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.

The Building of the Seattle Space Needle Began on this Day 50 Years Ago

I am not 100% certain, but I believe Sunday, April 17, 2011 marks the 50th Anniversary of the groundbreaking for the Seattle Space Needle.

Construction was completed by December of 1961. Four months later the Seattle World's Fair, known as the Century 21 Exposition, opened, on April 22, 1962, with the first visitors taking the elevator ride to the top of the needle.

The legend of the Space Needle has it that it started in 1959 with a sketch on a napkin. Edward Carlson, at the time the president of Western International Hotels, had been inspired by the Stuttgart Tower in Germany, and so he drew a futuristic looking tower.

The final design had a flying saucer with a rotating restaurant at the top.

And thus one of the most iconic images of the Pacific Northwest was born.

I did not realize until I read it somewhere recently, that the residential towers in the Jetsons cartoon, back in the early 60s, had been inspired by the Space Needle.

Century 21: The 1962 Seattle World's Fair Had No Internet

Century 21, before it became the name of a well known real estate company, was the name of the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. If I remember right, and I probably don't, the full name was Century 21 World of Tomorrow. The World's Fair was a transformative time for Seattle and the Pacific Northwest.

Life in the next century, that being the one we are living in now, was the theme of Century 21.

The Seattle World's Fair ended up not being very accurately predictive about the future. The future ended up being quite a bit more amazing than anything imagined for Century 21 in 1962 Seattle.

Personal computers, cell phones, digital cameras, the Internet, flat panel TVs, thousands of TV channels, DVRs, DVDs, I-Pods, Pads and Phones, Space Shuttles, the end of the Soviet Union, none of that was predicted in Seattle in 1962.

The Seattle World's Fair is one of the few World's Fairs that managed to turn a profit. And it left Seattle and the Northwest with the Seattle Center, it being a gift that keeps on giving.

The video below gives you a little bit of a time machine trip back to Seattle of 1962...

Are the Olympics Coming to Seattle Any Year Soon?

This morning I read someone speculating as to why Seattle may or might not ever stage an Olympics, either Winter or Summer.

What seemed to me to be the best reason why Seattle might never stage such a thing is due to the way doing something in Seattle comes about, with an awful lot of citizen input and voting.

It'd be really easy for a group of Olympics Objectors to block such a project in Seattle.

But. Seattle did somehow manage one of the most successful world events in history, that being the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. I believe this was one of the, if not the only, World's Fair to make a profit.

The Seattle World's Fair was so successful that 12 years later Spokane staged a World's Fair. I did not enjoy the Spokane World's Fair all that much. I do remember the USSR and Iranian Pavilions to be interesting.

And then in 1986 Vancouver had a World's Fair called Expo. I went twice. I was embarrassed by how bad the American Pavilion was. The Washington State one was not as embarrassing. Overall I did not enjoy Expo 86. It gave me two of my all-time worst headaches.

Seattle staged a sort of Olympics called the Goodwill Games, fostered by Ted Turner back in the Cold Wars days, to foster, or try to, goodwill between the USSR and the USA. I don't remember much about the Goodwill Games. I attended none of it.

I'm thinking it highly unlikely Seattle could ever stage a Winter Olympics, what with Vancouver barely managing, snow-wise. Seattle's ski areas are way less reliable than Vancouver's. Maybe Seattle could invent a new way to make artificial snow to guarantee the Snoqualmie slopes are white.

If you could get the people on board, I would think Seattle could pull off a Summer Olympics. Why the town would want to though, I don't know. There are already way too many tourists flooding that town. Seattle already has a lot of the facilities covered. They could put on a bargain type Olympics due to feeling no need to put on an over the top display of new buildings, like Beijing did.

Okay, that is enough about the Olympics for another 2 years.