The famous needle at Seattle's World Fair 1962 (guest post)

The Needle was being built for the upcoming Seattle World’s Fair, Cen­tury 21 (Ap-Oct 1962). The Fair was desig­ned to put Great­er Seattle on the map i.e to turn a prov­inc­ial port city on the edge of the contin­ent into a significant US centre. But World’s Fairs were normally impermanent, fantasy towns that taught & entertained, then disappeared. So why was Seattle different?

The Seattle Needle, 1962

Seattle locals had been talking about creating a civic centre not seen since the first Fair, the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909. And they look­ed at the last U.S Fairs held in 1939–40, in San Francisco and New York. But as the post-war world had changed (eg television, atomic energy, jet airplanes), were Fairs still relevant anywhere?

In 1950, talk of a World Fair continued in Seattle’s Chamber of Com­merce. In 1955, the City Council backed the idea, and soon the State Legis­l­ature in Olympia set up an exploratory commiss­ion. Later Seat­tle voters passed a bond issue to fund a civic centre, and a management committee.

That a modern world’s Fair would be held in Seattle in 1962 sounded risky. Seattle’s Fair would have to leave the city with a cultural heart, major infrastruct­ure, refurbished waterfront and new University facilities. The Fair would have to help boost major projects eg the completion of Interstate 5 via down­town and the bridge. It would have to bequeath Seat­­tle Centre, permanent complex of theatres, pavilions, Pacific Science Centre, Coliseum, Cen­tre House, Opera House, Monorail and open urban space. The famous Space Needle would be second only to the Eiffel Tower as a world’s Fair souvenir.

Monorail

 

To create an important Fair, Seattle supporters channelled mill­ions of investment dollars in­to the city’s future! The space race with the Soviet Union gave Cent­ury 21 its theme, but locals took the responsibility of 1] making the nation’s response to Comm­unism and of 2] demonstrating America’s comm­it­ment to, and exp­ert­ise in scien­ce and technology.

Seattle Fair heads hired consultants, got seed money from wealthy donors and recruited community leaders. Once Seattle got the nod, the Federal Govern­ment funded a science pavilion, and prop­erty was acquired where urban amen­it­ies al­ready existed: old arm­oury, Memorial Stad­ium & Civic Aud­it­orium. Alas most of a working-class Edwardian neigh­bourhood was bulldozed in a slum clear­ance.

While visiting Stuttgart, Germany in 1959, CEO Edward Carlson saw the potent­ial of a Space Age tower as a symbol for the 1962 Fair. Seattle investors organised a Corporation, and Carlson played a major part in the transformation of the Federal Science Pav­il­ion into the permanent Science Centre. Pres­id­ent of the Fair was Joe Gandy, a Ford dealer who trav­elled the world to recruit exhibitors and was res­p­ons­ible for obt­ain­ing approval for the Fair from the Bur­eau of Internat­ional Expos­it­ions in Paris, essential for getting foreign govern­ments to take part.

Fair organisers wanted an architectural showcase. So they turned to NW modernist archit­ect Paul Thiry, well schooled in World’s Fairs, who design­ed the site and the Col­iseum. Running the fair daily was field commander Ew­en Ding­wall, assisted by a skilled PR person, Jay Rockey, who got good coverage across the globe eg Life magazine!

The Fair also had the support of Washington’s energetic Senators War­r­en G Magnuson and Henry Scoop Jackson, who ultimately got $10 million Federal funding for the Science Pavilion. Clearly the push for more scien­ce app­arently motivated the funders; Washington was a great place to invest in a high-tech future!

The public’s em­b­race of the Fair was slow and scept­ic­al, given the huge invest­ment in a risky prop­osition. The turning point came when the Needle went up in 1961, a year before the Fair’s open­ing. As a cost of $4.5 million, the Needle energised everyone! Just as East Berlin was put­ting up its defensive wall, the Needle was looking up to a new frontier!

Restaurant at the top of the Needle

The Space Needle’s rotating glass floor was located just below the open-air observation deck and replaced the original non-glass revol­v­ing floor that was a feature of the Space Needle’s Restaurant. Visit­ors can now look down on the Space Needle’s architecture. They also recognised that it could be a kind of global magnet for cosmopolitan cuis­ine. Fair vis­it­ors from ov­ers­eas eg British Prince Philip, The Shah and Empress of Iran and the King Olaf of Norway loved the Need­le’s menu eg fresh Dungeness crab, Pug­et Sound salmon, Alas­kan shrimp. The Needle became a magnet for ‘60s celeb­rit­ies including Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson and Bobby Kennedy etc

The Fair boosted the arts as well, including a showcase of modern art. Erna Gunther’s NW Coast Indian art exhibit impressed critics and Paul Horiuchi’s landmark mural shined. There was the new Opera House and a symphony orchestra led by Igor Stravinsky.

Locals saw John Glenn’s space cap­sule and believed they’d soon be tak­ing Pan Am flights to Mars. Atomic cars, video teleph­ones, computers and rapid transit would be possible. In 1962, the Space Needle inst­alled some of the first cordless phones in the US, as were some of the first sat­el­l­ite transmissions of tel­ep­h­one calls and tv broadcasts. Seattle was at the centre of a dynamic future!

The Seattle Fair was a success, attracting mil­l­ions. The pro­fits paid off the pri­v­ate inv­estors within only 3 months, giving the city an altering confidence. Note the Needle was not designated an official Seattle landmark until 1999.

Seattle World Fair, 1962. 

Post card

The organisers of Century 21 succeeded in a way that is worth celebrating and analysing. South Lake Union was transformed into a technology and research cen­tre, and they are planning a radically new waterfront, and a regional rail system. Seat­tle still aspires to be on the cutting ed­ge of green tech­nology and values, and still draws millions of loc­als and tourists, to see the Needle and the International Fountain etc.

Thank you to Packy

and to the Spaceneedle Fact Sheet History