THE BALLOON MAN

Snohomish County remembers the '62 World's Fair


Associated Press file

Aerial views of the Space Needle and surrounding area in Seattle in 1962. The color really was orange.
By Gale Fiege, Herald Writer
from: heraldnet.som
April 20, 2012
It was all about the Space Age, the new world coming in the 21st century.


The 1962 Seattle World's Fair opened 50 years ago this weekend. Life magazine's cover headline read "Out of this World: Fair in Seattle." The Everett Daily Herald called it "Fantastic."


An estimated 10 million people from around the world visited the Century 21 Exhibition during its six-month run in Seattle, then considered a cultural backwater.

 

The Cold War was raging, the race to space was on and America was about to change forever. As Linda McCullough, 75, of Edmonds, said, "It was a magical time."


Many folks from Snohomish County now in their 50s and older who attended the fair hold dear their memories of that time, of the hope of what could be.
"When I saw the modern kitchen, the moving sidewalk and the Monorail, I was sure I had seen the future," said Joyce Simpson, 69, of Mill Creek, who traveled with her family from Ames, Iowa, to Seattle. 


The fair, with themes of science and technology, ushered Seattle and the region into the world's spotlight. The stars of the day -- including Roy Rogers, Bob Hope and Elvis -- mixed with the crowds bustling through the fair gates. The biggest star of the fair, however, is still there.
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