PRELINGER ARCHIVES: NEW YORK'S WORLD FAIR (1939-1941) (1939)

I chose a reel of home video footage from the New York's World fair that ran from 1939-1941. Watching the video I saw that the fair, at least from the 20 minutes I got to see of it, seemed to have two focuses: Agriculture and cars.

 There's an intense focus on the beauty of agriculture, at the fair, most noticeably in the Firestone display, which features a huge farm (with many Firestone products) with a beautiful painted landscape behind it. As well as this the display's focus on cars is enormous, featuring an awesomely huge test course for Ford as well as racing (that looks kind of like a bulkier Nascar). The two are finally juxtaposed through an incredible "futurama" that gives the viewer a god view of a model of what looks like the entire country going from farm life to a giant metropolis (the segue between these are, of course, automobiles). Although this footage predates the war, it does come right at the end of the dust bowl and the depression, and this emphasis both on the protection of a thought to be lost industry (agriculture) as well as these extensions of a newer one (industry, furthered by the automobile, which, according to this fair, can bolster agriculture) serve as giant reassuring hug to the US. After 10 years of no money and no rain, this giant focus on resurgence and new ventures must have been very satisfying.

Looking back at it today, it's important to see the concept of a World's Fair as one giant information society. In it various countries and corporations come to one set area, and show their best wares and displays as a way to inform a consuming public. A World's Fair is like one giant travelogue or catalog. And in this case this giant information society's purpose is to reassure us, to remind us that the dark days have come to an end. I think this is as prescient today as it was in 1939. We often use information infrastructures today in every form to remind us that we're moving on to a better place. Call it patriotism or call it propaganda, we can always look at film, TV, newspapers and be told that we're in good hands. Looking at this, and the huge roadshowing of different models and ideas from different companies, can allow us to look at the ads today and see what crisis they might be referring to, or what new period it may be embracing. Today in class Chrystler's ad involving the rebuilding of Detroit speaks to recent developments being made there. You can see many LGBTQ friendly Allstate ads that begin to pop up around the same time of the legalization of gay marriage. In fact, that Allstate motto serves as a fitting one for this whole concept: "You're in good hands".

(A note: This video is silent! Still it is very cool, although I recommend skipping the first 10 minutes (Sort of. They're still worth checking out, I just don't think they give as much as insight to this specific prompt) I recommend finding some music that lasts for 20+ minutes and playing that! I listened to Sufjan Steven's Impossible Soul, which synced up beautifully with the "Futurama" segment.)

(https://archive.org/details/Medicusc1939_11)