I just wanted to tie up some loose ends I’ve left since June. This is Part 3 — the final installment in the World’s Fair Snapshots series from this particular unknown fair attendee and photographer.
To view them all, you can go pack to
Part 1 here and
Part 2 over here. If you’re into candid World’s Fair stuff you can also check out
these four color shots sent in from World’s Fair historian and authority Bill Cotter.
He’s literally written books on the subject.
Enjoy.
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| Ringling Brothers Circus at Memorial Stadium. Candid snapshot from the Seattle World’s Fair (Century 21 Exposition) #1. |
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| Ringling Brothers Circus at Memorial Stadium. Candid snapshot from the Seattle World’s Fair (Century 21 Exposition) #2. |
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| Space Needle with United States Science Pavilion below. Candid snapshot from the Seattle World’s Fair (Century 21 Exposition) #3. |
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| The original International Fountain, designed by Hideki Shimizu and Kazuyuki Matsushita. Candid snapshot from the Seattle World’s Fair (Century 21 Exposition) #4. |
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| Looking up toward the Space Needle. Candid snapshot from the Seattle World’s Fair (Century 21 Exposition) #5. |
I did not know that the International Fountain was originally filled in with rocks (or whatever those are) at that time. I assumed it was always a fountain that folks could wade up to.
@Shannon–yep, they were rocks–big and fairly sharp, too, in a sort of lowered bowl that dropped beneath the lip of the path around the fountain. I think there were even “Caution” or “Keep Out” signs around the perimeter–definitely not friendly. I think a lot of people worried about the renovations, but they ended up altering the character of the fountain in a wonderful way.
Yes, the original International Fountain had a “lunar landscape” of big white limestone chunks. At the bottom of the sloped sides was a 2′ dropoff to the limestone surface. The two rings of round black holes (which had metal grids over them) each contained three lights: red, blue, amber. More lights were in a trough around the burgundy-tiled dome, and yet more were recessed in the top. It played classical music and the water patterns changed as the lights changed colors on various zones. And yes, in later years they put “Keep Out” signs around the dropoff, though people still ran out across the rocks and walked up the slippery dome, minding the spiky bronze nozzles. Only about 1/3 of the spots for nozzles actually had them; the rest had plugs. In the late 70s, a donation doubled the number of nozzles, but there were still lots of plugs. The current (WET Design-rebuilt, 1996) fountain’s dome nozzles in four rings replicate the nozzle layout when the first fountain was installed.