years later. Here are a couple of photos from it to better illustrate my point.

I have two favorite World’s Fair expositions. The first one being the 1962 held in Seattle, also known as Century 21, the second one is the fair that was held in Queens, New York in 1964. It was the largest World’s Fair ever hosted, and the theme for it was “Peace Through Understanding”. This was represented through a huge model of the Earth called the Unisphere which still stands there today. Like the fair in Seattle in 1962, this fair was mostly remembered for its mid-century American corporate culture, bright plans for the future and space age design. It was also the place where Walt Disney created and tested his system for audio-animatronics which was used for several rides on the fair, i.e. Ford’s Magic Skyway and General Electric’s Carousel of progress.

More than 50 million people from all over the world visited the fair, but the fair had proven to be too costly and was not able to repay its financial backers. The fair closed permanently in 1970, however some of the buildings and pavilions survived. The most famous one is the Unisphere which has become a symbol for Queens.

This is a photo from Disneyland probably taken in the early 1970s. It depicts an attraction called The Peoplemover. It was meant as a demonstration of futuristic technology, suitable for moving people around urban centers, airports, shopping malls and what not. It was introduced in 1967 and took the passengers for a ride around Tomorrowland at Disneyland in Los Angeles, with the light weight tunes of Buddy Baker playing in the background. The ride was unfortunately closed in 1995.