Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Going for a Ride in the Seattle World's Fair's Gayway

I was looking for photos of the Washington State Pavilion at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair, to no avail. All I found was photo of the big plastic ball known as the Bubbleator.

The Bubbleator lifted 100 people at a time into the Washington State Exhibit zone in what later became the Seattle Coliseum and even later became Key Arena.

Key Arena. Where the Seattle Supersonics played until Aubrey McClendon stole the team and moved it to Oklahoma City.

When passengers got onboard the Bubbleator either a spacey female voice would command them to "Please move to the rear of the Sphere", or space alien male voice would say, "Step to the rear of the Sphere."

Whilst looking for Seattle World's Fair images I came upon something I'd not heard before. I don't recollect that the carnival zone section of the Seattle World's Fair was known as the "GAYWAY."

I'm guessing one of the current meanings of the word "gay" did not mean what it means in 2011, way back in 1962.

After the fair closed and was morphed into the Seattle Center, carnival rides remained. I don't know at what point in time the carnival ride zone was renamed the "Fun Forest." I suspect this name change may have occurred at some point in time after the word "gay" took on a new meaning.

Looking for info about the Seattle Center's Fun Forest I learned that, "After nearly 50 years, the Fun Forest Amusement Park at the Seattle Center had its last day of operations on Jan. 2, 2011."

Apparently the Fun Forest is being replaced by a Chihuly Glass Exhibit .

I've long thought the Fun Forest looked real tacky, particularly after the EMP was added by it. So, I think the Seattle Center is well rid of the Fun Forest Gayway.