Ultra Swank - Retro Adventures

Science

Century 21 – Seattle World’s Fair 1962

Let’s climb aboard the Alweg Monorail in Downtown Seattle and take a trip back to the 1962 World’s Fair: Man in the Space Age. The Century 21 Exposition brought the first World’s Fair in North America since 1940 and the United States was eager to demonstrate its new ideas and advancements in technology, science and entertainment. Rapid technological advancements, Googie architecture, and the Space Race...

Montréal Expo 67
Written by Katharine Miller in Event

Montréal Expo 67

Few events encapsulate the aura of the 1960s like Expo 67. Looking back at the photos and videos of the exhibition, one can get a good idea of the fashions, behaviors, and attitudes of the era. This World’s Fair, one of the most popular, was an overwhelming spectacle of delights for all in attendance. For Canada, Expo 67 was more than a showcase of new...

Video

The first Concorde prototype takes to the air in this British newsreel clip from 1969. The first flight with passengers took place seven years later in 1976. It flew successfully over the globe until it met its fate in 2003. However, there are plans to take it up in the air again for the 2012 London Olympics. Until that happens – here’s the trailer for...

Visions of Space – Part 2
Written by James Vaughan in Kitsch

Visions of Space – Part 2

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...

Visions of Space – Part 1
Written by James Vaughan in Kitsch

Visions of Space – Part 1

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...

1964 Vision of Man Exploring Mars

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!...

Return to Century 21
Written by Christopher in Event

Return to Century 21

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....

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