1939 NEW YORK WORLDS FAIR SCARF & BROCHURE

Condition: EXCELLENT - no snags or stains

This same scarf has sold for $255 at auction without the brochure (see last screenshot from Worthpoint). It is SCARCE. There are none available anywhere online.

For your consideration, an unusual, very scarce ladies scarf from the 1939-1940 NY Worlds Fair. Design features a very large Trylon, Perisphere and Helicline in purple and green against a red-and-white background. Scrolls around the edges of the scarf name the countries represented at the fair. Measures 19 by 20 inches and is in beautiful condition.

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About the 1939-1940 NY World's Fair: The 1939-40 New York World's Fair, which covered the 1,216 acres of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park (also the location of the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair), was the second most expansive American World's Fair of all time , exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. Many countries around the world participated in it, and over 44 million people attended its exhibits in two seasons. The NYWF of 1939-1940 was the first exposition to be based on the future, with an opening slogan of "Dawn of a New Day," and it allowed all visitors to take a look at "the world of tomorrow." The fair was divided into differently themed zones, such as the Transportation Zone, the Communications and Business Systems Zone, the Food Zone, the Government Zone and so forth. Virtually every structure erected on the fairgrounds was extraordinary, and many of them were experimental in many ways. Architects were encouraged by their corporate or government sponsors to be creative, energetic and innovative. Novel building designs, materials and furnishings were the norm. Many of the zones were arranged in a semicircular pattern, centered on the Theme Center, which consisted of two all-white, landmark monumental buildings named the Trylon (over 700 feet tall) and the Perisphere which one entered by a moving stairway and exited via a grand curved walkway named the "Helicline." Inside the Perisphere was a "model city of tomorrow that visitors" viewed from a moving walkway high above the floor level. The zones were distinguished by many color cues, including different wall colors and tints and differently colored lighting. The colors blue and orange were chosen as the official colors of the fair, as they were the colors of New York City, and featured prominently. Only the Trylon and Perisphere were all white; avenues stretching out into the zones from the Theme Center were designed with rich colors that changed the further one walked from the center of the grounds. For example, the exhibits and other facilities along the Avenue of Pioneers were in a progression of blues, starting with pale tints and ending in deep ultramarine. At night, with the latest in lighting technology switched on, the effect was felt by many visitors to be a magical experience. The fair was open for two seasons, from April to October each year, and was officially closed permanently on October 27, 1940. To get the fair's budget overruns under control before the 1940 season and to augment gate revenues, the fair management in the second year replaced Grover Whalen with a banker, Harvey Gibson, and placed much greater emphasis on the amusement features and less on the educational and uplifting exhibits. The great fair attracted over 45 million visitors and generated roughly $48 million in revenue. Since the Fair Corporation had invested 67 million dollars (in addition to nearly a hundred million dollars from other sources), it was a financial failure, and the corporation declared bankruptcy.

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