Seattle 1962 World's Fair (Des Moines: house, high school, storage)

[Seacove]

If you're a fan of Seattle history and want to see the birth of the Space Needle, Monorail, Seattle Center, Seattle Opera House, you might check out the PBS documentary that will be on a few times in the coming days:

When Seattle Invented the Future: The 1962 World's Fair | KCTS 9 - Public Television Serving Seattle, Central Washington and British Columbia

Here are reviews on it:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...st22alben.html

http://crosscut.com/2012/03/22/broad...hining-moment/

I did not know the Space Needle was privately financed for about $3M.

[pw72]

Hard to believe we have reached the 50th anniversary. I was born in Seattle in 1959, but have no memory of going to the fair, yet family pictures show otherwise. My memory is post-fair, and the Seattle Center grounds still remain a great attraction 50 years later. I do remember the "bubble-lator!"

[Seacove]

You remember the bubbleator? Did it keep operating after the fair?

[pw72]

Yes! It moved to the "Center House" after the fair and acted as the main elevator in that building through the 70's.

Bubbleator - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Seacove]

How do you like that, I thought it was just for the fair. Thanks

[Bill Loney]

The Bubbleator was a large, bubble-shaped hydraulic elevator with transparent acrylic glass walls operated from an elevated chair built for the 1962 World's Fair in Seattle. These transparent walls gave the illusion of looking through an actual 'soap bubble' by refracting light to obtain a rainbow-like effect for the riders inside. It was originally part of the Washington State Coliseum (now a sports venue known as KeyArena), where it lifted 100 passengers at a time up one floor through a structure of interlocking aluminum cubes to the "World of Tomorrow" exhibit.

T. C. Howard of Synergetics, Inc. designed the Bubbleator and the exhibit. After the fair, the Bubbleator was relocated to the Center House at Seattle Center. By 1984, it had been removed and put in storage to make way for the Seattle Children's Museum. It was sold to a private owner in Des Moines, Washington, who recycled the upper part of the dome into a greenhouse.[1] The control chair, which had also been in private hands, was donated to the Museum of History and Industry in 2005.

While boarding the Bubbleator, passengers were commanded by an ethereal female voice to "Please move to the rear of the sphere", or the "Martian type" male elevator operator would say, "Step to the rear of the Sphere" in a creepy sci-fi type voice.

The soundtrack for the Bubbleator was conducted by Attilio Mineo and released as Man in Space with Sounds.[2]

Bubbleator - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Seacove]

They showed a little bit of the "Martian type" male elevator operator on the show; it looks like they made it fun for just being an elevator.

[hamellr]

Originally Posted by pw72

Yes! It moved to the "Center House" after the fair and acted as the main elevator in that building through the 70's.

Bubbleator - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Builder likes Bubbleator as a greenhouse - seattlepi.com

I wish I had been able to go when it was open. I have a collection of 35mm slides from the fair (would love some more!) that I have poured over in detail trying to imagine just what it was like.

[pw72]

Even as "too cool for the room" high school students in the mid-70's, we loved the bubbleator!

This was also the time when KJR broadcast high above High School Memorial Stadium from the Space Needle observation deck during football nights. We would run up the scores to the DJ and he would shout them out over the air as soon as he got 'em. (Yes, this was back when the observation deck was cheap). With the High School games played at Seattle Center, it was kind of a playground for us. Good times.