Editing Futurama (New York World's Fair)

{{Short description|1939 exhibit by General Motors}}
[[File:Futurama diorama detail.jpg|thumb|Detail of the Futurama diorama<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/magicmotorways00geddrich#page/240/mode/2up|title=Magic motorways|publisher=[New York] Random house}}</ref>]]
[[File:Street intersection Futurama.jpg|thumb|right|Full size Futurama street intersection, c. 1939<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/magicmotorways00geddrich#page/6/mode/2up|title = Magic motorways|publisher = [New York] Random house}}</ref>]]
[[File:Highways and Horizons building, 1939 New York World's Fair, Edwin D. Mott.jpg|thumb|Illustration of the Highways and Horizons building by [[Edwin D. Mott]], c. 1939<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/generalmotorshig00geddrich#page/n3/mode/2up|title = General Motors Highways & horizons : New York World's Fair|year = 1939}}</ref>]]
[[File:Shell Oil City of Tomorrow model c. 1936-37.jpg|thumb|Shell Oil City of Tomorrow model, c. 1936/37<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/magicmotorways00geddrich#page/236/mode/2up|title=Magic motorways|publisher=[New York] Random house}}</ref>]]
[[File:Magic Motorways by Norman Bel Geddes cover.jpg|thumb|Cover of ''Magic Motorways'' by Norman Bel Geddes, Random House, New York, 1940]]
'''Futurama''' was an exhibit and ride at the [[1939 New York World's Fair]] designed by [[Norman Bel Geddes]], which presented a possible model of the world 20 years into the future (1959–1960). The installation was sponsored by the [[General Motors|General Motors Corporation]] and was characterized by automated highways and vast suburbs.<ref>Herman, Arthur. ''Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II,'' pp. 58–65, Random House, New York. 2012. {{ISBN|978-1-4000-6964-4}}.</ref>

==Background==
Geddes had built a model city for a Shell Oil advertising campaign in 1937 that was described as the Shell Oil City of Tomorrow and was effectively a prototype for the much larger and more ambitious Futurama.<ref>Isenstadt, Sandy, "The Future is Here: Norman Bel Geddes and the Theater of Time", in ''Norman Bel Geddes Designs America'', ed. by Donald Albrecht. New York: Abrams, 2012. pp. 136–153 (pp. 142–144.)</ref><ref name="Auto">"Automated Driving in its Social, Historical and Cultural Contexts" by Fabian Kröger in {{cite book|author=Markus Maurer ''et al'' (Eds.)|title=Autonomous Driving: Technical, Legal and Social Aspects|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HdtCDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA48|year=2016|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-662-48847-8|pages=41–68 (p. 48)}}</ref>

==Overview==
Geddes' "vision of the future" was rather achievable; the most advanced technology posited was the automated highway system of which General Motors built a working prototype by 1960.<ref>{{cite magazine | url=http://archive.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/magazine/15-12/ff_futurama_original | title=The Original Futurama | access-date=2014-07-20 | magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] | date=2007-11-27}}</ref> Futurama is widely held to have first introduced the general American public to the concept of a network of [[Controlled-access highway|expressway]]s connecting the nation. It provided a direct connection between the [[Streamline Moderne|streamlined style]] which was popular in America at the time, and the concept of steady-flow which appeared in street and highway design in the same period.<ref name= a>{{cite journal |last1=Adams |first1=D |year=1976 |title=Norman Bel Geddes and Streamlined Spaces |journal=  Journal of Architectural Education|volume= 30 |issue= 1 |pages=22–24 |doi= 10.1080/10464883.1976.10758072}}</ref>

Geddes expounds upon his design in his book ''Magic Motorways'':
{{blockquote|Futurama is a large-scale model representing almost every type of terrain in America and illustrating how a motorway system may be laid down over the entire country—across mountains, over rivers and lakes, through cities and past towns—never deviating from a direct course and always adhering to the four basic principles of highway design: safety, comfort, speed, and economy.<ref>{{cite web | url= https://archive.org/details/magicmotorways00geddrich | title=Magic Motorways | access-date=2009-03-18 | year=1940 | first= Norman |last= Bel Geddes| publisher=[New York] Random house }}</ref>}}

The modeled highway construction emphasized hope for the future as it served as a proposed solution to [[traffic congestion]] of the day, and demonstrated the probable development of traffic in proportion to the automotive growth of the next 20 years. Bel Geddes assumed that the automobile would be the same type of carrier and still the most common means of transportation in 1960, albeit with increased vehicle use and traffic lanes also capable of much higher speeds.<ref>{{cite book| first= Herman| last= Arthur| title= Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II| pages= [https://archive.org/details/freedomsforgehow00herm/page/58 58–65, 338, 343]| publisher= Random House| location= New York| year= 2012| isbn= 978-1-4000-6964-4| url-access= registration| url= https://archive.org/details/freedomsforgehow00herm/page/58}}</ref>

Four general ideas for improvement were incorporated into the exhibition showcase to meet these assumptions. First, each section of road was designed to receive greater capacity of traffic. Second, traffic moving in one direction could be isolated from traffic moving in any other. Third, segregating traffic by subdividing towns and cities into certain units restricted traffic and allowed pedestrians to predominate. And fourth, traffic control included maximum and minimum speeds. Through this, the exhibition was designed to inspire greater public enthusiasm and support for the constructive work and planning of streets and highways.<ref name=b>{{cite journal |last1=Coombs |first1=R |year=1971 |title=Norman Bel Geddes: Highways and Horizons |journal=Perspecta |volume= 13/14 |pages=11–27|doi=10.2307/1566968 |jstor=1566968 }}</ref>

The popularity of the Futurama exhibit fit closely with the fair's overall theme of "The World of Tomorrow" in its emphasis on the future and its redesign of the American landscape. The highway system was supported within a {{convert|1|acre|abbr=on}} animated model of a projected America containing more than 500,000 individually designed buildings, a million trees of 13 different species, and approximately 50,000 cars, 10,000 of which traveled along a 14-lane multi-speed interstate highway. It prophesied an American [[utopia]] regulated by an assortment of cutting-edge technologies: multi-lane highways with remote-controlled [[self-driving car|semi-automated vehicles]] (according to Geddes' ''Magic Motorways'', these vehicles are supposed to be equipped with [[lane centering]] and lane change/[[vehicle blind spot|blind spot]] assist systems), power plants, farms for [[Genetically modified food|artificially produced crops]], rooftop platforms for individual flying machines, and various gadgets, all intended to make an ideal built environment and ultimately to reform society.<ref name= c>{{cite journal |last1= Morshed |first1=A |year=2004 |title=The Aesthetics of Ascension in Norman Bel Geddes's Futurama |journal=Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians |volume= 63 |issue= 1 |pages=74–79 |doi= 10.2307/4127993|jstor=4127993 }}</ref>

Geddes' "future" was synonymous with technological progress in its simulated low-flying airplane journey through the exhibit. The aerial journey was simulated by an 18-minute ride on a [[conveyor system]], carrying 552 seated spectators at a time, covering a ⅓-mile winding path through the model, along with light, sound, and color effects. The ride moved at a rate of approximately {{convert|120|feet|abbr=on}} per minute or {{convert|1.36|mph|abbr=on}}, allowing spectators to look down through a continuous curved pane of glass towards the model. The virtue of this elevated position allowed spectators to see multiple scales simultaneously, viewing city blocks in proportion to a highway system, as well as artificially controlled trees in glass domes. This scale was modeled off 408 topographical sections based on aerial photographs of different regions of the U.S. provided by [[Fairchild Aircraft Ltd.]]<ref name= c />

==Reception==
Before General Motors invited Bel Geddes to submit a proposal for the exhibit, they had planned to put in another [[production line]] as was featured at their exhibit in the [[Century of Progress|Century of Progress Exposition]] of 1933 in Chicago. However, after they heard Bel Geddes outline his project all other plans were scrapped as they favored his design for its appeal to a broader audience.<ref name="b" /><ref>Herman, Arthur. ''Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II,'' p. 62, Random House, New York. 2012. {{ISBN|978-1-4000-6964-4}}.</ref> The Futurama exhibition was subsequently presented as one of the 1939 New York World Fair's main attractions, as it was the "number-one hit show". It was considered highly interesting by the public and critics alike, with journalists competing to find adequate words to convey Bel Geddes' "ingenuity", "daring", "showmanship" and "genius". One neutral survey of 1000 departing fairgoers awarded the General Motors exhibit 39.4 points to only 8.5 points for second place [[Ford Motor Company|Ford]] as the most interesting exhibit.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Marchand |first1=R |year=1992 |title=The Designers Go to the Fair II: Norman Bel Geddes, The General Motors "Futurama," and the Visit to the Factory Transformed |journal=Design Issues |volume= 8 |issue= 2 |pages=22–40 |doi=10.2307/1511638|jstor=1511638 }}</ref> ''[[Bloomberg Businessweek|Business Week]]'' described the scene:
{{blockquote|More than 30,000 persons daily, the show's capacity, inch along the sizzling pavement in long queues until they reach the chairs which transport them to a tourist's paradise. It unfolds a prophecy of cities, towns, and countrysides served by a comprehensive road system.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fotsch |first1=P.M |year=2001 |title=The Building of a Superhighway Future at the New York World's Fair |journal=Cultural Critique |volume=48 |issue= 48 |pages=65–97|doi=10.1353/cul.2001.0033 |s2cid=144246315 }}</ref>}}

His ideas of the future were considered to have a remarkable degree of realism and immediacy, especially for an American audience slowly recovering from the [[Great Depression]] and that was longing for prosperity. Futurama's imaginary landscape of 1960 was, at the time, seen not just as a novel physical space, but as a glimpse of the future.<ref name="a" />

==Legacy==
Multiple [[Federal-Aid Highway Act]] bills of legislation, which led to the [[Interstate Highway System]], were influenced by massive attendance at Futurama that helped to popularize the concept of modern interstate highways.<ref>{{Cite web |last=U.S. Department of Transportation |first=Richard F. |date=1996 |title=Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956: Creating The Interstate System|url-status=dead|access-date=April 17, 2025|archive-date=December 29, 2024|url=https://highways.dot.gov/public-roads/summer-1996/federal-aid-highway-act-1956-creating-interstate-system#:~:text=they%20helped%20popularize%20the%20concept%20of%20interstate%20highways|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241229092710/https://highways.dot.gov/public-roads/summer-1996/federal-aid-highway-act-1956-creating-interstate-system}}</ref>

The General Motors pavilion at the [[1964 New York World's Fair]] included a ride, '''Futurama II''', that was also known as "The New Futurama".<ref>{{cite web|title=Official Guide to the 1965 New York World's Fair|year=1965|pages=198|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RCxIAQAAIAAJ&q=%22new+futurama%22}}</ref>

The 1964 version had a 110 foot tall front facade which was tilted toward the viewer as they approached the front of the building. Inside, moving theater seats took visitors on a multi-media ride into the future around the world, narrated by a description of all the future scenarios. After the 15 minute ride, visitors exited into a showroom of futuristic models and current General Motors products.

The October 1965 attendance statistics beat the old record from 1939 for the two-year period by about five million visitors, the largest ever attendance of any exhibit at any fair in the world.<ref>{{Cite web|title=1964 New York World's Fair 1965 - Attractions - General Motors - Page Six|url=http://www.nywf64.com/gm06.shtml|access-date=2021-08-13|website=www.nywf64.com}}</ref>

It is the namesake of the show ''[[Futurama]]''.<ref name="Strange Sounds">{{Cite book |last=Taylor |first=Timothy Dean |url=https://archive.org/details/strangesoundsmus00tayl |title=Strange Sounds: Music, Technology & Culture |publisher=Psychology Press |year=2001 |isbn=0-415-93684-5 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/strangesoundsmus00tayl/page/104 104–105] |url-access=registration}}</ref>

== See also ==
*[[Automotive city]]
* [[List of proposed future transport]]
* [[Transit desert]]
* [[World of Motion]]
* [[Platoon (automobile)#Automated highway system|Automated highway system]]
*[[EPCOT (concept)|EPCOT]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Futurama, New York World's Fair}}
* {{Internet Archive film|ToNewHor1940|To New Horizons}}: A video document recording the display at the 1939/40 World's Fair (from [[Prelinger Archives]])
* {{Internet Archive|id=idlemoneyidlemen00chas|name=''Idle Money Idle Men''|page=173}}; this 1940 book contains a narration of what it was like to visit Futurama in its chapter "Design for 1960".
* {{Internet Archive|id=magicmotorways00geddrich|name=''Magic Motorways''}}, Geddes' explanation of the motorway system shown in the ride

[[Category:1939 New York World's Fair]]
[[Category:General Motors]]
[[Category:World's fair architecture in New York City]]
[[Category:Amusement rides introduced in 1939]]
[[Category:Norman Bel Geddes]]